HISTORY 241: EARLY JAPANESE HISTORY

Whitman College Spring 2008

M W 2:30 – 3:50 Maxey 203

Dr. Brian Dott Office Hours: M T W Th 4-5

225 Maxey also by appointment

Office: 527-5776

Home: Please call only between 9am – 9 pm: 529-3526

E-Mail: dottbr@whitman.edu Web: http://people.whitman.edu/~dottbr

SCHEDULE OF READINGS AND CLASS TOPICS

Complete the readings by the time of the class meeting for which they are assigned.

I. EMERGENCE OF THE STATE

M 1/14 Introduction & Geography

W 1/16 Origins of the Japanese people & impetus toward centralization

Read: Varley: Chapt. 1

Sources: Chapt. 1

M 1/21 Martin Luther King Day – No class

W 1/23 Source Analysis Due

Yamato age

Read: Sources: Chapt. 2

M 1/28 Nara & Early Heian: Adoption of Chinese Models

Read: Sources: Chapt. 3 (to middle pg. 55)

Sources: Ch. 4 (pp. 63- bottom 76; mid 89- top 91; 95- mid 97)

W 1/30 Geography Quiz

Spread of Buddhism from India to Japan

Read: Varley: Ch. 2

Sources: Ch. 3 (mid 55 to end)

Sources: Ch. 5

M 2/4 Tendai and Shingon Buddhism

Read: Sources: Ch.6 (125- mid 133; 140-end); Ch. 7 (153-top 170);

Ch. 8 (175-top 180)

W 2/6 Heian Period and The Tale of Genji

Read: Varley: Ch. 3

Sources: Ch. 9 (pp. 197-200; 203-4); Ch. 17 (399-403)

Helen McCullogh: Translator’s note & The Tale of Genji: Intro.

Wm. McCullough “Japanese Marriage Institutions in The Heian”[JSTOR]

M 2/11 Warriors in Provinces

Read: The Tale of Genji Chapts. 1-3

W 2/13 Arts in the Heian Period

Read: The Tale of Genji Chapts. 4-5

M 2/18 Presidents’ Day – No class

W 2/20 Elites, commoners, and privatization of land & office

Late Heian – Kamakura Religion in the Age of Mappo

Read: The Tale of Genji Chapts. 6-8

M 2/25 Mid-term Exam

II. METROPOLITAN ELITES AND PROVINCIAL WARRIORS

W 2/27 Warriors in the capital and the first shogunate (Kamakura Bakufu )

Read: Varley: Chapts. 4 & 5 (through first paragr. on pg. 120)

M 3/3 Impact of Warrior Culture on the Status of Women

Read: Hitomi Tonomura, “Women and Inheritance in Japan’s Early

Warrior Society” [E-Reserve]

Margaret Benton, “Hōjō Masako: The Dowager Shōgun” [E-Reserve]

W 3/5 PAPER ON The Tale of Genji DUE

The warrior code and medieval justice

Read: McCullough: The Tale of the Heike: Intro.

Sources: Ch. 12 (pp. 265-mid 270)

SPRING BREAK

M 3/24 Pure Land Buddhism

Read: Sources: Ch. 10 (through page 230)

The Tale of the Heike: Ch. 1-2

W 3/26 The Mongol Invasions

Read: Sources: Ch. 12 (pp. 280-83) & Ch. 13

The Tale of the Heike: Ch. 3-4

M 3/31 Kamakura Arts

Read: The Tale of the Heike: Ch. 5-7

W 4/2 Late Kamakura Politics

Read: The Tale of the Heike: Ch. 8-10

Sources: Ch. 12 (pp. 284-91)

M 4/7 Decline of the first bakufu

Read: The Tale of the Heike: Ch. 11-12, and Initiates’ Chapter

III. SOCIETY IN FLUX

W 4/9 The imperial restoration, provincial warriors & Muromachi politics

Read: Varley: Ch. 5 (from second paragr. pg. 120 to end)

Sources: Ch. 18

M 4/14 Sengoku (“Warring States”) daimyo patterns of control

Read: Hall, “Foundations of the Modern Japanese Daimyo” [JSTOR] in Journal of Asian Studies, May 1961.

Katsumata & Collcutt, “Development of Sengoku Law” [E-Res.]

W 4/16 PAPER ON The Tale of the Heike DUE

Zen Buddhism

Read: Sources: Ch. 14

M 4/21 Medieval Aesthetics

Read: Sources: Ch. 16

Collcutt, “The Zen Monastery in Kamakura Society” [E-Reserve]

W 4/23 Community and collective protest in late medieval Japan

Read: Thomas Keirstead, “The Theater of Protest” [E-Reserve]

M 4/28 The “Southern Barbarians”

Read: selections about Westerners in Japan [E-Reserve]

W 4/30 Trend towards unification.

Read: Varley: Ch. 6

Sources: Ch. 19

M 5/5 The bakuhan system & Review

Read: George Elison, “Hideyoshi, the Bountiful Minister” [E-Reserve]

FINAL EXAM SATURDAY MAY 10: 9:00 – 11:00 AM