Show Notes

This week, we review and analyze Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (機動戦士ガンダムΖΖ) episode 41 - “Rasara's Life” (ラサラの命), discuss our first impressions, and provide commentary and research on the the Tale of the Heike, and how this classic of Japanese literature may have influenced Zeta and Double Zeta.

- For the Tale of the Heike itself and background on the role of the Fujiwara clan in government and the rivalry between the emperors Toba, Sutoku, Konoe, and Go-Shirakawa:

平家物語 (The Tale of the Heike), trans. Royall Tyler. Penguin (2012).

- An outline of the social, economic, and governance system that was in place at the beginning of the Heian Era: 'The Taika Reforms' in the New World Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, and Britannica.

- Further background on the Heian Era and changes that occurred during it from Brittanica, and an overview of the Heian Era with particular focus on the development of Japanese culture during this period from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

- From Yokai.com, an illustrated English-language database of demons, ghosts, and other monsters of Japanese folklore - the Emperor Sutoku.

- Brief biographies of the emperors mentioned in this piece (and paintings!): Emperor Toba, Emperor Sutoku, Emperor Konoe, and Emperor Go-Shirakawa.

- For the shōen or 'estates' system that developed during the late Heian Era and undermined the central government, this brief overview places them in context with other political challenges and changes. There's a more extensive discussion here.

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

You can learn more about Lenapehoking, the Lenape people, and ongoing efforts to honor the relationship between the land and indigenous peoples by visiting the websites of the Delaware Tribe and the Manhattan-based Lenape Center. Listeners in the Americas and Oceania can learn more about the indigenous people of your area at https://native-land.ca/. We would like to thank The Lenape Center for guiding us in creating this living land acknowledgment.

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