History of Japan

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 Wak...

19 Sep 202538min

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 a...

12 Sep 202535min

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? W...

5 Sep 202536min

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...

29 Aug 202536min

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 uki...

22 Aug 202538min

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 Japa...

15 Aug 202557min

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 co...

8 Aug 202541min

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...

1 Aug 202536min