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Category: History of Japan Podcast

Episode 423 – The City on the Edge of Forever, Part 2

January 28, 2022 Isaac Meyer

This week, Christian Nagasaki survives its early trials and tribulations to become a Jesuit fortress-town, and a centerpiece of some…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: Christianity, History, Japan, Kyushu, Nagasaki, Sengoku

Episode 422 – The City on the Edge of Forever, Part 1

January 21, 2022 Isaac Meyer 4 Comments

This week, we’re covering the founding of Japan’s most unusual city: Nagasaki, unique among major Japanese cities in being founded…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: History, Japan, Jesuit, Nagasaki, Sengoku

Episode 420 – A History of Drugs in Japan

January 7, 2022 Isaac Meyer 3 Comments

Sometimes you just have to take advantage of a cheap joke about a silly number to take a look at…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: drugs, History, Japan, meth, opium

Episode 419 – A Tale as Old as Time

December 31, 2021 Isaac Meyer 3 Comments

For our final episode of 2021, we’re looking at the origin of one of Japan’s most famous pieces of literature:…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: Genji, heike, History, Japan, medieval, Minamoto, Samurai, Taira

Episode 418 – The Bucket and the Moon

December 17, 2021 Isaac Meyer 3 Comments

This week, we have a biography of one of the rare women of medieval Japan who was prominent not just…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: Buddhism, History, Japan, medieval, Women, Zen

Episode 417 – The Forgotten Past, Part 2

December 10, 2021 Isaac Meyer 3 Comments

This week: how did the overseas slave trade from Japan continue despite a Portuguese ban? How was the trade finally…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: History, Japan, medieval, Sengoku, slavery

Episode 416 – The Forgotten Past, Part 1

December 3, 2021 Isaac Meyer

This week, we’re beginning a two-part history on the pre-modern slave trade in Japan. Slavery existed in Japan before the…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: History, Japan, slavery

Episode 415 – Whispers in the Dark

November 19, 2021 Isaac Meyer 1 Comment

This week: the story of two men whose fascinating life trajectories led them into an interrogation room in Japan’s Edo…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: Christianity, Confucianism, Edo, History, Japan

Episode 414 – The Prince

November 12, 2021 Isaac Meyer 1 Comment

This week, we’re talking about the story of a man whose story we don’t really know: the imperial prince Shotoku,…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: Asuka, History, Japan, Shotoku

Episode 413 – Between Real and Unreal

November 5, 2021 Isaac Meyer 1 Comment

This week, we’re looking at the legacy of Chikamatsu Monzaemon, the most famous playwright in Japanese history. During his career,…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: Bunraku, chikamatsu, Edo, History, Japan, Kabuki

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About Me

My name is Isaac Meyer, and I’m a  former PhD student at the University of Washington, specializing in modern Japan (with sub-specializations in modern China, modern Europe, and international relations). Today, I work as a teacher at an independent school in the Seattle area.

I also have a tendency to go off on random historical tangents. One day, I decided to combine these two traits in podcast form, and thus was born the History of Japan Podcast!

In 2018, I decided start the Criminal Records Podcast with my wife, Demetria Spinrad. This podcast gives me the chance to talk about world history–and the weird, wonderful world of historical crime and punishment.

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Support the Facing Backward network on Patreon to get access to our bonus features, including our bonus episodes about historical fiction.

The History of Japan Patreon is still live, and subscribers will be able to get the weekly newsletter there as well.

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