Rachel Fulton and
Susan Burns
Department of
History
The University of
Chicago
Spring 2007
ÒKNIGHTS AND SAMURAIÓ
As masters of swordplay and lords of
battle, the knights of medieval Europe and the samurai of medieval and early modern
Japan loomed large over both the actual and the imaginative landscapes of their
day. But was their presence a
blessing or a curse, a guarantee of justice and protection or a constant threat
of disorder and exploitation by force of arms? Hotly debated throughout the period in both handbooks of
chivalry and samurai codes of conduct, this question admits of no easy answer
even today. As this course hopes
to show, the debate is further complicated by the fact that much of what we
know—or think we know—about both knights and samurai is a product
of nineteenth- and twentieth-century imaginings about the importance and
behavior of these highly-skilled yet violent men.
Books Available
for Purchase from the Seminary Co-op Bookstore
Maurice Keen, Chivalry (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1984)
David Crouch, Tournament
(London: Hambledon, 2005)
Lancelot of the
Lake,
trans. Corin Corley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989)
The Book of
Chivalry of Geoffroi de Charny: Text, Context, and Translation, trans. Richard
W. Kaeuper and Elspeth Kennedy (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1996)
Miguel de
Cervantes, Don
Quijote, trans. Burton Raffel (New York: W.W. Norton, 1999)
Kenelm Digby, Maxims of
Christian Chivalry, ed. Nicholas Dilllon O.F.M. (Hartford: Catholic Authors
Press, 1924; reprint 2003)
Eiko Ikegami, The Taming of the
Samurai: Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995)
The Tales of the
Heike, trans. Burton Watson, ed. Haruo Shirane (New York: Columbia
University Press, 2006)
The Ideals of the
Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors, trans. William Scott Wilson (Ohara
Publications, 1982)
Chushingura: The
Treasury of Loyal Retainers, trans. Donald Keene (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1971)
Katsu Kokichi, MusuiÕs Story:
The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai, trans. Teruko Craig (Tucson: The
University of Arizona Press, 1988)
Inazo Nitobe, Bushido: Samurai
Ethics and the Soul of Japan (Dover Publications, 2004)
Course Requirements
á This course will
depend on both lectures and discussions.
To prepare for the discussions, you will be expected to post questions
and comments that you have about the assigned readings onto the Chalk
discussion boards. You should post
at least five
such comments (about 300 words each) over the course of the quarter (not including
the post for the first day of class), although you are welcome to post
more. Extra credit will be given
towards your participation for posting responses to the discussions and to each
otherÕs comments by way of the discussion board threads. You may post these additional responses
and comments at any time before or after our class discussion, but for your
comments to count towards your required five, they must be posted by 9am on the
day we are to discuss the assigned topics and texts in class. No exceptions! (25% of the final grade)
In addition, there will be two larger
assignments:
á An in-class mid-term exam on
Thursday, May 10. This exam will constitute
35% of your final grade.
á A final project
due Tuesday, June 5, by 3pm. This
project will allow you to research—or practice—some aspect of your
own choosing concerning the history and/or continuing appeal of knights and/or
samurai. This project will
constitute 40% of your final grade.
Reading and
Discussion Assignments
March 27 Introduction: Why knights and samurai?
Post responses on Chalk discussion board.
March 29 Who were the knights?
Keen, Chivalry, pp. 1-43, 64-82, 143-78, 219-53
April 3 Who were the samurai?
Ikegami, Taming of the Samurai, pp. 47-117
April 5 Arms, armor, horses and castles I
Crouch, Tournament, pp. 1-148
Kelly DeVries, Medieval Military
Technology (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1995), pp. 7-94, 202-49
April 10 Arms, armor,
horses and castles II (Guest lecturer: David Spafford, the Statler Instructor
in Premodern Japanese Studies)
Hinago Motoo, Japanese Castles (New York: Kodansha
America, 1986), chapters 1-2
April 12
ÒPlayingÓ knights
Lancelot of the Lake, trans. Corley, pp. 60-227,
357-418
Keen, Chivalry, pp. 83-124, 200-218
Crouch, Tournament, pp. 163-204
April 17 Hero tales
The Tales of the Heike, trans. Watson (all)
April 19 Training a knight or samurai: demonstration by
Chicago Swordplay Guild
Sydney Anglo,
ÒHow to Win at Tournaments: The Technique of Chivalric Combat,Ó AntiquariesÕ
Journal 68.2 (1988): 248-264
Winston L. King, Zen and the Way
of the Sword (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993) pp. 61-121
April 24 Honor
Geoffroi de Charny, Book of Chivalry, pp. 85-135
Ikegami, Taming of the Samurai, pp. 121-222
Ideals of the Samurai, trans. Wilson, pp. 13-140
April 26 Soldiers of Christ
Lancelot of the Lake, trans. Corley, pp. 47-60, 227-51
Geoffroi de Charny, Book of Chivalry, pp. 3-64, 135-99
Keen, Chivalry, pp. 44-63, 125-42, 179-99
May 1 Samurai piety
Dave Lowry, Persimmon Wind: A
Martial ArtistÕs Journey in Japan (Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Koryu Books,
1997), pp. 146-69
Thomas David Conlan, Chapter 6: ÒSacred
War,Ó The
State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth
Century Japan (Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2003):
165-193.
May 3 The follies of chivalry
Miguel de
Cervantes, Don
Quijote, trans. Burton Raffel, pp. vol. 1: Prologue,
chaps. 1-11, 13, 18, 21, 25-26, 29, 31-32, 37-38, 46-50 (pp. 13-62, 67-73,
97-104, 119-27, 148-66, 187-96, 203-14, 254-64, 315-42); vol. 2: Dedication,
Prologue, chaps. 1-4, 6, 8-10,
15-17, 22-24, 26-27, 30, 32, 34-36, 42-45, 53-54, 58-59, 64-65, 70, 74 (pp.
362-83, 388-92, 397-412, 434-49, 473-91, 498-509, 517-21, 527-36, 542-53,
578-98, 640-50, 662-75, 702-9, 724-29, 741-46) (approx. 300 pages).
May 8 Loyal retainers
Chushingura, trans. Keene (all)
Ikegami, Taming of the Samurai, pp. 223-64
Sato, Legends of the
Samurai, ÒThe Forty-Seven Samurai: An Eyewitness Account, with Arguments,Ó
pp. 304-38
Sato, Legends of the
Samurai, ÒYamamoto Tsunetomo: Hagakure (Hidden in Leaves),Ó pp. 287-303
May 10 MID-TERM EXAM in class
May 15
The twilight of the samurai
Kata Kokichi, MusuiÕs Story (all)
Ivan Morris, ÒThe
Apotheosis of Saig™ the Great,Ó in The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the
History of Japan (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1975), pp. 217-75
ÒNogi Maresuke
(1849-1912)—The EmperorÕs Samurai,Ó in Six Lives/Six Deaths: Portraits from Modern
Japan, eds. Robert Jay Lifton, Shžichi Kat™, and
Michael R. Reich (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), pp. 29-62
May 17 The Broad Stone of Honor
Kenelm Digby, Maxims of Christian Chivalry (all)
Mark Girouard, The Return to
Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1985), pp. 87-110, 298-99
Allen Frantzen, Bloody Good:
Chivalry, Sacrifice and the Great War (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2003), pp. 121-47, 284-90
May 22 Bushido: The Soul of Japan
Inazo Nitobe, Bushido (all)
Colin Holmes and
A.H. Ion, ÒBushid™ and the Samurai: Images in British Public Opinion,
1894-1914,Ó Modern
Asian Studies 14.2 (1980): 309-29
James Sherer, What is Japanese
Morality? (Philadelphia: The Sunday School Times Co., 1906), ch. 1: ÒThe
Forty-Seven Ronin,Ó pp. 3-22
ÒÔThe 47 R™ninÕ:
The Most Popular Play in Japan Reveals the Bloodthirsty Character of Our
Enemey,Ó Life,
November 1, 1943, p. 52
May 24 Chivalry and the Great War
Frantzen, Bloody Good, pp. 149-94, 237-66, 290-95,
297-301
May 29 Comic book knights and manga samurai
Harold Foster, Prince Valiant (1937- )
Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, Lone Wolf and Cub
(1970-)
May 30 TOURNAMENT Ida Noyes, 2-5pm
Final Projects due Tuesday, June 5, by 3pm in Harper
East 686 or Social Sciences 221