Japan: Memoirs of a Secret
Empire (2004) – Documentary Questions – 0607a
1. In what way did the Portuguese and Spanish threaten Tokugawa Ieyasu?
2. Who was Will Adams and in what ways was he useful to Tokugawa Ieyasu?
3. What was Tokugawa Ieyasu’s relationship to the daimyo of Japan?
4. What was class-structure like in Japan and Tokyo under Tokugawa Ieyasu? Describe.
5. What was the role of the Shogun?
Stop film at 21:00 and give students time to answer the questions.
6. What was Tokugawa Iemitsu’s rule like?
7. What was Edo/Tokyo like during the Tokugawa Shogunate?
8. How did the role of the samurai change under the peace created by the Shogunate?
9. How did the 5 great roads change Japan?
Stop at 38:33 and give students time to answer the questions.
10. How were Christians treated under Tokugawa Iemitsu? Why?
11. What was peasant life like under the Tokugawa Shogunate?
12. What was the currency of Tokugawa Japan?
13. How did the Shimabara/Christian Rebellion start, proceed, and end?
14 Why did Japan close after the Shimabara/Christian Rebellion? How did Iemitsu carry out this closure?
End documentary at 54:28