History of Japan
542 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 days ago - ★★★★★ - 597 ratingsThis 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.
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Episodes
Episode 482 - Japan, the Beautiful, the Ambiguous, Part 1
May 01, 2023 22:05 - 38 minutes - 52.6 MBApologies for the delay, folks. Something went wrong in the Libsyn backend. Here's our episode on Kawabata Yasunari!
Episode 481 - The Dynasty, Part 4
April 14, 2023 11:00 - 37 minutes - 52.1 MBWe're wrapping up our look at the Hatoyama political dynasty with some time on Hatoyama Iichiro (arguably Japan's most reluctant politican) and his two sons Kunio and Yukio. Plus some thoughts on the legacy of the Hatoyama family and on dynastic electoral politics more generally. Show notes here.
Episode 480 - The Dynasty, Part 3
April 07, 2023 11:00 - 38 minutes - 52.7 MBThis week: Hatoyama Ichiro's revenge tour culminates in finally reaching the top spot as PM and in the formation of the LDP. What does the torturous road it took to get there tell us about the man, and about the politics of his time? Show notes here.
Episode 479 - The Dynasty, Part 2
March 31, 2023 11:00 - 38 minutes - 53.2 MBHatoyama Kazuo was a reluctant politician; you can't say the same of his son Hatoyama Ichiro, groomed from childhood to take up the family business (and to rise to the height of cabinet minister, something his father never did). This week is all about Ichiro's prewar career, which culminated in a shot at the top job--that was snapped away at the last moment. Show notes here.
Episode 478 - The Dynasty, Part 1
March 24, 2023 11:00 - 40 minutes - 55 MBThis week, we're starting a longform look at Japan's most prominent political dynasty: the Hatoyama family, which has been a presence in Japan's electoral politics from the jump. Today is all about the career of family progenitor Hatoyama Kazuo, who went from son of a minor samurai to speaker of the House of Representatives, and in the offing created one of the nation's great political dynasties. Show notes here.
Episode 477 - What a Twist!
March 17, 2023 11:00 - 36 minutes - 50.4 MBThis week, we're covering the art of rakugo--storytelling with a twist! How did rakugo emerge from the history of Buddhism, and what has enabled its enduring popularity where contemporary entertainments like kabuki have fallen by the wayside? Show notes here.
Episode 476 - To Have My Deeds Known
March 10, 2023 12:00 - 35 minutes - 49.1 MBHow did one man's determination to get paid end up producing one of the best records we have of a pivotal moment in Japanese history? Show notes here.
Episode 475 - Southward, Ho! Part 4
March 03, 2023 12:00 - 35 minutes - 48.7 MBThis week: Japan's empire in Micronesia comes apart under the face of both the miscalculations of military leadership and the contradictions that had haunted it from the jump. Show notes here.
Episode 474 - Southward, Ho! Part 3
February 24, 2023 12:00 - 37 minutes - 51.9 MBSo far, we've talked about how Micronesia came under Japanese rule, but what was Japan's rule over the region like? Show notes here.
Episode 473 - Southward, Ho! Part 2
February 17, 2023 12:00 - 35 minutes - 49.3 MBWhen World War I began, many among the Japanese leadership were hesistant to take advantage of the opportunity to move into Micronesia. What changed their minds, and how were they able to square a colonial government with the idealistic language of the postwar League of Nations? Show notes here.
Episode 472 - Southward, Ho! Part 1
February 10, 2023 12:00 - 36 minutes - 49.9 MBJapan would seize control of German Micronesia in the fall of 1914, but Japanese interest in the region goes back centuries further. This week: how did Japan get from disinterest in the nebulously defined 'Southern Seas' to active military operations to take control of them? Show notes here.
Episode 471 - The Osaka Incident
February 03, 2023 12:00 - 36 minutes - 50.5 MBThis week: the bizarre story of an attempted coup in Korea that, along the way, touches on everything from Japanese liberalism to the birth of overseas empire. Show notes here.
Episode 470 - The Vaccinators, Part 2
January 27, 2023 12:00 - 39 minutes - 54.1 MBIf the first translation of a text on smallpox vaccination in Japan was finished in 1820, how did it take another 29 years for the first mass vaccination campaigns to begin? The answers involve everything from a German doctor accused of being a spy to networks of physicians trying to navigate obscure bureaucracy. And they might remind you more of the last few years than you'd think. Show notes here.
Episode 469 - The Vaccinators, Part 1
January 20, 2023 12:00 - 36 minutes - 50.2 MBThis week: the elimination of smallpox is probably one of the greatest medical accomplishments in human history. The vaccine that made it possible, however, was invented during a time of isolation for Japan. So how did the vaccine make it to Japanese shores, and what does that story tell us about public health, the sharing of information, and the nature of society in late feudal Japan? Show notes here.
Episode 468 - To Eat Their Own
January 13, 2023 12:00 - 35 minutes - 49 MBThis 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.
Episode 467 - The Cause of Peace
January 06, 2023 12:00 - 37 minutes - 51.7 MBThis 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.
Episode 466 - Rebels Without a Cause, Part 2
December 23, 2022 12:00 - 36 minutes - 50 MBThis 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.
Episode 465 - Rebels Without a Cause, Part 1
December 16, 2022 12:00 - 36 minutes - 50.7 MBThis 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.
Episode 464 - The Wolves of Mibu
December 09, 2022 12:00 - 36 minutes - 50 MBThis 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.
Episode 463 - The Afterlives of a Samurai
December 02, 2022 12:00 - 38 minutes - 52.2 MBThis 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.
Episode 462 - The Empty Throne, Part 5
November 18, 2022 12:00 - 38 minutes - 52.4 MBThis 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.
Episode 461 - The Empty Throne, Part 4
November 11, 2022 12:00 - 36 minutes - 49.8 MBThis 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.
Episode 460 - The Empty Throne, Part 3
November 04, 2022 11:00 - 38 minutes - 52.7 MBThis 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.
Episode 459 - The Empty Throne, Part 2
October 28, 2022 11:00 - 38 minutes - 52.3 MBThis 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.
Episode 458 - The Empty Throne, Part 1
October 21, 2022 11:00 - 38 minutes - 52.5 MBThis 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.
Episode 457 - The Purple Robe Incident
October 14, 2022 11:00 - 38 minutes - 52.8 MBThis 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.
No new episode this week
October 03, 2022 11:00 - 56 seconds - 1.27 MBHello 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.
Episode 456 - Stranger in the Shogun's City
September 30, 2022 11:00 - 35 minutes - 48.8 MBThis 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.
Episode 455 - In the Shelter of the Pine
September 23, 2022 11:00 - 36 minutes - 50.8 MBThis 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.
Episode 454 - That All my Dreams Might Not Prove Empty
September 16, 2022 11:00 - 35 minutes - 48.9 MBThis 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.
Episode 453 - The Waves are High but the Day is Clear, Part 2
September 09, 2022 11:00 - 36 minutes - 49.8 MBThis week: how has the JMSDF gone from an afterthought to a central part of Japan's security planning? Show notes here.
Episode 452 - The Waves are High but the Day is Clear, Part 1
September 02, 2022 17:02 - 37 minutes - 50.8 MBThis 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.
Episode 451 - Those Swept Away
August 26, 2022 11:00 - 41 minutes - 56.4 MBThis 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.
Episode 450 - Gimme that Old Time Religion
August 19, 2022 11:00 - 37 minutes - 51.1 MBThis 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.
Bonus Episode - The Chishima Incident
August 15, 2022 19:33 - 1 hour - 86.1 MBEnjoy this bonus episode from my other show, Criminal Records, as the podcast takes a week off!
Episode 449 - The Tastemaker
August 05, 2022 11:00 - 35 minutes - 49.3 MBThis 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 down to the present day, so how did he develop such authority in the field? Show notes here.
Episode 448 - Abe, Part 5
July 29, 2022 11:00 - 36 minutes - 50.1 MBThis week, a current events episode on the leadup and immediate aftermath of the assassination of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. Note: this episode is intended to be a continuation of Episode 364 (our last episode on Abe). Show notes here.
Episode 447 - On a Summer Night, The First Thought of Sleep
July 22, 2022 11:00 - 35 minutes - 49 MBThis week, we're taking a look at the legacy of one of Japan's most influential poets: Ki no Tsurayuki. His poems may not quite be the popular phenomenon they once were, but his views about how poetry works have always been influential, and shaped how we think about poetry down to this day. Show notes here.
Episode 446 - In Days of Old, There Was a Man
July 15, 2022 11:00 - 37 minutes - 51.8 MBThis week, we're unpacking a rather odd classic of Japanese literature: the Ise Monogatari, a collection of short tales that are probably about a famously seductive aristocrat, but which were in large part not written by him--and which have oddly political meanings given their often lascivious nature. What are the tales about? And what can we glean from reading them today? Show notes here.
Episode 445 - A Bowl for a Coin
July 08, 2022 11:00 - 37 minutes - 51.1 MBThis week: we tend to think of tea in terms of the tea ceremony and fancy culture, but what about lowbrows like me who like to drink our tea bottled from a vending machine? This week we'll be looking at tea as a commodity, and how it became a staple of Japan's consumer culture. Show notes here.
Episode 444 - The Crysanthemum Taboo
July 01, 2022 11:00 - 35 minutes - 49.1 MBThis week: how did a spate of right wing violence in the early years of the 1960s help to fundamentally reshape public discourse around the emperor (and thus around politics and history more generally) up to the present day? And what does all of this have to do with one of the most bizarre short stories that has ever been published? Show notes here.
Episode 443 - The Collapse
June 24, 2022 11:00 - 36 minutes - 50 MBThis week: why did the Japanese Socialist Party and the left more generally utterly fail to capitalize on the momentum of the largest protest in Japanese history? We'll cover everything from party infighting to....well, spoilers, it's mostly party infighting. Show notes here.
Episode 442 - The Transistor Salesman
June 17, 2022 11:00 - 39 minutes - 54.1 MBThis week, we're kicking off a short series on the transformations of 1960s Japan with a look at the unassuming politician who helped shape Japan's postwar structure: Ikeda Hayato. Who was Ikeda, and how did he get into politics? And how did a man who was once accused of being a callous monster become a beloved everyman of the people? Show notes here.
Episode 441 - The Dreamer
June 10, 2022 20:10 - 36 minutes - 49.5 MBThis week, we're taking a look at the life of one of Japan's most famous artists: Miyazaki Hayao. How did he become as famous as he is, and how do his films reflect the politics of the age he grew up in? Show notes here.
Episode 440 - Tipping the Balance
June 03, 2022 11:00 - 35 minutes - 48.7 MBThe Jokyu Rebellion is one of the more minor conflicts in Japanese history; yet it also represents a tipping of the political balance of Japan that, eventually, will profoundly reshape the country. This week, we explore one of the chronicles of that conflict to see what we can learn about it, and about medieval Japan more broadly. Show notes here.
Episode 439 - From the Deep, Part 2
May 29, 2022 02:16 - 35 minutes - 48.3 MBThis week: whaling during the modern era in Japan, and the circumstances that have led to Japan being one of the only first world countries that still hunts whales. Show notes here. Also: allergies are still a bit rough; excuse any scratchiness, please!
Episode 438 - From the Deep, Part 1
May 20, 2022 11:00 - 38 minutes - 26.1 MBThis week, we're taking on whaling in Tokugawa Japan. What is 'traditional' whaling in Japan? How and why did people take to the seas to hunt whales? And how is all of this wrapped up in the modern debate around whaling in Japan? Side note: wet weather in Seattle is giving me mad allergies, so apologies if I sound extra sniffly or anything. Show notes here.
Episode 437 - The Fist of the Buddhas, Part 2
May 13, 2022 11:00 - 34 minutes - 23.7 MBThis week: where does our stock image of the sohei come from, and why does it tell us more about Japan after the age of warrior-monks than anything else? Show notes here.
Episode 436 - Fist of the Buddhas, Part 1
May 06, 2022 11:00 - 37 minutes - 25.7 MBThis week: what does the historical record have to say about the veracity of the image of the warrior-monk, or sohei, that is so pervasive in pop cultural understandings of medieval Japan? Show notes here.
Criminal Records Podcast - The Yakuza Rocket Launcher Case
April 29, 2022 14:07 - 1 hour - 42.4 MBThere's no regular History of Japan episode this week. Instead, here's a wonderful episode of my other podcast, Criminal Records, about three things of deep concern to any self-respecting podcast audience: organized crime, the drug trade, and rocket launchers! See you all next week.