• The Age of the Samurai (1185-1868) [Asia for Educators]
An introductory outline, with discussion questions.

• Unification and Endurance: From Fortresses to Cities [Princeton University Art Museum]
An excellent overview of the Momoyama and Edo periods.

Lesson Plan • A Case Study of Tokugawa Japan through Art: Views of a Society in Transformation [Program for Teaching East Asia, Center for Asian Studies, University of Colorado]
"For many years, Western scholarship presented a narrative of Tokugawa Japan as a stable, but also stagnant society. More recent scholarship identifies the Tokugawa period, 1603-1868, as a time when Japan experienced significant social, economic, and political changes that laid the groundwork for modernization. In this lesson, students consider a major art form of the period — woodblock prints — as historical documents providing a visual record of a society and country in transformation. They identify specific changes Japan underwent on its early path to becoming a modern nation." With an in-depth introductory essay and lesson plan.

Lesson Plans • Teaching East and West: Establishing Historical Context Through a Comparison of Tokugawa Japan and Elizabethan England [Center for Renaissance and Baroque Studies, University of Maryland]
With 18 lesson plans created by the participants of "Teaching East and West," a 2004-2005 conference for K-12 teachers.

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• Japan's Modern History: An Outline of the Periods [Asia for Educators]
Divides Japanese history from 1600 to the present into four periods, providing teachers with a synopsis of major events placed in the context of overall historical developments. Also includes a timeline activity for students (to be completed with information from the reading).

• Timeline of Modern Japan (1868-1945) [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]

• The Meiji Restoration and Modernization [Asia for Educators]
In 1868 the Tokugawa shôgun lost his power, and the emperor was restored to the supreme position. This event was known as the Meiji Restoration. This essay examines the period during and after the Meiji restoration, discussing the new civic ideology of the time, social and economic changes of the period, and Japan's colonialism and expansion of the late 19th and early 20th century.

• The Meiji Restoration Era, 1868-1889 [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
Essay outlining "the history of the critical transition Japan underwent between 1868 and 1889, as well as providing some background about the events leading up to this period of rapid societal change."

• Imperial Japan: 1894-1945 [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
Essay providing "an overview of Japanese political history during this period" and "situating it within the larger context of East Asia and Japan's views towards East Asia."

Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Throwing Off Asia I: Woodblock Prints of Domestic "Westernization" (1868-1912) [Visualizing Cultures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
"The remarkably swift 'Westernization' of Japan in the late-19th and early-20th centuries was most vividly captured in popular woodblock prints. [These i]mages ... illustrate the great political, social, cultural, and industrial transformations that took place." A teaching unit richly illustrated with high-resolution images and maps and featuring essays by John W. Dower, MIT professor of Japanese history. The Visual Narratives section offers a shorthand view of the unit's primary themes and images; the Curriculum section includes eight lesson plans related to the unit.

Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Imperial Democracy and Colonial Expansion, 1890-1945 [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
Teaching unit with five lesson plans, two of which are relevant to this time period: "Realizing the Meiji Dream, 1890-1905" and "After the Meiji Light: The Transition to Taisho, 1905-1912." Unit goals for students: 1) describe reasons why the political transition of the Japanese state from its Meiji founders to its Taisho and early Showa successors was a time of ambiguity and uncertainty accompanied by significant political and social challenges; 2) list major attempts by Japanese people from all social classes to achieve not only government recognition of their concerns but also greater participation in Japanese political life and in Japanese society, as well as demonstrating their understanding of the pluralistic and often chaotic nature of these attempts; and 3) articulate that the gradual, evolutionary nature of Japan’s imperialist expansion beginning in the 1890s was due to strategic and security concerns rather than a premeditated, pragmatic attempt to rule first Asia and then the world.

Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Japan’s Rapid Rise and Fall, 1868-1945 [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
"In five activity and primary source-intensive lessons that address the major social and political shifts of the period from 1890 to 1945, the authors emphasize that these shifts were interdependent forces that operated on both international and national levels."

Lesson Plan • Shifting Perceptions: Japan and the World in the Late 19th Century [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
"This lesson concentrates on enhancing students’ ability to utilize documents such as maps, artwork and primary source materials to interpret history. This is accomplished via an investigation of changing perceptions of Japan by Asia and the international community as a result of Japan’s changing political and social landscape following the First Sino-Japanese War."

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Aizawa Seishisai, 1781-1863
Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from Shinron (New Theses): "The Barbarians' Nature" [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

Fukuzawa Yukichi, 1834-1901
Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

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Primary Source w/DBQs • The Charter Oath (of the Meiji Restoration), 1868 [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

Primary Source w/DBQs • The Meiji Constitution of 1889 [PDF] [Asia for Educators]

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Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Throwing Off Asia II: Woodblock Prints of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) [Visualizing Cultures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
Featuring propaganda prints illustrating Japan's victory in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). A teaching unit richly illustrated with high-resolution images and maps and featuring essays by John W. Dower, MIT professor of Japanese history. The Visual Narratives section offers a shorthand view of the unit's primary themes and images; the Curriculum section includes eight lesson plans related to the unit.

Lesson Plan • The Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895: Japan is Victorious on the Battlefield and the Baseball Diamond [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
"How was Japanese national pride encouraged on the battlefield as well as on the baseball field during the Sino-Japanese War? This lesson suggests ways for educators to address issues of imperialism, colonialism, propaganda, and national identity, using Japan as an example, and particularly the construction of “nationhood” through popular modes such as baseball."

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Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Throwing Off Asia III: Woodblock Prints of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) [Visualizing Cultures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
Featuring photographs and rare war prints illustrating the "titanic war against Tsarist Russia that stunned the world and established Japan as a major imperialist power with a firm foothold on the Asian mainland." A teaching unit richly illustrated with high-resolution images and maps and featuring essays by John W. Dower, MIT professor of Japanese history. The Visual Narratives section offers a shorthand view of the unit's primary themes and images; the Curriculum section includes eight lesson plans related to the unit.

Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Asia Rising: Japanese Postcards of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) [Visualizing Cultures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
"Imperial Japan’s 1904-05 war against Tsarist Russia changed the global balance of power. The first war to be widely illustrated in postcards, the Japanese view of the conflict is presented in images..." A teaching unit richly illustrated with high-resolution images and maps and featuring essays by John W. Dower, MIT professor of Japanese history. The Visual Narratives section offers a shorthand view of the unit's primary themes and images; the Curriculum section includes five lesson plans related to the unit.

Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Yellow Promise/Yellow Peril: Foreign Postcards of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) [Visualizing Cultures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
"Imperial Japan’s 1904-05 war against Tsarist Russia changed the global balance of power. The first war to be depicted internationally in postcards is captured here in dramatic images..." A teaching unit richly illustrated with high-resolution images and maps and featuring essays by John W. Dower, MIT professor of Japanese history. The Visual Narratives section offers a shorthand view of the unit's primary themes and images; the Curriculum section includes five lesson plans related to the unit.

Lesson Plan • The Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905: A Turning Point in Japanese History, World History, and How War is Conveyed to the Public [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
"Students will examine the significance of the Russo-Japanese War as a critical event in Japanese, as well as world history through comparisons of the events’ portrayal in contemporary traditional and emerging media; from woodblock prints, to photographs and film."

• Portsmouth Peace Treaty, 1905-2005 [Japan-America Society of New Hampshire]
"The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 was fought between Russia, an international power with one of the largest armies in the world, and Japan, a tiny nation only recently emerged from two and a half centuries of isolation. These Web pages explore the causes of the war, the military conflict on land and sea, President Theodore Roosevelt's back channel diplomacy, and the peace negotiations hosted by the United States Navy and the State of New Hampshire."

Primary Source w/DBQs • The Treaty of Portsmouth (1905) [Asia for Educators]

• Looking East: William Howard Taft and the 1905 Mission to Asia (The Photographs of Harry Fowler Woods) [Ohio Historical Society]
"On July 8, 1905, one of the first and largest U.S. foreign diplomatic delegations to Asia embarked from San Francisco for a three-month goodwill tour, stopping in Japan, the Philippines, and China. Under the leadership of Secretary of War, William Howard Taft... The 1905 voyage carried two serious diplomatic purposes: to assist with peace negotiations in order to end the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05); and to demonstrate American accomplishments in the Philippines." Includes a 25-page curriculum guide providing extensive historical background information, plus primary-source documents and map activities.

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Primary Source + DBQs + Map Exercise + Lesson Plans • Paper Trails: Deshima Island: A Stepping Stone between Civilizations [World History Connected]
"Deshima ... was a small artificial island in Nagasaki Bay ... on the southwestern Japanese island of Kyushu. From 1641 to 1845, Deshima served as the sole conduit of trade between Europe and Japan, and during the period of self-imposed Japanese seclusion (approximately 1639-1854) was Japan's only major link to the European world." An excellent overview, with primary sources, discussion questions, document and map-based exercises, plus links to relevant lesson plans.

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Millard Fillmore, 1800-1874; Matthew Perry, 1794-1858
Primary Source w/DBQs • Commodore Perry and Japan (1853-1854) [Asia for Educators]
On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy, commanding a squadron of two steamers and two sailing vessels, sailed into Tôkyô harbor aboard the frigate Susquehanna and forced Japan to enter into trade with the United States. This unit examines that historical exchange with an introductory essay and an examination of the three letters that President Fillmore and Commodore Perry wrote to the Japanese emperor [PDF].

• The Case for Commodore Perry in the Classroom [World History Connected]
An excellent overview, with images, a list of related online resources, and suggested research projects for students.

Primary Source w/DBQs • The "Opening" of the East: Differing Perspectives [PDF] [Education About Asia, Association for Asian Studies]
Provided with eight short primary-source selections and given only the date of the selection for reference, students are asked to provide a brief summary of the speaker’s position, to identify the nationality of the speaker, and to provide a rationale for choosing that speaker. Particularly relevant for AP World History courses.

Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Black Ships & Samurai: Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan (1853-1854) [Visualizing Cultures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
"On July 8, 1853, residents of feudal Japan beheld an astonishing sight — foreign warships entering their harbor under a cloud of black smoke. Commodore Matthew Perry had arrived to force the long-secluded country to open its doors." A teaching unit richly illustrated with high-resolution images and maps and featuring essays by John W. Dower, MIT professor of Japanese history. Also featuring various versions of the Black Ship Scroll," a 30-foot long scroll (emaki) painted in Shimoda, one of two treaty ports opened in 1854 as a result of Commodore Matthew Perry's mission to long-secluded Japan. Several versions of this lively and often humorous scroll were circulated to satisfy curiosity about the foreigners." The Visual Narratives section offers a shorthand view of the unit's primary themes and images; the Curriculum section includes eight lesson plans related to the unit.

Teaching Unit w/Lesson Plans • Yokohama Boomtown: Foreigners in Treaty-Port Japan (1859-1872) [Visualizing Cultures, Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
"[A] window on the imagined life of foreigners in Japan at the dawn of the modern era ... " This teaching unit is richly illustrated with high-resolution images and maps and features essays by John W. Dower, MIT professor of Japanese history. The Visual Narratives section offers a shorthand view of the unit's primary themes and images; the Curriculum section includes seven lesson plans related to the unit.

Primary Source w/DBQs • Excerpts from the Letter from Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito) to President Ulysses S. Grant, on the Iwakura Mission, 1871 [Asia for Educators]
"In 1871, the fledgling Meiji government dispatched a mission [the Iwakura Mission] of almost fifty high officials and scholars to travel around the world, including extended tours of the United States... The leaders of the mission also attempted to begin the renegotiation of the 'unequal treaties' — the exploitative diplomatic and economic agreements imposed by the Western powers on Japan in the 1850s... This letter from the Emperor Meiji was presented to U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant when the Iwakura Mission visited Washington, D.C."

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Primary Source w/DBQs • Codes of Merchant Houses: The Code of the Okaya House (1836) [PDF] [Asia for Educators]
"Although merchants were accorded low social status in the Tokugawa order and the Confucian orthodoxy of the time, commerce thrived in early modern Japan. ... The Okaya house was based in Nagoya in central Japan and had its origins trading in hardware. This code was written by Okaya Sanezumi, under whose leadership the house prospered, in 1836."

More readings related to the Codes of Merchant Houses can be found under Time Period 1450-1750.

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• Food History and National Myths [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
"The Japanese absorption of Chinese food products and the remarketing of them as national Japanese dishes unlocks mysteries of Japan’s late Meiji (1868-1912) and early Taisho (1912-1926) era foreign communities and their influence on the development of the Japanese diet and national identity through food."

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Lesson Plan • Individual and Society: Natsume Sôseki and the Literature of the Early 20th Century [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
"The place of the individual in society is a significant issue in understanding Meiji Period Japan. In reading and discussing the novel Sanshirô by Natsume Sôseki, students will consider the ways in which Japanese writers of the period reflected larger societal trends, and, more generally, how individuals react to societal change."

Lesson Plan • The “I” Novels in the Context of Early 20th-Century Japan [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
"Focusing on developing students’ understanding of how a writer's background affects the way he or she writes about personal experience, this lesson utilizes the literary works of Shiga Naoya and Hayashi Fumiko to show how 'I novels' provide insight into both the authors’ backgrounds as well as their reflections on problems of human existence and social life."

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• A Brief History of Benshi (Silent Film Narrators) [About Japan: A Teacher's Resource]
"The Russo-Japanese War caused a huge upsurge in cinema attendance, as Japanese citizens rushed to see pictures of their 'heroic' soldiers battling the Russians. During the war years, 80% of the motion pictures shown in Japan were Russo-Japanese War films. Some of these films were actual news reels of the fighting. Most, however, were staged re-creations ... In front of packed houses, Benshi roused audiences into a nationalistic fervor by providing extremely patriotic and jingoistic commentaries."

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• Art of the Pleasure Quarters and the Ukiyo-e Style [The Metropolitan Museum of Art]
A lengthy discussion of the social developments in the Edo period that gave rise to literary and visual arts such as kabuki theater and ukiyo-e paintings and woodblock prints. With five related artworks.

• The Floating World of Ukiyo-e: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance [The Library of Congress]
Online presentation of a 2003 exhibition showcasing the Library's holdings of Japanese prints, books, and drawings from the 17th to the 19th century. Images organized into the following categories: 1) Early Masters (1600-1740); 2) Major Genres: Beauties, Actors, and Landscapes; 3) Images and Literary Sources; 4) Realia and Reportage; 5) Japan and the West: Artistic Cross-Fertilization; 6) Beyond Ukiyo-e: Modern and Contemporary Japanese Prints. The EXHIBITION OVERVIEW provides historical background about ukiyo-e.

• Nagoya TV Ukiyo-e Museum [Nagoya Broadcasting Network]
A virtual museum of ukiyo-e prints from the collection of the Nagoya Broadcasting Network. "The collection not only contains prints beginning with Hishikawa Moronobu, who is considered to be the founder of Ukiyo-e, going all the way to prints from around the end of the Edo Period, but also contains local prints such as Kamigata-e, Nagasaki-e, Yokohama-e Kaika-e (blossoming prints), as well as more recent prints from the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa eras. As the works vary in diversity, one is able to trace the history of wood-block prints since the Edo Period." Select ENTER THE COLLECTION TO see works by a particular artist; select LIST OF THE COLLECTION to see works in a particular subject area (select from PORTRAIT, LANDSCAPE, KABUKI & SUMO, and ECCENTRIC CHARACTERS at the top of the page). With descriptions in Japanese and English.

Lesson Plan • The Path to Modernization in Popular Art: From Yokohama Prints to Taisho Chic [Program for Teaching East Asia, Center for Asian Studies, University of Colorado]

• Japonisme [The Metropolitan Museum of Art]
A brief discussion of the influence of Japanese ukiyo-e woodcut prints on European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters of the 19th century. With 12 related artworks.

• Monet & Japan [National Gallery of Australia]
Online archive of a 2001 exhibit with "carefully chosen works of Japanese art [that] give us the context for exploring Monet's changing perception of Japan through masterpiece after masterpiece. ... [The exhibit gives] everyone who loves Monet's paintings a chance to understand the ways in which he absorbed the lessons of Japanese art, from his first encounter in the 1860s until the final years after the First World War." Select THEMES from the gray menu at top for text discussions with related images; select COMPARE WORKS to see Monet's paintings next to Japanese prints with related composition, design, and subject elements; and select EDUCATION for information on how to teach using this website.

Find more art-related resources for Japan, 1750-1919 CE
at OMuRAA (Online Museum Resources on Asian Art)

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