This week Jon is joined by Thomas and Heather of the Japan Archives podcast as they break down 2003's Tom Cruise-Tacular Japanese Epic The Last Samurai

From a film LOOSELY based on the events of 1877 Satsuma Rebellion and the life of french artillery office Jules Brunet, we delve into the causes of Japan's reopening to the western powers, the real events that lead to the end of an era, and how films like the Last Samurai can influence and propagate Orientalism.  

Our special guest historians this week are

Dr E. Taylor Atkins of Northern Illinois University who specialises in Modern Japanese and Korean cultural history, and transnational popular culture. The second edition of his A History of Popular Culture in Japan comes out this autumn.

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Dr Alexander Bennett of Kansai University expert in the history of martial arts and samurai culture. Some of his Published works include Hagakure: The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai, Tuttle (2014) and Kendo: Culture of the Sword, University of California Press (2015)

We'd also like to thank all our special guests, historians, and podcasters for giving up their time and making it such a wonderful season 1. 

If you enjoyed it and want to give some feedback and make season 2 even better (and exists) you can fill in the survey here : https://forms.gle/cc7jna7FnDEDafPo7 

Guest Socials

Twitter: @japanarchives 

Instagram: nexus_travels

Website: www.historyofjapan.co.uk 

If you'd like to learn more about today's topics you can find articles and sources on our website www.japanhiddenhistorypodcast.com

You can also follow us on

Facebook www.facebook.com/Japanhiddenhistorypodcast/

Twitter  @JapanHistorypod

Instagram japanhiddenhistorypod

Tiktok @japanhiddenhistory

This week Jon is joined by Jamal of the getinthemecha podcast as they break down 2021's classic The Heike Story (2021) 

Based on the medieval 13th-14th century Japanese epic, the Tale of the Heike (Heike Monogatari), we delve into the history of the Genpei wars (1180-85 CE) that it recounts as well as the history and many forms that the text has taken over the last seven hundred years. It's influence on art and the visual medium is not to be understated, so to understand our manga and anime of today, we look at its forerunner, the ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the Edo period (1615-1867 CE)

Dr Elizabeth Oyler from the University of Pittsburgh

Whose research focuses on how historical and cultural memory are represented in literature and performing arts from Japan’s medieval period, particularly the fifteenth century. Her first book focused on Japan’s most famous military tale, The Tales of the Heike, exploring its connections to and influences on both the writing and performing of the early age of Japan’s first shogunate 

She recently co-edited a volume with Dr. Katherine Saltzman-Li, Cultural Imprints War and Memory in the Samurai Age which draws on literary works, artefacts, performing arts, and documents that were created by or about the samurai to examine individual "imprints," traces holding specifically grounded historical meanings that persist through time

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Dr Hilary Snow from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

She is a specialist in Japanese art of the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Her research focuses on art and culture from the Japanese Edo period (1615-1868). Her work explores early modern patronage and the mingling of sacred and secular practices at Japanese religious institutions. Dr. Snow is particularly interested in the visual culture of early modern Japanese urban spaces and aesthetic amusements at religious institutions. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Honors College, she teaches courses in Asian Studies, Art History, and Museum Studies.

Jamal and Getinthemecha : www.getinthemecha.home.blog/

Twitter: @GetInTheMecha

Youtube: getinthemecha

If you'd like to learn more about today's topics you can find articles and sources on our website www.japanhiddenhistorypodcast.com

You can also follow us on 

Facebook www.facebook.com/Japanhiddenhistorypodcast/

Twitter  @JapanHistorypod

Instagram japanhiddenhistorypod

Tiktok @japanhiddenhistory

This week Jon is joined by Ed and Solo of the Suuuper Anime podcast as they break down the studio ghibli classic. 

Hayao Miyazaki's environmental masterpiece likes to say its set in the Muromachi Period (1336-1573 CE), however, it contains culture and elements of the Japanese past going back to the Neolithic era. Join the breakdown as Jon delves into Japanese religion, the environmental destruction of medieval japan, and the history of the various minorities of the Japanese archipelago that Miyazaki portrays in the movie. 

(Please note Jon makes a small mistake during the recording (⌣́_⌣̀), the location where kami are worshipped is called a shrine, and temples in a Japanese context refer exclusively to Buddhist places of worship.) 

The wonderful experts who join them are

Dr Paula Curtis 

A historian of premodern Japan and currently a Yanai Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer with the Department of Asian Languages & Cultures at UCLA. Her expertise focuses on metal caster organizations from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries and their relationships with elite institutions. She also does many projects based on the digital humanities including the blog What can I do with a B.A. in Japanese Studies?

Twitter: @paularcurtis

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Kaitlyn Ugoretz

A specialist in Contemporary Japanese religion, online sociality, popular culture, and new media studies and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies at UC Santa Barbara. Her YouTube channel is Eat Pray Anime where she explores the history and culture behind Japanese popular media.

Twitter: @KaitlynUgoretz

Suuuper Anime Podcast : www.suuuperanimepodcast.com

Twitter: @SuuuperAnime 

Instagram: SuuuperAnimepodcast

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SuuuperAnimePodcast

Youtube: Suuuper Anime

Tiktok: @suuuperanimepodcast

If you'd like to learn more about today's topics you can find articles and sources on our website www.japanhiddenhistorypodcast.com

You can also follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/Japanhiddenhistorypodcast/ 

Twitter  @JapanHistorypod 

Instagram japanhiddenhistorypod

Tiktok @japanhiddenhistory