Session #7 - April 8, Katsuya Hirano

[Gerlinde Goschi]

I like this idea about religions role in formation of a country/civilization.  I would probably additionally like to explore the role of women in it.  I learned something interesting about Japan and Buddhism.  Prof. Meeks mentioned in her lecture womens' role in Japanese Buddhism, stating that in the very beginning females were monastic figures in Japan.  I learned that Japan's first monastics were nuns.  The nuns were teachers and ritualists.  I would love to tie in these two lectures and create a lesson with your idea and bringing in women's role in Buddhism.  

[Gerlinde Goschi]

Linda, thank you for sharing the Stanford HIstory Education Group website.  It is an incredible resource and you are right.  It offers fresh perspectives for students to learn from.  I also liked the assessments offered. My favorite part was the critical reasoning part as it a helpful tool for today's student to use to gain "the ability to judge the credibility of digital information about social and political issues." I think this is a vital and extremely important too to learn for the 21st century.  Students have to be able to understand the validity of information available to them. 

 

 

[Brenda-Jean Shephard]

The text describes the elite culture of the Japanese aristocracy between the 9^th ans 12^th centuries as being extremely attentive to taste, style, and aesthetic beauty.  It states, “Later, after powerful forces had destroyed the insular world of the status-conscious Heian elite, those tastes… would persist as core elements in Japanese higher culture even to the present day.  It also describes without apology a society where one’s rank, rather than personal qualities such as character and integrity, dictated the respect or rudeness with which one could expect to be treated.  Education was a privilege of the aristocratic class, and there were not opportunities for commoners to advance themselves.  So the rich became richer and the poor became poorer.  “The cultural gulf that separated the elegant few from the inelegant many reinforced the former’s sense of exclusiveness.  It prompter them to huddle in their civilized metropolitan oasis, isolated from the hinterland whose production underlay their very survival.”  Not a good situation.

I have not studied similar documents describing European, British, or American society during the same time period, but imagine that (unfortunately) the same could be said about the way people are treated according to their status.  I wonder if there have been any cultural groups where this was not the case.

Due to my media-free lifestyle growing up, I did not have any preconceived ideas about Samurai.   Guess that’s a good thing!

[Christine Moguel]

What a great idea!  FInding out how religion has shaped other countries.  I would focus more on the art/architecture point of view with this idea.  My students can learn best when they are engaged with multi modal apporaches, and that is why I think creating different models of religious structures (they can pick the East Asian religion) they would like to focus on and we could use materials found in my classroom to build 3 types of structures.  We can talk about how did each religion help the community and its people.  I love it.  Now let me get started on the lesson plan.

[Kim Leng]

Amino Yoshihiko’s “Deconstructing Japan” points to the mystery of Japan's name. Consider this passage:

There are few states whose name is, like Japan’s, neither a place name, a dynastic title, nor the family or clan name of a royal line…there are still many things about the name ‘Japan’ which remain unclear, such as when it came into currency, what it meant, how it was used, how the characters were read, and so on. (p. 123)

This is so interesting and mysterious! I thought that Japan meant the “Land of the Rising Sun” but this is only part of its creation myth.  The first recording of the character Japan was used in the 7^th century, but according to Yoshihiko, its character is “vague in meaning and pronunciation.” What?  I want to read more theories about why this is so. Japanese history continues to amaze me!

[Kim Leng]

The Byodo'in Temple excluding everyone who is not considered an artistocrat to enter and pray will make a great discussion.  How can a religion that emphasizes the equality of all humans justify limiting full access to the masses?  How about having students also look at other instances in history where the word "equal" is used in a document, but the word does not apply to everyone?

As for the difference between samurai and Bushi, I think Hollywood had us all fooled.  It was an eye opening lecture.  Hollywood will do whatever it wants. I'm currently reading The Library Book and learned that some Hollywood movie studios sent people to steal library books.  The library had to then send their people to regulary retreive the library books back.  It's up to us to watch movies with a more critical eye. 

[Ricardo Reyes]

Brenda-Jean, your submission on the Japanese aristocracy between the 9th and 12th centuries prompted me to go over the Japan before Perry articles. Your summary piqued my curiosity and hopes to further understand the extensive time span and many dynastys covered in the articles. I have come across the term referring to China's Golden Age a number of times and pursued the question of how to comprehend what this term constitutes. The Tang (618-906) and Song (920-1279) dynasties are considered a specific time where peace, happiness, and prosperity flourished within China. There were significant developments in culture, art, literature, particularly poetry and technology, as you pointed out. Thus the years of 600 to 1600 C.E. were a period of stunning development and the Song dynasty is widely considered to be the high point of classical Chinese civilization. The roles of samurai, bushi, and buddhism are instrumental into the political economic development and fluidity. Thus, China became the largest empire with the largest population and biggest city which caused Europe to enter into commercial and economic trade and relations. China did cringe and imposed barriers to foreign contact and intervention. I am interested in these developments and especially how Japan invaded China repeatedly. I am curious as to how these violent contacts and incursions unfolded with certain patterns and premises. 

 

 

[Ricardo Reyes]

Examining and questioning the origination and meaning of the name Japan is very bewildering. Japan is seen as a land or island(s) with one of the longest histories, legacies, and traditions, yet there is no certain source as to how the name Japan came to represent the nation and what it means. The article pointed out that even with the longstanding imperial family's ruling, controversy arose with the funeral rituals and procedures upon the death of the Showa Emperor Hirohito on January 7, 1989 and his burial more than six weeks later on February 24. This succession procession involved much discussion after which it was decided that the construction of a Shinto-style toru (tomb) and a huge tumulus (mound). This was decided upon as the correct "traditional" method to be employed. Hirohito was the longest ruling monarch of Japan. Moving forward to the present, the succession of Hirohito's son, Akihito, upon his abdication created a real sensation. Akihito's son, Naruhito, was ushered in as the new emperor of the Reiwa era. A traditional ceremony established the new Emperor and a controversial aspect was continued with the intentional absence of royal female members, Naruhito's wife and daughter. It had been over 200 years since a Japanese Emperor last abdicated and no recollection of an earlier case is known. So, it is indeed puzzling, that with a nation with such a longstanding royal family, there are still questions over rule change and the unquestionable exclusion of women in the ceremony and to assume an empress rule which is prohibited by royal household law. As well, the appearance and meaning of the word Japan is a matter of quiet dispute and mystery. The reading by Yoshihiko bears this out amply.      

[Tiffany Chang]

Professor Hirano opened my eyes to many aspects of Japanese history that I didn't know about before. The Tale of Genji was an account that stuck out to me the most, as it pertains to women in the court and in history. Aristocratic women in the Heian court made contributions such as writing poetry, prose, fiction, and essays. Most accounts in history that are taught in school usually are written by men so it is refreshing to see how women had their own accounts and writings. A wonderful part of digging into history is that more accounts are discovered which helps mold a wider perspective of a certain time period. A fun trivia fact that I also learned (which was probably not too fun for the women back then) was the Tale of Genji and the account of the women in the court. A central part of the courtly life was to wear 12 layers and were expansively made out of silk! As Professor Hirano says, "The more impractical it is, the more refined you are." That theme seems to continue to thrive in the fashion industry today. It would be a great project for students to compare and contrast the fashion of men and women from different time periods and identify the multiple articles of clothing they had to wear for one outfit. 

[Dennis O'Connell]

While modern Japanese society today is "highly homogenous when compared with most modern states" (p. 140), Amino Yoshihiko argues that this belies a complex and complicated history which was far from homogenous.  Coinciding with what we learned in several of our sessions, the history of Japan is not one of a homogenous race of peoples.  There were conflicts between people groups and attempts at conquering geographically and culturally different peoples, sometimes successfully but often unsuccessfully.  Amino Yoshihiko's article examines some of the complexities and differing views (is it Hinomoto or Yamato?  is it Nihon or Nippon?).  The article also warns that if you stick to the "high school textbook view of Japan" that you will totally overlook peoples like the Ainu, Kinai, Tohoku, and Hayato.  One must also consider the development of the Ryukyu kingdom in the Okinawan islands as an example of nonconformity to the homogenous image.  The article makes the strong claim that if one sticks to the "common sense" traditional view that Japan is homogenous, that one is buying into a "fantasy based to a considerable degree on distortions" (p. 133).

As an educator, this leads me to being cautious about teaching straight from a book as a sole authority.  Even on page 132 of the article, Amino Yoshihiko admits to having relied too heavily on his textbooks in his early teaching career.  Providing students with differing perspectives and alternative sources seems like a good way to keep both instructor and student honest in their constructing or deconstructing of knowledge, especially as it relates to history.  

[Salbador Gonzalez]

This session was my favorite above all due to the eye opening information about samurai not being who they were portrayed as in "The Last Samurai" starring Tom Cruise. It was humbling to find out the samurai in the movie were actually bushidan and that samurai were never warriors of war but only warriors that served their masters.

• Bushi means warrior gentleman
• Samurai means to warrior servant

The bushi were used as the warriors helping the aristocrats of early day japan with controlling resources such as water. Being a bushi was more rewarding than being a samurai during the Heian period (794-1191).

[Heidi Kwalk]

Multiple perspectives are definitely something we should all strive to provide for our students. I think Dan's strategy is brilliant where a dominant perspective is introduced first and then complicated by introducing other perspectives. Students could source the material by considering whose perspective it is and also consider how who they are affect their perspectives and why.  A challenge I have experienced this year is that when I provided perspectives other than the dominant perspectives (with which most of the parents have learned growing up) I got a pushback from a parent saying that I am changing the history. It goes to prove that we have a lot of hard work ahead improving the education of history and providing equal voice to all perspectives. 

[Jimmy Martinez]

I also really enjoy the idea of creating a lesson that focues on the role that religion had on the formation of a certain society. Religious has been the causes of war since societies began to develop and they will probably continue to be that way until the end of time. Today we have so much religious conflict that we are seeing deaths in places of worship in an alarming fashion.

[Jimmy Martinez]

I agree that introducing different perspectives is critical in the ways that we teach history to our students. I think most students come in thinking that there is only one way of perceiving a historical event. Standford History Education Group (SHEG) has an excellent activity to introduce this idea of multiple perspectives called "Lunchroom Fight." https://sheg.stanford.edu/history-lessons/lunchroom-fight

[Jimmy Martinez]

I am another person that was completely misconveieved by the Hollywood industry. I could not agree with you more that filmakers romanticize ideas sometime and completely change the storyline and factual evidence. Then again Hollywood is only in it for the money and as long as they make money there is "no harm" in creating white lies or completely changing the idea and putting "Based on a True Story" at the end of any movie.

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