Castle Towns: An Introduction to Tokugawa Japan

Comprehensive Unit45 pagesGrade Level: Middle School – High SchoolIncludes curriculum unit + 42 images on CD-ROM Edwin O. Reischauer theorized that Japan's ability to move easily into the modern world is due to the fact that Japan had a feudal period similar to Western feudalism. This theory is still generating controversy, but the castle, the towns that grew up around castles, and the people who lived in these towns and castles are accepted as key elements in Japan's modernization by people on either side of Reischauer's thesis. This curriculum unit focuses on these three elements and can be used in middle and high school classes of world geography, history, or culture. Though the unit primarily concerns Japan, there are points where comparisons can be made to similar phenomena in the West. How far such comparative studies can be taken is left to the individual teacher. This unit is a image-based introduction to life in Japan during the late feudal period (1600–1868), known as e