After a long hiatus, the diary of Kawai Koume picks back up in 1853, a year of absolutely no world-shaking importance in Japanese history whatsoever-wait, I'm hearing from our producers that, in point of fact, some pretty crazy things are about to go down. And Kawai Koume, like many others, is frantically going to be trying to follow the latest news about it all while living her own life as best she can--and dealing with more than her share of tragedies. Show notes here.
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Episode 595 - Koume's World, Part 2
This week, we'll look at the first chunk of Kawai Koume's diary, which deals with life in the 1830s--or as she knew it, the Tenpo Era. What can we learn about the lives of samurai and commoners in Wakayama during the final decades before the great crises that would end feudalism in Japan? Show notes here.
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Episode 594 - Koume's World, Part 1
This week, we're starting a new miniseries focused on the life of Kawai Koume, a samurai woman living in Wakayama in the early 1800s. Today is going to be all about framing her life--what do we know about her upbringing, and about the city she grew up in during the twilight years of Japanese feudalism? Show notes here.
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Episode 593 - The Artist of the Open Road, Part 3
This week, we wrap up our series on Hiroshige with a few lingering questions about his career. How much does his "artistic borrowing" really matter? What's his relationship to Hiroshiges II and III? What about his second marriage and daughter? And ultimately, what makes him so damn famous--and what can we learn from that? Show notes here.
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Episode 592 - The Artist of the Open Road, Part 2
This week, we're covering Hiroshige's emergence as an artist, which took 20 years after he finished his apprenticeship in the Utagawa school. Why the long gap? And what changed to finally allow him to break out artistically? Show notes here.
This podcast, assembled by a former PhD student in History at the University of Washington, covers the entire span of Japanese history. Each week we'll tackle a new topic, ranging from prehistoric Japan to the modern day.
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