
Radical Reforms, Resourceful Rats, and Precarious Princes
Reform, Rebellion, and Rats! And all in less than a year! This episode we continue to look at the Taika era and the reforms that bear the era's name. We are still covering, though, just the first y...
16 Elo 202443min

The Great Change
We are finally starting to get into the Taika era and the Taika reforms, which would really start the transformation of Yamato into the bureaucratic state of the Nara period. This episode, we look ba...
1 Elo 202448min

Ito-koku and Na-koku
Ito-koku and Na-koku were the next two countries on the path of the Wei envoys noted in the Gishiwajinden. They likely refer to the areas known today as Itoshima and Fukuoka, so what do we know about...
16 Heinä 202445min

Matsuro-koku
Moving on with our third part of the Gishiwajinden Tour, we head to the old area of Matsuro, which, for us, means modern Karatsu. Here we have some of the oldest rice paddies in all of Japan, but Kar...
1 Heinä 202429min

Iki-koku
This is Part 3 of our Gishiwajinden Tour--following the route of the Wei embassy through the land of Wa and looking at the various locations along the way. So far we've looked at the old land of Gaya...
16 Kesä 202433min

Tsushima
This is Part 2 of our special Gishiwajinden Tour from Gaya to Tsushima, Iki, Matsuro, Ito, and Na--aka Gimhae and Busan to Tsushima, Iki, Karatsu, Itoshima, and Fukuoka. This time we talk about the i...
1 Kesä 202442min

Gishiwajinden Tour: Geumgwan Gaya
Taking a break from the story while I do some research, so presenting a recent trip we made along the same lines mentioned in the Gishiwajinden--the Wa section of the Weizhi. We started in Gimhae, re...
16 Touko 202439min

Winds Across the Straits
Filling in the rest of Takara's reign with the stories of the various envoys at court, the Baekje princes living in Yamato, and the story of a 7th century millenial cult. For more, check out https://s...
1 Touko 202443min



















