Jul 28, 2023
This week: The history of the record player in Japan, from the first prototypes to the dawn of the Japanese pop star.
Jul 21, 2023
In the first of a multi-part series on the history of communications technology in Japan, we’ve got a double-header: the landline telephone and telegraph. How did two technologies we now think of as ancient help remake a country opening itself up to the industrial world?
Jul 14, 2023
This week: Tokugawa Ienari is often considered the worst shogun of the Tokugawa era. Where does his reputation come from, and is it entirely deserved?
Jul 7, 2023
This week: Osaka enters the modern era. How did the nation’s kitchen become the “capital of smoke,” and how did the city’s government attempt to remake it for the modern era?
Show notes and episode transcript at this link
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Jul 2, 2023
Apologies for the delayed release! I had some computer issues on my end, but they are now resolved.
This week is all about Osaka during the late Edo years, as the system of the Tokugawa shoguns began to fall further and further out of equilibrium. How did the "nation's kitchen" weather attempts to alter the system of...