kura (storehouse) at Shikoku Farmhouse Village Museum (2001)

 

 HIS 371 / 571, 
THE HISTORY OF JAPAN


JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT THREE

 
TOPIC ONE, FOR STUDENTS WRITING THEIR FIRST ESSAY ON FOUR MAJOR PLAYS OF CHIKAMATSU
 
TOPIC TWO, FOR STUDENTS WRITING THEIR FIRST ESSAY ON THE CONFESIONS OF LADY NIJO
 
TOPIC ONE:What insights into traditional Japanese civilization and culture at the point of transition between the Aristocratic and Military-Aristocratic eras particularly struck you in your reading of The Confessions of Lady Nijo?  Did the autobiography, in fact, provide the insights you had initially hoped to find (as outlined in JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT TWO: C)? What evidence of the larger historical evolutionary processes at work in late Aristocratic - early Military-Aristocratic period political, economic and social worlds were found in the Confessions?  Evaluate the worth of the autobiography as an historical source. 
  
TOPIC TWO:What insights into the cultural style associated with The Floating World particularly struck you in your reading of the four plays by Chikamatsu Monzaemon?  Did the plays, in fact, provide the insights you had initially hoped to find (as outlined in ASSIGNMENT TWO: C)?  What evidence of the larger historical evolutionary processes at work in  Military-Bureaucratic era Japanese political, economic and social worlds were found in the plays? Evaluate the worth of these dramas as historical sources.  
This site has been prepared by Lee A. Makela (l.makela@csuohio.edu) for the use of students at Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, who are enrolled in HIS 371 / 571, History of Japan during the Spring Semester of the 2008 - 2009 Academic Year; please contact him with any comments.  
Last revised: January 20, 2009