Japan: origins to 1800
Lincoln Li
8 points * 2 lectures and 1 tutorial per week * First semester * Clayton/Caulfield * Prerequisites: A first-year sequence in history or Japanese studies
This is a historical introduction to the development of society, state, and culture in Japan. Major topics include early society, the Yamato state, the Ritsuryo system, aristocrats and warriors, the manorial estates, Shogunate systems, daimyos and socio-economic reorganisation, early contacts with the West, the Age of Navigation, urbanisation and socio-economic trends in late medieval and early modern times.
Assessment
Written (4000 words): 50% * Examination: 2 hours (40%) * Class participation/attendance: 10%
Prescribed texts
Morton W S Japan: History and culture 1994
Recommended reading
Ameson P J The medieval Japanese Daimyo 1979
Berry M E Hideyoshi Harvard UP, 1982
Gerstle A C (ed.) Eighteenth century Japan: Culture and society Allen and Unwin, 1990
Hall J W Government and local power in Japan, 500-1700 1966
Hall J W Japan: From prehistory to modern times 1970
Hall JW and Mass J P Medieval Japan: Essays in institutional history 1974
Hall J W, Nagahara K and Yamamura K (eds) Japan before Tokugawa 1981
Hall J W and Toyoda T (eds) Japan in the Muromachi Age 1976
Jansen M The Tokugawa world Harvard UP, 1992
Mass J P and Hauser W B (eds) The Bakufu in Japanese history 1986
Reischauer E O and Craig A M Japan: Tradition and transformation Houghton Mifflin, 1989
Tsunoda R, de Bary W T and Keene D Sources of Japanese tradition
Wheatley P and See T From court to capital: A tentative interpretation of the origins of the Japanese urban tradition Chicago UP, 1978