History of Japan

This week: where does our stock image of the sohei come from, and why does it tell us more about Japan after the age of warrior-monks than anything else? Show notes here.

This week: what does the historical record have to say about the veracity of the image of the warrior-monk, or sohei, that is so pervasive in pop cultural understandings of medieval Japan? Show notes here.

There's no regular History of Japan episode this week. Instead, here's a wonderful episode of my other podcast, Criminal Records, about three things of deep concern to any self-respecting podcast audience: organized crime, the drug trade, and rocket launchers! See you all next week.

Guest Sakamoto Ryoma, a loyalist ronin turned legend, is discussed. Topics include his political evolution, alliances with anti-Tokugawa domains, daring escape, failed attack on Cho-shu, return to Tosa, and legacy as a nonconformist hero.

Explore the journey of Sakamoto Ryoma as he transforms amidst political turmoil, loyalists face betrayals and alliances, samurai prioritize Japan's pride over personal gain, and a historic collaboration on naval development shifts Japan's history.

This week, we return to the turbulent age of the Bakumatsu--the collapse of the Tokugawa state--with a biography of one of the era's most intriguing figures, Sakamoto Ryoma. Who was Ryoma, where did he come from, and how did he get swept into the complex politics of the time? Show notes here.

This week: just what sort of scandal sent Nakanoin Nakako to the far end of Japan, and how did fate intervene to set her on a new course once again? And what can we learn from trying to trace a life like this through a tangle of sources which touch on it largely indirectly? Show notes here.

This week on the podcast, we're exploring the life of a woman whose story would normally be confined to the sidelines: an imperial concubine in the early 1600s by the name of Nakanoin Nakako? Who was this young woman and how did she become a part of the emperor's household? Show notes here.

This week on the podcast, we're talking the tale of the iconoclastic monk Ikkyu Sojun. His fame is predicated on an odd combination of Zen austerity and the embrace of the wine shop and the brothel, rather than the temple, as the place to seek enlightenment. Show notes here

How can a man who was terrible as a ruler also be one of the most important tastemakers in Japanese history? Today we're unpacking the biography of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, more or less universally reviled as the worst man ever to lead Japan and yet one of the most important figures in developing much of what we think of as classical Japanese art and aesthetics. Show notes here.