Week 7: Kamakura – HST267: Intro to Traditional Japan

March 1 and 3

We’ll take an extensive look at the Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari). This novel was written by a woman, Murasaki Shikibu, in the early years of the eleventh century. Almost since the moment of its publication (copied by hand as a manuscript), readers have proclaimed it to be a masterpiece, and it has inspired generations of visual artists, and it has left an indelible mark on Japanese culture.

Slides
Readings and class prep
Assignments
Extra Credit Tasks
Where to Get Assistance?

Slides

Readings and class details

Wednesday:

Ettinger 212, 11AM.

Textbook: Friday, Karl. “The Dawn of the Samurai.” In Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850, edited by Karl F. Friday, 178-188. New York, NY: Routledge, 2018. https://muhlenberg.on.worldcat.org/oclc/787849954.
Primary sources:
- “Rise of the Warrior Class.” In The Dawn of History to the Late Tokugawa Period, Volume 1 in Japan: A Documentary History, edited by David John Lu, 101-106. London: Routledge, 2015. https://muhlenberg-on-worldcat-org.muhlenberg.idm.oclc.org/oclc/904546969.
  - Cross-reference between the developments described in the textbook (Karl Friday, Chapter 17) and these documents: where can you make explicit connections between the textbook, and this set of documents? Where do you have to interpret the documents at a deeper level? Remember you can use the “How to read a text” questions to help you get the most out of primary sources.
- What do you find interesting, remarkable, strange? Why?
Primary source: “Scrolls of the Frolicking Animals”, attributed to Toba (1053–1140).
- Look through the pictures in the Folder with Chōju jinbutsu giga pictures (“Frolicking Animals”) (Gdrive link), and compare with the comments on Emaki in Varley, pp. 86-89.
- Note: View (or “read”) a scroll from right to left.
- Can you distinguish the original from the “fan fiction” tributes in this google search?
- Studio Ghibli was inspired to animate the scroll for adverts for an energy company, here is a 30 second story they created: animation (Youtube link)
Encyclopedia article: Emaki during the Heian period.

Optional extras: Literature from this time period
- “The Lady Who Preferred Insects”. In Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology. Beginnings to 1600, edited by Haruo Shirane, 498-499. Columbia Univ. Press, 2007. (PDF)
  - How does this story differ from what you read about elite women in The Tale of Genji or either of the two texts for the response paper?
- “Collection of Tales Now Past.” In Sources of Japanese Tradition, Volume One: From Earliest Times to 1600 2nd edition, edited by de Bary, William Th. et al, 529-555. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. (PDF)
  - More popular tales! What similarities and differences do you see with earlier popular tales, ranging from the origin myths to “Minister Kibi’s Adventures” or the “Tale of the Bamboo Cutter”?

Friday

Ettinger 212, 11am

Textbook: Friday, Karl. Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850, New York, NY: Routledge, 2018. https://muhlenberg.on.worldcat.org/oclc/787849954.
- “18: The Kamakura Shogunate and the Beginnings of Warrior Power”
- “19: Kamakura and the Challenges of Governance” stop at Mongol Invasions (we’ll read more about those in detail after Spring break)
Primary sources:
- Kamo no Chōmei. “An Account of My Hut” [Hōjōki]. In Anthology of Japanese Literature: Earliest Era to Mid-nineteenth Century, compiled and edited by Donald Keene, 197-212. Unesco Collection of Representative Works. New York: Grove Press, 1955.
  - PDF
  - Chōmei wrote during the same period as the conflict between the Taira and Minamoto took place, but he does not refer to these events in his account. Instead, he writes about the many disasters befalling Japan at that time, and how he retreated from the world. What insights does this text give you into the late Heian, early Kamakura period? What similarities and differences do you find with other literature we have covered so far, for instance in themes, topics, mood?
- “The Tale of the Dirt Spider.” In Monsters, Animals, and Other Worlds: A Collection of Short Medieval Japanese Tales, edited by Keller Kimbrough and Haruo Shirane, 23-30. Translations from the Asian Classics. New York: Columbia Univ. Press 2018.
  - PDF
  - Read the text with the pictures from the original emaki (picture scroll) from the Tokyo National Museum
    - The scroll itself dates from the early fourteenth century, but the hero is Minamoto Yorimitsu (or Raikō) who lived during the Heian period. How do the text and the story interact? What do the pictures add to the story? Do you see connections to materials we saw earlier in class?
  - Read the accompanying encyclopedia article: “Ethnicity in Kamakura Japan.“

Optional extras:
- The St Ippen scroll is available through the e-museum: “The Illustrated Biography of Priest Ippen, emaki. Kamakura period (14th century), 34.3cmx 944.2cm. ULR: http://emuseum.nich.go.jp/detail?langId=en&webView=null&content_base_id=100156&content_part_id=0&content_pict_id=0
- “Estate Stewards in Legal Documents”. In Pre-Modern East Asia, to 1800: A Cultural, Social, and Political History. 3rd ed. Edited by Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Anne Walthall, 190-191. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2014.
  - PDF (Unfortunately this scan resisted my OCR software, so you can’t highlight the text)
  - Use the questions for analysis in the PDF to understand more about the way the shōgun settled disputes.

Assignments

1. Reminder: Blog post (content week 6)

5 points, due Mon. Feb. 27, 11:59PM

Write a blog post exploring themes or ideas based on your reading. You do not need to have all the answers. In fact, learning to ask good analytical or research questions is a skill you can develop during the semester. Remember the description of the assignment from the syllabus.

Length: approx. 400 words. excl. list of materials consulted.
Add the list of materials consulted at the end of the post, in Chicago notes and bibliography style.
- TOP TIP: Just copy the bibliography information from the Reading list on this webpage, do not add the descriptive notes I provide for your information.
Add the words “Week 6” in the title.
- Please use this exact phrase, so your post will show up in the blog stream.
Indicate which Exploration Pack you chose. [not applicable this week]
Include a relevant image, and add a caption with the source/credit, and an Alt text description
Post on your website, and add to the category hst267.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I wrote a post of approximately 400 words in response to the readings.
– I included the bibliographic references for the materials I used for my post.
– I indicated which Exploration Pack I chose. [not applicable this week]
– I included an image, and I provided a caption and credit (source), and an Alt text description for the image.
– I use the words Week 6 in the title, and added the post to category hst267

2. Show and Tell 2:

20 points, due Mon Feb.27, 11:59PM

Find all the details on the dedicated webpage (this helps me to keep the weekly schedule a bit more clutter-free).

If you used your Free Pass for the first Show and Tell project, you MUST complete the remaining four!

3. Feedback with Hypothes.is

3 points, due March 1, 11:59pm

Below you find links to three blog posts from your fellow students. If one of the websites is your own, or it is twice the same person’s, refresh the page, and you should get new sites. Any of the posts that appear here are fair game for commenting, even if they are about earlier weeks: those posts came in after the first deadline.

Post 1:
Post 2:
Post 3:

Leave feedback, questions, thoughts, insights about the contents of the posts of your fellow students using Hypothes.is group HST267. You can ask for clarifications, point out similarities and differences with the material you covered, or with your interpretation. This should encourage you to dive a bit deeper in the materials, or visit those you did not read at first.

Use tags in Hypothes.is: question: If you have a question; answered: if you gave an answer to a question; info: if you provide more information, looking up additional facts, drawing on knowledge from other classes; and other tags you can think of. This will help us to navigate more quickly to the questions that still need answering.

Use the “Architect’s Model” of giving feedback, and engage with concrete issues. Go beyond “Yeah, I agree,” “I like” or “I think the same”, and instead explain why you have that reaction, or if you disagree, you can try to persuade the original poster of your idea or interpretation.

Remember that Hypothes.is allows for hyperlinks, e.g. to materials that support your argument, or you can include pictures (memes! [yes, there she is again]), videos etc. that help the original poster to learn more.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully, and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I commented on three fellow students’ weekly blog post on Week 6 materials, using the Hypothes.is group HST267.
– I made sure to leave substantial comments that help the writer to improve the post, or to identify their strengths.
– I left comments that I would like to receive myself: thoughtful, helpful, kind, but also pointing out errors so they can be fixed.

4. Blog post (content week 7)

5 points, due March.6, 11:59PM

Length: approx. 400 words. excl. list of materials consulted.
Add the list of materials consulted at the end of the post, in Chicago notes and bibliography style.
- TOP TIP: Just copy the bibliography information from the Reading list on this webpage, do not add the descriptive notes I provide for your information.
Add the words “Week 7” in the title.
- Please use this exact phrase, so your post will show up in the blog stream.
Indicate which Exploration Pack you chose. [not applicable this week]
Include a relevant image, and add a caption with the source/credit, and an Alt text description
Post on your website, and add to the category hst267.

When you’re done, read this declaration carefully and then fill out the Canvas quiz to collect your points.

Declaration
– I wrote a post of approximately 400 words in response to the readings.
– I included the bibliographic references for the materials I used for my post.
– I indicated which Exploration Pack I chose.
– I included an image, and I provided a caption and credit (source), and an Alt text description for the image.
– I use the words Week 7 in the title, and added the post to category hst267

Extra Credit tasks

EC7-1. Rewrite a blog post

2 points, due by Sunday, March. 5, 11.59pm

Unhappy about a post you wrote? Feeling you can do better now than a few weeks ago? Had a bad week and rushed to get it in but now you’re ready to do something you can be proud of? Now you can rewrite that post and get some extra credit for it!

Pick one post from a previous weeks (not the Cat post) and use the comments you received, and your new insights, to rewrite it.
Add a brief paragraph at the end explaining how you rewrote the post: which comments did you address, how did you go about the process (e.g. starting from new blank page vs. tinkering; focusing on structure or word choice or adding/correcting facts,…), and what you learned through the process of rewriting.
tag the post with extra, and add “rewrite” to the title
- (Note: it should already be in the category hst267)

Read the following Declaration carefully, and then head on over to Canvas to collect your points in the Declaration Quiz:

Declaration
I selected a post from a previous week and rewrote it, using feedback and insights I gained since writing it.
I added a brief paragraph at the end explaining what I did to rewrite the post, and what I learned about rewriting
I added the tag extra to the post, and added the word rewrite to the title.
I made sure the post is still in the category hst267.

EC7-2: Down the Rabbit Hole

3 points, due by Sunday March. 5, 11.59pm

Are you curious? Can you spend hours on internet following one link after another trying to get to the bottom of something? Did you know you can now also get some extra credit for this?

Pick a topic, placename, object, book or person connected to our readings from this week, and follow your curiosity “down the rabbit hole”, like Alice in Wonderland. Then share in a blog post with us where you went, and what you found. Your post does not have to be very long: 250 words should work; more is fine if you went on a deep dive, of course. Here’s what to include:

What in the course materials this week got you inspired to go down the rabbit hole?
Include as hyperlinked text the websites you visited, and what you learned there.
Include an image, with caption giving credit for the image.
You may also critique the sources you find, in particular if you have your doubts about their reliability, or you come across conflicting interpretations. Which one did you side with, and why?
Add the post to category hst267, use the title template “Down the rabbit hole: [insert subject]”, and add the tag extra.