Week 11: From Warring States to Unification

In Week 11 we look at the transition from the Warring States period to a newly unified state under the shōguns of the Tokugawa family. The schedule for tasks/discussions etc is the same as last week. I need your feedback to know if this works for you, if it is too much, or if you have suggestions for improvements. You can email me or leave anonymous comments on the Pad.

Schedule (Monday March 30- Sunday April 5)
  • Monday: (anytime before midnight) reflection on course materials from week 10: this is a chance to show how you have consolidated your knowledge of this topic. How have your ideas changed through repeated interactions with peers and the course materials during the past week? What connections do you see with other course materials? What are the big lessons you learned, to carry forward through the rest of the semester?
            • Post on your blog, under the category HST267
            • Include the words “Week 10” in the title of your post.
  • Tuesday Zoom session 1pm (link on Canvas Homepage): check in with your classmates, talk about the course materials/readings, or about any of the assignments for this week.
  • Tuesday (anytime before midnight): First post on the Canvas discussion board due.
  • Wednesday (anytime before midnight) : Two responses to other students’ posts due, on the Canvas discussion board.
  • Thursday Zoom session 1pm (link on Canvas Homepage): “regular class”: we will go into more detail about the course materials for the week, based on the discussions.
  • Monday (April 6): reflection course materials week 11.
Readings/course contents: Unification and Early Tokugawa period
  • Slides to go with Zoom (Gdrive link)
  • Recording is on the dedicated Canvas Page
  • Textbook: Varley chapter 6, and part of chapter 7: pp. 138-170
        • Use this as background to help you decide between the sets of texts to work with.
  • Video lecturette:
        • Part 1: Ashikaga/Muromachi period superbasics (captions to be edited)
        • Part 2: timeline of unification- transition Muromachi/Ashikaga period to Tokugawa period:

Primary sources: Set 1: connections with the outside world

Questions: Japan had relations with the wider world, and around this time made the first direct contacts with the Europeans who were exploring East Asia. What is the basis for Japanese relations with the outside world? How is Japan seen by the people it has contact with?

  • “Japan’s Christian Century”. In David John Lu. Japan: A Documentary History, 199-201. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1997. (PDF)
        • What do the Christian missionaries think about the Japanese? What impressions did the readers of these documents in the sixteenth century form about the Japanese people? What do the missionaries, in your informed opinion, understand correctly? Which of their remarks seem to be incorrect?
  • Oda Nobunaga. “Letter to the King of Korea”. In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600, compiled by Wm. Th. de Bary, Donald Keene, George Tanabe, and Paul Varley, 465-67. Second edition. Introduction to Asian Civilizations. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2001. (PDF)
  • Haboush, JaHyun Kim, and Kenneth R Robinson. A Korean War Captive in Japan, 1597-1600: The Writings of Kang Hang. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. (PDF)
        • “1: Encounters with the Adversities of War”: Selection from the chapter. I have indicated a few passages for focus using red brackets, but you may of course read the entire chapter.
        • This is the diary of a man who was taken prisoner during the invasion of Hideyoshi in 1597, and brings out an individual’s voice in what otherwise threatens to become a set of numbing statistics about people killed, maimed and taken prisoner. What strikes you in this account? What do you find strange, remarkable, interesting?

Primary sources: Set 2: unification and attempts to control the samurai

Questions: these documents, in chronological order, give you a glimpse of the process of unification, and the attempts to maintain control after the unification is completed. What are the main techniques used by the leaders to keep control? How effective are those methods? Do you see changes between pre- and post-unification? (I.e. is there anything Tokugawa Ieyasu does differently to contribute to his success?)

  • “Denial of Traditional Authority”. In David John Lu. Japan: A Documentary History, 174-186. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1997. (PDF)
  • “The Assault on Mount Hiei and the Blessings of Nobunaga”. In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Vol. 1: From Earliest Times to 1600, compiled by Wm. Th. de Bary, Donald Keene, George Tanabe, and Paul Varley, 445-47. Second edition. Introduction to Asian Civilizations. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 2001. (PDF)
          • Mount Hiei is one of the most holy places of Buddhism in the whole Japan. Compare with the spiritual awe and power those monks held during the Heian period (Varley, pp. 50ff.).
  • “Control of Vassals.” In David John Lu. Japan: A Documentary History, 203-208. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1997. (PDF)
          • The Tokugawa shōguns succeeded in restoring law and order to Japan after centuries of faltering central control.
  • “Closing the Country.” In David John Lu. Japan: A Documentary History, 220-228. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1997. (PDF)
          • Why did the shōguns want to close the country from outside (mainly Western) influences? How did Europeans react? And was this policy overall a good one, or not?