HIST 407/507 Power and Property in Medieval Japan
Course Description
From the late 12th century through the early 14th century Japan's warrior
class rose to political prominence for the first time. Though a new warrior
regime sought to work with rather than abolish older institutions, that
regime - the Kamakura bakufu - served as a catalyst for social, economic
and intellectual changes that in the 14th century led to a violent reworking
of Japanese society.
In this class we shall examine the impact of the warrior emergence in
a number of areas, in order to gain a sense of how major social changes
and the tensions that they engender - disparate, uncoordinated, but cumulatively
transforming - can result in a major reshaping of a society. We will observe
the ways in which a society, including its warrior families, that approached
conflict resolution through arbitration and compromise became one in which
violent coercion was embraced at all levels of society. The increasing
dominance of the warrior class was one result of this (and is well known),
but we will also examine the ramifications of these shifts for, among
other things, gender construction and female property rights.
Course Policies
Active participation in class discussion; serving as a "discussion
leader" at least twice (this is normally done in conjunction with
one to three others, rather than being a solo effort).
A term paper of around 4500-5500 words. Graduate Students will additionally
submit a 3-4 page book review. The term paper is due in the last class,
March 10.
Required Texts
A. Goble, Kenmu: Go-Daigo's Revolution.
J. P. Mass ed., Court and Bakufu in Japan.
K. Brazell (trans), Lady Nijo's Own Story (Towazugatari).
General Bibliographical Note
To get a useful overview of the period, you might try reading through
the relevant chapters of J.W. Hall, Japan From Prehistory to Modern Times;
H.P.Varley, Japanese Culture; G. Sansom, A History of Japan, 1334-1615.
More specialized treatment may be found in, for example, The Cambridge
History of Japan, volume 3. A particularly useful journal is Monumenta
Nipponica, copies of which are held in the Knight Library; see also the
on-line index at: http://monumenta.cc.Sophia.ac.jp/mnindex.html.
ALSO, one reading for week five, Asakawa Kan'ichi, The Documents of
Iriki, may be found online at: www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/iriki.html.
Course Schedule
| Week 1 |
Reading |
| Course Introduction and
Overview of Period. |
A. Goble, Kenmu, Introduction.
|
| Week 2 |
Reading |
| The First Warrior Government. |
J.P. Mass, Yoritimo and the Founding of the First Bakufu.
A. Goble, Kenmu, chapter 4.
H. Paul Varley, "The Hojo Family and Succesion to Power,"
in Court and Bakufu, 143-167.
A. Goble, "The Hojo and Consultative Government," in Court
and Bakufu, 168-190.
A. Goble, "The Kamakura Bakufu and Its Officials," in J.P.Mass
ed., The Bakufu in Japanese History |
| Week 3 |
Reading |
| Martin Luther King holiday,
no class. |
|
| Week 4 |
Reading |
| Law, Arbitration and Justice.
|
J.P. Mass, The Development
of Kamakura Rule.
J.P. Mass, The Kamakura Bakufu, A Study in Documents.
C.J. Kiley, "The Imperial Court as A Legal Authority in the Kamakura
Age," in Court and Bakufu, 29-44.
A. Goble, Kenmu, chapter 5.
C. Steenstrup, The Legal System of Japan at the End of the Kamakura
Period from the Litigant's Point of View, in B. McKnight ed., Law
and the State in Traditional East Asia, 73-110.
C. Steenstrup, "Sata Mirensho, A Fourteenth Century Legal Primer,"
Monumenta Nipponica, 35 (1980), 405-435.
|
| Week 5 |
Reading |
| Property, Inheritance,
and the Warrior Family. |
J. P. Mass, Lordship and Inheritance in Medieval Japan.
H. Tonomura, "Women and Inheritance in Japan's Early Warrior
Society," in Comparative Studies in Society and History, 32
(1990), 592-623.
J.P. Mass, "Identity, Personal Names, and Kamakura Society,"
in Mass, Antiquity and Anachronism in Japanese History, 91-127.
J.P. Mass, The Development of Kamakura Rule.
Asakawa Kan'ichi, The Documents of Iriki. - www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/iriki.html.
|
| Week 6 |
Reading |
| Aristocrats, Power and
Property. |
K. Brazell trans., Lady Nijo's Own Story (Towazu gatari).
A. Goble, Kenmu, chapters 1, 2, 3.
G.C. Hurst, "The Kobu Polity: Court-Bakufu Relations in the Kamakura
Age," in Court and Bakufu, 3-28.
H. Wakita, "The Medieval Household and Gender Roles within the
Imperial Family, Nobility, Merchants, and Commoners," in H. Tonomura
et al eds., Women and Class in Japanese History, 81-97.
H. Wakita, "Marriage and Property in Premodern Japan From the
Perspective of Women's History," Journal of Japanese Studies,
10.1 (1984), 73-99.
|
| Week 7 |
Reading |
| Structures of Gender. |
K. Brazell trans., Lady Nijo's Own Story (Towazu gatari).
J. Goodwin, "Shadows of Transgression: Heian and Kamakura Constructions
of Prostitution," Monumenta Nipponica, 55.3 (2000), 327-368.
H. Tonomura, "Black Hair and Red Trousers: Gendering the Flesh
in Medieval Japan," American Historical Review, 93.1 (Feb 1994),
pp. 132-154.
H. Tonomura, "Sexual Violence Against Women: Legal and Extralegal
Treatment in Premodern Warrior Societies," in Gender and Class
in Japanese History, 135-152."
B. Ruch, "The Other Side of Culture in Medieval Japan."
in The Cambridge History of Japan, Volume 3, Medieval Japan, 500-543.
Tabata Yasuko, "Women's Work and Status in the Changing Medieval
Economy," in Women and Class in Japanese History, 99-118.
|
| Week 8 |
Reading |
| Ruptures of the Fourteenth
Century. |
J.P. Mass, "Of Hierarchy and Authority at the End of Kamakura,"
in J.P.Mass ed., The Origins of Japan's Medieval World, 17-38.
L. Harrington, Social Control and the Significance of Akuto, in
Court and Bakufu, 221-250.
A. Goble, Kenmu, chapters 6-8.
A. Goble, "Visions of an Emperor," in The The Origins
of Japan's Medieval World, 113-137.
H. Tonomura, Re-envisioning Women in the Post-Kamakura Age, in The
Origins of Japan's Medieval World, 138-169.
|
| Week 9 |
Reading |
| History and Social Change. |
Jien, Gukansho (D. Brown
and Ishida Ichiro trans., The Future and the Past).
Kitabatake Chikafusa, Jinno Shotoki (H.P. Varley trans., A Chronicle
of Gods and Sovereigns).
A. Goble, "Social Change, Knowledge and History: Emperor Hanazono's
Admonitions to the Crown Prince," Harvard Journal of Asiatic
Studies, 55 (1995), 61-128.
H. Tonomura, "Re-envisioning Women in the Post-Kamakura Age,"
in J.P. Mass ed., The Origins of Japan's Medieval World, 138-169.
|
| Week 10 |
Reading |
| Discussion of papers. |
|
|
