History of Japan

The Taiheiki is arguably one of the most dismissed works of literature in Japanese history, doomed to always exist solely in comparison to the far more highly regarded Heike Monogatari. But even so, there's a lot to draw the interest of the interested historian. So, what can we learn about medieval Japan from its most famously "eh" work of literature? Show notes here.

This week: the manga industry during World War II. Plus some thoughts on the development of shojo manga, and finally a look at Tezuka Osamu and the ways in which his work helped create the manga market that exists today. Show notes here.

Histories of manga tend to skip from the colorful woodblocks of the Edo period directly to the post-WWII industry we'd recognize today. But what do we lose when we do that? And what do we gain when we do investigate the century or so that lies between those two moments? Show notes here.

This week: manga is today one of the most ubiquitous forms of entertainment in Japan. But the idea of comics as we might understand them has a much longer history. So how did we get from there to here--what, in other words, is the origin of Japanese manga/ We'll look today at the earliest known examples as we try to understand the origins of manga as a form. Show notes here.

This week, we're tackling the most legendary samurai in Japanese history: Miyamoto Musashi. Why is he so famous, what do we actually know about him, and why is there such a big gap between the story most are familiar with and what our actual sources have to say? Show notes here.

This week, we cover how the legend of Yoshitsune as told in Gikeiki describes his demise. Which is how his tale ends, unless of course you know the truth: that Yoshitsune actually escaped to Hokkaido, became a god, and then left for the mainland to become Genghis Khan. Wait, what? Show notes here.

This week, we come to the text that more than any other helps build the Yoshitsune legend: Gikeiki. Here, at long last, we see the legend of Yoshitsune taking a form that a modern audience might recognize--and in the process, beginning to diverge pretty substantially (though not entirely) from the historical record. Show notes here.

This week, the Yoshitsune legend finds its legs with Heike Monogatari--one of the most epic works in Japanese history. Except that while Yoshitsune is a bigger deal here than he is in Azuma Kagami, he's still far from the main character....so where does he show up, what changes does Heike make from the Azuma Kagami version, and what's still missing from our hero's story? Show notes here.

Note: I made a mistake recording this episode but did not have time to go back and fix it. It's episode 614! This week, we're starting a three-part series on the evolution of Minamoto no Yoshitsune from historical figure to national legend. This week: what do we know for sure about one of the most famous samurai in Japan, and what do our oldest available sources have to say about him? Show notes here.

This week, we're covering one of the most titanic names in Japanese literature--Natsume Soseki--and the work that propelled him to fame. How did the tale of a sardonic, anonymous cat transform a relatively unknown literature professor into arguably the most famous writer in modern Japanese history? Show notes here.

This week: Japanese Manchuria comes crashing down as a combination of poorly planned colonial policies and a worsening war situation see imperial power on the mainland collapse. Plus: what do we learn about the nature of empire from a long, in-depth look at Manchuria? Show notes here.

This week: some reflections on the hollow nature of Manchurian "independence", and on what kept the state going if so few of its own residents believed in its promises. Show notes here.

This week on the podcast: the Japanese presence in Manchuria was never particularly large, even at its height. So how did Japanese rule in Manchuria last as long as it did? And what of the resistance? Show notes here.

In the last episode of 2025: a bomb "mysteriously" goes off just outside Mukden during the evening of September 18, 1931. Less than six months later, Manchuria becomes an "independent country." Japan's government loses complete control over the army, all over the issue of its new "Manchurian Lifeline." And suddenly, for some reason, the last emperor of China is back! Show notes here.

As Japan enters the 1920s, national policy becomes increasingly liberalized--but Manchuria remains a holdout of extremists who, if anything, begin to take a more aggressive position on the "China Problem." How did that happen--and how did that aggressive position, seemingly overnight, become normalized back in Japan proper? Show notes here.