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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

35:40

Episode 468 - To Eat Their Own

History of Japan ·

2023/01/13

This week, we're looking at the implosion of the Japanese New Left with a focus on the factional conflicts of the Zengakuren. How did a student youth movement end up divided into 20+ factions, the two largest of which engaged in a multi-decade war of assasination and street violence against each other? And how might that be connected to the general decline of Japan's left-wing opposition more broadly? Show notes here.

en

37:40

Episode 467 - The Cause of Peace

History of Japan ·

2023/01/06

This week, we're looking at a very different kind of 60s protest movement: an attempt to build a cross-sectarian, non-ideological movement to oppose the American war in Vietnam. How did the anti-Vietnam War movement emerge in its Japan, and how did it simultaneously grow to a massive size and fail to have any appreciable political impact? Show notes here.

en

36:27

Episode 466 - Rebels Without a Cause, Part 2

History of Japan ·

2022/12/23

This week, for the final episode of 2022: the Zenkyoto movement arrives at Japan's largest private school. Plus: how did a movement that grew so big so quickly fall apart just as fast? Show notes here.

en

36:54

Episode 465 - Rebels Without a Cause, Part 1

History of Japan ·

2022/12/16

This week, we're beginning a month on radical activism in the 1960s with a look at the student uprisings of 1968. Today is all about where those uprisings came from, how they're related to the "two Zens" of the 1960s, and the specific example of the University of Tokyo, where a debate about student medical internships turned into a violent and bloody battle between leftist student groups. Show notes here.

en

36:23

Episode 464 - The Wolves of Mibu

History of Japan ·

2022/12/09

This week: a long-requested dive into the ronin police force known as the Shinsengumi. Who were the members of this group, and how, despite their rather marginal role in the history of the 1860s, have they become one of the most famous organizations in Japanese history? Show notes here.

en

38:02

Episode 463 - The Afterlives of a Samurai

History of Japan ·

2022/12/02

This week is all about a biography of a fascinating figure of the Meiji Restoration: Oguri Tadamasa. But it's also about much more: about how the present shapes our view of the past, and about how, as a result, the ways we talk about someone long dead can shift and change as well. Show notes here.

en

38:10

Episode 462 - The Empty Throne, Part 5

History of Japan ·

2022/11/18

This week, we wrap up our imperial biographies with a look at the Meiji Emperor's relationship to three important aspects of his reign: the constitution, the wars fought in his name, and his heir. Plus, we talk Meiji's death, and his legacy. Note: no episode next week for American Thanksgiving; show notes here.

en

36:17

Episode 461 - The Empty Throne, Part 4

History of Japan ·

2022/11/11

This week: the life of the Meiji Emperor in the turbulent 1870s and 1880s. We'll cover everything from the birth of his first surviving child to his drinking habits to his role in various political crises to the complicated process of shaping what a "modern" emperor's role even was. Show notes here.

en

38:22

Episode 460 - The Empty Throne, Part 3

History of Japan ·

2022/11/04

This week: the boy emperor Meiji takes responsibility for Japan's future. But what did that mean in practice? What does an emperor, especially a boy emperor, actually do? Show notes here.

en

38:05

Episode 459 - The Empty Throne, Part 2

History of Japan ·

2022/10/28

This week: Emperor Komei attempts to protect tradition in a nation beset by crisis. However, his efforts will be brought short by his untimely death, and the reigns of power passed to his untested boy successor: Meiji. Show notes here.

en

38:14

Episode 458 - The Empty Throne, Part 1

History of Japan ·

2022/10/21

This week: the beginning of a multipart biography of two of the best documented figures we know very little about: Emperor Komei, and his son and heir Meiji, whose name would end up defining one of the most important eras in Japanese history. Show notes here.

en

38:27

Episode 457 - The Purple Robe Incident

History of Japan ·

2022/10/14

This week: political infighting about purple robes and what it can tell us about Buddhism, political power, and the relationship of religion and the state. Plus, a brief biography of Takuan, a man who is famous for far more than the pickled radishes named after him! Show notes here.

en

0:56

No new episode this week

History of Japan ·

2022/10/03

Hello all: due to my very first COVID-19 infection, there won't be a new episode this week. We'll be back as normal next week.

en

35:33

Episode 456 - Stranger in the Shogun's City

History of Japan ·

2022/09/30

This week: the story of Tsuneno, a commoner whose social status was very different from that of Lady Nijo and Ogimachi Machiko, but whose struggle to define herself and decide her own destiny feels very familiar. Show notes here.

en

36:58

Episode 455 - In the Shelter of the Pine

History of Japan ·

2022/09/23

This week, the tale of Ogimachi Machiko--the aristocrat whose literary descriptions of her life in a samurai family became one of the most popular works of women's literature during Japan's Edo period. Show notes here.

en

35:38

Episode 454 - That All my Dreams Might Not Prove Empty

History of Japan ·

2022/09/16

This week: in 1940, a manuscript lost for over 600 years is recovered from the archives of the Imperial family. Within it lies the story of a fascinating woman, and her journey from imperial concubine to Buddhist nun--a journey that covers everything from high politics to the lives of common folk. Show notes here.

en

36:17

Episode 453 - The Waves are High but the Day is...

History of Japan ·

2022/09/09

This week: how has the JMSDF gone from an afterthought to a central part of Japan's security planning? Show notes here.

en

37:01

Episode 452 - The Waves are High but the Day is...

History of Japan ·

2022/09/02

This week: the start of a two part series on the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces. Today: how did Japan's current navy grow out of its old one, and what does that say about the force's relationship with Japan's prewar past? Show notes here.

en

41:03

Episode 451 - Those Swept Away

History of Japan ·

2022/08/26

This week, the biography of one of the most unusual figures of Bakumatsu Japan: the peasant Matsuo Taseko, whose career as a member of the imperial loyalist movement defied conventions of gender and defies neat categorization today. Show notes here.

en

37:13

Episode 450 - Gimme that Old Time Religion

History of Japan ·

2022/08/19

This week, we're covering the rise of the Hirata school of kokugaku, or national studies, during the Edo Period. How did an intellectual movement devoted to linguistics become a powerful political, social, and arguably religious force by the end of samurai rule--and why did that movement fall from power after just a few short years of influence? Show notes here.

en

273 results

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