Introduction

I. Books and syllabus

II. Review of Tokugawa Japan

A. Sakoku [closed country]

controlled relations with Asia

ban on Christianity

the Dutch at Deshima

B. the frozen caste system

samurai

peasants

artisans

merchants

non-persons

C. the alternate attendance [sankin-kotai] system

Edo and the castle towns

salaried, urban samurai

bushido: the way of the warrior

loyalty and precision

seppuku

haiku and Noh

the chonin [townspeople]

D. rural autonomy

cadastral surveys and tax codes

village headmen and councils

peasant uprisings and protests

literacy and the terakoya

E. syncretic religion

Shinto animism

Buddhism

Pure Land [Amida and Kannon]

Nichiren

Zen

Taoism and Chinese cosmography

Confucianism and the question of loyalty

F. Genroku culture: the floating world [ukiyo]

Kabuki and Bunraku

Geisha

Sumo

Ukiyo-e [woodblock prints

popular literature