JAPN 305: Introduction to Japanese Culture and Cilvilization: (MLO 2) Compleated Spring 2012
Description:
This course introduces various aspects of Japanese culture, including history, geography, religion, government, politics, customs and traditions. After a broad historical overview beginning in prehistory, this course focuses on the Tokugawa period as the bedrock for understanding modern Japanese society as a mass society.
This course introduces various aspects of Japanese culture, including history, geography, religion, government, politics, customs and traditions. After a broad historical overview beginning in prehistory, this course focuses on the Tokugawa period as the bedrock for understanding modern Japanese society as a mass society.
Course Narrative:
Because I took this course, I was able to fulfill the MLO 2 requirement of this major because this course allowed me to gain a basic understanding on the history and culture of Japan. One of the things I learned from this course was the way Japanese people think and act during different time periods. One example of this comes from one of the movies we saw during the class called “24 Eyes.” In this movie, we watched how a school teacher in Japan and how her life was like right before World War II, through the war, and during the end. After watching this film, I wrote a feedback paper about how the Japanese women were treated at the time. I saw that one little girl who wasn’t even in her middle school years was forced to quit school in order work while another girl was forced to give up her dream of singing in order to work for her family. Another example comes from the movie “Tales of Genshi.” In this movie, it showed the life of two geisha woman and the life that they were living at the time; throughout the movie I saw the struggles that the women of that time had to endure while living in Japan. I found both movies to be very sad because this showed that Japanese women were not tried fairly and with respect while they were living at the time. Thanks to this class, I realized that not all of Japanese culture has been good for everyone as well as how American culture is different from Japanese culture. Through this class I gained a better understanding of basic Japanese culture, however I feel I can learn more in the future. In order to learn more about this I may do more research about this subject in order to gain a deeper understanding of it.
Feedback paper #5: PDF
Because I took this course, I was able to fulfill the MLO 2 requirement of this major because this course allowed me to gain a basic understanding on the history and culture of Japan. One of the things I learned from this course was the way Japanese people think and act during different time periods. One example of this comes from one of the movies we saw during the class called “24 Eyes.” In this movie, we watched how a school teacher in Japan and how her life was like right before World War II, through the war, and during the end. After watching this film, I wrote a feedback paper about how the Japanese women were treated at the time. I saw that one little girl who wasn’t even in her middle school years was forced to quit school in order work while another girl was forced to give up her dream of singing in order to work for her family. Another example comes from the movie “Tales of Genshi.” In this movie, it showed the life of two geisha woman and the life that they were living at the time; throughout the movie I saw the struggles that the women of that time had to endure while living in Japan. I found both movies to be very sad because this showed that Japanese women were not tried fairly and with respect while they were living at the time. Thanks to this class, I realized that not all of Japanese culture has been good for everyone as well as how American culture is different from Japanese culture. Through this class I gained a better understanding of basic Japanese culture, however I feel I can learn more in the future. In order to learn more about this I may do more research about this subject in order to gain a deeper understanding of it.
Feedback paper #5: PDF