Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchEpisode 585 - The All-Seeing Eye, Part 2
Japan's "Christian Century" is the source of many fascinating aspects of Japanese history, from modern firearms to tenpura. But there's one more way that the century from 1543-1639 shaped Japan--as t…
Published on 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Episode 584 - The All-Seeing Eye, Part 1
This week, something a bit different: the start of a history of conspiracy theories in Japan. This first episode is mostly framing: what is conspiracism as a mindset, and how is it different from act…
Published on 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Episode 583 - The Men of Chivalry, Part 3
This week: we take a look at the genre of the yakuza movie, or ninkyo eiga, which started off as a branch of the samurai film genre before becoming very much its own thing--and, for a decade or so i…
Published on 2 months, 4 weeks ago
Episode 582 - The Men of Chivalry, Part 2
This week: we take a look at postwar samurai film/jidaigeki in order to understand better the trajectory of the most influential genre in the history of Japanese film. Why did jidaigeki, a staple of …
Published on 3 months ago
Episode 581 - The Men of Chivalry, Part 1
This week, we're starting a history of the most famous genre in the history of Japanese film: the jidaigeki, and its related genre of the ninkyo eiga. This week: what do we know about early jidaigeki…
Published on 3 months, 1 week ago
Episode 580 - The Kings of the Ring, Part 7
This week: we wrap up the miniseries with the end of Akebono's career, as the first gaijin yokozuna takes his post-dohyo trajectory in a very different direction from the other yokozuna before him (o…
Published on 3 months, 2 weeks ago
Episode 579 - The Kings of the Ring, Part 6
This week: Akebono becomes a yokozuna, and finds himself burdened with new expectations on and off the dohyo. Plus, a brief foray into pay and compensation for rikishi, and a final section on one of …
Published on 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Episode 578 - The Kings of the Ring, Part 5
This week: in the span of just a few years, Akebono goes from a rookie in sumo to one of its most prominent names, and alongside Konishiki one of the Americans dominating in the top division. But unl…
Published on 4 months ago
Episode 577 - The Kings of the Ring, Part 4
This week: Chad Rowan, who will be the first non-Japanese yokozuna in history, is the subject for the rest of our episodes. How did he come to sumo? What was his early career like? And how did he com…
Published on 4 months, 1 week ago
Episode 576 - The Kings of the Ring, Part 3
This week: after Taiho, the floodgates open as more non-Japanese rikishi begin to enter the sport. One of them, Takamiyama, has a good but not great career. But two of the rikishi he recruits to trai…
Published on 4 months, 2 weeks ago