This week: was Japan's 5th Tokugawa shogun really as crazy as everybody says?

Spoilers: no. 

This week, we cover a crime wave that shocked 1980s Japan, and proved that postwar society was perhaps not quite all it was cracked up to be. Also, there's a lot of poisoned candy. 

This week, we investigate the great Zen master Dogen, who was something of an eccentric in his own time but remains one of the greatest Buddhist thinkers in Japanese history. 

Turns out, getting involved in a land war in Asia really is one of the classic blunders.

This week, how did it all pan out?

How did Japan fit into the broader framework of the Allied intervention? What were the Japanese trying to accomplish in Siberia? And who was even in charge of this damned thing? All that and more, this week. 

100 Years ago, Japan intervened in Russia to create a buffer state against the new Soviet Union. So how did that work out? We'll start answering that question this week. 

This week: why is a military failure worth 7 episodes of our time? The legacy of the Mongol invasions of Japan, explained. 

The 1281 invasion is at the gates (or the seawall, I suppose). How will round 2 play out?

This week, we prepare for round two. How are the Japanese getting ready for another invasion, and how does that new invasion begin?

This week, we cover exciting topics like meteorology and internal Mongol family politics! But wait, there's also a bit of Zen theology dashed in to spice things up!

It's an eclectic week on the podcast for sure!

This week I promise we'll actually get to the 1274 invasion. But first, how were the samurai who defended Japan organized, and what weapons did they use?

This week: why did Kublai go to Japan? A quick overview of the tensions that led to the first invasion, and a look at the armies of Mongols and Chinese that would fight it. 

This week: where did the Mongol Empire come from, and who was in charge when they decided to come after Japan? Also, why is the Kamakura shogunate the most convoluted form of government in a history of convoluted governments?

Today, we wrap our look at immigrants from Japan with a brief discussion of Nikkei communities in the Philippines and China, and with a look at Japan's own attempts to have Nikkei return "home."

This week: why did the American government think it was necessary to round up Nikkei on the West Coast? And what did that policy mean for the people who actually lived it?

This week, we're headed south to take a look at Nikkei communities in Brazil and Peru. 

This week, we take a closer look at early communities of Nikkeijin -- people of Japanese descent -- in the United States and Hawaii.

This week, we begin a new series on the Japanese diaspora!

This week we tackle the question of Japanese fascism by looking at one of Japan's foremost fascists, the authoritarian scholar Kita Ikki. 

This week: one of Japan's most famous Buddhist masters, Kukai, takes center stage!

Today we discuss Japan's greatest artistic genius, Katsushika Hokusai!

This week: Japan's a pretty verdant place, but how did it stay that way when so many other places were ravaged by human development?

All you could ever want to know about podcast recording, UW's graduate program, and why the Japanese definitely are not part of the 10 lost tribes of Israel! That and more! 

Thank you all for 200 great episodes!

In which we bring things to a close by considering the fall of the Butokukai, the spread of budo beyond Japan, the role of martial arts in the African-American community, the question of Olympic sport status, and the challenge of the UFC. It's gonna be a busy week.

This week: can a martial art be a philosophy of life? Can it rise to the level of a religion? 

This week: karate comes to mainland Japan (and gets a rebrand in the process), and the Butokukai's attempts to militarize the martial arts backfire when the Americans come to town.

This week: the rise of judo and of the modern budo, and karate strikes back!

This week: who wants to swing a sword when you can just shoot a gun?

This week: where do Japan's traditional martial arts come from? 

This week: what are three educated women to do in a society that doesn't value their education?

This week: the beginning of a two parter on Japan's first ever female exchange students. 

This week: what, in the end, did the Occupation mean -- for both the occupied and the occupier? 

This week: what was it like to live through the Occupation? How did people get by? And why is Kurosawa Akira objectively the greatest director ever? 

This week: the social reforms of the Occupation. Economic policy, education policy: it's like our very own C-SPAN screening! 

This week, we talk about what it took to make a peace on paper a peace in fact. With millions of Japanese civilians and soldiers scattered across Asia, what would it take to get them all home again?

This week, we discuss the course of the Tokyo War Crimes Trials and their legacy in Japan. How did they go from a vision of international optimism to despised by people on both sides of the political spectrum?

This week, we'll begin a discussion of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, better known as the Tokyo War Crimes Trials. Who is being tried, what for, and why? 

This week: where did Japan's constitution come from, and how the hell did it get done in only six days?

The Occupation begins! This week, we'll set the stage with a focus on the relationship between Supreme Commander Douglass MacArthur and Emperor Hirohito. 

This week, we turn our attention to the US Occupation of Japan. When did Americans first start thinking seriously about taking Japan over and remaking its whole society?

This week, we're doing a biography of the little known Buddhist socialist Seno'o Giro. How do you reconcile Buddhism and Marx? Find out this week!

This week, we round out our look at the hard left in Japan. Militant communist uprisings (if less than 100 people counts as an uprising), electoral maneuvering, recycling policy -- this episode has it all. 

This week: the Japanese left is relegated to permanent opposition status in the postwar period. How did the revolutionary moment come to this?

This week, the floodgates are open! The system has fallen, and the left is poised to seize power...or not!

Today, a specter is haunting Japan. But that specter is not communism; it's the ghost of the communist party, dead before it truly lived. This week on the podcast: how to kill a communist party in a few easy steps. 

The revolution comes to Japan...but not really. Today we explore the birth and very rapid death of Japan's first socialist party, and the rise of its communist movement.

Today, we'll turn our attention to a set of ideas that will ultimately fall flat on their face in Japan (and most other places): Marxism. How did the hard left come to Japan? And before that, what even is Marxism?