Modern History of Japan
Fall 2018
Syllabus
2019/01/23
Ryoichi Imai
International Student Center, Kyushu University
Contents
2. Organization,
Attendance, and Other Requirements
The course is designed to provide some introductory knowledge of Japanese history. The course will cover the history of Japan's political and economic system from Edo era to the end of World War II.
Organization, Attendance, and Other Requirements
Students are expected to buy the text book.
Gordon, Andrew (2003), A Modern History of Japan. Oxford University Press.
Some lecture notes will be uploaded on this website. The course consists mainly of a series of lecture given by the instructor. Depending on the number of the students who register this course, they may present some selected reading materials in the late half of the course. Each course attendant is supposed to do at least ONE oral presentation of the reading assignments. The presenter must make a set of PowerPoint slides. If too many students take this course, individual presentations will be replaced by group ones. There is one final examination, closed-book or take-home.
None.
You can get two credits by satisfying the following three
requirements.
1. Class Attendance and
Discussion 20%
According to the government guideline, no students are
allowed to take the course final examination, if they do not show up in more
than 1/3 of the class meetings. The government has set up a more rigorous
grading standard on credits.
2. Presentation 40%
3. Final Examination 40%
Getting the course credits is not a hard task, while no negotiation is
allowed on credits or grades.
If you need to acquire three credits in accordance
with the credit transfer policy of your home university, you can get three
credits by making a second presentation in different topics in addition to the
requirements as above.
Schedule and Readings (subject to Change)
1. (10/02) The Tokugawa
Polity
Supplement:
The Sengoku
Warlords and Their Culture
2. (10/16) Social
Economic Transformations
3. (10/23) The
Intellectual World of Late Tokugawa
4. (10/30) The Overthrow of
the Tokugawa
5. (11/6) The Samurai
Revolution
6. (11/13) Participation
and Protest
7. (11/20) Social
Economic, and Cultural Transformations
Elementary
School Moral Textbook (1934 – 1940)
8. (11/27) Empire and Domestic
Order
9. (12/4) Economy and Society
10. (12/11). Democracy
and Empire between the World Wars
11. (12/18). Review of the lecture
part
Announcement for the Final Exam
-----Winter Break-----
Students' Presentations: Materials are subject to change.
Review of the History of Ancient and Mediaeval Japan
Readings: chapters from A History of Japan, 2nd
edition, by Conrad Totman
Underlines show the leaders.
12 (1/8).
Ch.1: Geology, Climate, and Biota
Ch.2: From Erigines to Agriculture
Ch.3: Political Consolidation to
671 CE
Presenters: Grace, Kaitlyn, Wen, Avo
13 (1/22).
Ch.4: Establishing the Ritsuryo
Order (672-750)
Ch. 5. Ritsuryo Adaptation and
Decay (750-1250), pp. 87-113.
Presenters: India, Adrien, Aaron, Avo
14. (1/29).
Ch. 6. Classical Higher Culture
(750-1250), pp. 114-139.
Ch. 7. The Centuries of Disorder
(1250-1550), pp. 146-174.
Presenters: Elisenda, Roisin, Matt, David Smeds
15. (2/5).
Ch. 8. Medieval Higher Culture
(1250-1550), pp. 175-202
Ch.9: Establishing the Bakuhan
Order (1550-1700).
Presenters: David Sos, Darylle, Arvid, Matt
16. Final Exam
Final Take-home Examination (NEW 2018)
*****************************************************************************************************