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PODCAST

History of Japan

This podcast, assembled by a former PhD student in History at the University of Washington, covers the entire span of Japanese history. Each week we"ll tackle a new topic, ranging from prehistoric Japan to the modern day.

history

All Episodes

36:05

Episode 602 - The Bureaucrats, Part 1

History of Japan ·

2025/11/07

In America, when we think of bureaucracy, it doesn't conjure the best associations. In Japan, meanwhile, the bureaucracy has a long history as one of the central organs of the state. So, how did that happen, and why has the bureaucracy--rather uniquely among Japanese institutions--survived as long as it has? Show notes here.

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59:12

Episode 601 - On Grad School (w/Charlotte Lai!)

History of Japan ·

2025/10/31

One of the questions I get asked a lot is about grad school: what's it like, who's it for, what applications are like, and so on. But I've been out of academia for almost 10 years, so it's hard to say what things are like today. Fortunately, a listener and friend was willing to hop on and share her far more recent experiences! Thanks again to Charlotte for sharing her story. Show notes here.

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41:40

Episode 600 - The Six-Hundredth Episode

History of Japan ·

2025/10/24

Here we are again, my friends! It's been two years since our last Q and A, and now it's time for a new one. Thank you all for your questions, and here's to another 100. Show notes here.

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36:38

Episode 599 - Ain't It Grand?

History of Japan ·

2025/10/17

This week, we're talking about one of the oddest moments of the final years of feudalism: a spontaneous outbreak of dancing and religious worship collectively referred to as the "Ee Ja Nai Ka" movement. What was it, what motivated it, and how much can we even answer those questions to begin with? Show notes here.

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38:29

Episode 598 - Koume's World, Part 5

History of Japan ·

2025/10/10

This week, we're finishing our time with Kawai Koume by looking at how life in Wakayama had changed by the mid-1870s. Feudalism is no more, Confucianism is a historical relic, and the samurai class are in the midst of being consigned to the dustbin of history; so what is Koume thinking and doing as she's watching the world she grew up with vanish in the final years of her life? Show notes here.

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38:16

Episode 597 - Koume's World, Part 4

History of Japan ·

2025/10/03

This week, the Kawai family has finally made good in the world of feudal Wakayama--just in time for that world to come down around their ears. How did the family finally make it to the top, and what was it like for them to watch the shogunate and the samurai class itself implode? Show notes here.

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35:16

Episode 596 - Koume's World, Part 3

History of Japan ·

2025/09/26

After a long hiatus, the diary of Kawai Koume picks back up in 1853, a year of absolutely no world-shaking importance in Japanese history whatsoever-wait, I'm hearing from our producers that, in point of fact, some pretty crazy things are about to go down. And Kawai Koume, like many others, is frantically going to be trying to follow the latest news about it all while living her own life as best she can--and dealing with more than her share of tragedies. Show notes here.

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38:37

Episode 595 - Koume's World, Part 2

History of Japan ·

2025/09/19

This week, we'll look at the first chunk of Kawai Koume's diary, which deals with life in the 1830s--or as she knew it, the Tenpo Era. What can we learn about the lives of samurai and commoners in Wakayama during the final decades before the great crises that would end feudalism in Japan? Show notes here.

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35:40

Episode 594 - Koume's World, Part 1

History of Japan ·

2025/09/12

This week, we're starting a new miniseries focused on the life of Kawai Koume, a samurai woman living in Wakayama in the early 1800s. Today is going to be all about framing her life--what do we know about her upbringing, and about the city she grew up in during the twilight years of Japanese feudalism? Show notes here.

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36:18

Episode 593 - The Artist of the Open Road, Part 3

History of Japan ·

2025/09/05

This week, we wrap up our series on Hiroshige with a few lingering questions about his career. How much does his "artistic borrowing" really matter? What's his relationship to Hiroshiges II and III? What about his second marriage and daughter? And ultimately, what makes him so damn famous--and what can we learn from that? Show notes here.

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36:10

Episode 592 - The Artist of the Open Road, Part 2

History of Japan ·

2025/08/29

This week, we're covering Hiroshige's emergence as an artist, which took 20 years after he finished his apprenticeship in the Utagawa school. Why the long gap? And what changed to finally allow him to break out artistically? Show notes here.

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38:33

Episode 591 - The Artist of the Open Road, Part 1

History of Japan ·

2025/08/22

This week, we're starting a new miniseries on the life of one of the most famous artists in Japanese history: Utagawa Hiroshige. We'll start off this week with a general discussion of the world of ukiyo-e during the late 1700s before moving into Hiroshige's early life and his entry into the world of woodblock printing. Show notes here.

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57:54

Episode 590 - An Interview with Dr. Mike Freiling

History of Japan ·

2025/08/15

This week on the podcast, something completely different! I'm getting some help talking about poetry from Mike Freiling, whose new translation of Hyakunin Isshu, entitled One Hundred Poems of Old Japan, will be out just a little over a week from now. We'll talk tanka vs. haiku, how translation works, and share a few favorites from one of Japan's most classic poetic compilations. Show notes here.

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41:48

Episode 589 - The All-Seeing Eye, Part 6

History of Japan ·

2025/08/08

Our final episode in this miniseries brings conspiracism in Japan to the present day, as we discuss a wave of antisemitic conspiracy theorists from the 80s and 90s and the impact of the internet on conspiracism in Japan and around the world. Finally, we'll look at how things stand today, and go over some final thoughts on conspiracism in general. Show notes here.

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36:28

Episode 588 - The All-Seeing Eye, Part 5

History of Japan ·

2025/08/01

This week, we're covering the postwar "Red Scare" in Japan, which has roots going back to the early 20th century but which was boosted during the postwar era by right-wing politicians and even members of the American occupation government. That conspiracy would, in turn, help shape both prewar and postwar politics on a profound level. Show notes here.

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38:58

Episode 587 - The All-Seeing Eye, Part 4

History of Japan ·

2025/07/25

This week, conspiracism takes a new twist in Japan, from paranoid worries about Christianity to paranoid beliefs in "Western encirclement". How did this new form of conspiracism help drive Japan's descent into fascism, empire, and eventually the self-destructive decisions of the Second World War? Show notes here.

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38:07

Episode 586 - The All-Seeing Eye, Part 3

History of Japan ·

2025/07/11

This week, we explore the "Christian conspiracies" of Edo Period Japan. Working backwards from the Osaka Incident of 1827, when a group of supposed Christian spirit mediums were uncovered as a part of a fraud investigation, we'll look at how Christianity was transformed from an actual religion into an evil spiritual threat to the foundations of Japan itself. Show notes here.

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38:29

Episode 585 - The All-Seeing Eye, Part 2

History of Japan ·

2025/07/04

Japan's "Christian Century" is the source of many fascinating aspects of Japanese history, from modern firearms to tenpura. But there's one more way that the century from 1543-1639 shaped Japan--as the source of its first conspiracist moment! Show notes here.

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37:06

Episode 584 - The All-Seeing Eye, Part 1

History of Japan ·

2025/06/27

This week, something a bit different: the start of a history of conspiracy theories in Japan. This first episode is mostly framing: what is conspiracism as a mindset, and how is it different from actual conspiracies? Show notes here.

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41:57

Episode 583 - The Men of Chivalry, Part 3

History of Japan ·

2025/06/20

This week: we take a look at the genre of the yakuza movie, or ninkyo eiga, which started off as a branch of the samurai film genre before becoming very much its own thing--and, for a decade or so in the 1960s and 1970s, dominating the Japanese box office. Show notes here.

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251 results

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