International Relations in the Early Modern East Asia: The Role of “Intermediaries”

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Course Type: Lecture
Study Focus: SEG
TermFall

Teacher: ZHANG, Zikang
Course Code: JK17010

Unlike modern diplomatic relations, which are based on direct negotiations by diplomats representing the two governments, one of the major characteristics of international relations in the early modern (seventeenth century to mid-nineteenth century) East Asia is the significant role played by intermediaries.

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Japan’s early diplomacy during the last decade of the Tokugawa Shogunate

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Course Type: Lecture
Study Focus: SEG
Term: Fall

Teacher: SANO Mayuko

Course Code: JK17005

This course aims to explore Japanese diplomacy during the last decade of the Tokugawa Shogunate, through in-depth readings of documents (such as memoirs, diaries, and diplomatic correspondences) written by people who worked on the ground during that time.

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Selected Readings in Classical Japanese Literature

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Course Type: Lecture
Study Focus: KBR
Term: Fall

Teacher: YUKAWA Shikiko

Course Code: JK15003

The aim of this course is to seek and discuss Japanese values, ideas and attitudes toward certain universal themes, such as love, death, human nature and aesthetic beauty through a close reading of selected representative works of classical Japanese literature. We will use well-known English translations of the Manyoshu, Taketori Monogatari, Ise Monogatari and Tsurezuregusa, among other works, as our texts.

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