JAPN 246/HIST 247: Early Modern Japanese History and Culture

This course focuses on Japan’s Tokugawa or Edo age (1600–1868), also known as the early modern period. We consider the founding of the Tokugawa shogunate, the growth of Edo into the largest city in the world, the role of the samurai during an age of peace, the thriving urban culture of the period, sex and the floating world, the meaning of the tea ceremony, early modern theater, and more. HS, BN.