Samurai Spirit |
Spring 2014
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Course Information
JAPN 212
MLO 2: Culture GE C2: Humanities Course Description
This course explores the four periods of the samurai tradition to survey changing roles and philosophy behind its existence. The survey will analyze contemporary images/stereotypes of the samurai. The course employs ancient war tales, historical documents and paintings, maps, articles, literary works, different genres of samurai films, and videos to fully examine one of the most popular Japanese cultural icons.
Course Work
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Reflective Narrative
This semester I decided to only take culture classes for my major-courses in order to knock out more of the required general education courses. Both Samurai Spirit (JAPN 212) and Japanese Cinema (JAPN 310) contribute to the Culture major learning outcome (MLO 2). In this course, we covered a lot of Japanese history in order to learn about how the Japanese samurai arose and evolved with the changing eras. We also explored the many stereotypes and misinterpretations of the samurai from both Japanese and Western perspectives. The materials used in this course to present this information included books, videos, movies, PowerPoints, and student presentations.
As for the development of my understanding, I believe my first essay on Samurai Spirit explains my previous experience learning about the samurai culture while my final essay showcases how my knowledge of the samurai became more detailed. This semester, I really enjoyed learning about the samurai through the different forms of media such as videos and movies; I will continue to use some of these learning avenues, such as the Begin Japanology series, which I found to be very informative about many aspects of Japanese culture. I also believe that learning about the different eras of Japanese history in terms of the samurai has also given me more of a frame of reference for any historical story about Japan. In the future I am sure that I will encounter more learning opportunities about Japanese history or current events that are related to the past, so this base knowledge will certainly be beneficial. |