Gruff warriors, elegant courtiers, industrious peasants, urban sophisticates, and bold modernizers-these are just some of the characters we will encounter in this survey of premodern and modern Japanese history. In addition to weekly lectures on major narrative themes, we will analyze and discuss a wide variety of primary sources including early records of the Japanese people; official proclamations; the acerbic diary of a Heian courtier; tales of medieval samurai and the surprising autobiography of a warrior living in a time of peace; classics of premodern and modern Japanese literature; and an anthropologist's analysis of contemporary popular culture.