Session 11 - Warrior Japan, 5/1

[Anonymous]

I would love to expose students to the history and culture of tea ceremony including its many health benefits. I also would like to replicate our own tea ceremony in class and visit China town as a field trip to explore all the ancient teas. I will show many video clips on how tea is grown and used in tea ceremonies.

[Anonymous]

As a treat I would introduce the popular hip hop group Wu Tang Clan and share their love of the culture by playing some of the group's music to be played in class. We would then analyze, discuss and write their interpretations of the lyrics, music, and other sound effects.

[Anonymous]

As an incentive I would present a viewing of one of the great karate films that I know my students would enjoy. We would explore the history and responsibilty of the art of Karate.

[Anonymous]

I found this article interesting to read because it reminded me that both China and Japan have histories/cultures that borrow from each other. I find it important to keep in mind as we continue to look towards Asia and their influence over the rest of the world.

[Anonymous]

Samurai is defined as having to serve someone. Samurai were clans of men who would help serve the aristocrats by serving as provincial officials. They came to a height during medieval Japan where samurai were in charge politically. Europe’s Knight and the Samurai shared many similarities in how they were formed, fought, and served under a higher power.
edited by jmartinez on 6/23/2017

[Anonymous]

Food is always an easy and interesting way to engage students in history and ancient civilizations. However, food is often thought of as surface culture and not a true testament to the deeper implications that culture may have on a group of people. Yet, the popularization of sushi could be an interesting experiment with students who claim that love sushi, I wonder if they have actually had traditional food? A documentary on food could also serve to show so much more about the culture.

[Anonymous]

This is a great way to show ritual and tradition in the classroom and students would love it. I would use this as an end of the unit celebration for students to share their pillow books or haikus.

[Anonymous]

Great resources, thank you!!

[Anonymous]

In the first reading, I found it very interesting to see how Japan was sort of modeling itself after China, but also pulling away from the way China did things. I found it interesting how there were these bodies of work created to show the histories of Japan, but they were filled with very dry data that only discussed the affairs of the emperors. This tells us very little about the rest of life in Japan at that time. I also found it interesting how in China, appointments to court were made based on merit. Instead of following this model, the Japanese appointed officials based on birth. The paper also mentions another institution that the Japanese did not adopt, which was the idea of equal land sharing. The Japanese instead had privately owned land. As the Japanese continued to evolve and create this own culture, they eventually began to write their own language. The development of their own language allowed for them to write prose poetry, something that was previously too restrictive in Chinese. The second chapter in this reading discusses the aesthetic of Japan. There is discussion of the work "yugen" which is the word used to describe the aesthetic. They mention that it is difficult to describe, but the quote that I like that is used to describe it is "'It is just as when we look at the sky of an autumn dusk. It has no sound or color, and yet, though we do not understand why, we somehow find ourselves moved to tears."' I can relate to this quote as I have this feeling sometimes and do not have the words to explain why I feel so moved.

[Anonymous]

The second article about the tea ceremonies made me think about how I perceive the way tea is regarded today. In my experiences, people don't really think about their tea. They just put the bag into the hot water and then drink it. Before I became a teacher, I worked for a coffee and tea company that took tea much more seriously than I ever had, despite the fact that I have always enjoyed tea because of the fond memories I had with my grandmother as a girl, having tea parties. I learned that tea comes from the same plant. It becomes different (green, black, oolong) based on the way it is processed. I learned that they temperature you use for the water and the amount of time you allow the water to interact with the leaf matters. We carried Sencha and Sincha teas, teas from Japan which had a unique, earthy/grassy, taste that we would brew in a kyusu. It gave me a much deeper appreciation of tea. This article exposed me to Sen no Rikyu, the greatest of all the tea masters. I did some extra research about him and found that he used to design his small rustic tea rooms and would hold his tea ceremonies there. I also found that due to political differences, he was forced to die via seppuku by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. There is a book about him called The Book of Tea that I am interested in reading, as well as a film called Rikyu.

[Anonymous]

Tphillips,
I know that Japanese add vinegar in their Sushi because in both Chinese and Korean the Japanese Sushi was called " vinegar rice".However, the Japanese vinegar is mild and mellow. In the Wikipedia, it says that the vinegar used in sushi is to eliminate the strong odors from the fish. Make sense, I guess it is similar to the lemon that the American use to spray on seafood.

[Anonymous]

That is what middle and high school students often source is the "busido code". I am glad that this week's articles touch on the issue of cultural diffusion and not Japanese itself and how it transformed from the warriors from Korea as well.

[Anonymous]

In the readings for this week, there was a section titled "Drink Tea and Prolong Life". In the past few years I have been learning a little more about this. My husband lived and traveled Japan for two years and he is a die hard tea drinker. He has taught me to enjoy a good cup of tea. Anytime I feel even a little sick, he says, "Drink some tea." In the text, they referred to tea as "god medicine" but one difference between tea bought here in the US verses what they talk about in the text is where its grown. In the texts it mentions the "spirit of the soil" and its healing powers. I'm not sure I believe this 100% but I'm glad to know there is some substance to my husband's desire for me to drink tea.

[cgao]

Please download and read the attachments below.
edited by cgao on 4/26/2017

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