HSY2210

Japan: origins to 1800

Lincoln Li

8 points
* Two lectures and one tutorial per week
* First semester
* Clayton
* Prerequisites: A first-year sequence in history or Japanese studies

Objectives To introduce issues of historical interpretation for the origins and development of Japanese culture and society so as to enable appreciation of the traditional roots of modern Japan.

Synopsis 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 texts

Ameson P J The medieval Japanese Daimyo 1979
Berry M E Hideyoshi Harvard U P, 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 U P, 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 U P, 1978