This week, we’re covering the art of rakugo–storytelling with a twist! How did rakugo emerge from the history of Buddhism,…
If the first translation of a text on smallpox vaccination in Japan was finished in 1820, how did it take…
This week: the elimination of smallpox is probably one of the greatest medical accomplishments in human history. The vaccine that…
This week: Emperor Komei attempts to protect tradition in a nation beset by crisis. However, his efforts will be brought…
This week: the beginning of a multipart biography of two of the best documented figures we know very little about:…
This week: political infighting about purple robes and what it can tell us about Buddhism, political power, and the relationship…
This week: the story of Tsuneno, a commoner whose social status was very different from that of Lady Nijo and…
This week, the tale of Ogimachi Machiko–the aristocrat whose literary descriptions of her life in a samurai family became one…
This week, the biography of one of the most unusual figures of Bakumatsu Japan: the peasant Matsuo Taseko, whose career…
This week, we’re covering the rise of the Hirata school of kokugaku, or national studies, during the Edo Period. How…