Episode 595 – Koume’s World, Part 2

September 19, 2025

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 Wakayama during the final decades before the great crises that would end feudalism in Japan?

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Sources

Partner, Simon. Koume’s World: The Life and Work of a Samurai Woman Before and After the Meiji Restoration

Jansen, Marius. The Making of Modern Japan

Images

“The Desperate Seeking Aid”, by Watanabe Kazan, 1838.
“Takasaki”, by Utagawa Hiroshige, from the series 69 Stations of the Kisokaido Road. This image is from the time of the Tenpo famines, and you can see a beggar approaching travelers asking for alms.
An image of a pawn shop from the 1840s (specifically, the Ikedaya pawn shop in Osaka.)
I didn’t know this, but apparently there was an illustrated version of Kankai Ibun after the Meiji period–showing just how much interest there was in the world outside Japan.
Apparently the Nadezhda was also the first Russian ship to circumnavigate the earth. In 1993 the Russian government issued a coin commemorating that achievement.