Episode 455 - In the Shelter of the Pine
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...
23 Sep 202236min
Episode 454 - That All my Dreams Might Not Prove Empty
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...
16 Sep 202235min
Episode 453 - The Waves are High but the Day is Clear, Part 2
This week: how has the JMSDF gone from an afterthought to a central part of Japan's security planning? Show notes here.
9 Sep 202236min
Episode 452 - The Waves are High but the Day is Clear, Part 1
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 ...
2 Sep 202237min
Episode 451 - Those Swept Away
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 d...
26 Aug 202241min
Episode 450 - Gimme that Old Time Religion
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, so...
19 Aug 202237min
Bonus Episode - The Chishima Incident
Enjoy this bonus episode from my other show, Criminal Records, as the podcast takes a week off!
15 Aug 20221h 2min
Episode 449 - The Tastemaker
This week: the career and legacy of the most influential Japanese poet you've probably never heard of, Fujiwara no Teika. Teika's views on poetry and literature have shaped how we read those genres do...
5 Aug 202235min
