4:00-5:15P     TR     BH147

A portion of the above section reserved for majors
Above section carries culture studies credit
G357:  Graduate students register for HIST G567

The general topic of this course will be the samurai.  We will discuss
the role played by this warrior elite in the society and culture of
Japan from c. 650 to c. 1750.

After a rapid introduction into the chronological structure of
premodern Japanese history, we will settle down to the treatment of
such topics as the rise of private warrior power in early Japan
(readings from the paperback book Swords by Karl F. Friday, published
by Stanford University), Warrior Rule in Japan (readings from the
paperback book of that title, edited by Marius Jansen, published by
the Cambridge University Press), Warlords, Artists, & Commoners in the
Sixteenth Century (readings from the paperback book of that title,
edited by George Elison and Bardwell Smith, published by the
University of Hawaii Press), The Image of Christianity in Early Modern
Japan (readings from the paperback book Deus Destroyed by George
Elison, published by the Harvard University Press) and City Life in
seventeenth- and eighteenth- century Japan (readings from the
paperback book Edo and Paris, edited by James McClain, John Merriman,
and Ugawa Kaoru, published by the Cornell University Press).  There
will also be a viewing and discussion of the film "Kagemusha" by
Kurosawa Akira, a great samurai epic that illustrates the fading away
of medieval ideals of chivalry and the rise of a new, absolutely
ruthless type of warlord.

Required readings are expected to average 50-60 pages a week.  The
exams are not cumulative.  There will be two tests (each counting 30
percent of the final grade) and the final (40 percent of the final
grade).