History 403 Topics in Non-Western History
Japan in the Age of the Samurai


Yoshitsune prepares for battle

    This class will look a the transformations of Japan's medieval age, primarily the Kamakura and Ashikaga periods. This was the age of the Samurai, meaning the age that bushi dominated Japanese society. Who these warriors were and what they did will be central to this class as the role of armed men was a vital aspect of the transformation of Japan's medieval  world.

Books

-Souyri, Pierre The World Turned Upside Down: Medieval Japanese Society Columbia University Press, 2001
-Watson and Shirane The Tales of the Heike Columbia University Press, 2006
-Conlan, Thomas State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth-Century Japan Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2003
-Berry, Mary Elizabeth The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto University of California Press, 1994

8/27 Introduction to course, and to research and research tools

9/5 Culture of the court and the Heian age
-William Wayne Farris “Warriors and Land” and “The Quest for Independence and Political Skills, 1150-1185” from Farris Heavenly Warriors: The Evolution of Japan’s Military 500-1300 Harvard         U.P. 1992
-Peter J. Arnesen “The Struggle for Lordship in Late Heian Japan: The Case of Aki” JJS 10.1 (Winter, 1984)
-Jeffrey P. Mass “The Missing Minamoto in the Twelfth-Century Kanto” JJS 19.1 (Winter, 1993)

9/10 The shoen system and control of land
-Thomas Keirstead “Fragmented Estates. The breakup of the Myo and the decline of the Shoen system” Monumenta Nipponica 40.3 (Autumn 1985)
-Thomas Keirstead “The theater of protest: petitions, oaths, and rebellion in the Shoen” JJS 16.2 (Summer, 1990)
-Kozo Yamamura “Tara in Transition: A Study of a Kamakura Shoen” JJS 7.2 (Summer, 1981)

9/17 Taira, Minamoto and “Warrior rule”
-Jeffery Mass “Yoritomo and Feudalism” From Mass, ed. Antiquity and Anachronism in Japanese History Stanford University Press, 1992

Paper topics due

9/24 Tale of the Heike
-“Tale of the Heike” from Paul Varley Warriors of Japan: As Portrayed in the War Tales University of Hawaii Press, 1994
Tale of the Heike Watson translation

10/1 Kamakura shugo and jito
-Jeffery Mass “What Can We Not Know about the Kamakura Bakufu” from Mass, ed. The Bakufu in Japanese History Stanford University Press, 1985
-“Bizen Under the House of Akamatsu” from John Whitney Hall Government and Local Power in Japan 500-1700: A Study Based On Bizen Province Princeton University Press, 1966
-Carl Steenstrup “The Gokurakuji Letter. Hojo Shigetoki’s Compendium of Political and Religious Ideas of Thirteenth Century Japan” Monumenta Nipponica 32.1 (Spring 1977)

Preliminary bibliography due

10/8 Go-Daigo’s restoration and the continued importance of the emperor
-G. Cameron Hurst “The Kobu Polity: Court-Bakufu Relations in Kamakura Japan” from Jeffery Mass, ed. Court and Bakufu in Japanese History Stanford University Press, 1982
-Cornelius J. Kiley “The Imperial Court as a Legal Authority in the Kamakura Age” from Jeffery Mass, ed. Court and Bakufu in Japanese History Stanford University Press, 1982
-Andrew Goble Social Change, Knowledge, and History: Hanazono’s Admonitions to the Crown Prince’ HJAS 55.1 (June 1995)

10/15 Muromachi culture
-Peter J. Arnesen “The Provincial Vassals of the Muromachi Shoguns” from Mass, ed. The Bakufu in Japanese History Stanford University Press, 1985
-H. Paul Varley “Cultural Life of the Warrior Elite in the Fourteenth Century” in Mass, ed The Origins of Japan’s Medieval World: Courtiers, Clerics, Warriors, and Peasants in the Fourteenth     Century Stanford University Press, 1997
-Barbara Ruch “Medieval Jongleurs and the Making of a National Literature” in Hall and Toyoda, eds. Japan in the Muromachi Age University of California Press, 1977
-Virginia Waters “Sex, Lies and the Illustrated Scroll: The Dojoji Engi Emaki” Monumenta Nipponica 52.1 (Spring, 1997)

10/22 Urban Japan, rural Japan
-“Village Links with the Outside” and ”The Assertion of Commercial Interests” Hitomi Tonomura Community and Commerce in Late Medieval Japan: The Corporate Villages of Tokuchin-ho Stanford University Press, 1992
-V. Dixon Morris “Sakai: From Shoen to Port City” in Hall and Toyoda, eds. Japan in the Muromachi Age University of California Press, 1977
-Janet R. Goodwin “Shadows of Transgression: Heian and Kamakura constructions of Prostitution” Monumenta Nipponica 55.3 (Autumn, 2000)
-“Overlords” from Suzanne Gay The Moneylenders of Late Medieval Kyoto University of Hawaii Press, 2001
-Kristina Kade Troost “Peasants, Elites and Villages in the Fourteenth Century” in Mass, ed The Origins of Japan’s Medieval World: Courtiers, Clerics, Warriors, and Peasants in the Fourteenth Century Stanford University Press, 1997

10/29 War
-Conlan State of War
-Andrew Goble “War and Injury: The Emergence of Wound Medicine in Medieval Japan” Monumenta Nipponica 60.3

11/ 5 Religion
-“Honganji and Its World” and “Rennyo and the First Ikko Ikki” Carol Richmond War And Faith: Ikko Ikki in Late Muromachi Japan Harvard University Press, 2007
-“Articulation of the Gozan system” From Martin Collcutt “Five Mountains: The Rinzai Zen Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan” Harvard University Press, 1981
-“Contexts of Monastic Violence and Warfare” and “Fighting Servants of the Buddha” from Mikael S. Adolphson The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sohei in Japanese History University of Hawaii Press, 2007
"Introduction" from Soho Machida "Renegade Monk: Honen and Japanese Pure Land Buddhism" California U.P. 1999

11/12 Floating research week At some point we will take a week off from meeting as a group and meet individually to talk about your research projects.

11/ 26 Kyoto at War
Berry, The Culture of Civil War Kyoto

First draft of papers due 11/26

12/3 Sengoku and the coming of "order"
-Shadow Warrior

Grades

-Each student will write a research paper of 13-15 pages. Papers are due on the last day of  class.
-There are various readings for each week. Some of these are the books you already bought, many of them are articles or chapters from other books. Everyone needs to read the books you bought. You don't actually have to do all the readings each week, although it would not actually kill you to do so.
-Each of you will have to write at least two article reviews and serve as a discussion leader on those two weeks. Being a discussion leader means reading everything for that week and being prepared to lead the discussion. Article reviews/ discussion leadership are worth 100 points and you can do three of them instead of two and drop the low grade. Article reviews must be posted on-line by the Sunday before the discussion.
-On weeks you are not serving a discussion leader you can turn in a reading reaction paper. These are worth up to 50 points, and you can write them every week if you would like. Points for reaction papers add up,  so if you do more than 4 it should be easy to get full points on that part of your grade.
-Reaction papers need to be posted to the on-line discussion thread by Saturday the week before the discussion. Everyone is encouraged to make comments on these discussion threads. If you make a good comment, you get 15 points. 20 points if you point out an error in one of my posts. To get points for a post it needs to actually say something substantive about the reading or the reaction paper. Saying "I agree" is very polite but does not get us anywhere. Pointing out an error (politely), adding additional information from your paper research or somewhere else, suggesting an interesting question that is raised from the reading, answering someone else's question, all of these are ways to make a good post. 


Paper - 400 pts
Contributing to on-line discussion total of - 150 points possible
Article reviews/discussion leadership - 100 pts each, total of 2 required, 3 possible
Weekly reaction papers - 200 (50 points each)
Final oral presentation - 50 points

900+points = A
800-899 = B
700-799 = C
600-699 = D
0-599 = F

-Attendance policy-- You should come to class every day, but the point is not just to come to class, but to come having done your reading and being ready to talk about it.
-Academic dishonesty-- All students are required to abide by the University's policies on Academic Integrity, as found in the catalogue.
INTASC standards
    In addition to your grades, those of you in Social Studies Ed will also be assessed on your mastery of the INTASC standards. I will assess your work and record (on a special web page in URSA provided for this purpose) if you have not met, met or exceeded expectations for the standard.  These assessments will not affect your grade, your graduation or your certification.

Conceptual Framework	INTASC Standards	Program Objectives	Course Objectives	Key Assessments
Planning and Preparation	1	1. Time, Continuity and Change	1. Develop historical knowledge in the broad topic that is the focus of the course. 2. Develop historical knowledge in the specific topic that is the focus of the student’s research interest. 3. Increase familiarity with some of the major issues and questions that scholars in the field have debated. 4. Develop the ability to frame and hone a historical argument. 5. Develop the ability to complete a focused research project.	Research Project Research Project Research Project Research Project Research Project