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Nov 8, 2024

This week: the origins of one of the most popular pseudo-medical traditions out there. Where does reiki, the notion that one can manipulate energy in the human body using their hands to heal people, come from? And why does studying the history of practices like this matter?

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Nov 1, 2024

This week: what can we learn about the past if we look not at elite literature, but at the lowbrow faire of the masses? We'll explore this question using one of the most popular works of its day: Tokaidochu Hizakurige. 

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Oct 25, 2024

This week, we conclude our look at canine history in Japan with the nation's most famous dog: Hachiko. You might know the story, but you probably don't know how tied up it is in the establishment of Japan's first dog breeding programs, or in the militarist rhetoric of the war years.

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Oct 18, 2024

This week we continue our footnote on the history of dogs in Japan. How did  public perceptions of dogs change during the Meiji period? How did the adoption of modern notions of dog ownership and pet keeping help remake Japan's cities? And what impact did all of this have on Japan's existing canine population?

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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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