Histories of manga tend to skip from the colorful woodblocks of the Edo period directly to the post-WWII industry we’d…
This week: manga is today one of the most ubiquitous forms of entertainment in Japan. But the idea of comics…
This week, we’re tackling the most legendary samurai in Japanese history: Miyamoto Musashi. Why is he so famous, what do…
This week, we cover how the legend of Yoshitsune as told in Gikeiki describes his demise. Which is how his…
This week, we come to the text that more than any other helps build the Yoshitsune legend: Gikeiki. Here, at…
This week, the Yoshitsune legend finds its legs with Heike Monogatari–one of the most epic works in Japanese history. Except…
Note: I made a mistake recording this episode but did not have time to go back and fix it. It’s…
This week, we’re covering one of the most titanic names in Japanese literature–Natsume Soseki–and the work that propelled him to…
This week: Japanese Manchuria comes crashing down as a combination of poorly planned colonial policies and a worsening war situation…
This week: some reflections on the hollow nature of Manchurian “independence”, and on what kept the state going if so…