This was an elucidating session. I found it amusing that Japan has continually, from its beginnings to the present, seems to have had a Napoleon complex. First in regard to China, then to the rest of the world. Until now, I did not know that Japan was a sort of colony of China's, then recognized in its own right as a coherent entity. I wonder what their relationship is at present? Does it have the same overtones despite Japan's attempts at controlling their neighbor during WWII? An interesting question I hope will be answered in our next session dealing with Japan.

My family has the remenents of a Samurai background, and there are stories that have been passed down describing these men. Most of them are not about the finer qualities of these warriors, rather their disreputable aspects. Still in that age of passive and probably aggressive invasion they were a necessary part of life. We have them today, but we politely call them our Marines, or Navy Seals, and laud them to the skies. How much of our lives are run by these people I can only guess at, but then as now it is substantial.

Students examining this age and ours are sure to see the connections in attitude of these entities, and should be warned of their excess. Our younger generations must be careful to treat these dogs of war with caution.

This might be interesting to use with an American Lit class to supplement things like A Farewell to Manzanar or Snow Falling on Cedars I am interested in ready this book and possibly using it in my classroom.

This is an interesting comment on the nature of history texts. I have found that even some high school texts avoid mentioning negative aspects of various cultures in order to avoid offending. I always try to highlight the characteristics that most people would term "positive" as well as those that most would term "negative" in every culture in an effort to discuss those things without stressing them with regard to any one particular culture. I think it is always interesting to review my own cultural bias when I learn about other civilizations, time periods, etc. I always think it's good to have students do this as well. Recognizing bias is a challenging thing to learn, but once students get it, they start seeing it everywhere.

In a not-as-related note: the seeming contradiction between the Japanese desire to keep the population "purely Japanese" and the welcoming of Chinese culture was really interesting. The political and social forces that combined to produce these movements must have been significant.

I enjoyed looking through the warrior codes-- I thought one code that addressed affairs was fascinating-- a code from Chosokabe-shi Okite in 1595 says that if someone has an affair, "Although it is obvious, unless the guilty pair kill themselves, both of them should be executed."
I thought it was really interesting that it says, "although it is obvious" I'm sure this language would elicit a response from our students!
I know some people who are teaching King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table to their students; I think that it could be very interesting to have students compare and contrast these Japanese warrior codes with the knights' code of chivalry.
-Karen

Also on an interesting Note, the tale of genji. How can a text be interpreted in so many ways? Well time plays a big role i'm sure, but what about interpretation by people? Simply opionins and interpretations can play a huge role in rediscovering or morphing a story. This would be an interesting topic to bring up in English class.

I have also heard about based on the darkness of the skin about Chinese people. One of the explanation was because of farming. I am not sure if it still true since there is less farming....

Since watching the movie "the Last Samurai", I do not know anything about it. Professor Yamashita talked about the codes of Samurai in general, and Clay posted a link specifically for each domain. These helped me to understand what they were expected to live up to. I also read something about Samurai's marriages. Their marriages were arranged based on their ranks with another Samurai family since they did not have time to meet females. However, Samurai was allowed to have a mistress outside of Samurai family, and maybe even divorce if the female did not produce offspring(s).

I think this is very interesting. It is like marriages in royal family. Now I have a question in my head, "Did they do this for pure ? or only for convenience since the Samurai live together in a village? "