LLEA 30115 - Japan's Imperial House

Institution:

University of Notre Dame

Subject:

East Asian Lang & Lit

Description:

Japan boasts the longest, unbroken imperial line extant today, but what does this continuity really mean? This course looks at Japan's emperors and empresses from antiquity to the present, raising questions about the nature of power, the idea of good government, gender, divinity, war responsibility, and the liberty of the family now called upon to symbolize a purportedly democratic nation. Although most of the course will focus on modern emperors, it begins with Japan's earliest political structures in order to ask such questions as: Was the Imperial House an indigenous idea or was it an imitation of Chinese ideas of power? Why were there so many powerful women leaders in ancient Japan and why did Japan stop having empresses on the throne? What is the relationship between the imperial house and the various religions of Japan? The course will then consider the medieval and Tokugawa periods asking why powerful samurai failed to overthrow the militarily impotent emperors. Finally, the course will turn to the modern period, beginning in the middle of the 19th century with the elevation of the Meiji Emperor to unprecedented prominence. Why was the ancient imperial house used to modernize Japan? Even though sex of emperors has been male for centuries, why were ancient emperors female and why is the imperial gender (and Japan as a whole) in the modern period often regarded as female? Was Hirohito guilty of fomenting war? What is the function of the Imperial House today? This course sweeps through myth and 1500 years of Japanese history, tracing the permutations, continuities, and discontinuities of the imperial line.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nd.edu

Phone Number:

(574) 631-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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