Courses in Japanese (Division 401)

Winter Term, 2000 (January 5 – April 26, 2000)

Take me to the Winter Term '00 Time Schedule for Japanese.

Waitlist policy for all courses is 1 – get on the waitlist and go to the first day of class and talk to the instructor.

Students wanting to begin language study in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, at a level other than first year, must take a placement exam to be held on Tuesday, January 4, 1-3pm. Test locations will be posted outside of the Department office in 3070 FB.

Language Courses

Instructor(s): Misa Kozuka (kozuka@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Japanese 101. (5). (LR). Laboratory fee ($9) required.

Credits: (5).

Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($9) required.

Course Homepage: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/asian/japanese/J10x/10x.html

This course is designed for students who have less than the equivalent of one year's study of Japanese at the University of Michigan. The goal of the course is the simultaneous progression of four skills (speaking, listening, writing, and reading) as well as becoming familiar with aspects of Japanese culture which are necessary for language competency. Recitation sessions are conducted in Japanese emphasizing speaking/reading in Japanese contexts at normal speeds. Analyses, explanations, and discussions involving the use of English are specifically reserved for lectures with a linguist. Students are required to do assignments with audio tapes a minimum of two hours for each class hour (10 hours per week). It is expected that, by the end of the year, students will have basic speaking and listening comprehension skills, a solid grasp of basic grammar, reading and writing skills in Hiragana and Katakana, and will be able to recognize and produce approximately 140 Kanji in context. Texts: Situational Functional Japanese, Vol. 1-2.

Culture Courses/Literature Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Keller Kimbrough (kimbroug@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: A knowledge of Japanese is not required. (4). (HU).

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Japan boasts one of the great cultures of the world. This course takes a historical approach to the study of Japanese civilization, beginning with the Nara period in the 8th century and ending with the present. Readings, lectures, and discussions will focus on the history, mythology, religion, art, architecture, and literature of Japan, as well as Japan's place in the larger world of East Asia and its sometimes contentious relations with its neighbors. Readings will include both primary and secondary sources (with an emphasis on literature), and lectures will be supplemented with frequent showings of slides and films. Students with little or no previous knowledge of Japan or East Asia are invited to attend, as of course are students who wish to broaden or expand what they already know.

Language Courses

Instructor(s): Mayumi Yuki Johnson (yukijohn@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Japanese 201. (5). (LR). Laboratory fee ($9) required.

Credits: (5).

Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($9) required.

Course Homepage: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/asian/japanese/J20x/20x.html

Further training is given in all the language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) for students who have acquired a basic language proficiency. The aim of the oral component is to provide the student with the speaking and comprehension skills necessary to function effectively in more advanced practical situations in a Japanese-speaking environment. In the reading and writing component, the emphasis is on reading elementary texts, developing an expository style, and writing short answers/essays in response to questions about these texts. Approximately 400 of the essential characters are covered. Discussions on the social and cultural use of language are provided. Students are required to attend five hours of class per week: two hours of lecture and three hours of recitation. Students are also required to practice a minimum of two hours for each class hour (12 hours per week). Recitation sessions are conducted entirely in Japanese. Recitation sessions emphasize speaking/reading in Japanese contexts at normal speed with near-native pronunciation, accent, intonation, rhythm, and appropriate body language. Analyses, explanations, and discussions involving the use of English are specifically reserved for lectures. Texts: Situational Functional Japanese, Vol. 2-3.

Language Courses

Instructor(s): Masae Suzuki

Prerequisites & Distribution: Japanese 101. (1). (Excl). May be repeated for a total of three credits.

Credits: (1).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The goals of the course are to help you learn how to practice Japanese calligraphy and cultivate your mind through the practice. Six subjects, including Kanji and Hiragana, will be introduced with the focus on basic skills such as the manner of using brushes, balancing characters, etc. Throughout the course, students will work on clarity of thought throughout the writing of characters in a tranquil setting, concentrating on maintaining correct posture and behavior throughout the writing process.

Culture Courses/Literature Courses

Section 001 – Courtesans and Bathhouses: the Floating World in the Literature of Early Modern Japan

Instructor(s): Keller Kimbrough (kimbroug@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: No knowledge of Japanese language is required. Only first-year students, including those with sophomore standing, may pre-register for First-Year Seminars. All others need permission of instructor. (3). (HU). May be repeated with department permission.

First-Year Seminar,

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

See Asian Studies 252.001.

Language Courses

Section 001 – From Bushi to Boredoms

Instructor(s): Hugh De Ferranti (hbd@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (3). (HU).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course will deal with both historical and contemporary forms of popular music in Japan. Amateur and professional music-making and various kinds of discourse about music (in translation) will be treated as resources for thinking about the culture of the populace and ways in which it has been distinct from the "high" culture of Japan's elites. Using theoretical frameworks appropriate for the study of Japanese performance culture, we will first study the texts, music styles, and performance contexts of popular music and dance genres from several periods of Japanese history prior to the modern era. We will then consider representative forms of twentieth-century popular music, such as naniwa-bushi, enka, kayôkyoku, kurashikku (popular "classical" music), idol pop, karaoke singing, Japanese jazz, rock, punk, and rap. Issues that will be addressed in relation to these examples include: identification of historically-specific characteristics and culturally-based continuities; musicians' deployment of indigenous and non-indigenous musical traits; the nature of the music world and the musical profession in Japanese society; the sociohistorical evidence of song lyrics and performance styles; and the recording industry and its role in the production of "mainstream" and "marginal" music styles and sub-cultures.

Language Courses

Prerequisites & Distribution: Permission of the department. (2). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT).

Credits: (2).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Directed readings aimed at the writing of analytical papers and/or the Honors thesis.

Language Courses

Prerequisites & Distribution: Permission of the department. (2). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT).

Credits: (2).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Directed readings aimed at the writing of analytical papers and/or the Honors thesis.

Language Courses

Prerequisites & Distribution: Permission of the department. (1-3). (Excl). (INDEPENDENT). May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor.

Credits: (1-3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

Individual work and directed reading for undergraduate concentrators. Must be arranged with an instructor.

Culture Courses/Literature Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Ken Ito (kenkito@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: (4). (Excl).

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This introductory course to modern Japanese fiction examines how novels and short stories written after 1868 engage the issue of national, cultural, and social identities. The inquiry in the course will simultaneously move in two directions: We will examine how fiction written in an age of national print-capitalism participates in the work of building a common understanding of a nation and its people. But we will also see how the same fiction can spotlight divisions of gender, sexual orientation, class, generation, and region. Using the fiction written by some of the best known of Japanese writers – Mori Ogai, Natsume Soseki, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, and Oe Kenzaburo – the course will pursue its inquiries on both formal and thematic levels. Attention will be paid to how different narrative genres and techniques either erase or emphasize social differences.

• How do Japanese novels help to construct what Benedict Anderson would call the "imagined community" of the nation?
• By what process does Japanese become a "national print language" appropriate for fictional writing?
• How is the Japanese "self" narrated into being?
• How are competing visions of what is "modern" and "traditional" addressed in the search for identity?
• How does fiction, written by male and female writers, address the selfhood of Japanese men and women?

These are the questions that we will ask as we traverse the contested terrain of Japanese identities. No prior knowledge of Japanese language or literature is required. All readings will be in English translation.

Language Courses

Instructor(s): Shoko Emori (semori@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Japanese 405. (5). (Excl).

Credits: (5).

Course Homepage: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/asian/japanese/J3rd/

Advanced training is given in all the language skills. Practice in the use of spoken Japanese is contextualized within simulated Japanese social settings. A variety of selected modern texts (essays, fiction, and newspapers) are read with emphasis on expository style. The goal is to produce self-sufficient readers who can read and discuss most texts with the aid of a dictionary. Students are required to practice with audio/visual tapes a minimum of two hours for each class hour (10 hours per week). Recitation sessions emphasize speaking/reading in Japanese contexts at normal speed with near-native pronunciation, accent, intonation, rhythm, and appropriate body language. Analyses, explanations, and discussions involving the use of English are specifically reserved for lectures. Texts: An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese.

Culture Courses/Literature Courses

Section 001 – Temple and Icon in Seventh-Century Japan. (1 credit). Meets with History of Art 600.065. Meets January 13 to February 24. (Drop/Add deadline=January 26).

Instructor(s): McCallam

Prerequisites & Distribution: (1-4). (Excl). May be elected for a total of 3 times. May be elected for a total of 12 credits.

Mini/Short course

Credits: (1-4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This seminar will deal with the exciting new discoveries that have been made in the Asuka regions during the last few years. Important excavations, including those at Asukudera, Kibi Pond, Yamadadera, Kawaradera, and Moto Yakushiji, have fundamentally revised our understanding of the nature of Buddhist art and architecture during the seventh century, particularly concerning the "Four Great Temples." The goal of this seminar will be to examine the significance of these new data, with the hope that we will be able to associate the archaeological information with what has been previously thought about the sculpture and architecture of the Asuka and Hakuho periods. In particular, we will be concerned with ascertaining the stature of Horyuji and related temples in the context of our understanding of the exceptional importance of the "Four Great Temples." Students wanting to register under History of Art should contact the History of Art department for an override.

Language Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Yasuhiro Omoto

Prerequisites & Distribution: Japanese 413. (4). (Excl).

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This reading course is specifically designed for students who plan to pursue a career in Japanese studies research at a graduate level. Intensified instruction on how to develop reading ability through the reading of a variety of materials is given during the first half of the term. Then acquired techniques will be applied to actual reading of the materials in the student's area of interest. Oral and listening comprehension are not the focus of the course, but the class may be conducted mostly in Japanese, with occasional English explanation if necessary.

Language Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Kaori Ohara (kohara@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Japanese 406, 411. (3). (Excl).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

This course stresses the effective use of the Japanese spoken language in contexts likely to be encountered by a career-oriented professional in Japan.

Winter Term topics include: Banking, Import and Export, The Japanese Market, Annual Reports, Business Ritual and Socializing. In addition, the course will include practice in rapid reading and transcription/dictation of moderately difficult texts, newspaper articles, and news broadcasts. Students are expected to practice with audio tapes for a minimum of two hours for each class hour.

Language Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Misao Kozuka (misakozu@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Japanese 451. (4). (Excl).

Credits: (4).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The goal of the course is the acquisition of linguistic, pragmatic, and sociocultural competence in all four skills at an advanced level. A TV drama is used as the main textbook with the focus on the improvement of speaking and listening competence, and variety of reading materials on Japanese sociocultural issues that are related to the content of the TV drama are used to further develop reading and writing skills. The two hour class period is devoted to the verification and discussion of the drama content, use of new vocabulary and expressions as well as the acquisition of more complex, advanced grammar pattern usages. The techniques of improving reading skills is taught during the class period, and the actual reading of the materials and writing of the reaction papers will be assigned as homework.

Culture Courses/Literature Courses

Section 001 – From Kabuki to Kitano: Japanese Cinema History. Meets with Film and Video 455.002

Instructor(s): Michael Raine (mraine@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: A knowledge of Japanese is not required. (3). (Excl). Laboratory fee ($50) required.

Credits: (3).

Lab Fee: Laboratory fee ($50) required.

Course Homepage: http://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/2000/winter/lsa/film/455/002.nsf

From kabuki films to Kitano Takeshi, Japanese cinema has come a long way in the past 100 years. This course traces the history of Japanese cinema from the silent films, with their extraordinary benshi performances, to recent Japanese cinema as shown at international film festivals. Along the way, we will take in avant-garde and social protest films, fascist entertainments, rock and roll youth films, animations, and trendy idol dramas. We'll even see the occasional tea ceremony! Most importantly, we will learn to see Japanese cinema as more than a pictoral version of famous novels, or an expression of artistic sensibility; it is a vibrant strand within the ongoing history of Japanese popular culture.

In sum:

• Film is not literature! We will learn that film is an audio-visual rhetoric with its own protocols of interpretation and its own relations to other forms of popular culture.
• Film is not (just) art! Some of the most sophisticated and interesting films in Japan were made in popular genres. In this course we will give those films their proper due.
• Japanese cinema has its own history! Through that history we will come to understand that film is both a symptom and an agent of changes in what it means to be Japanese in the 20th century.
• Film Studies has its own history! We will study how scholars in the West have thought about Japanese cinema from its "discovery" in the 1950s to the present day.

Language Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Mayumi Yuki Johnson (yukijohn@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Japanese 406. (3). (Excl).

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The goal of the course is to provide an overview of theories and issues in teaching Japanese. The class discussion includes the history and theory of teaching methods, although the focus mainly is placed on the most current teaching approaches and their theoretical implications. Acquisition of such aspects of language teaching will further be confirmed through the practice of actual teaching in real classroom settings, as well as by observation and review of regular language classes.

Language Courses

Section 001.

Instructor(s): Ken Ito (kenkito@umich.edu)

Prerequisites & Distribution: Japanese 406 and 408. (3). (Excl). May be repeated for credit with permission of instructor.

Credits: (3).

Course Homepage: No Homepage Submitted.

The seminar for this term will focus on early-Showa, the period roughly from 1925 to 1945, and will investigate the major cultural and literary currents of this period. We will read examples of modernist Shinkankuha texts, proletarian literature, and the popular fiction produced by a burgeoning mass culture publishing industry. We will also examine the challenging writing produced by female writers who began to publish at this time. The term will end by looking at the turns rightward or toward the "tradition" taken by a number of writers as Japan entered the war years. The emphasis will be on locating texts in literary and cultural history, and developing an overarching view of the interconnectedness of various facets of Showa culture. Readings will include works by Yoshikawa Eiji, Uno Chiyo, Okamoto Kaonoko, Kawabata Yasunari, Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, and Hino Ashihei.

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