NYSED Global History and Geography Online Resource Guide

Unit 3

 

Core Curriculum

Essential Questions

Focus Questions

Vocabulary

Scholarship

Helpful Hints

Resources for Teachers
(Books/Articles,
Visuals/Music)

Visuals

Learning Experience(s)

Assessments

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home > units >unit3> Early Japanese history and feudalism

A. Early Japanese history and feudalism

1.

Human and physical geography

2. Early traditions (Shintoism)
3. Ties with China and Korea: cultural diffusion, Buddhism, and Confucianism
4.

Tokugawa Shogunate

5. Social hierarchy and stratification
6. Comparison to European feudalism
7. Zen Buddhism

Focus Questions

How has geography influenced the history, society, and culture of Japan?
What are the cultural and intellectual traditions that emerged during the Japanese feudal period?

Why is the Tokugawa Shogunate such an important aspect of Japanese history? What changes took place during this time period?

Who were the members of the Japanese feudal class structure? What were their roles and responsibilities?

What are the similarities and differences between European and Japanese feudal societies?


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Vocabulary

Bushido military culture
closed country policy reciprocal relationship
cultural diffusion Samurai
Daimyo samurai warrior class
Donjon Shogun
emperor tea ceremony
feudalism terrace farming
haiku poetry Tokugawa
kabuki theater Tokugawa shogunate
Kana tsunami
Japanese feudalism Zen Buddhism


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Helpful Hints

Teachers may want to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City or its website.  Occasionally they will have exhibits on Japanese history and feudal times. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/splash.htm?HomePagLink=toah_1

Have students develop a diagram to compare and contrast European and Japanese feudalism. Note such things as warriors, knights, and their armor.

samurai

http://metmuseum.org/toah/hd/samu/
ho_14.100.121.htm

Japanese Samurai
 

Japanese Samurai

Compared with:

Suit of armor
www.metmuseum.org

Feudal knight
European Feudal Knights


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Resources for Teachers (Books/Articles, Visuals/Music)

 

Barnes, Gina L. 1993. China, Korea, and Japan: The Rise of Civilization in East Asia. London, UK: Thames & Hudson.

   
 

Beasley, W.G. 2000. The Japanese Experience: A Short History of Japan (History of Civilisation). Berkley, CA: University of California Press.

   
 

Busch, Noel Fairchild. 1972.The Horizon Concise History of Japan. New York: Simon & Schuster.

   
 

Cummins, Philip. 2000. Cambridge Junior History:  Ancient and Medieval Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.

   
 

FitzGerald, C.P. 1966. A Concise History of East Asia. London:  Heinemann London Publishers.

   
 

Friday, Karl F. 2003. Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan. New York: Routledge (New Edition).

   
 

Henshall, Kenneth G. 1999. A History of Japan:  From Stone Age to Superpower. New York: Macmillan Press.

   
 

Hall, John Whitney. 1970. Japan From Prehistory to Modern Times. Ann Arbor, MI: Bantam Doubleday Press.

   
 

Keene, Donald, trans. 1971. Chushingura: The Treasury of Loyal Retainers.  New York: Columbia University Press.

   
 

Konishi, Jin’ichi. 1986. A History of Japanese Literature: The Early Middle Ages. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

   
 

Lateutette, Kenneth Scott. 1947. The History of Japan. New York: The Macmillian Company.

   
 

Leonard, Jonathan Norton. 1968. Great Ages of Man: A History of the World Cultures - Early Japan. New York: Time Incorporated.

   
 

Newman, John. 1989. Bushido: The Way of the Warrior. New York: Gallery Books.

   
 

Mason, R.H.P. and J.C. Granger. 1997(revised edition). A History of Japan. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing.

   
 

Morris, Ivan. 1994. The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan. New York: Kodansha Globe.

   
 

Morton, W. Scott, Kenneth Olenik and Charlton Lewis. 1994. Japan: Its History and Culture. New York: McGraw-Hill.

   
 

Nardo, Don. 1994. Traditional Japan. San Diego: Lucent Books.

   
 

Perez, Louis G. 1998. The History of Japan. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

   
 

Reilly, Kevin. 1997. The West and the World: A History of Civilization. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, reprint.

   
 

Rogers, Perry M., ed. 2002. “Samurai!: The Development of Classical and Medieval Japan (600-1467)”  Aspects of World Civilization: Volume I – Problems and Sources in History. Upper Saddle Hall, NJ: Prentice Hall.

   
 

Rogers, Perry M., ed. 2002. “Japan and China: The Rising Sun and The Falling Star.” Aspects of World Civilization: Volume II – Problems and Sources in History. Upper Saddle Hall, NJ: Prentice Hall.

   
 

Runkle, Scott F. 1976. An Introduction to Japanese History. Tokyo: International Society for Educational Informational Press.

   
 

Ryusaku  et al., eds. 1961. Sources of Japanese Tradition. Tsuneda. New York: Columbia University Press. pp 398-401. (reprinted in Sherman, D., et al. eds. 1998. World Civilizations: Sources, Images and Interpretations, Volume II. Boston: McGraw Hill. pp. 55-56.)

 

Sansom, George. 1958. A History of Japan to 1334. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

   
 

Shibuku, Murasaki, and Edward G. Seidensticker. 1976. The Tale of Genji. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

   
 

Smith, Bonnie, ed. 2004-05. Women's History in Global Perspective. Champaign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.

   
 

Stearns, Peter N.,  Stephen S. Gosch and Erwin P. Grieshaber. 2003. “Early Modern Japan” Documents in World History: Volume 2 The Modern Centuries: From 1500 to the Present, 3rd Edition. New York: Longman.

   
 

Turnbull, Stephen. 2005. Warriors of Medieval Japan. Bottey Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing.

   
 

Turnbull, Stephen. 2003. The Book of the Samurai:  The Warrior Class of Japan. New York: New Line Books.

   
 

Yamamura, Kozo, ed. et. al. 1990. The Cambridge History of Japan: Volume 3, Medieval Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.

   
  Films
 

2004. Empires – Japan:  Memoirs of a Secret Empire. PBS. Paramount Home Video.

   
 

 2001. The Story of Civilization: The Eastern Empires. Lowe, Lara. Kultur.

   
 

1997. National Geographic’s Living Treasures of Japan. National Geographic.

   
 

1980. Shogun. Clavell, James. Paramount Home Video.


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Assessments

Editor's Note: All state examinations are aligned to the New York State Learning Standards for Social Studies and Social Studies Resource Guide with Core Curriculum. The chart below specifies where these alignments have occurred (from June 2000 to the present).

Core Curriculum:

Global History and Geography Regents:

1. Human and physical geography
2. Early traditions (Shintoism)
3. Ties with China and Korea: cultural diffusion, Buddhism, and Confucianism
4. Tokugawa Shogunate
5. Social hierarchy and stratification
6. Comparison to European feudalism
7. Zen Buddhism

January 2003 DBQ, Geographic Factors on the Political and Economic Development of Great Britain and Japan

3. Ties with China and Korea: cultural diffusion, Buddhism, and Confucianism

January 2006 DBQ, Change (Ideas and Beliefs of Philosophers and Leaders)

 


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