JAPN212: SAMURAI SPIRIT
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 The course employs ancient war tales, historical documents and paintings, maps, articles, literary works, different genres of samurai films, and videos to fully examine one of the most popular Japanese cultural icons.
Meets MLO 2: Japanese Culture
Reflective Narrative:
This course contributed to my fulfillment of the course outcomes by teaching about Japanese Samurai, which was a core part of Japanese culture. This course was taught in English, and we had a textbook that was full of Samurai stories. At the beginning of each class, we would take out a sheet of paper and write down what we remembered and learned from the assigned chapter. That was a good way to learn about the Samurai culture. We also had an essay as a midterm, which was one of the main assignments that contributed to my learning of Samurai culture (see Evidence 1). In this essay, students had to show our understanding of early Samurai and the society they lived in. We used examples from in-class films, lectures, and most of all, the textbook "Legends of the Samurai". I have also attached the final essay that we did for this class as an example of my progress through the course (see Evidence 2). The final essay we did was a collection of things we learned the whole semester, also using examples from lectures and the textbook to help our argument. I believe my final essay is a great example of what I learned in that course. This class made me realize that I was really interested in Samurai culture and wanted to learn more even after the class was over. There is so much to Japanese warrior's history that can't be contained in just one textbook. It is for this reason that I would like to pursue learning more about Samurai in the future. This course is the first of its kind that I have taken at CSUMB, so I can't relate it to other courses or activities I have done, but I would definitely want to take more Samurai courses again.
This course contributed to my fulfillment of the course outcomes by teaching about Japanese Samurai, which was a core part of Japanese culture. This course was taught in English, and we had a textbook that was full of Samurai stories. At the beginning of each class, we would take out a sheet of paper and write down what we remembered and learned from the assigned chapter. That was a good way to learn about the Samurai culture. We also had an essay as a midterm, which was one of the main assignments that contributed to my learning of Samurai culture (see Evidence 1). In this essay, students had to show our understanding of early Samurai and the society they lived in. We used examples from in-class films, lectures, and most of all, the textbook "Legends of the Samurai". I have also attached the final essay that we did for this class as an example of my progress through the course (see Evidence 2). The final essay we did was a collection of things we learned the whole semester, also using examples from lectures and the textbook to help our argument. I believe my final essay is a great example of what I learned in that course. This class made me realize that I was really interested in Samurai culture and wanted to learn more even after the class was over. There is so much to Japanese warrior's history that can't be contained in just one textbook. It is for this reason that I would like to pursue learning more about Samurai in the future. This course is the first of its kind that I have taken at CSUMB, so I can't relate it to other courses or activities I have done, but I would definitely want to take more Samurai courses again.
Evidence 1: On the right is the essay I completed for the midterm assignment. It is a good example of how I used information from lectures, movies and the textbook to demonstrate my understanding of the early Samurai.
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Evidence 2: On the right is my final essay for this course. It is a great overview of my understanding of the chapters in the textbook and the cultural aspects of being a Japanese Samurai.
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