Episode 597 – Koume’s World, Part 4

This week, the Kawai family has finally made good in the world of feudal Wakayama–just in time for that world to come down around their ears. How did the family finally make it to the top, and what was it like for them to watch the shogunate and the samurai class itself implode?

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

A Ming dynasty printing of the Zuo Zhuan/Commentary of Zuo from the 1500s.