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HIST187A: JAPAN UNDER THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNS
Time: Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, 9:30-10:45AM
Instructor: Travis Seifman
Office: HSSB 3225
Hours: TBD
Classroom: HSSB 4020
E-mail: [email protected]
PREREQUISITES: There are no prerequisites for this course, but students should realize that this is
an upper-division course in early modern Japanese history, and an intense one, a full 10-week
course squeezed into six short weeks. Be prepared to do a fair amount of reading, and to
confront a number of unfamiliar-looking names and places. Be prepared, too, to engage actively,
asking questions and contributing to discussion.
REQUIRED MATERIALS:
Brain, enthusiasm, physical + mental presence, curiosity. Notebook (physical or electronic). Blue
books for the exams. All readings will be provided online as PDFs on GauchoSpace.
FORMAT AND OBJECTIVES: This is the first of a series of courses covering the Early Modern,
Modern (1868-1952) and Recent (1952-present) periods of Japanese history. It thus sets the
foundation for understanding the historical background behind the later events covered in HIST
187B and 187C.
The first objective of the course is to teach you about a critical period of Japanese history – a
culturally vibrant era when a great deal of what we today imagine as “traditional” Japan came
into being, and an era in which domestic peace, urbanization, interregional integration,
commercialization, proto-industrialization, publishing, and various schools of scholarship, among
other developments, made Japan one of the most literate, urbanized, and economically
integrated societies in the world, setting the stage for modernization in the mid-to-late 19th
century. To understand this process, we will need to explore a number of different dimensions of
Japanese history: political structures, economic developments, social structures and
developments, and popular and elite culture.
In addition to learning about the complex historical changes in this period, I want to help you
understand something about the historical discipline, and how historians reason and understand
the past. Thus, in place of a textbook by a single author, I am providing you with a diversity of
perspectives and approaches, in the form of journal articles & book chapters by a variety of
scholars. These include works by historians of art, theater, economics, gender, foreign relations,
and thought, among other subjects. In these, you’ll see historians who ask very different
questions, make different sorts of assumptions, and use different types of materials (or, the
same materials in very different ways), to reach conclusions about early modern Japanese
society.
We will also be reading a number of primary sources – English translations of texts written by
Japanese people, and others, at that time. This will add further to our experience of getting a
sense of how historians discover, or confirm, what they (we) know about history. History is not
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simply true facts that are known. In fact, we can never really know the past – the best we can do
is to attempt to get some sense of it, from the documents, objects, and other forms of evidence
which survive down to the present day. For all of these readings, I want you to read them
critically – to learn about the content of the piece, but also to think about what other questions
emerge out of them. What is each author emphasizing, and what are they ignoring? What
assumptions are they making? What sorts of evidence are they using, and how are they using it?
We create the class experience together. I encourage you to ask questions or give your own
comments at any point in the lecture. Your attendance at class lectures is essential and required.
Much important information will be given only in lecture. I also strongly encourage you to take
extensive notes on both the readings, and the lectures – either directly on the page, or in a
notebook or Word document. Studies have shown that writing notes by hand is superior to
digital methods for learning and remembering the material; though, electronic methods may be
better for keeping and organizing the material, so I leave that decision up to you.
REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING
1. Reading Responses (10% each, 50% total)
2. Map Quiz (5%)
3. Midterm Exam (20%)
4. Final Exam (25%)
READING RESPONSES
Readings are assigned on a weekly basis. Come in on each Thursday having done the reading
listed for that week, and being well-prepared to both ask questions, and engage in discussion
about the readings.
For each week, I will provide a number of questions to go with the readings. Address any one of
these questions – or a separate issue you wish to address from the readings – in a two-page
piece. Provide an insightful analysis of one of the readings, or a thoughtful synthesis of a number
of the readings. Take into consideration elements from lecture or from other readings, to find
concurrences or contradictions that provide new understandings. Consider things
historiographically – that is, in a professional, scholarly manner, thinking about what this means
for how historians view Japan, how different scholars address a subject differently. What did this
reading assume that might be incorrect? What did this reading fail to address, and what are the
results or implications? What new insights does this reading provide that upends, or overhauls,
our understanding of Japanese history?
These Reading Responses are intended to help you engage with the readings, and get thinking
about them, so as to have a more lively class discussion. They should contain your own
interpretation, analysis, or insights, but should be firmly grounded in the readings (use quotes,
and cite page numbers) – they are not personal reflection essays.
You are permitted to skip the response paper for any one of the six weeks, but you must hand in
at least five satisfactory responses in order to meet the Writing requirement, and thus in order
to pass the class.
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These reading responses are to be handed in on Thursday each week, in a printed-out hardcopy.
Each is worth 10% of the grade (x5 = 50% total). Late papers will drop by a full letter grade for
the first day late, and one-third of a letter grade for each day after that (e.g. from an A to an A-,
from an A- to a B+).
EXAMS
We will have two blue book exams, on Mon 7/11, and on the last day of class, Thurs 7/28. Each
will consist of a map quiz, a number of short answer questions, and one or two essays.
Each exam will draw upon both the readings and the lectures, so please make sure you are
coming to class, and also doing the readings. The short answers for the Final Exam will focus
almost exclusively on material from the second half of the course (i.e. will be non-cumulative),
but the essays may call upon your knowledge of trends or themes across the entire period.
The Midterm exam is worth 20% of the total course grade, and the Final exam is worth 25%.
A WARNING ON PLAGIARISM: Plagiarism is appropriating another person’s words, ideas or
research results without acknowledging them, and passing them off as one’s own. I call your
attention to this description of one of the most common forms of plagiarism: “verbatim copying
of words, sentences, paragraphs or entire sections or chapter without quotation and proper
attribution. This is the most obvious form of plagiarism. You must use quotation marks even if
you only borrow several words in sequence from a source.” In recent years, plagiarism has
become an increasingly serious problem in colleges across the country, as the Internet makes
basic information on many historical issues readily available and easy to copy. Plagiarism is,
however, a serious academic offense and is covered by university policy on academic dishonesty.
UCSB policy requires that the instructor report any suspected plagiarism to the Office of Judicial
Affairs. Please refer to the university’s guidelines for more information:
http://judicialaffairs.sa.ucsb.edu/AcademicIntegrity.aspx The OJA will adjudicate the
consequences of the offense, which could lead up to suspension. If I suspect that you have used
another person’s (including another book, article, or Web site’s) words without proper
footnoting, we will notify you and require that you submit an electronic copy of your paper to
turnitin.com, so that we can use available electronic means to check for plagiarism. Fortunately,
just as the Web makes plagiarism easier, it also makes detection of plagiarism easy. Students
found guilty of plagiarism will receive no credit for the assignment and will be reported to the
OJA for disciplinary action. Consider this fair warning. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. It’s just not worth it.
The consequences can be extremely serious.
DISABILITY: If you have a formally documented condition that affects your work in this (or any
other) class and requires accommodation, the Disabled Students Program
(http://dsp.sa.ucsb.edu/) can help you. I can help you get in touch with them, or feel free to do
so yourself. We all have our strengths and weaknesses in all things, so if you do not have a
formally documented situation, but nevertheless wish to speak with me about any concerns
along these lines, please feel free to do so.
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LECTURES & READINGS
Week One. Warring States and Unification
M 6/20
Introduction, Warring States, and Unification
T 6/21
Establishment of the Tokugawa Order
W 6/22
Tokugawa Foreign Relations (I). Map Quiz Due.
Th 6/23
Readings Discussion
READINGS:
*Conrad Totman, Early Modern Japan, 29-58, 105-125.
*Philip Brown, “The Political Order,” in Japan Emerging, 321-332.
*”The Evangelic Furnace: Japan’s First Encounter with the West,” in Sources of Japanese
Tradition (2001), vol 2, 143-151.
*Constantine Vaporis, “Evaluating and Interpreting Primary Documents,” Voices of Early
Modern Japan, xxxii-xliv.
*Primary Sources on Jesuits in Japan, from Sources of Japanese Tradition, 155-159,
*Primary Sources on Jesuits in Japan, from David Lu, Japan: A Documentary History, 196-197.
READING RESPONSE QUESTIONS:
*What were the Christian missionaries’ intentions in Japan? Were Hideyoshi and the Tokugawa
shoguns right to kick them out, and to come down hard on Christianity? Why or why not?
*Was Japan a single country at this time? How so (or why not)?
Week Two. Foreign Relations, Economics, and Class
M 6/27
Tokugawa Foreign Relations (II)
T 6/28
Social Classes & Samurai Status
W 6/29
Commercialization & Proto-Industry
Th 6/30
Readings Discussion
READINGS:
On Foreign Relations:
*Arano Yasunori, “Foreign Relations in Early Modern Japan: Exploding the Myth of National
Seclusion” http://www.nippon.com/en/features/c00104/ (13pp)
*Excerpts from James Lewis, “Beyond Sakoku: The Korean Envoy to Edo and the 1719
Diary of Shin Yu-Han,” 35-41. (with introduction from Vaporis, 105.)
*“Of the Dutch Trade in Japan,” Lu, 225-228.
On Social Class, Economics, and Society:
*Chie Nakane, “Tokugawa Society,” in Tokugawa Japan: The Social and Economic
Antecedents of Modern Japan, 213-231.
*“Laws of Military Households”, Lu, 206-208.
*Karl Friday, “Bushido or Bull?” (11pp)
*“Natural Order and Social Order,” Lu, 245-247.
*“Regulating Townspeople in Two Cities,” Vaporis, 89-95.
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*“Organization of Tokumi Doiya,” “An Appeal to the Town Commissioners,” and “The
Role of the Merchants,” Lu, 234-236, 241
*Cecilia Segawa Seigle, "Shinanomiya Tsuneko: Portrait of a Court Lady," in Anne Walthall (ed.),
The Human Tradition in Modern Japan, Scholarly Resources, Inc. (2002), 3-24.
READING RESPONSE QUESTIONS:
*Is it useful, or accurate, to think of Japan as being “closed” during this time? Why or why not?
Why might Western writers, both during the Edo period, and in later periods, have said it was
“closed”?
*How does Shin Yu-Han view Japan? What might we infer about the positions of Japan and Korea
relative to one another, and/or relative to China?
*Is Bushido bullshit? How did the Tokugawa period reality differ from pop culture images of the
samurai, and where does this “gap” come from?
Optional additional readings/media:
*Debates on the Ako Vendetta, from Sources of Japanese Tradition, 438-468.
*”You Can’t Spell Bushido without Bull,” Samurai Archives Podcast,
http://samuraipodcast.com/ep113-you-cant-spell-bushido-without-bull.
*Focusing on one or more of the categories of merchants, samurai, court families, women,
and/or some other category – how did people negotiate their position in society? What did they
perceive as being their rights & obligations?
Week Three. Popular Culture
M 7/4
NO CLASS
T 7/5
Urban Culture (I)
W 7/6
Urban Culture (II) – Printing, Publishing, and the Pleasure Districts
Th 7/7
Readings Discussion
READINGS:
*Eiko Ikegami, “Categorical Protest from the Floating World: Fashion, State, and Gender,” in
Bonds of Civility, 245-286.
*“Fashion and Sumptuary Legislation” and “Samurai Dress and Grooming Standards,” Vaporis,
28-37.
*Eiko Ikegami, “The Information Revolution: Japanese Commercial Publishing and Styles of
Proto-Modernity,” in Bonds of Civility, 286-323.
*Liza Dalby, “Courtesan and Geisha: The Real Women of the Pleasure Quarter.” In The Women
of the Pleasure Quarter, 47-65.
*Amy Stanley, “Introduction,” Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early
Modern Japan, 1-19.
*Yūjo contract, in Stanley, 56-59.
READING RESPONSE QUESTIONS:
*Compare and contrast approaches to the pleasure quarters / prostitution seen in Dalby,
Stanley, and other readings. How should we talk about prostitution in Tokugawa Japan?
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Week Four. Kabuki Theater & other Arts
M 7/11
MIDTERM EXAM
T 7/12
Kabuki Theater
W 7/13
Painting, Ceramics, Literature, and Architecture
Th 7/14
Readings Discussion
READINGS:
For MONDAY:
*Lisa Ann Omoto and Kathy Welch, “Kabuki Spectacle,” in 101 Years of Kabuki in Hawaiʻi,
50-54.
*Sukeroku – read the surrounding material from Vaporis (195-199), and the excerpt itself from
James Brandon, Kabuki: Five Classic Plays, 59-66.
For Thursday (as normal):
*Shively, Donald H. “Bakufu Versus Kabuki.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 18, no. 3/4
(1955): pp. 326–56.
*Tim Clark, “Edo Kabuki in the 1780s.” In The Actor’s Image: Printmakers of the Katsukawa
School, 27–48.
*”Edo Artists,” Art of Edo Japan, 89-125.
*”Buying and Selling,” in Tim Screech, Obtaining Images, 69-91.
*”The Tea Ceremony,” Vaporis, 179-183.
READING RESPONSE QUESTIONS:
*Was Kabuki “pop culture” in the Edo period? Why or why not?
*What was the place of paintings and/or woodblock prints in Edo period cultural life? How might
we describe Edo period attitudes or conceptions about “art”?
*What do the onnagata, and/or wakashū, and the practice of nanshoku / shūdō mean for our
concepts of gender and/or sexuality in Edo period Japan?
Optional additional readings: *Morinaga, Maki Isaka. “The Gender of Onnagata As the
Imitating Imitated: Its Historicity, Performativity, and Involvement in the Circulation of
Femininity.” Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique 10, no. 2 (2002): 245–84.
Week Five. Intellectual History & Religion
M 7/18
Religion: Buddhism and Kami Worship
T 7/19
Schools of Thought: Kangaku (Chinese Studies) and Kokugaku (Native Studies)
W 7/20
Schools of Thought: Rangaku (Dutch Studies) and History of Science
T 7/21
Readings Discussion
READINGS:
*”Dutch Learning,” Sources, 361-364.
*”The Beginning of Dutch Studies in Japan,” ”Japan’s Creation by Amaterasu,” and excerpts from
“The Outline of the Ancient Way,” Lu, 264-271.
*”The National Learning Schools,” Sources, 481-485.
*”On Japanese Learning” and “The Land of the Gods,” in Sources, 510-512.
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*”Sizing Up the Foreign Threat,” Vaporis, 119-122.
*Herbert Plutschow, “Shiba Kokan,” A Reader in Edo Period Travel, 199-223.
*”Documentation for Travel,” Vaporis, 170-174.
READING RESPONSE QUESTIONS:
*How did Rangaku, Kokugaku, and/or the expansion of travel contribute to the development of
some sense of “Japanese” or “national” identity during the Edo period? Or was there not yet any
such coherent identity?
*How might Kokugaku and related schools of thought have influenced our (20th-21st century)
understanding of “Japan” and of Japanese history?
Week Six. The End of Tokugawa
M 7/25
Western Incursions
T 7/26
Bakumatsu & the Meiji Restoration
W 7/27
Readings Discussion
Th 7/28
FINAL EXAM
READINGS:
*Henry Smith, “The Edo-Tokyo Transition,” 347-374.
*Carol Gluck, “The Invention of Edo”
*Matsushima Masato, ”Japan’s Dream of Modern Art,” in Remaking Tradition, 14-23.
*Chelsea Foxwell, Making Modern Japanese-Style Painting, 1-9.
*Machiya Revival in Kyoto
READING RESPONSE QUESTIONS:
*How should we think about “tradition” and “modernity,” especially when it comes to the arts,
and culture?
*What does the shift from Edo to Meiji mean for “Japaneseness”? Is Japaneseness, or
authenticity, or “the real Japan,” found in the traditional? Or in the modern?
*Was the Meiji Restoration inevitable? Was the fall of the shogunate, and the “restoration” of
Imperial rule a good thing, or a bad thing?
*Was the Edo period “backwards”? Was it “proto-modern” or “early modern”? How so?