Spring 2027

Samurai: History and Image

This course examines Japanese warriors, their ideals, and their images from the tenth century to the present, focusing on the historical evolution of samurai roles and representations.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 3

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2012: 3.44 GPA, 68.5% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Fall 2016: 3.50 GPA, 78.8% A/AB (n=33 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.79 GPA, 88.2% A/AB (n=34 letter grades). Cross-listed source records differ for Fall 2025; figures use the selected dataset record.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain how and why the roles of samurai changed over time. Identify the general political, economic, military, social, and cultural positions of warriors in Japan from the twelfth century to the present, as well as key transitions between them.

  • Explain how and why images of samurai changed over time. Use texts and visual images to demonstrate how and why a variety of people depicted samurai in different ways for different purposes.

  • Build a habit of close, active reading in context. Parse texts and contexts - researching and considering the nuances of words, references, and relevant surrounding information - to identify writers' arguments, perspectives, and purposes.

  • Extract reliable information from a source. Analyze and explain the context, meaning, and significance of a written or visual source to determine what can be learned from it.

  • Recognize and develop clearly structured, evidence-based arguments. Identify and develop strong thesis statements and the rhetorical structures needed to support them with a clear, logical, evidence-based argument.

  • Convey original analytical findings clearly and concisely. Briefly and clearly present original conclusions, including reasoning and support.

  • Situate scholarship on samurai within a larger body of historical analysis.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
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AB
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
ASIAN/HISTORY 454

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2012: 3.44 GPA, 68.5% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Fall 2016: 3.50 GPA, 78.8% A/AB (n=33 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.79 GPA, 88.2% A/AB (n=34 letter grades). Cross-listed source records differ for Fall 2025; figures use the selected dataset record.

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • History of Japanese warriors and samurai from the tenth century to the present.
  • Political, economic, military, social, and cultural positions of warriors in Japan.
  • Visual and textual depictions of samurai and their changing meanings.
  • Historiographical approaches to samurai studies.

Skills

  • Analyze historical changes in samurai roles across political, economic, military, social, and cultural dimensions.
  • Interpret textual and visual sources to trace evolving representations of samurai.
  • Develop close reading skills by parsing texts and contexts to identify arguments and perspectives.
  • Evaluate written and visual sources to extract reliable information and assess their significance.
  • Construct clearly structured, evidence-based arguments with strong thesis statements.
  • Communicate original analytical findings and conclusions clearly and concisely.
  • Contextualize specific research within broader historical scholarship on samurai.

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews

No records available.

Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "e4da88bf7282f5e6cd87a3bad3ec34b506e7d40b9fef9f1a78bcbd339e7e9c38",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}