Fri 9/16: Tokugawa Japan

Watching Fireworks in the Cool of the Evening at Ryôgoku Bridge by Katsushika Hokusai, 1780.

Agenda:

Visualize and annotate:

• Students begin class by working in pairs to visualize and annotate the “feudal” structure of the Tokugawa period. Information can be drawn from the videos you viewed for homework and additional sources you find useful.
  • Attempt to create your own system for organizing the information presented in the video rather than adhering strictly to the structure of arguments and evidence presented.
  • Identify and define about 5 terms you think are essential to understanding this period.

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Present and discuss:

• Each team shares their visualizations and annotations.
• We will then use these as a launching point for discussion:
  • Interrogate the key terms and definitions presented. Which concepts seem most central to understanding this “early modern” period? Can we form a consensus around the definitions of these key terms?
  • Examine how Tokugawa politics, economics, and society changed over time. What are the crucial factors to pay attention to? Why?
  • In what ways did the Tokugawa period prepare the way for Japanese modernization in the latter part of the nineteenth century?
  • What might these patterns suggest about the story of Japanese imperialism in particular?

​Illustrations/notes:

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3