TOMORROW: Dr. Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi, "Aizu Bushidō"

Click here to visit the Meiji at 150 Podcast page.

Tune in to three new podcast episodes!

In episode 50, Dr. Sidney Lu (Michigan State University) tracks Japanese migrants overseas to the Americas during the Meiji Period, denoting discursive ties between trans-Pacific migration and Japanese colonial expansion. We discuss the ideas and rhetoric of settler colonial promoters including Fukuzawa Yukichi, compare and contrast Japanese settler colonialism in Korea and the United States, and reflect on how trans-Pacific migration transcends nation-centric histories.  Click here to listen.

In episode 49, Dr. Laura Nenzi (University of Tennessee) retells the story of the Edo-Meiji transition through a micro-history of Kurosawa Tokiko, a rural schoolteacher and soothsayer who was arrested by the Tokugawa Bakufu for her political activities prior to 1868. We discuss Tokiko’s attempts to preserve her identity amidst change, the micro-history methodology and how it changes our view of the Restoration, and conflict and resistance in the Meiji Period, before comparing notes on teaching, and living in, Tokyo.  Click here to listen.

In episode 48, Dr. Eric Han (College of William & Mary) recreates the scene of a gruesome murder in 1899 Yokohama to call on the history of treaty ports and extraterritoriality in the years leading up to and after the Meiji Restoration. We discuss the politics of treaty port selection and treaty revision, map the hybridized international culture of foreign settlements, complicate memories of foreign settlements as spaces of Westernization, and revisit the origins and communities of Yokohama’s vibrant Chinatown.  Click here to listen.

After a short break for the Asian Studies Association of Australia Biennial Conference in Sydney, the Meiji at 150 Podcast is back with new episodes!

Click here to visit the Meiji at 150 Podcast page.

In episode 45, Dr. Sarah Thal (University of Wisconsin-Madison) revisits the political history of the 1890s to reconstruct the foundations of Bushidō as a gendered code of Japanese popular ethics and morals. We discuss Bushidō in the context of the Meiji Civil Code, question Bushidō as a proxy national religion for ideological unification, and place Bushidō in the growing conservatism and nationalism of the mid-Meiji Period. Click here to listen.

In episode 44, Dr. Takashi Fujitani (University of Toronto) traces the origins of Japanese nationalism and imperialism to the Meiji Period and delineates the impacts of nationalism on historical memory in Japan and the United States. We discuss shifts in nationalism in prewar Japan, accusations of contemporary Japanese neo-nationalism, and the regional significance of the Meiji Restoration. Click here to listen.

In episode 43, Prof. Tessa Morris-Suzuki (Australian National University) de-centers the history of the Meiji Restoration by refocusing our attention on the territorial incorporation of Japan’s frontier areas: Ezo, Sakhalin, the Ryūkyūs, Tsushima, and the Bōnin Islands. We discuss Japanese proto-colonialism prior to 1868, continuities in colonialist expansion into Hokkaidō and Korea, and changing conceptions of Japan’s position in the world in response to western imperialism as seen in mid-19th century maps. Click here to listen.

In episode 42, Dr. Timothy David Amos (National University of Singapore) discusses the impacts of the Meiji Restoration on Japan’s Burakumin outcaste communities, detailing continuities in discrimination alongside the positive and negative effects of emancipation. We discuss the lineage of Buraku communities, their racialization and discrimination, commoners’ resistance to emancipation, and challenges facing Buraku communities today. Click here to listen.

In episode 41, Dr. Anne Walthall (University of California-Irvine) repopulates the history of the Meiji Restoration with the villagers, farmers, and laborers who carried out mass movements and popular protests in the years leading up to 1868. We discuss the agency of those commoners who were, and were not, directly involved in mass movements, bottom-up aspects of the Restoration, and Dr. Walthall’s recent textbook on politics and society in the Meiji Period. Click here to listen.

In episode 40, Dr. Robert Hellyer (Wake Forest University) tracks the export of Japanese green tea to North America as an example of how global trade and commodity flows contributed to Japanese industrialization in the Meiji Period. We discuss efforts to promote the tea trade at both the state and local-levels, the push and pull factors of tea as a commodity in the North American market, and the place of Japan in the world economy before talking about Wake Forest’s own conference commemorating the Meiji Restoration. Click here to listen.

In episode 39, Dr. Annette Skovsted Hansen (Aarhus University) transcribes the codification of Japanese National Language (Kokugo) in the Meiji Period, underlining the role of dictionaries and language teachers in Hokkaidō and Okinawa.  We discuss the role of Meiji state intellectuals in language education, the origins of Japanese hyōjungo (common language) as well as Dr. Hansen’s more recent work on Japanese overseas development assistance. Click here to listen.

Stay tuned for new episodes
every Tuesday and Friday!

Episode 35 – Dr. Elizabeth “Betsy” Lublin (Wayne State)

In this episode, Dr. Betsy Lublin (Wayne State University) outlines moral reform campaigns carried out by women in the WCTU during the Meiji Period as they sought to redefine civic morality and good citizenship. We discuss campaigns against prostitution, drinking, and smoking, the increasing prevalence of tobacco in Japan during the Meiji and Taishō Periods, and societal views of smoking. Click here to listen.

Episode 34 – Dr. Daniel Botsman (Yale)

In this episode, Dr. Daniel Botsman (Yale) stresses the ruptures in Japanese society caused by the Meiji Restoration, especially as seen in the Meiji penal system, new conceptions of freedom during the Freedom and Popular Rights Movement, and the emancipation of Outcaste communities. We discuss the emancipatory proposals of Ōe Taku, peasant protests, notable connections between Yale and Meiji-period Japan, and the politics of commemorating the anniversary of the Meiji Restoration. Click here to listen.

Episode 30 – Dr. Richard John Lynn (University of Toronto)

In this episode, Dr. Richard John Lynn reviews Japanese relations with China during the Meiji Period through the person of Chinese poet and diplomat Huang Zunxian. We discuss the Kanji culture of East Asian diplomacy and Sino-Japanese literary circles, changing Chinese views of the Meiji Restoration and Meiji-era progress, the possibility of a “Meiji model” for Chinese reform, and the retention of tradition in the face of modernization in both countries.

Click Here to Listen

Episode 28 – Dr. Trent Maxey (Amherst)

In this episode, Dr. Trent Maxey proclaims the history of early Meiji Government policies regarding religion in the context of national unification. We discuss the secularity of the Meiji state, the origins of State Shinto, reactions to “Hidden” Christians in the early Meiji Period, and anti-foreignism in the Tokugawa and Meiji periods before talking about Dr. Maxey’s more recent work on automobiles in Tokyo.