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Tag: Japan

Episode 594 – Koume’s World, Part 1

September 12, 2025 Isaac Meyer

This week, we’re starting a new miniseries focused on the life of Kawai Koume, a samurai woman living in Wakayama…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: History, Japan, Samurai, Tokugawa, Women

Episode 593 – The Artist of the Open Road, Part 3

September 5, 2025 Isaac Meyer 2 Comments

This week, we wrap up our series on Hiroshige with a few lingering questions about his career. How much does…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: Art, Edo, History, Japan, Tokugawa, ukiyo-e

Episode 592 – The Artist of the Open Road, Part 2

August 29, 2025 Isaac Meyer

This week, we’re covering Hiroshige’s emergence as an artist, which took 20 years after he finished his apprenticeship in the…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: Art, Edo, History, Japan, Tokugawa, ukiyo-e

Episode 590 – An Interview with Dr. Mike Freiling

August 15, 2025 Isaac Meyer 1 Comment

This week on the podcast, something completely different! I’m getting some help talking about poetry from Mike Freiling, whose new…

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

Episode 589 – The All-Seeing Eye, Part 6

August 8, 2025 Isaac Meyer

Our final episode in this miniseries brings conspiracism in Japan to the present day, as we discuss a wave of…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: conspiracy, Japan, Politics, Postwar

Episode 587 – The All-Seeing Eye, Part 4

July 25, 2025 Isaac Meyer

This week, conspiracism takes a new twist in Japan, from paranoid worries about Christianity to paranoid beliefs in “Western encirclement”.…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: conspiracy, History, Japan, Politics, WWII

Episode 586 – The All-Seeing Eye, Part 3

July 11, 2025 Isaac Meyer 1 Comment

This week, we explore the “Christian conspiracies” of Edo Period Japan. Working backwards from the Osaka Incident of 1827, when…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: Christianity, conspiracy, History, Japan, Politics, religion, Tokugawa

Episode 585 – The All-Seeing Eye, Part 2

July 4, 2025 Isaac Meyer 1 Comment

Japan’s “Christian Century” is the source of many fascinating aspects of Japanese history, from modern firearms to tenpura. But there’s…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: Christianity, conspiracy, History, Japan, Politics, Tokugawa

Episode 584 -The All-Seeing Eye, Part 1

June 27, 2025 Isaac Meyer

This week, something a bit different: the start of a history of conspiracy theories in Japan. This first episode is…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: History, Japan, Politics, Postwar

Episode 583 – The Men of Chivalry, Part 3

June 20, 2025 Isaac Meyer

This week: we take a look at the genre of the yakuza movie, or ninkyo eiga, which started off as…

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Posted in: History of Japan Podcast, Podcasts Filed under: cinema, Film, History, Japan, Postwar, Yakuza

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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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