Dec 15, 2023

This week: the advent of the medieval era brings with it new strands of Buddhism that will radically remake the image of the religion from an aristocratic faith to a distinctly Japanese one. So, how do the wildly different beliefs of Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren Buddhism all grow out of the same moment in...

Dec 8, 2023

This week: the rise of the Minamoto clan, the destruction of the Taira clan, and the birth of a new kind of political arrangement in the form of Japan's first shogunate.

Show notes here. 

Dec 1, 2023

This week, we're covering the beginnings of the rise of the samurai class by looking at the wars of the 1000s, as well as the Hogen and Heiji conflicts which secured the role of the military class in national politics.

Show notes here. 

Nov 17, 2023

This week, we turn our attention to two of the defining institutions of the Heian period, both of which will be very important for us going forward. First are the shoen, or private estates, the growth of which led to the fragmentation and decentralization of the government. The second is the rising power of the warrior...

Nov 10, 2023

This week on the podcast, we're all about literature. We'll be exploring the varieties of poetry and prose that have made the Heian period one of the golden ages of literary flourishing in Japanese history.

Show notes here.