Mr. Yamashita

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I was very impressed with Mr. Yamashita's guest lecture on Tuesday night (Mar 13, 2007). I found his presentation very educational and especially liked the discussion on the different eras of Japan. Most interesting were the tombs and different castles which is very seldom covered in classes.
John

[Anonymous]

I agree. Prof. Yamashita has a very engaging style. I think that the use of artifacts was a particularly clever way to organize the lecture. The contextualist methodology really makes a lot of sense when I think of how to disseminate a large chunk of information to my students.

[Anonymous]

Professor Yamashita was very engaging. His presentation on the origins of the Japanese was fascinating. I also thought that his explanation of the loss of tax revenue during the Heian period was wonderful. In the seventh grade history textbook, there is one sentence that merely states: "These estate owners, called daimyo, paid no taxes to the government. There is no explanation as to why they did not pay taxes or about the long ranging consequences of this tax exemption. I think that it is important to teach students about the "causes" if we want them to ultimately understand cause and effect.

[Anonymous]

I also was very impressed with Dr. Yamashita's ability to contextualize all the Japanese artifacts with the time period. Using this method, he clearly showed us the relavance of the artifact and its significance to the era it came from. I was very interested in his insight about Korea's influence on Japan. There is so much political tension between the nations that I wonder if such influence is even acknowledged by either side?

John Yamazaki

[Author]

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