The Meiji at 150 Podcast: Recent Episodes
Tristan Grunow
In the Meiji at 150 Podcast, host Tristan Grunow (UBC) interviews specialists of Japanese history, literature, art, and culture. For more, visit: https://Meijiat150.arts.ubc.ca, or see the episode guide at: https://meijiat150.arts.ubc.ca/podcast-episode-guide/.
In this concluding episode of the Meiji at 150 Podcast series, Dr. Grunow joins Dr. Hitomi Yoshio (Waseda) to revisit the background and production of the series, to review the state of the field of Japanese studies around the world in 2019 as seen through the podcast, and to rethink the importance of the Restoration today, before discussing the pedagogical and scholarly benefits of podcasting. This episode was recorded live at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan and made possible by the Top Global University Project.
In this episode, Drs. Zheng and Tierney recount the political discourse of China and Japan at the turn of the 20th century, focusing on the influential translations and political writings of Nakae Chōmin. We discuss Nakae's political writings, his influence on Chinese reformers including Liang Qichao, understandings of "popular rights" and "popular sovereignty" in Japan and China, and their legacy for state-society relations in both countries today.
In this episode, Dr. Maeda retraces the process of political centralization during the Meiji period, culminating in the establishment of the Imperial Diet in 1890. We discuss the emergence of national politics, competing political interests at different levels of society, and the impact of Japanese colonialism on national integration along with the idea of a "Long Meiji Restoration." (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Krietman uncovers the history of human waste in Tokyo, from early modern nightsoil collection to postwar sewage systems. We discuss the Edo nightsoil economy, impacts of infrastructural development and World War II, and municipal efforts to clean up the city leading up to the 1964 and 2020 Olympic games.
In this episode, Dr. Hutchinson traces the origins of many themes in contemporary Japanese video games to the Meiji Period. We discuss continuity in themes of Japanese identity and colonialism from Meiji literature to video games today, place video games into the context of cultural production, review representations of history in video games, and consider ways to use video games in the classroom to teach Japanese culture.
In this episode, Dr. Zohar recounts the history of photography in modern Japan, detailing the contributions of Japanese and foreign photographers. We discuss the introduction of photography, the role of photography in the colonization of Hokkaidō, and Dr. Zohar's recent work on representations of colonial memory.
In this episode, Dr. Takeuchi-Demirci resituates Japan's place in the transnational history of prewar birth control movements through the life and activism of Ishimoto Shizue, known as the Margaret Sanger of Japan. We discuss the relationship between Ishimoto and Sanger, the position of birth control within the prewar feminist movement, Sanger's controversial visit to Japan, and Ishimoto's postwar political activities.
This episode previews a new podcast series called Hokkaidō 150, produced in conjunction with the "Hokkaidō 150: Settler Colonialism and Indigeneity in Modern Japan and Beyond" workshop hosted at UBC. In this episode, Dr. ann-elise lewallen (UCSB) reviews gendered aspects of the colonization of Hokkaidō and recounts Ainu women's reaction and resistance to settler colonialism. Stay tuned for additional Hokkaidō 150 podcast episodes here: hokkaido150.transistor.fm/
In this episode, Dr. Yoshio reassesses the category of the "woman writer" (joryū sakka) during the Taishō period, tracing the emergence of an interwar transnational women's literature. We discuss the importance of Seito, the works of Tamura Toshiko, and Virginia Woolf's reactions to Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, before talking about Dr. Yoshio's translations of contemporary writer Kawakami Mieko.
In this episode, Dr. Benesch surveys what happens to Japan's medieval castles following the Meiji Restoration, highlighting how they stand for both continuity and change in modern Japan. We discuss the destruction of castles in the 1870s as relics of the feudal past before their re-appropriation by the military in the 1890s, connections between castles and reconstructions of Bushido in the prewar, and finally the rebuilding and repurposing of castles in the postwar for tourism.
In this episode, Dr. Linkhoeva reinserts Russia into the Meiji Period and modern Japanese history more broadly, calling into question narratives of constant tension and conflict between Russia and Japan. We discuss the popularity of Russian literature and political thought in the Meiji period, revisit Meiji fears of Russian expansion, trace friendly relations in the interwar and postwar periods, and locate the origins of these false narratives in Cold War-era historiography.
In this episode, Dr. Barclay reorients modern Japanese history to the perspective of the periphery, focusing on Japan's first colony of Taiwan. We discuss Indigenous Taiwanese resistance to Japanese colonialism, the role of capitalism in Japanese imperial expansion, notions of "savagery" and "civilization" in Japanese colonial rule, and how changing perspectives to the periphery reshapes Japanese history.
In this episode, Dr. Fessler chronicles the travel writings of Japanese who went overseas to North America and Europe during the Meiji period, noting how writers revived traditional forms of travel literature (kikō bungaku) to convey their new experiences. We discuss travelers' reactions to unfamiliar cultures, the disappearance of travel literature over the course of the Meiji period, and continuities between the Tokugawa domestic leisure travel industry and Meiji overseas travel before discussing Dr. Fessler's recent research on US Minister Resident to Japan Robert H. Pruyn.
In this episode, Dr. Miller maps the contours of environmental history in Japan and charts how attention to the human interrelationship with the world around us reshapes our understanding of modern Japanese history. We rethink definitions of modernity in the Japanese context, discuss the environmental impacts of coal consumption in Meiji industrialization, and illuminate the history of electricity in Tokyo. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Sippel surveys the field of environmental studies in Japan before sketching the environmental history of the Tokugawa period. We discuss Tokugawa flood control projects in the context of questions about early modern sustainability, unpack essentialized ideas of a unique Japanese connection to nature, and interrogate the environmentalist movement in Japan today.
In this episode, Dr. Wattles sketches the political potential of artists and artistic production, from early manga artists in the Tokugawa period to activist artists today. We discuss early Meiji portraiture and changing women's employments, editorial cartoons and manga critical of the government and society, and jail cartoons from an immigrant detention center outside Tokyo today.
In this episode, Dr. Steele questions narratives of the Meiji success story by reviewing modern Japanese history from the bottom-up. We discuss how common people experienced and reacted to the events of the Restoration, locate lingering Edokko antipathy for the Meiji government along with sympathy for the Tokugawa, evaluate commoner agency in the Restoration, and finally review examples of resistance to Westernization. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Phipps revisualizes the Meiji era through a global lens, complicating narratives of Meiji Japan "following" or "catching up" to the West and reinserting Japanese developments into global processes. We discuss recent commemorations of the Meiji Restoration sesquicentennial around the world, rediscover commercial ties between Japanese special trading ports and the Asian mainland, and question when Japan officially "opened."
In this episode, Dr. Orbach revisits prewar Japanese military disobedience starting on the eve of the Meiji Restoration. We discuss the shishi of the Bakumatsu years, the Taiwan Expedition and samurai rebellions in the 1870s, the assassinations of Queen Min in 1895 and Zhang Zuolin in 1928, and finally the wave of domestic terror and military coups in the 1930s. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Kirsten Ziomek highlights the diversity of the prewar Japanese empire by surveying native reactions to Japanese colonialism in four locations: Hokkaidō, Taiwan, Micronesia, and Okinawa. We discuss Japanese administrative adaptations to local conditions, the scholarly advantages of using non-traditional sources including oral interviews, pictures, and material objects, the agency of native colonial subjects, and imperial tours to Tokyo.
In this episode, Dr. Yamamoto reviews Japan's diplomatic interactions with Russia in the northern territories of the Kuril Islands and Karafuto in the years around the Meiji Restoration. We discuss Russian exploration in the area dating back to the 18th century, Meiji leaders' perceptions of a Russian threat in the north following the Restoration, and more recent disputes between Russia and Japan over the Kurils before talking about Dr. Yamamoto's recent research on the history of Japanese passports. (Transcript here).
This episode previews a new podcast series, Japan on the Record, a shorter format current events-themed series. In episode 1, Dr. Noell Wilson (University of Mississippi) details the American influences shaping Japanese deep sea whaling dating to the mid-19th century.
Read the NY Times editorial referenced in the episode here. Read the Japanese government's response here.
For more historical background on Japanese whaling, listen to Meiji at 150 Podcast episode 47 with Dr. Jakobina Arch.
Credit to BBC News and Al Jazeera English for audio clips.
In this episode, Dr. Babicz makes a compelling case for dating the start of "Modern Japan" to February 11, 1889, the date when the Meiji Constitution was promulgated, Mori Arinori was assassinated, and the Nihon newspaper published its first issue. We discuss the significance of the date and its connection to "National Foundation Day" today, the rise of conservatism from the middle of the Meiji period, popular reactions to these events at the time, and what their concurrence suggests about Japanese modernization. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Sasamoto-Collins notes tension in Japanese society following the Meiji Restoration between authoritarian state power and political dissenters. We discuss the absolutism of the Meiji state, introduce several prewar political dissidents including Minobe Tatsukichi, map changes in the state/society relationship over the course of modern Japanese history, and question the vibrancy of Japanese civil society today. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Thomas revisits the history of religion during the Meiji Period, outlining the impacts of the Restoration on Buddhism in Japan. We discuss the anxiety felt by Buddhists after 1868, Buddhist practitioners' reactions to institutionalized Shinto in the prewar period, the religious consequences of the postwar American Occupation, and links between animation and religious practice in contemporary Japan. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Prough guides a tour of historical sites in Kyoto associated with Sakamoto Ryōma, stopping along the way to discuss Ryōma's role in the Restoration, the historical memory of Ryōma, the repackaging of Ryōma's story for tourists, and the role of tourism in shaping Kyoto's urban identity as a city of traditional culture and history, for better or worse.
In this episode, Dr. Wittner revisits narratives of the technological and industrial transformation of Japan following the Meiji Restoration. We discuss the Meiji government's emphasis on technology, the role of Japanese entrepreneurs, Tokugawa preconditions for Meiji industrialization, the activities of oyatoi "hired foreign experts," and the UNESCO sites of Meiji industrialization.
In this episode, Dr. Copeland documents several cases of "unruly women" who disrupt Japanese social norms, from mythical goddess Izanami to popular activists and female writers in the Meiji and Taishō Periods like Kishida Toshiko and Miyake Kaho, and finally to contemporary writer Kirino Natsuo. We discuss formalist versus historicist literary analysis, questions of agency and individuality in Meiji women's cultural production, and the importance of translation in the field of literary studies. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Isomae charts the changing importance and role of religion in Japanese society following the Meiji Restoration, tracing the emergence of public and private spheres influenced by the introduction of Protestantism. We discuss the dichotomy of belief and practice in the context of popular support for prewar State Shinto and the continuing sacredotal roles of the emperor system, the prevalence of religious rituals and customs in Japanese society, and the popularity of new religions in Japan today.
In this episode, Dr. Susan Burns positions the history of leprosy in Japan amidst changing conceptions of disease and medical practice in the Tokugawa and Meiji periods. We discuss premodern understandings of disease as karmic retribution, government responses to infectious disease, the geographical distribution of medical institutions, and geospatial stigmas associated with the afflicted. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Campbell reviews the Meiji Restoration from the perspective of American cultural history, situating Japan within American interests in the Pacific. We question narratives of a "Clash" of Japanese and American cultures, and discuss Dr. Campbell's work on Japanese toilets and the material history of Japanese men's fashion. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Janice Nimura recounts the remarkable story of the women of the Iwakura Mission, three young girls sent to America in 1872 for a decade to learn about Western culture. We discuss the background of the women's presence on the Mission, the women's experiences in the US as seen in diaries and personal correspondence, and the lives they led and impact they had in Japan upon their return. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Jaundrill complicates the easy association between Bushidō, samurai, and Japan in the contemporary popular imagination. We discuss military reforms dating to the 1850s and into the Meiji Period, highlight the impact of military conscription on the former samurai and on commoners, challenge the continuity of Bushidō in the prewar military, and question the re-appropriation of Bushidō for the contemporary business world. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Deborah Shamoon redraws depictions of the shōjo, or adolescent women, in Japanese cultural production in the Meiji and Taishō period, drawing connections between literature and new understandings of adolescent women’s roles in society. We discuss the emergence of new types of female characters in Meiji literature by Futabatei Shimei, Miyake Kaho, and Mori Ōgai, views of teenage girls as threatening in works by Tayama Katai and Tanizaki Junichirō, and changes in shōjo culture as seen in shōjo manga and the popularity of Misora Hibari in the postwar.
In this episode, Dr. Ravina reconsiders received narratives of the Meiji Restoration, challenging ideas of the Restoration as a sharp break and reviving the importance of antiquity to early Meiji leaders. We compare the Meiji Restoration to earlier examples of foreign threat and domestic reform in premodern Japan, question concepts of "modernization" and "Westernization" commonly applied to the Meiji Period, and place the Restoration among the global revolutions of the 19th century. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Loh re-examines the history of science in modern Japan and charts Japan's singular experiences of radiation, from the development of Japanese radiology during the Meiji Period, to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and finally to the Triple Disaster in Fukushima. We discuss the introduction of X-ray technology, the lives and work of Japanese scientists Nishina Yoshio and Nagai Takashi, and Dr. Loh's contribution to a documentary film about radiation in Fukushima. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Ambaras retraces the intimate and illicit networks of regional mobility in East Asia to rethink nation-centric narratives of modern Japanese and Chinese history. We discuss how the Meiji Restoration reshaped the East Asian Sinosphere, the lives of traders, women, and children living in Japan's "imperial underworlds," and how the upending of the East Asian order once again in 1945 impacted transnational families. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Brunero places treaty ports in Japan leading up to and after the Meiji Restoration into an East Asian regional perspective, comparing life in treaty ports in Japan and China. We discuss cultural transformations and cultural hybridity in treaty ports, question popular visions of the treaty ports that render non-Westerners invisible, and reread newspaper coverage of the Meiji Restoration in the Chinese treaty port press.
In this episode, Dr. Sand maps the urban change of Tokyo following the Meiji Restoration, highlighting material and spatial changes along with continuities and discontinuities in Tokyo planning from the 1880s to the present. We discuss the Ginza Bricktown, the politics of urban planning in the late 19th century, and disastrous moments of urban disruption in 1923 and 1945 before fast-forwarding to the present to talk about Shitamachi culture in Tokyo, our own favorite Tokyo neighborhoods, and to speculate on how the 2020 Tokyo Olympics will reshape the city once again. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Carol Gluck reconsiders recent scholarly treatments of the Meiji Restoration by prominent historians in Japan, challenging narratives of a "simple Meiji". We question whether or not "Meiji has lost its mojo" in Japan today in light of lackluster commemorations of Meiji 150, discuss the commonalities and connections between the Meiji Restoration and the 19th century world, and talk about the importance of the Restoration in shaping Japanese history. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Nakamura diagnoses the development of medical practice in Meiji Japan, starting with battlefield medicine during the Bōshin War. We discuss the violence of the Meiji Restoration, changes in medical practice following the Restoration, and the roles of female physicians and Western advisors in the development of Japanese medical practice. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Ericson rethinks several common understandings of Meiji industrialization and economic modernization, reassessing ideas of fiscal retrenchment during the Matsukata Deflation, challenging assumptions of Tokugawa structural preconditions for Meiji industrialization, and questioning the speed and success of Meiji industrial growth. (Transcipt here).
In this episode, Dr. Oshikiri describes changes to the cultural significance of tea ceremony from the Tokugawa Period into the Meiji Period. We discuss the practice of tea ceremony in the Tokugawa period, the embracing of tea ceremony after the Restoration in the context of invented traditions and new social organizations in the Meiji Period, as well as the promotion of tea ceremony as a Japanese art form at international expositions to stimulate tea exports.
In this episode, Dr. Huffman chronicles the daily lives of the down and out poor residents in the slums of Tokyo and Osaka during the late Meiji Period. We discuss the life patterns and living conditions of slum residents, the rural poverty that drove people to look for jobs in the cities and overseas in places like Hawaii, the existence of charity and other social welfare programs to help the poor, and contemporary press coverage of the slums in the mass media before talking about the status of Tokyo slums today. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Chatani raises the importance of rural Seinendan youth mobilization groups in rallying local support for the Japanese military across the Japanese empire, from Miyagi to Okinawa, Taiwan, and Korea. We discuss the reasons for popular support of the military amongst rural villagers and the large number of colonial youth who volunteered for the Japanese army, before shifting to talk about Dr. Chatani's recent research on the lives of North Korean overseas nationals in Japan in the context of postwar northeast Asian geopolitics. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Reynolds reinforces the Meiji foundations of modern Japanese national architectural as mix of Western and traditional forms. We discuss the Meiji origins of institutions of architectural practice including architectural training programs, the mixing of Western and Japanese traditional forms in the training curricula, and the Pan-Asian and hybrid style of Itō Chūta. We then fast forward to the postwar period to talk about continuities between prewar and postwar architecture, the importance of Japanese forms and architects in the global development of Modernist architecture, the National Diet Building, and the aesthetics of Tokyo architecture, concluding with the politics of architectural preservation and restoration today.
In this episode, Dr. Yoshimizu outlines and deconstructs discourses of proper women's behavior amongst the Japanese-Canadian community in prewar British Columbia through representations of Japanese sex workers, waitresses, and wives in the Tairiku Nippō newspaper. We discuss the history of Japanese prostitution in BC, the importance of vernacular media to the Japanese immigrant community, and how the history of Japanese sex workers in BC is remembered today in both Japan and Canada.
In this episode, Dr. Partner retraces the footsteps of Japanese merchant Shinohara Chūemon in treaty-port Yokohama in the 1850-1860s, emphasizing the individual efforts from the bottom-up that made Meiji transformations possible. We discuss what life was like in treaty ports for Japanese residents, how Meiji reforms impacted Japanese residents both in the treaty ports and in rural areas, and the emergence of Japanese national identity in reaction to interaction with foreigners.
In this episode, Dr. Yoshimura weaves kimono into the study of Japanese material culture and folklore from the Meiji Period, noting how kimono fashion and cultural practices changed during the Meiji Period as kimono became Japan's national garment. We discuss the materiality of folklore studies, Meiji kimono, and practices of kimono wearing today before talking about Dr. Yoshimura's work on Asian-American grocery stores.
In this episode, Dr. Foster guides us into the realm of yōkai, or supernatural spirits and monsters, as an introduction to the study of Japanese folklore. We discuss the popularity of the kokkuri divination game during the Meiji period as evidence for how Japanese were reacting to changes in everyday life, the continuing prominence of yōkai in Japanese pop culture and global imaginations of Japan, and the political context of UNESCO intangible cultural heritage sites and local tourist advertising in Japan.
In this episode, Dr. Aso reconstructs representations of Japanese modernity in imperial museums from the early Meiji Period, noting the influence of international expositions and imperialist expansion. We then discuss Dr. Aso’s more recent research on wartime consumerism and department store advertising before talking about her classroom teaching on gender in East Asia.
In this episode, Dr. Kerim Yasar notes how the introduction of technologies of sound production and reproduction impacted Japanese daily life during the Meiji period. We touch on the ability of informative technologies like the telegraph and the telephone to spread ideas and tie the nation together, before discussing the spread of popular culture, such as Naniwa Bushi and other performative arts, through the gramophone, radio, and film.
In this episode, Dr. Siniawer reconsiders the big questions of politics during the Meiji Period, touching on major developments including the construction of the Meiji state, divides within the Meiji ruling regime, samurai rebellions, and the Seikanron ("Punish Korea") debates. We discuss the radical reforms of the Caretaker Government in the early 1870s, along with the political goals of protestors and violence in the Freedom and People's Rights Movement, before talking about Dr. Siniawer's more recent research on waste in postwar Japan. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Brian McVeigh investigates the development of the social sciences in Japan during the Meiji period, with an emphasis on the study of psychology. We discuss the place of the social sciences in the Japanese education and imperial university system, position Japan within global psychology practice, and map changes to the psychology profession over the course of Japanese history before contrasting ideas of the Self in the Meiji period and today.
In this episode, Dr. Merry White recasts Japan as a coffee country, emphasizing the popularity of coffee and coffee shops in Japanese society dating to the Meiji Period. We discuss multiple waves of coffee popularity in Japan, trends in different kinds of coffee shops, the prevalence of specialized coffee craft and techniques in Japanese cafes, and the view of Japanese society we get from the coffee shop, before comparing notes on our own favorite Tokyo cafes and obsessive coffee habits. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Marco Tinello traces the origins of "Ryūkyū Shobun" and the Japanese colonization of the Ryūkyū Kingdom in the 1870s to Ryūkyūan embassies sent to Edo during the early modern period. We discuss the political importance of these embassies for the Tokugawa, the Ryūkyūs, and Satsuma, re-position the embassies in the complicated politics of Bakumatsu, and reinsert Ryūkyū into diplomatic negotiations with the Western powers from the 1850s.
In this episode, Dr. Loo recounts the incorporation of the Ryūkyū Kingdom into Japan and the establishment of Okinawa Prefecture in 1879 as one example of Japanese territorial expansion following the Meiji Restoration. We discuss Meiji state policies towards the Ryūkyūs, the reactions of Ryūkyūan elites, local protest movements, comparisons to the colonization of Hokkaidō and Taiwan, and the legacies of this history for Okinawan identity and culture today.
In this episode, Dr. Mark McNally revisits the history of nativism and anti-foreignism during the years leading up to the Meiji Restoration, finding the late-Tokugawa period far more cosmopolitan than expected. We discuss early modern Japanese relations with the Ryūkyū kingdom, the conversion of Ryūkyū into Okinawa, and the history of Japanese emigration to Hawaii.
In this episode, Dr. Weisenfeld depicts how Japanese avant-garde artists responded to the structures and institutions of modern art constructed during the Meiji Period, as well as their destruction in the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake. We discuss artistic reactions to modernity, the visual culture of civil air defense in wartime Japan, ties between visual culture and the nation-state, and the graphic design of Japanese corporate advertising. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Oharazeki details the lives of Ameyuki-san, Japanese women who traveled to North America in the late Meiji period to work as prostitutes. We discuss the reasons these women left Japan and compare them to Karayuki-san who went to China before talking about the conditions these women faced in North America, how local communities responded, and what impact these experiences had on anti-prostitution movements in Japan and the United States. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Louise Young de-centers Japanese modernization during the Meiji Period by re-orienting our attention to Japan's peripheral "second cities," including Niigata, Okayama, Kanazawa, and Sapporo. We discuss uneven power relations between the center and periphery, trace the circulation of ideas of urban life between domestic and colonial cities, and link imperialism to the rise of a culture of popular Japanese fascism in the 1930s before retracing historiographical shifts in scholarship on the Restoration. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Garrett Washington reinserts Christianity into the history of the Meiji Restoration, detailing the activities of early missionaries to proselytize while promoting Japanese modernization. We discuss the illegality of Christianity and the Hidden Christians in Nagasaki in the early Meiji Period, the impact of Christian values on Japanese women, and the hybridized worship spaces constructed by Japanese Christian congregations.
In this episode, Dr. Andrew Gordon compares approaches to studying the Meiji Restoration in Japanese and Anglophone scholarship, tracing recent historiographical shifts in scholarship on modern Japan as seen through editions of his textbook. We discuss Dr. Gordon's efforts to "de-exoticize" Japan in the classroom, to disseminate historical understandings of Japan to the general public, and to digitally document Japan's present for future historians before talking about his recent seminar on Dark Tourism in Japan. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Timothy Brook reviews the Meiji Restoration from the perspective of Chinese history, reconsidering historical narratives comparing Chinese and Japanese responses to Western imperialism and detailing how the Restoration impacted China and Japan's positions in the region. We discuss how nationalism shaped reactions to the West, the origins of Japanese imperialist expansion in East Asia, and the legacies and lessons of the Meiji Restoration for Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations today. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Indra Levy underlines the importance of translation in Meiji-period transformations in Japanese language, literature, and culture. We discuss the role of literature in the modern nation-state, literary characters as allegories for the nation, and the politics of humour in literature before contrasting the relationship between composition and translation in Japan and the US. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Anne Giblin Gedacht reviews the "Meiji Revolution" from the peripheral Tōhoku region, tracing the formation of regional identity in the Japanese borderlands and tracking the mobility of Japanese migrants to Tōhoku and overseas. We locate Tōhoku in spatial conceptualizations of "Japan" during the Tokugawa period, place Tōhoku within Meiji programs of nation-building, and compare the settlement of Tōhoku to the history of settler colonialism in Hokkaidō and of Japanese overseas migration.
In this episode, Dr. Andrew Bernstein charts both the modernization of death practices and the nationalization of Mt. Fuji from the Meiji Period to today. After discussing the invention of Shinto funerals, the Meiji government's short-lived ban on cremation, and the impact of street traffic on funeral processions, we turn to the emergence of Fuji as a national symbol and then to the development of military training grounds at its base. Dr. Bernstein also briefly describes an interdisciplinary Mt. Fuji study program that he led in 2014 and 2017.
In this episode, Dr. Maren Ehlers re-examines social relations in rural communities in central Japan in the years leading up to the Meiji Restoration, centering on poverty and poor relief programs for marginalized groups such as beggars and outcastes. We discuss the impacts of severe famine on rural villagers, changing expectations of benevolent government in the Tokugawa moral economy, and the increase of internal unrest and rural upheaval from the 1850s. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Fred Dickinson argues for the significance of the Meiji Restoration in global history, challenging narratives of the "rise of the West" and emphasizing the impacts of Japanese-empire building on the 19th century world. We discuss the effects of the Sino-Japanese War on Western imperialism, documentary sources for placing Japan in global history, and the lessons of Meiji Japan for the world today. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Alice Tseng reconstructs the Western foundations of Meiji period architecture along with government attempts to mediate Japanese modernization in built form. We discuss the politics of building design, representations of Japan at international expositions, and the reactions of foreign visitors to Tokyo before relocating our conversation to the development and urban design of modern Kyoto.
In this episode, Dr. Sidney Lu 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 Hokkaidō, Korea, and the United States, and reflect on how trans-Pacific migration transcends nation-centric histories.
In this episode, Dr. Laura Nenzi 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. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Eric Han 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.
In this episode, Dr. Jakobina Arch recasts our perspective of the Meiji Restoration and of Japan out to sea by charting the history of Japanese whaling. We question the sustainability of premodern whaling, discuss changes in whaling practices during the Meiji Period, interrogate the lack of attention to the oceans and to whaling in Japanese history, and navigate debates over Japanese whaling today.
In this episode, Dr. Nick Kapur resituates the 100th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration into the global revolution of 1968, retracing government designs for the ceremony and outlining the opposition of academic historians. We discuss the context of public protest in postwar Japan, popular reactions to shifting geopolitics, and the actions and motivations of student protestors before comparing the making and meaning of the 100th anniversary to the 150th.
In this episode, Dr. Sarah Thal 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.
In this episode, Dr. Takashi Fujitani 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. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Prof. Tessa Morris-Suzuki 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. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Timothy David Amos 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.
In this episode, Dr. Anne Walthall 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. (Transcript here).
In this episode, 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.
In this episode, Dr. Annette Skovsted Hansen 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.
In this episode, Dr. Katsuya Hirano (UCLA) recounts Japanese settler colonization of Hokkaidō during the Meiji Period, underlining the racialization and dispossession of indigenous Ainu inhabitants. We discuss the role of capitalism and infrastructural development in Japanese imperial expansion, the impacts of the Meiji Restoration on the Ainu population, conditions for Ainu today, and the challenges of cultural commodification. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Melek Ortabasi retells the story of folklore focusing on the works of Yanagita Kunio, and gives a comparative look at children's literature in the Meiji Period. We discuss folklore themes in Japanese popular culture today, Meiji children's education, and a comparative approach to teaching the Meiji Period.
In this episode, Dr. Hiromu Nagahara (MIT) charts the popular music of the Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa eras, noting the politics of music and sounding the potential of songs to voice popular discontent. We discuss the formation of national music in the Meiji Period, the spread of protest tunes in the Popular Rights Movement, the lingering popularity of wartime propaganda anthems, and the counterculture sentiments of postwar jazz standards and Enka ballads.
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.
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. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Alisa Freedman (Oregon) charts the urban space and lived experiences of Tokyo during the late-Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa Periods as represented in literature, film, and popular culture. We discuss train culture both then and today -- touching on Tayama Katai, Densha Otoko (Train Man), "cell phone novels," and Kawabata Yasunari -- before talking about "modern girls" going around the world, from Hato bus guides in Tokyo to language teachers in North America.
In this episode, Dr. Masao Nakamura (UBC) discloses the impacts of the Meiji Period on Japanese business and financial practices, investing importance in the close relationship between the state and the public sector. We discuss how the Restoration affected family-based merchant firms like Mitsui and Sumitomo, question the success of Meiji "big push" economic policies, locate the origins of prewar Zaibatsu in Meiji-era financial practices, and speculate on the problems facing Japanese commerce today. (Transcript here).
In this episode, Dr. Hardacre recenters religion in Japanese society in the Tokugawa and Meiji periods, laying the pre-1868 groundwork for the embracing of kami-workship after the Restoration and tracing the importance of religion in everyday life. We also discuss the meaning of Meiji at 150 along with future directions for the study of the Meiji Period. (Transcript here).
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.
In this episode, Dr. Lisa Yoshikawa chronicles how professional historians in the Meiji and Taisho Periods legitimized imperialism as they attempted to elevate the discipline of history within Japanese academia. We discuss the mobilization of history and myth to justify colonialism, the development of academic history in the Meiji period, and scholars' complicity with interwar illiberalism before considering the politics of historical memory along with legacies for Japanese historians and historiographies in the postwar and today. (Transcript here).
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.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, two students travel the Tōkaidō Road between Kyōto and Edo during the Tokugawa Period, stopping along the way at several towns, rest stops, and post stations.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a group of students lead a tour of towns, rest stops, and post stations along the Tōkaidō Road between Kyōto and Edo during the Tokugawa Period.
In this episode, Dr. Rebecca Corbett (USC) infuses tea into the history of the Meiji Restoration, noting links between tea practice and the cultivation of femininity in the Edo and Meiji periods. We discuss changes in tea practice over the Edo and Meiji periods, the association of tea with Japanese "tradition," and dilute essentialist ideas of the "Japanese-ness" of tea ceremony.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, two students introduce research they conducted on a Japanese-owned business damaged in the 1907 Vancouver Anti-Asian riots.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student introduces research she conducted on a Japanese-owned business damaged in the 1907 Vancouver Anti-Asian riots.
In this episode, Dr. Michael Wert (Marquette University) re-enacts the violence of the Meiji Restoration, combatting historiographical narratives of the Restoration as a "non-violent" or "bloodless" revolution. We discuss what happens to the losers of the Restoration, the post-1868 activities and status of ex-Bakufu officials, and the "Long Meiji Restoration" before reflecting on the politics of historical memory and commemoration today.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student sketches the work of famous Edo-period woodblock artist Utagawa Hiroshige, focusing on the print "Fireworks at Ryōgoku Bridge" from the One Hundred Views of Edo series.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student catalogues the political and propagandistic messages of popular music in prewar and postwar Japan, from prewar military marches to Occupation-era big band jazz, the 1950's enka ballads of Misora Hibari, and the 1960s pop melodies of Sakamoto Kyū.
In this episode, Dr. Amy Stanley (Northwestern University) outlines the impact of the Meiji Restoration on the practice of prostitution in Japan along with the social positions and roles of prostitutes and Geisha. We discuss distinctions between prostitutes and Geisha, the continuing popularity of "Geisha" and Geisha imagery today, and Dr. Stanley's recent popular historical work on the city of Edo. (Transcript here).
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student charts the popularity of "J-Pop," or Japanese pop music, spotlighting Japanese pop idols, notable groups, and influential production companies. We also discuss differences between Japanese and Western musical styles, and the crowd-sourced Vocaloid musical act Hatsune Miku.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student sits for an assessment of Japanese school entrance exams, marking the importance of exams, the pressures of exam-taking on students, and the resulting industry of exam-prep Juku, or cram schools, in Japan.
In this episode, Prof. Peter Kornicki challenges the narrative of the Meiji period as revolutionary, instead underlining continuities in literary tastes, practices, and writing through the 1880s. We discuss the origins, meaning of, and alternatives to the term "Restoration," literary transitions in the mid-Meiji Period, and popular discontentment and protest. (Transcript here).
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student introduces Otaku (obsessive fan) culture, discussing its increasing familiarity and popularity, describing its many forms and objects of fandom from anime and trains to Star Wars, and dispelling several misconceptions about Otaku.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student records the subversive music, literature, and film of the 1960s counterculture movement, featuring guerilla folk songs and avante garde films.
In this episode, Dr. Marnie Anderson (Smith) canvasses the political agency of women's groups during the Meiji period, changes in women's place in public society, and women's active participation in the construction of notions of femininity. We discuss the modern motivations of, and divisions within, actors in the 1880s Popular Rights Movement, and reflect on the ruptures and transformations of the Meiji period. (Transcript here).
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, two students paint a picture of Edo-Period Ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world," tracing the works and influence of famous artists like Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student presents the history of sushi in Japan, serving up the different styles of sushi preparation, and dishing out the differences in sushi between Japan and North America.
In this episode, Dr. Metzler (Washington) views the Meiji Restoration from the perspective of global economic history. We discuss the impacts of global financial crises and international events on Japanese developments, the transformations of the Meiji Period, and the economic motivations of peasant protestors in the 1850s, 1880s, and 1910s. (Transcript here).
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student directs our attention to the horror movie genre in Japan, especially the films of director Miike Takashi. We discuss differences in the horror genre in Japan and North America, the moral "lessons" of horror films, and ways the horror genre reflects issues in contemporary society.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student walks through the Japanese "Dark Souls" RPG video game series, navigating the complex Japanese videogame market and repositioning the gaming phenomenon within larger Japanese and North American social contexts.
In this episode, Dr. Barbara Molony (Santa Clara), Dr. Sabine Frühstück (UCSB), and Dr. Hillary Maxson (Oregon) trace how gender norms and the position of women and children changed during the Meiji, Taishō, and Shōwa Periods. We deconstruct notions of masculinity, femininity, and childhood, map the unevenness of the "Good Wife Wise Mother" ideology, and debate postwar disruptions of prewar and wartime norms.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student introduces Keigo, or Japanese honorific language, delineating its complex hierarchies, social uses, and impacts on interpersonal communication and relationships.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student steers our attention to Ō-to Re-su (Auto Race) -- Japanese hi-speed motorcycle racing -- encircling its background, its continuing popularity, and its unique features.
In this episode, Dr Jacobowitz (Yale) chronicles internal sources for Meiji Period developments in Japanese literary practices and techniques, placing Japan in dialogue with global trends and world history. We discuss literary innovations, Japanese immigration to Brazil, and the interaction of Japanese and Western literati and intellectuals.
In this workshop, Dr. Barbara Molony (Santa Clara), Dr. Sabine Frühstück (UCSB), Dr. Sharalyn Orbaugh (UBC), and Dr. Hillary Maxson (Oregon) present their recent research and discuss the transwar positionality of women and children, resisting the tendency to see 1945 as a breakpoint and to instead analyze longer-term developments in years of both war and peace.
This workshop was held on March 9, 2018 as part of the Meiji at 150 Workshop Series, hosted by the Centre for Japanese Research, the Department of History, and the Department of Asian Studies, with the support of the UBC Faculty of Arts.
In this lecture, Sherri Kajiwara (Nikkei National Museum) traces the history of Japanese immigration to Canada and introduces several exhibits concerning the lived experiences of Japanese-Canadian internment and disposession in 1942 curated at the Nikkei National Museum.
This presentation was delivered on 28th February, 2018 at the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
In this episode, Sherri Kajiwara uncovers the roots of Japanese immigration to Canada and the deracination of the Japanese-Canadian population from British Columbia in 1942. We discuss the lived experiences of Japanese-Canadians in Vancouver pre-1942, their interactions with other immigrant communities, and differences in the practices and legacies of wartime internment in Canada and the United States.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student samples Yoshōku, or Japanese-style Western foods, like omuraisu, napolitan, and kare raisu, tracing their origins and noting their affiliation with "Japanese food," especially overseas.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student guides us on a tour of "holy sites" made popular by anime or manga, noting the commercial benefits these pilgrimages bring for local areas and the affective ties fans develop for these places.
In this episode, Dr. Leca (Kyoto Institute, Library and Archives) charts conceptions of spatiality in the Tokugawa period and maps continuities in understandings of geographic space into the Meiji period. We discuss traces of Edo in the urban space of Tokyo, the use of maps as historical primary sources, and global and interdisciplinary approaches to teaching the Meiji period.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student gives us a small taste of the recent popularity of Japanese whisky around the world, sampling the history of whisky production in Japan as well as the rapid growth of the whisky industry in general.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student reviews the making and meaning of the Studio Ghibli film Hotaru no Haka (1988), or "Grave of Fireflies," directed by Takahata Isao.
In this episode, Dr. Kate McDonald (UCSB) repositions tourism starting in the late-Meiji period as a site for establishing claims to empire in Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria. We discuss the imperial origins of the domestic tourist industry, the place of Korea in colonial advertising and travel itineraries, and the introspective lessons students can draw from studying Meiji period reforms.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student shares his passion for anime and traces the influence of Japanese anime on cartoons in North America.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, a student talks about the popularity of American culture in Japan, as seen in food products, celebrities, and movies.
In this episode, Dr. Brecher (Washington State University) challenges narratives of Meiji modernization from the “top-down” by exploring tourist sites popular in early Meiji Japan and tracing changes to understandings of individuality as examples of grassroots developments. We also discuss his more recent work on the internment of foreign nationals in wartime Japan.
In this Meiji at 150 Project Keynote Lecture, Dr. Shunya Yoshimi (University of Tokyo, Harvard University) proposes that a longue durée approach to history presents one possible solution to the crisis of the humanities in Japan and North America. Noting cyclical trends in Japan's recent history, Dr. Yoshimi calls attention to multiple "scales" of history in 25-year, 50-year, 75-year, 150-year, and even 500-year increments.
In this lecture, Dr. Marcia Yonemoto (University of Colorado-Boulder) details practices of male heir adoption during the Tokugawa period, and charts changes and continuities in adoption in the early Meiji Period.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture they research in class. In this episode, two students discuss Japanese yakyū (baseball), comparing and contrasting the onfield and ingame experience for players and fans in Japan and North America.
In the Meiji at 150 Student Podcast, UBC students discuss aspects of Japanese culture that they research in class. In this episode, two students discuss the societal roots and impacts of karōshi, a phenomenon in which Japanese businesspeople literally "work themselves to death."
In this episode, Dr. Marcia Yonemoto (Colorado) stresses the continuities between the early modern and Meiji Periods, resituating the Meiji Restoration and the Meiji Charter Oath in particular as products of early modern concerns and conditions. With this in mind, we evaluate the historical usefulness of categories like "modern" and "early modern" in the Japanese context, date the beginning of Japanese "early modernity," and discuss insights from Meiji-era diarists.
In this episode, Dr. David Anderson (UBC) appraises historical memory in Japan and the reactions of visitors to Japanese history museums, particularly of the Shōwa Period. We discuss the interplay of museum visitor and curator in museum exhibitions, social roots of the recent nostalgia for the Showa Period, and the interrelationship of historical narrative, cultural production, and popular memory.
In this episode, Dr. Millie Creighton (UBC) revisits the Meiji Period through the lens of tourism, exploring the way the Restoration is repackaged and resold at local tourist sites from Kagoshima to Kochi today. We discuss the popularity of “historical theme parks” such as Meiji Village and Nikko Edo Village, the UNESCO designation of Meiji-era industrial sites, and the recent boom in TV dramatizations of the Meiji and Showa periods.
In this Episode, Dr. Naoko Kato (UBC) catalogues the impact of the Meiji Period on Sino-Japanese relations through the person of Uchiyama Kanzo and the Uchiyama bookstore in Shanghai. We also discuss the numerous Japan-related resources located at the UBC libraries and the Meiji at 150 Digital Teaching Resource.
In this episode, Dr. Eiji Okawa (University of Victoria) documents how the Meiji Restoration impacted the epistemology of history in Japan and Japanese overseas migration in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. We discuss ideas of "Japanese-ness" in premodern Japan and find continuities with conceptualizations of identity, language, and group among Japanese diasporic communities in British Columbia in the face of systemic racism and violence.
In this episode, Dr. Gideon Fujiwara (Lethbridge) positions the Meiji Restoration in the comparative context of a global "Age of Revolution." We discuss the "revolutionary" aspects of the Restoration, including popular involvement, political upheaval, and cultural change during the Meiji Period, touching on the political significance of the Utakai Hajime poetry-reading ceremony and global approaches to the Restoration in the classroom. (Transcript here).
In this lecture, Dr. Gideon Fujiwara (Lethbridge) discusses the ritualization of the "Utakai Hajime" imperial poetry reading-ceremony in the early Meiji Period. Within the context of nation-building programs carried out by the Meiji government, the inclusion of poems composed by civilians in the poetry ceremony represented an attempt to make the imperial family more visible to the people.
This presentation was delivered on 24th November, 2017 at the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
In this episode, Dr. Sharalyn Orbaugh (UBC) sheds light on the story of Nogi Shizuko and her gruesome suicide alongside husband Nogi Maresuke on the day of the Meiji Emperor's funeral in 1912. Noting the relative silence on Shizuko's role in the story, we discuss the absence of Shizuko as a figure in anti-war or women's movements in the prewar period, her reappearance in the postwar, and the position of women more broadly in Japanese wartime ideology.
In this episode, Dr. David Howell (Harvard University) situates the Meiji Restoration as one moment in Japan's longer nineteenth century of social, cultural, and political transformations. We consider the "spirit of 1868" that informed many of the early Meiji state's reforms, along with their impacts on people in different areas of Japan, including the Ainu population of Hokkaido. (Transcript here).
In this presentation, Dr. David Howell (Harvard University) argues that the night-soil economy of Edo offers a novel way to situate late Tokugawa and early Meiji Japan into the broader history of the nineteenth-century world, while at the same time challenging the tendency to essentialize the “greenness” of early modern Japanese cities.
This presentation was delivered on 10th November, 2017 at the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
In this episode, Dr. Ignacio Adriasola (UBC) paints a picture of how “modern Japanese art” was first defined during the Meiji Period. We discuss the relationship between artists and the Meiji state, the popularity of Japonisme in Western Europe, and the impacts of Japanese art and artists on Western artists and artistic practices.
In this episode, Dr. Yi reads the Meiji Period from the perspective of literary studies and discusses the impacts of the Meiji Restoration on writers in Japan, especially Korean and Korean-Japanese writers composing literature in Japanese. We discuss issues of language and identity in the prewar Japanese empire, definition of the “modern" Japanese literary canon in the Meiji Period, and increasing recognition of Korean-Japanese writers in Japanese literature.
In this episode, Dr. Nosco dispels several misconceptions about individuality in Japan prior to the Meiji Restoration. We then contrast the protest movements of the 1860s in Japan to those of the 1960s, with Dr. Nosco sharing several fascinating anecdotes of personal experiences of the 1960s student protests in the US and Japan.
In this episode, Dr. Dierkes analyzes how the Meiji Restoration is presented in history textbooks in Japan. We compare the historiography of the Restoration in Japanese and Western scholarship, as well as discuss recent issues surrounding textbooks in both Japan and the United States.
In this episode, Dr. Ruoff explains the impact of the Meiji Restoration in global history and the role of the emperor system in Japanese modernization. We discuss the longevity of the emperor system in relation to its flexibility, as well as its centrality in both the prewar and postwar Japanese political and cultural environments.
In this episode, Dr. Craig offers a glimpse of the Meiji Restoration as it was viewed from peripheral regions, in this case rural Miyagi prefecture. We discuss power dynamics between the central and prefectural governments during the early Meiji Period, and how central government policies were shaped and reshaped at local levels.
In this episode, Dr. Conlan gives us a view of the Meiji Restoration from the perspective of late-medieval Japan. We discuss how viewing the Restoration in the longue durée reveals transformations and developments, especially in military technology, that are obscured when the story is started in 1868 (Transcript here).