The following is the proposal for my HTML project, Castles of Japan . I have chosen the subject of Japanese Castles to put on the WWW because there is a limited amount of extensive research on Japanese castles currently available in English, in any form. Putting my project on the internet means that it will be able to be easily accessed by anybody around the world. The majority of sites that currently exist on the web related to Japanese castles look at them as tourist destinations with only a small historical account included. The sites that do give a historical or architectural account have often been copied straight from tourist brochures of the castles. I intend to give an original more in depth study of the castles than these sites offer, using Japanese sources as well as English ones. The main disadvantage in computerizing my project is a copyright one. The information and the images that I plan to digitalise will be open to be downloaded and used by anybody. Depending on how good my digitising is the images of the castles may be better viewed in books rather than on the internet. Let's hope not.
Clicking on this image will always return you to the top of this page.
The main aim of my project is to introduce Japanese castles to those who have little or no knowledge of them, but an interest in Japanese history, architecture, warfare and/or culture. My project will be aimed at high school students and above.
The homepage for my project will be quite basic with a brief introduction of what kind of information can be found within the pages of the project. I think that this is of great importance, as there is nothing worse than looking through a site that is completely irrelevant to what you are seeking. I will include a main image on the homepage,and this image will appear repeatedly throughout the project. Clicking on the image will return one to the homepage and the table of contents.
The home page will be the only place where you can link to my project proposal, press release and the discussion of the project.The headings that one can click on to go to these will be positioned towards the bottom of the page.
I originally was going to concentrate on the history of the feudal era in Japan. But after some extensive reading, I have realised that the Japanese castle went through some extensive role changes throughout time and I now believe it is important to put the castle into an overall context. Especially since the project is aimed at those with little or previous knowledge of Japanese Castles. This essay will be approximately 1500-2000 words in length. To the table of contents
In this section I will give an overview of common castle buiding techniques and set them against the art of warfare in Japan, including any major changes that caused variation to building techniques. I will also bring in some brief but relevant comparisons of the features of European castles and Japanese ones. This comparison, I believe is necessary as alot of people are only familiar with European castles and it will highlight not only the differences in building techniques but the differences in warfare between Europe and Japan. This essay will also be 1500-2000 words in length. To the table of contents
There is already a substantial amount of information on the www on the castle that I was originally going to focus on, Himeji-jo. I have thus decided to concentrate on Azuchi-jo which stimulated a turning point in Japanese architecture and the role that the castle played in society. I will use Azuchi-jo as the main castle and compare it to other castles of Japan, such as Himeji-jo, Osaka-jo and Matsumoto-jo. This section will be approximately 1200 words in length. To the table of contents
4. Interesting Sites Related to Japanese Castles.
Finally I will present to the viewer a comprehensive list of sites on the world wide web to do with Japanese Castles that may be of interest.I will also include an annotated bibliography of the resources that I have used in my project.
I am also planning on including navigation buttons at the end of each page so that the viewer can go to any of the other essays of the project.
To the table of contents
In this section I intend to include any images that I come across that I think may be of use to the viewer. The images will be small with an explanation to the side of them. If I have time I may have a larger version of the image available when one clicks on the small thumb image.
To the table of contents
I am still unsure of what kind of text I will import. There is alot of information on the net about Himeji Castle. There is also alot of information looking at castles as tourist destinations. I also came across a time line of Japanese history which may be useful to refer to seeing as though I am aiming my project at those who have little or no knowledge of Japanese castles.
I intend to use images from various sources including CD ROMs, importing them off the net and digitalising my own photographs, photographs from books and photographs from brochures. The use of images is very important in my project as alot of the building techniques can be explained better visually. Initially I was thinking of having a large picture of a castle and having the viewer click on the part of the castle that he/she wanted to learn about, however this has already been done on the net. I am now thinking of just including the images with the text. I may also include a section of just images
There are a number of snags that I may encounter, including those of problems with linking things together, I think my main problem will be keeping my essays concise and easy to understand for those who have no knowledge of Japanese culture and history.
The are numerous possibilities for an extension of this project. An upgrade path may consist of a comprehensive study of any of the major Japanese castles, or a linkage between castle and temple architecture which has many characteristics similar. One could also concentrate specifically on an era of time when castles were of great political importance and look at feudalism in Japan.
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It is very difficulty to plan from this time on as I am unsure how much time digitising images etc will take. I will therefore fill in the rest of this schedule at a later date.
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I think in the time period available that my project will be viable, if I carefully manage my time. I am looking forward to any kind of feedback. Thanks.The Project
My project will consist of 3 essays. The main feature of the homepage will be the table of contents for these. The table of contents will consist of the following headings. For an explanation as to why I have chosen these headings simply click on them.
1. The Development and History of Japanese Castles.
2.Castle Building Techniques and Designs
5.Castle Images
IMAGES
SNAGS THAT MAY BE ENCOUNTERED
POSSIBILITIES FOR THE FUTURE
SCHEDULE
Have project proposal finished by the end of this week and have a definite plan for the home page.
Have the homepage finished and have all of my directories and files in order so that I can start my project.
Decide which images to use in which section and get a good start on essay number one.
PRESS RELEASE
DISCUSSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
HOME