HIST 381 - Love and Death in Tokugawa Japan, 1603-1868

1 unit(s)

We reconstruct life in early modern Japan by engaging primary sources in translation, including memoirs, autobiographies, thanatologues, satire, novels, plays, and treatises. Various social group—the samurai (the warrior elite), commoners, intellectuals, and women—are examined. We look at Japan’s past as “lived experience” by focusing on everyday social practices and personal lives. This seminar does not presuppose familiarity with Japanese history but requires a keen and active historical mind.

Not offered in 2015/16.