tokugawa shogunate

Author and travel-writer Angus Waycott talks about his  8-day walk around Sado Island off Niigata Prefecture in the Japan Sea. He gives us in-depth accounts of: a mujina (tanuki-worshipping) cult, funa-ema (literally "ship horse pictures"), exile (including those of Zeami and Buddhist priest Nichiren), and the controversy behind the Kinzan gold mine and its "slave labor," all topics that he recorded in his book Sado: Japan's Island in Exile, originally published by Stone Bridge Press in 1996 and re-issued as an e-book by the author 2012 and 2023.

Book Description: "Given the choice, no-one ever went to Sado. For more than a thousand years, this island in the Sea of Japan was a place of exile for the deposed, disgraced or just plain distrusted — ex-emperors, aristocrats, poets, priests and convicted criminals alike. This book rediscovers the exiles’ island, explores the truth about its notorious gold mine, tracks down a vanishing badger cult, and drops in on the home of super-drummer band Kodo. Along the way, it paints a vivid picture of one of Japan’s most intriguing backwaters, now emerging from a long exile of its own."

About the Author

Angus Waycott is an author and travel writer whose books have been published in the UK, USA, Japan and the Netherlands. He has been the voice of TV news broadcasts, commercials, and award-winning documentaries, voiced "character" parts in game software and anime productions, and worked as a copywriter, publisher, teacher, translator, lighting designer, and staircase builder. His books are Sado: Japan's Isand in Exile, Paper Doors: Japan from Scratch (2012), The Winterborne Journey: along a small crack in the planet (2023), and National Parks of Western Europe (2012). Check out his short video on Sado Island.

The Books on Asia Podcast is sponsored by Stone Bridge Press. Check out their books on Japan at the publisher's website. Amy Chavez, podcast host, is author of Amy's Guide to Best Behavior in Japan and The Widow, the Priest, and the Octopus Hunter: Discovering a Lost Way of Life on a Secluded Japanese Island.

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On this day in 1871, the yen became the national currency of Japan.

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Any discussion of the Meiji Restoration in Japan would be incomplete without a discussion of the Era that preceded it.

The Edo Era (or Tokugawa Shogunate) began after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600.  The first half of the Shogunate was a prosperous and peaceful time in Japan.  It was ruled by a Shogun (the Emperor was only a nominal political leader) and locally by Samurais.  It followed a complex feudal system and strict social class hierarchy.  As Japan prospered cracks began to appear in the class hierarchy and the feudal system.

Japan was largely isolated from the rest of the world until the early to mid-19th century.  From this Era we are all familiar with iconic Japanese institutions such as Geisha, Kabuki, Haiku, and to some extent Sumo.  

Welcome to the second season of my podcast.  This season I want to delve into and answer the question that I have long wondered.  Why did Japan respond and fare better than China to relentless, aggressive assaults in the 19th century from foreign (particularly Western) nations?

To get there I talk about the Japanese Meiji Restoration including the Era that preceded it and greatly influenced the Meiji Era.  I will also compare and contrast Japan's experience with modernization and foreign nation aggression to that of China's. I designed the podcast series to also be a stand alone history of the Meiji Restoration.

The first few episodes I discuss the Edo Era (or Tokugawa Shogunate) that immediately preceded the Meiji Restoration.