Oct 11, 2024
In the final footnote for our Revised Introduction, we turn our attention to a little discussed subject that is a part of daily life for many: the history of our life with dogs! How did humans live with dogs in premodern Japan, and how did that start to change when the country was opened during the Meiji years?
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Oct 4, 2024
This week's footnote is a continuation of last week's discussion of the gozan, or five mountain system for the ranking of Zen temples. What did the system look like at its height under Ashikaga rule, and how did its relationship to the Ashikaga begin to transform the practice of Zen within the temples themselves?
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Sep 27, 2024
This week on the Footnotes to the Revised Introduction to Japanese History: many describe Zen as the religion of the samurai. In reality, it was not--but samurai influence was crucial to making Zen a part of Japan's cultural framework. That history is bound up in a system called the "Five Mountains"; so how did that...
Sep 6, 2024
This week, we're continuing last week's footnote on daily life in Meiji Japan. Topics covered this week include life as a conscript in the army, changes to Japanese cuisine during the Meiji years, and entertainment from kabuki to early movies.
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Aug 30, 2024
This week on the Revised Introduction to Japanese History Footnotes: what was it like to live in the Meiji Era? Join us on a journey through a day in 1900, as we discuss breakfast foods, education, and factory jobs in the "new Japan."
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