What issues / themes / constructs developed over the past two weeks most intrigue you as you work to grasp the developments taking place in Japan's historical movement from a multiplicity of independent and locally self-sufficient clans into a sophisticated, aristocratic and (ideally) centralized warrior-dominated state system?

After considering your response to the above, discuss in detail elements affecting the historical transformation of Japanese (pick two) political, social, economic, religious OR cultural institutions / systems during the period before 1600 related to these focused interest areas. Take into account changes introduced in each of the eras we have discussed in class.

Considering that the Tokugawa Period is often seen as the "culmination of the traditional" in Japanese history, formulate some projections growing from your historical summary concerning what the post-1600 process of consolidation of past influences might bring in these two specific areas. What do you suspect might happen in each of these two arenas after 1600 as the Tokugawa struggle to establish their own superiority? How might "modernization" thereafter challenge these consolidations of tradition?