This week, it’s a listener question episode! Let’s talk about the topics I’d like to cover, a D&D party made…
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?
This 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.
The Jokyu Rebellion is one of the more minor conflicts in Japanese history; yet it also represents a tipping of…
This week, we’re talking about one of the last attempts to save the Tokugawa shogunate: the Tenpo Reforms of the…
This week: how did the threat of Western imperialism change the relationship between mainland Japan and Hokkaido, and help set…
This week, we tackle the life of one of Japan’s most interesting women, who rose from obscure origins to become…
This week, the crew of the Breskens is freed at last. Plus some final thoughts on Tokugawa diplomacy. Sources Hesselink,…
While the Meiji Restoration was going on, where was everybody else? We’ll start trying to answer that question today with…
This week, we arrive at the end of the Ashikaga. What were the final 100 years of Ashikaga “rule” like,…