Show Notes for episode 72 of our Podcast – Higuchi Ichiyo. Story Notes Today we finally delve into the life of Higuchi Ichiyo, the woman you can see on the 5000円 note. Ichiyo was born on May 2, 1872. Her name at birth was Natsu, although she also called herself[...]
Show Notes for episode 71 of our Podcast – Hidden Names. Story Notes Our first episode during Womens History Month so I wanted to do an episode on 3 women I have come across in my time making the website and they are women we do not know the names[...]
Show Notes for episode 70 of our Podcast – Making Withered Trees Bloom. Story Notes Long, long ago there lived an old man and his wife who supported themselves by cultivating a small plot of land. Their life had been a very happy and peaceful one save for one great[...]
Show Notes for bonus 17 of our Podcast – Frolicking Animals. (Chōjū-giga) Story Notes We return to Kyoto as we often do on our show, this time to a temple known as Kōzan-ji. It is not really a centralised temple in Kyoto, located in the north-west outskirts of the city.[...]
Show Notes for episode 66C of our Podcast – Tattooing – The Suikoden. Story Notes So lets us bring to a close our episodes on the history of tattoos. We have mentioned throughout the popularity of the heroes from the Suikoden so I feel it makes sense to bring it[...]
Show Notes for episode 65 of our Podcast – Urashima Taro the Fisher Lad. Story Notes Long, long ago in the province of Tango there lived on the shore of Japan in the little fishing village of Mizu-no-ye a young fisherman named Urashima Taro. His father had been a fisherman[...]
Show Notes for episode 64 of our Podcast – To Hell and Back. Story Notes Listeners discretion advised for this episode. It is gory, and graphic, and due to the age of the document translated, sexist. Now you may recall this from Yasuke, but I mentioned a tale known as[...]
Show Notes for episode 63 of our Podcast – Turtle Folklore. Story Notes There are four divine beasts in Chinese culture, and it’s from this that Japanese culture derives some of the basis for its own turtle folklore The four divine beasts are the dragon, bird, and tiger. Each of[...]
Show Notes for episode 62 of our Podcast – The Exploits of Okuninushi. Story Notes Now we haven’t been here since Episode 44, a long time ago now, but we will be continuing on with the story of Shinto. And so we left it off last time with Susano-o having[...]
Show Notes for episode 56 of our Podcast – The Tongue Cut Sparrow. Today we read the translation from 1901 by Yei Theodora Ozaki. As it is now in the public domain here is the story in full for you. Story Notes Long, long ago in Japan there lived an[...]
Show Notes for episode 55 of our Podcast – The Life and Poems of Manzei. Story Notes Now the poems we will talk of today come from the man’yōshū, a large poetry collection of 20 volumes and more than 4,500 waka poems. The document in question was divided into three[...]