Rebels and Martyrs in Japan
Spring 2013
Doris G. Bargen
Capstone JAPAN 499D
with IE (Integrative Experience) Component
4 credits (seminar -- limited enrollment)
Classroom TBA, TUE & THU 2:30-3:45
This capstone seminar addresses issues of rebellion and martyrdom in Premodern and
Modern Japan under the rubrik of “sacrifice.” We will analyze primary and secondary
literature as well as films on a variety of topics.
For Premodern Japan, we will focus on human sacrifices in Noh drama, rebels following
the Way of Tea, Japanese Christian martyrs, blood avengers, children as rebels and
martyrs, peasant rebels, social rebels committing double suicide, and common folk
calling the shots through religious world-renewal movements.
For Modern Japan, we will explore the motivations of assassins in the late Tokugawa
(Bakumatsu) and Meiji periods, of rebels in 20th-century feminist and proletarian
movements, and of soldiers in the Pacific War.
This capstone fulfills the IE (Integrative Experience) requirement. Students will be asked
to pursue three goals during their integrative experience:
1. Students will be asked to reflect on those aspects of their undergraduate learning
obtained in General Education courses and in their major that they consider most relevant
to their undergraduate career by integrating them in the context of the culminating
experience provided in this capstone. For details on the IE assignment that frames the
capstone experience, see page 6.
2. Students will learn to practice General Education learning objectives such as intensive
seminar-level discussion, oral presentation, culminating in participation in the annual
undergraduate conference, critical thinking, interdisciplinary approaches in a global
context.
3. Students will learn to share their learning experience inside and outside the classroom
first by presenting their papers to each other and then by presenting the core of their
capstone honors thesis at the annual Undergraduate Conference at the University of
Massachusetts Amherst. They will engage with outside speakers invited to spur them on
in their critical examination of violence and war in Japanese culture as this capstone’s
core problem of ethics perceived from within their own more familiar culture.
For capstone JAPAN 499D, the prerequisite is capstone JAPAN 499C, The Samurai.
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Doris G. Bargen, Professor, Japanese Literature and Culture
Office:
Herter 439
Office hours: THU 12:45-2:15
e-mail:
[email protected]
TBA, Graduate Student in Japanese
e-mail:
Office hours: TBA
1. Required Books (Amherst Books; downtown Amherst):
Dilworth, David and J. Thomas Rimer, eds. The Historical Fiction of Mori Ōgai.
Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1991. $24.
Endō Shūsaku. Silence [Chinmoku, 1966]. Trans. William Johnston. New York:
Taplinger, 1969. $? 0-8008-7186-3
Ishimitsu Mahito, ed. Remembering Aizu: The Testament of Shiba Gorō. Trans.
Teruko Craig. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999. $20. 0-8248-2157-2
Johnston, William. Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star: A Woman, Sex, & Morality in
Modern Japan. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. $29.50. 0-23113052-X
Hane, Mikiso. Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar
Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993. 0-520-08421-7
If back in print:
Huber, Thomas M. The Revolutionary Origins of Modern Japan. Stanford: Stanford
University Press, 1981. $21.95. 0-8047-1755-9
Optional:
Vlastos, Stephen. Peasant Protests and Uprisings in Tokugawa Japan. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1990. 0-520-07203-0
2. Films
All films will be shown in W.E.B. DuBois Library 1320 on Mondays, 7 p.m.
Films will also be streamed.
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Requirements:
General Remarks:
Rebels and Martyrs is a 4-credit seminar for Commonwealth College capstone students; it
is the second part of a two-semester 8-credit capstone course with an IE component.
We will devote as much time as possible to discussion. Active class participation (20%)
and an oral presentation (20%) as well as two 8-page papers (60% of the final course
grade) are required. All capstone students must revise and combine fall and spring term
papers into one coherent whole, with introduction, research question(s), literature review,
and conclusion; for higher honors, a B+ or better is required for all written and oral work;
after revisions, the honors thesis should be about 40-60 pages; the IE assignment about 3
pages (minimum).
You must make appointments with me for individual consulting during my office hours
about your honors thesis. The number of consultations may vary.
1. Class Attendance (Schedule and Policy) and Class Participation (20%)
1. Attendance will be taken at the very beginning of each seminar session.
2. Our seminar meets twice a week, 90 minutes per session. Feel free to drink beverages
during class; I ask that you refrain from eating.
3. You may miss one session without submitting an official excuse in writing. If you
should have to miss other sessions due to illness or the loss of a close family relative, you
must, in the case of illness, submit an official excuse in writing (e.g., from Health
Services, a certified physician, Dean of Students). You will miss half a letter grade on
Class Participation each session that you miss (after the first missed session).
4. If you should have to miss more than three classes, I strongly advise you to see my
T.A. or me to prevent seriously falling behind, which in turn may cause you difficulties in
performing well in the course. We’re ready to help, but you must make the first step:
come see us!
5. Be prepared, by doing all the assignments, to participate in all discussions, each
session. Silence is not golden in this seminar, and shyness is no excuse. We are eager to
hear your critical opinions about the assignments and about comments made in class. If
you have difficulties in speaking up for whatever reason, please talk to us early on in the
semester (not toward the middle or end); we’ll try to facilitate and help you find creative
ways of participating in our discussions. If you want me to call upon you, please let me
know.
6. You are required to attend lectures by outside speakers and participate in field trips.
7. All students will apply to form panels for the Undergraduate Student Conference at
the end of the spring semester to present highlights of their theses. We will assist you
with your applications. Whether your application is accepted or not, you will have your
own in-class presentation of your capstone thesis project.
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2. Oral Presentations (20%)
Note: In the first class of the semester, you must sign up for one oral presentation and
not forget those dates. If you cannot make a date you signed up for, please inform my
T.A. immediately via e-mail. Re-scheduling is not as easy as you may assume. It is a
requirement that you consult with the T.A. during office hours (TBA) before your
presentation. My T.A. will give you advice on your preparations and help relieve any
concern you might have with the presentation.
1. Your presentation should take 5-10 minutes, followed by 5-10 minutes of discussion.
Make sure you do not exceed your time limit. The better prepared you are the more you
can say in 5-10 minutes. Rehearse.
2. Since the reading assignments on which reports are based may differ greatly in
substance and in length, only general instructions can be given here.
3. Read the assigned text carefully and take notes.
4. Allow some time to pass and read over your notes. Do you still understand the content
of the assigned text? Reread the entire text and then again the portions that eluded you.
Fill in or edit your notes.
5. Condense your notes into an outline from which you can give your presentation. An
occasional glance at your outline is perfectly legitimate, but your audience will fall asleep
if your eyes are glued to the outline. You're likely to get lost if you start consulting your
detailed notes. Be creative in your approach to the materials and give the presentation
your individual stamp.
6. Your woefully ignorant audience will greatly appreciate a handout that gives the
source of your information, names, dates, special terms, diagrams, maps, pictures, and
whatever you may think might be useful. Tell us what to look at and when. Too many
details can be confusing.
7. Your notes will form the basis for your presentation. If you are the only student who
has studied the materials in question, first identify author and work (who wrote what
when?) and then give a brief overview of the author's goals and achievements. It is not
feasible to summarize whole books or long articles.
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8. It is also imperative that you identify the author. Is s/he a scholar, dramatist, film
director, journalist, novelist, and politician? When was the piece written or produced?
What is the nature of the assigned material? Is it a primary or a secondary source, fact or
fiction? Ask yourself what difference such classification or categorization makes for the
reception of the presented material.
9. The most difficult, important, and exciting part of your report is to raise pertinent
questions about the substance or the argument presented in the work under scrutiny. Ask
yourself whether the author has made valid points and challenge those that seem to rest
on weak arguments. Consider alternate viewpoints. In your presentation you must always
clearly indicate whether the opinion you are giving comes from the author of your
assigned text, some other author, or from you.
10. To stimulate discussion you may play the devil's advocate.
11. When you have reached the moment of interaction with your audience, take the back
seat and listen carefully to what others have to say. Before you yourself respond, allow
others to respond. Be a fair moderator.
12. When you raise questions to stimulate discussion, endure the silence that may follow.
Others need time to think. Do not answer your own questions. This will require restraint
and discipline on your part.
13. Your report will be evaluated on the basis of the clarity and efficiency of your
presentation of the material as well as on your stimulation and command of class
discussion.
This is Your Day in Class!
Make it Fun!
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Papers
Note that all dates refer to Spring 2012!
3. IE Assignments
Two IE assignments frame the capstone experience.
3.1. In the first IE exercise, you are asked to reflect on the kind of knowledge you are
bringing from your other classes to this capstone. What aspects of the knowledge gained
in other classes attracted you to the topic of this capstone? How did you acquire this
knowledge, what methods of critical inquiry did you use, and how do you expect to
develop, modify, and refine your critical thinking in order to approach the topic of this
capstone?
IE exercise #1: 2 pages of self-reflection (see criterion #1, p. 1 of this syllabus)
Due on the class before add/drop, at noon (electronic submission)
3.2. In the second IE self-reflecting exercise, you are asked to revisit your first IE
exercise in order to hone its content and to ask what impact this capstone has on your
overall undergraduate experience. How have your views on the topic of this course
changed? Is your evaluation of Japanese warrior culture, in particular its view of death,
different from your view before you took this capstone. How do you assess, from a
Western perspective, the ethics of war among samurai versus violence among nonwarriors? How will your understanding of the Japanese willingness to die in extreme
situations affect you as a person, for example, at the ballot box or as a global citizen?
IE exercise #2: revision of 2 pages of self-reflection and expansion to 3 pages minimum,
due the class day after Capstone Thesis Final, at noon (electronic submission)
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4. Capstone Papers 499D (60%)
a. The Purpose of your Capstone Thesis
Your honors thesis should demonstrate that you have acquired, over the course of two semesters,
a critical understanding of the assignments under the umbrella concept of “Sacrifice and
Martyrdom,” whether concerned with the Samurai class or with the Rebels and Martyrs from
other segments of Japanese society. How did other, less powerful, classes or groups (farmers,
merchants, clerics, nobles, scholars, Japanese Christians, women, children) adapt or adjust,
incorporate, embrace or reject, protest or rebel against the values of the predominant samurai
class? When faced with an existential crisis, how did non-samurai cope? What forms do sacrifice
and self-sacrifice take in non-samurai?
Note: You must revise each paper and combine both papers into a term paper. There is a penalty
of 1/2 letter grade (B>B-) for each week of lateness. The two term papers from 499C & D are
then combined, with a new Introduction and Conclusion, into the capstone thesis.
b. Timetable:
Capstone Paper #1 with Literature Review:
March 1, due at noon (electronic submission)
Your revised Paper #1 is due one week after you received my suggestions for revision.
Capstone Paper #2 with Literature Review:
April 5, due at the beginning of class
Your revised Paper #2 is due one week after you received my suggestions for revision.
Capstone Thesis Draft with Abstract, Table of Contents, Introduction with Research Question(s)
and Literature Review, combined 4 Papers, Conclusion, Endnotes, and Bibliography.
Note: Assignments after April 5 must be addressed – selectively – in your Conclusion.
April 17, due at noon
Capstone Thesis Final, with Abstract, Table of Contents, Introduction with Research Question(s)
and Literature Review, combined 4 Papers, Conclusion, Endnotes, and Bibliography.
April 29 (absolute deadline), due at noon
Capstone Thesis Paperwork:
May 1, during my office hours: signing of Course Capstone Completion Form and final
check before your Honors Thesis goes to Commonwealth Honors College.
c. Alerts!
For information on your modest version of a scholarly Literature Review, please go to
www.comcol.umass.edu/academics and find Research Literacy >>>Research Tools>>>Resources
for Research (“The Literature Review” is one of the items you can click on for more information)
For information on Abstracts, please go to www.comcol.umass.edu/academics and find
Abstracts.
For the Capstone Completion form and formatting requirements, please go to
www.comcol.umass.edu/forms
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Bargen 2012
I. Sacrifice, Rebellion, Martyrdom in Premodern Japan
1. Human Sacrifice in Medieval Noh Drama
Week 1 (January 24 & 26):
a. Tanikō (Tyler, trans., in Keene, ed., Twenty Plays of the Noh Theatre, pp. 315330) and Japan Society videoclips from Tanikō
b. Ikeniye (Waley, trans., The Nō Plays of Japan, pp. 236-243).
c. “Martyrdom,” in Eliade’s Encyclopedia of Religion
2. Children as Rebels and Martyrs
Week 2 (January 31 & February 2): Exile, Wandering, Petitions
a. Mizoguchi, dir., Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
b. “Sansho the Bailiff” (Sanshō Dayū) by Mori Ōgai
c. “The Last Phrase” (Saigo no ikku) by Mori Ōgai
3. Blood Revenge
Week 3 (February 7 & 9):
a. The Tale of the Soga Brothers
b.
Mori Ōgai, “The Vendetta at Gojiingahara” (1913)
4. Religious and Political Suicide
Week 4 (February 14 & 16): Buddhists and the Tea Master Sen no Rikyū
b. Mark L. Blum, “Collective Suicide at the Funeral of Jitsunyo: Mimesis or
Solidarity?” In Death and the Afterlife in Japanese Buddhism (2008)
a. D. Max Moerman, “Passage to Fudaraku: Suicide and Salvation in Premodern
Japanese Buddhism,” in The Buddhist Dead (2007)
c. Teshigahara, dir., Rikyū (1989)
d. Kumakura Isao, “Sen no Rikyū: Inquiries into his Life and Tea,” pp. 33-69; in
Varley and Kumakura, eds., Tea in Japan (1989).
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e. In-class DVD 351 on “The Japanese Tea Ceremony” (NHK, 30 mins.).
5. Japanese Christian Martyrdom
Week 5 (February 21 & 23): Japanese Christian Martyrs
a. Apostates: Endō Shūsaku, Silence
b. Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, “O-Gin,” in Rashōmon and 17 Other Stories
6. Dying Merchant & Peasant Style
Week 6 (February 28 & March 1): Double Suicide in Chōnin Culture
a. Shinoda, dir., Double Suicide (1969)
b. Peasant Protests and Uprisings
II. Rebels and Martyrs in Modern Japan
7. From Tokugawa to Bakumatsu Rebels and Assassins
Week 7 (March 6 & 8):
a. “Sahashi Jingorō” by Mori Ōgai; “Kuriyama Daizen” by Mori Ōgai
b. “Murder at the Shōgun’s Gate,” by George M. Wilson (electronic source with
permission of the author)
c. “Tsuge Shirōzaemon,” by Mori Ōgai
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8. From Hyakushō ikki to Yonaoshi ikki (“peasant” to “world renewal” rebellions)
Week 8 (March 13 & 15): Death for the People
a. Imamura Shōhei, dir., Ei ja nai ka (1981);
b. Wilson, Patriots, ch. 6 (on reserve)
c. Mori Ōgai, Ōshio Heihachirō (1837) [in Rimer, Not a Song like Any Other ~
on reserve;]
d. Soranaka, “Hyakushō ikki,” in Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, 3:249-50.
e. Scheiner, “Yonaoshi rebellions,” in Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan, 8:337.
Spring Break: March 17-26
9. Death for the Shogun!
Week 9 (March 27 & March 29):
a. The Shinsengumi: Shinoda, dir., Assassination
b. Shiba Gorō, Remembering Aizu
c. Rogers, “Divine Destruction”
10. Death for the Emperor! Death to the Emperor!
Week 10 (April 3 & April 5):
a. “The Incident at Sakai,” by Mori Ōgai
b. Kōtoku Shūsui, Kanno Sugako, and the Great Treason Trial (Taigyaku jiken)
of 1911: Hane, Reflections on the Way to the Gallows, 51-74 [Kanno Sugako]
Note: Materials assigned after April 5 must be addressed – selectively – in your Conclusion.
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11. Death to the Lover; Death for the Proletariat
Week 11 (April 10 & April 12): Abe Sada (1936) and Kobayashi Takiji ()
a. Abe Sada’s trial: Johnston, Geisha, Harlot, Strangler, Star
b. Hane, Reflections on the Way to the Gallows, 175-212.
c. Ōbayashi Nobuhiko, dir., Sada (1997; 2004);
b. Kobayashi Takiji, “The Factory Ship” (Kani kōsen, 1928-1929).
12. Exile as Martyrdom
Week 12 ([April 17 no class] April 19):
a. Ichikawa Kon, dir., The Harp of Burma (1956).
13. Thesis Presentations in class (powerpoint)
Week 13 (April 24 & 26)
14. Rebels in Hiding
Weeks 14 (May 1):
a. Clint Eastwood, dir., Letters from Iwo Jima (2007)
TBA: Undergraduate Student Conference at Commonwealth College ~
participation is required.
Week 15 (May 1): last day of classes:
Theses/ Archivable Products: Individual Signing Sessions
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