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

 

 HIS 371 / 571, 
THE HISTORY OF JAPAN


JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT FIVE

 
TOPIC ONE, FOR STUDENTS WRITING THEIR SECOND ESSAY ON
THE SOIL
 
TOPIC TWO, FOR STUDENTS WRITING THEIR SECOND ESSAY ON KOKORO
 
TOPIC ONE: What insights into Japanese civilization and culture at the turn of the century particularly struck you in your reading of Natsume Soseki's Kokoro?  Did the novel, 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 Meiji era Japanese political, economic and social worlds were found in the novel?  Evaluate the worth of the novel as an historical source.
 
TOPIC TWO: What insights into Japanese civilization and culture near the end of the Meiji era particularly struck you in your reading of Nagatsuka Takashi's The Soil: A Portrait of Rurual Life in Meiji Japan?  Did the work, 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 late Meiji era Japanese political, economic and social worlds were illustrated in this particular source?  Evaluate the worth of the narrative as an historical resource.

   
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