History Matters: A Japan Perspective

Kojiro TAGUCHI (Graduate School of Letters)

Course Objective
   Does history matter? If so, how and in what context? In this course, four historians and an archaeologist will discuss how the historical world had made the present Japan on the one hand, and how the present historiography in Japan has been shaped by the historical world on the other.

Course Content
   Introduction, "Growth, Development, and Economic History of China: A Japanese Perspective", "Bushi (Samurai) in Medieval Japan: Warfare and the Kamakura Shogunate", "Migration and Changing Identities in the Contemporary World", "Japanese History Seen From Maritime Asia", "Japanese Culture Seen through Archaeology",

Class Plan
(1-3)Kojiro TAGUCHI: Introduction and "Growth, Development, and Economic History of China": Recently, many Japanese have been shocked by the fact that China had overtaken Japan as the world's second-largest economy. This also encourages economic historians of China to reevaluate 'the advancedness' of China, ever before her encounter with the West. In this lecture, issues are discussed such as ontologies of economic growth and development, statistical data as historical sources, and the problem of "institutions" as driving force for economic growth.
(4-6) Yasushi Kawai: "Bushi (Samurai) in medieval Japan: Warfare and the Kamakura shogunate": The purpose of this lecture is to introduce military nobility known as Bushi in medieval Japan, and to outline how they fought in wars. Then we will discuss matters including historical characteristics of the Kamakura shogunate, which organized Bushi nearly in all parts of Japan through the period of the Jisho-Juei civil war (1180-85).
(7-9) Takao FUJIKAWA: "Migration and changing identities in the contemporary world": This lecture is on i) Three stages of the recent world migration. ii) Immigration restrictions in the 19th century and Asian countries. iii) Changing identity and the contemporary world.
(10-12)Shiro Momoki: "Japanese History Seen From Maritime Asia": After a brief introduction to the academism and education of history in contemporary Japan, I will try to position the history of the Islands of Japan during the 10th to the 18th centuries within the history of Maritime Asia. Students will understand how the unique traditions of Japanese society were formed through the interactions with Northeast and Southeast Asian countries on the one hand, and Japan's consequent divergence from them on the other.
(13-15)Teruhiko TAKAHASHI: "Japanese Culture Seen through Archaeology": In this lecture, I would like to introduce the excavation data of Japan mainly from Kofun period to Heian period, around the 3rd to the 9th centuries, and the material culture kept in the Buddhist temples including "the Shosoin treasure", and consider the feature of Japanese culture.

Textbooks
   References etc. will be suggested at the class. It is strongly recommended for students willing to attend this course to read in advance Osaka Daigaku Rekishi Kyoiku Kenkyukai (ed), Shimin no Tame no Sekaishi (A World History for Citizens), Osaka University Press, 2014.

Grading Policy
   A short essay to be submitted at the end of every three lectures (100%)