1/16/10 -Session 6a - Pitelka - Japan: The Meiji Transition

I also have relatives who lived in Taiwan during the occupation before WWII. I always wondered why my grandmother, who is Chinese, would teach Japanese as a school teacher. It seems like this practice was taken to an even greater extent in Korea when they were annexed into the Japanese empire. The process there seemed much more brutal than in Taiwan, where the Korean culture was suppressed and the Japanese culture became dominant. In many ways, this sounds like the US governments treatment of the Native American tribes before and after the turn of the century.

I am interested in looking more into Manga and Anime so that I can better understand what my present and future students enjoy spending their free time on! Thanks for the recommendation. I am going to look into it!

I am extremely impressed with the MIT Visualizing Cultures website. As a Fine Arts major, I am keenly aware of the power of images. I currently teach a very diverse group of 91 4th graders. They vary not only culturally, but also in their learning abilities and reading levels. Images, artwork, photographs, etc. can level the playing field in a way. I try to teach all my students different strategies when looking at images: subject matter, composition, color, pattern, as well as personal emotions and feelings they may have while examining an image. The MIT site will greatly enhance the learning experience and make the historical information that much more accessible. Thank you for this resource.

I think the fact that the Japanese diplomats were looking for "rules" was very interesting. It seems very logical to me. I love that type of organized, logical approach. Everything in life has rules, from sports to dating. They recognized it and set out to take control of the situation. How many of us can say we've done that much with a problem in our life?

Hysterical! My kids LOVE Anime! They are constantly drawing them...and are they great artists! I really have a hard time telling them to stop. In chef class I have half of the students cooking, and the other half is doing their seat work, if they finish early, they can work on other homework....& many of them LOVE to draw the Anime characters. I tell these students that they are our future artists. I had not heard of the Manga characters, and so I am too interested in learning more about them.

I enjoyed the Anime and Manga introduction.. although I'd seen it before, just reinforced the notion... but it also brought up the other connections to things in pop culture that are Japanese: funny game shows and reality shows... great comic relief.

Visual recognition of rank was very important during this time period. There is a show now, I believe it is called "Undercover Boss". I guess the show wouldn't work very well under the shogunate since someone may have been accidentally beheaded. No wonder Japan still retains much of those social rules in their culture, even language ie: the existence kanji versus hirigana. of Unfortunately most of what I know about feudal japan comes from a comic series called "Lone Wolf and Cub." But from what I gather it is pretty accurate historically. One thing this seminar verified was payment using rice.