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This course surveys the cultural history of traditional Japan, from the introduction of Buddhism in the 6th century until the early modern period in the 18th century. Our main focus will be the late classical and medieval eras from the 10th through 16th centuries, a turbulent, often violent, period marked by the decline of the imperial court, rise to power of the sword-wielding samurai warrior, and constant warfare between warrior clans jockeying for territory and power.

In the early weeks we become acquainted with Japan’s distinctive geography, climate, language, and religions, noting especially the introduction of Buddhism from China and Korea, and its integration with the indigenous Shinto religion. From the 5th through 12th centuries political, economic, and cultural authority emanated from the imperial court, first in Nara, then in Kyoto. We sample the high points of classical literature and art, culminating in Lady Murasaki’s vivid portrayal of romance in the imperial court in Tale of Genji, the worlds’ first novel. We next encounter the epochal wars between the Minamoto and Taira warrior clans in the twelfth century, which ended in victory for the Minamoto, who then established the first “Shogunate” (military government). New Buddhist sects, notably Zen and Pure Land, swept the countryside, transforming artistic, aesthetic, social, and religious values. The next few centuries would see an outpouring of artistic and technological creativity, giving rise to many of Japan’s best-known and most enduring art forms, including short poetry, war tales, landscape painting, Noh Theater, landscape gardens, tea ceremony, ceramics, and sword making. We will look at and read representative examples of the arts and literature of this period, situating them in the context of social and political currents of the times. A trip to the Seattle Japanese Garden and participation in a tea gathering at the garden’s teahouse will give us a chance to apply what we have learned.

We close out the course by looking at the cultural shifts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a time of increasing urbanization and growing influence of the merchant class. For the first time, a true “popular culture” of the townspeople started to take root. The kabuki and puppet theaters, a new erotic and romantic literature, and colorful wood-block paintings provide windows into the new urban values and changing social fabric of this early-modern period--changes that would soon bring about the collapse of the Shogunate and the birth of modern Japan.