Episode 84 - A Day in the Life of Rural Edo Japan
This week, we go back to address a glaring flaw from episode 10: my total lack of discussion of the countryside. Rural life in the Edo Period involved a lot more than simply farming from dawn to sunse...
10 Jan 201522min
Episode 83 - Reform Without Sanctuary
Koizumi Junichiro was quite possibly the most successful Prime Minister Japan has had for decades (and certainly the best dressed). This week, we'll trace the rise of his career, his goals while in po...
27 Dec 201428min
Episode 82 - The Shadow Shogun, Redux
After the fall of Tanaka Kakuei, one man has become known as the heir to his tradition. One man has attempted to manipulate the flow of politics in order to either serve as a populist champion for Jap...
20 Dec 201423min
Episode 81 - The Great Treason Incident
In 1910, an anarchist plot to assassinate the Meiji Emperor was uncovered. Seizing the opportunity, conservatives in the government pounced in to arrest 26 anarchists. The background of this confronta...
13 Dec 201425min
Episode 80 - The Great Gamble
This week -- and if you're getting this on release day, 72 years and 364 days later -- we're going to discuss the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as well as its architect, the iconoclastic Japanese ad...
6 Dec 201437min
Episode 79 - The Bismarck of the East
Our topic this week is the life and legacy of one of Japan's greatest political leaders: Ito Hirobumi, author of Japan's first modern constitution. Born into a low-rank samurai family in Choshu, Ito w...
29 Nov 201429min
Episode 78 - The Sage of Mita
Our topic this week is the Meiji intellectual Fukuzawa Yukichi. From the second son of a poor samurai family he rose to be one of Japan's most prominent intellectuals, and helped define what it meant ...
22 Nov 201427min
Episode 77 - Hidden by the Leaves
Our topic this week is Hagakure, one of the best known works on bushido ever written. Where did it come from? What is its purpose? What is its legacy? All that and more, this week!
15 Nov 201422min
