Podcasts about Kyoto

Join Christine Renee and former ReikiCafe University Professor Bruce Taylor for a conversation about our upcoming pilgrimage to Japan!In May of 2023, Bruce Taylor will be leading our journey to Kyoto, Japan, the birthplace of Reiki. Our May 1st-7th includes, but not limited to:⛩ 7 Days/6 Nights in Beautiful Kyoto, The Historical Capital of JapanPilgrimages to the Birthplace of Reiki – Mt Kurama (led by Bruce Taylor & Hyakuten Inamoto)⛩ Reiki Practice, Discussion, and Attunement ON Mt. Kurama (at Osugi Gongen (Pictured below) the Very Site Where Reiki Was First Transmitted to Usui Sensei)⛩ Reiki Classes and Talks with Bruce Taylor & Hyakuten InamotoReiki Share Evening with Komyo Reiki-Do Teachers and Students⛩ Tours In And Around Kyoto (Mt. Hiei, Bamboo Forest, Temples and so much more)If you are a Reiki enthusiast, student, practitioner, or teacher, and are excited to journey to the birthplace of Reiki, join us for this live conversation to learn more!Learn more about our Japan Pilgrimage this May 1-7th 2023 with Bruce Taylor and Hyakuten Inamoto Sensei here: https://rootsoflife.org/kyoto-trip/reiki-cafeJoin Christine Renee for her post pilgrimage, online Reiki Masters Fusion Class May 17th - June 21st! Learn more here. ReikiCafe Links:Website: https://www.reikicafeuniversity.com/Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/reikicafeuniversityFacebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReikiCafeInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/reikicafeuniversity/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJfg3mAauSWQmt5XXBMcC-wBruce's Website: https://rootsoflife.org/Bruce's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootsoflife_org/

Ended a great week in Kyoto with a weekend full of BLeague games! As my time winds down on this long trip to Japan, I'm starting to reflect on the past two months abroad...

Jim and Pam ain't got nothin on this episode, because we're ranking the top 5, plus a few extra, of the best office romance in anime. Ok real talk this is a somewhat specific genre with only like ten shows that fit the category, but hear us out, there's some good shit in the land of office romances and we want to talk about it. We're also talking the bizarre and potentially frustrating release schedule for Attack on Titan The final part part three the first once removed on its mother's side and a half. Is it ruining the ending? Is it just for ratings? We don't know but we sure as hell can speculate. We're also bringing back the episode of the week/weak to get you up to speed on the titles we really enjoyed or maybe didn't this weekend. Power Rankings live @tjapod on instagram

On this week's episode, Jake, Ashley, and Matt are covering the emotional (and occasional tear-jerker) anime, Violet Evergarden. It was originally conceived as a Japanese light novel series by Kana Akatsuki and illustrated by Akiko Takase that ran from 2015 to 2020. Because of the novel's success and unique plot, animation company Kyoto adapted the series for television in 2013 with a 13-episode arc that subsequently went on to include a bonus episode and two films.  Violet Evergarden is a gorgeous and sentimental story following the life of a young girl who is trying to assimilate to normal life after experiencing first-hand the horrors of war. As a child, Violet Evergarden is nameless, living on the streets of an island being besieged by soldiers. After a violent altercation, this child is the last one standing, drawing the attention of naval officer Dietfried Bougainvillea. Dietfried passes on this new find to his younger brother, Major Gilbert Bougainvillea. Gilbert sees this young girl as more than just a tool for war, and takes guardianship of her. He names her Violet, and encourages her to see and experience the beauty in life, in spite of the military battles they both take part in. Gilbert is the first person to ever care for Violet, and she becomes emotionally attached, even when she doesn't have the words for her feelings. Eventually, their luck runs out in combat, and both Gilbert and Violet find themselves grievously injured.  “I love you.” These are the last words Violet has from the only source of comfort she's ever known in her life. Violet Evergarden the anime series charts a course through the life Violet builds after her injuries, and the people and situations she encounters while trying to discovering the meaning of Gilbert's final words to her.  Visually stunning and emotionally captivating, Violet Evergarden explores a multitude of themes and storylines to interest any viewer. Join us this week as week take a deep dive into the world of Violet Evergarden!

Jonny Nicol returned to the pod for a full rundown of J1 Matchday 4, beginning with Gamba Osaka's heartbreaking late loss to Hiroshima, who notched their first win of the season. Then we move on to Sapporo and Cerezo Osaka, who also tasted victory for the first time in the new top flight campaign (to 32:25). Next Nagoya and Niigata continued their fine starts to the season, Urawa and Kyoto won for the second straight week, FC Tokyo bounced back from their miserable showing in Kyoto, and we finish with the lone draw on the Matchday 4 slate, a goalless affair up in Kashima.

▼My New Channel: Let's ask Seki Sensei | Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu▼ https://www.youtube.com/@letsasksekisensei Are you a Japanese budo martial art lover watching this video? Then I am now running the best channel for you to learn more about samurai, katana, and budo martial arts from a Kobudo master who is running a 400-year-old Ryuha. Our goal is to achieve 100,000 subscribers by 2023, so please check it out! ▼Please support me through Ko-fi (a donation platform like Patreon)▼ https://ko-fi.com/letsaskshogo The management (filming, editing, etc.) of the new Asayama Ichiden Ryu's English Channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" is completely my voluntary work. If I am not able to pay for the expensive bullet train fare from Kyoto to Ibaraki Prefecture (where the main Dojo is located), and hotel/filming expenses, this activity will cease. Please help us spread and preserve this 400-year-old martial art. In return, I will try my best to create the most educational and exciting content about Japanese Kobudo. ▼The BEST online katana shop for martial arts (Iaido, Kendo, etc.): Tozando▼ https://tozandoshop.com/letsaskshogo Everything I use for my katana training is bought at this shop! I still use the first training katana I bought in 2016, and it is still in good shape! ▼The recommended online katana shop for decorations and cosplay: Mini Katana▼ https://minikatana.com/SHOGO *Get 15% OFF off all their products by purchasing through my affiliate link ▼Where you can meet me in Kyoto, Japan | Yushinkan Samurai Experience with Modern-day Musashi▼ A 90-minute experience in Japan where beginners can learn how to wield, draw, sheath, and swing the katana from the modern-day Musashi! I, Shogo, will be your interpreter to lead you into the wonderful world of samurai martial arts! Make your reservation here: https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/4577764?locale=en A video of me visiting this experience: https://youtu.be/MqBCAC42zAM

▼My New Channel: Let's ask Seki Sensei | Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu▼ https://www.youtube.com/@letsasksekisensei Are you a Japanese budo martial art lover watching this video? Then I am now running the best channel for you to learn more about samurai, katana, and budo martial arts from a Kobudo master who is running a 400-year-old Ryuha. Our goal is to achieve 100,000 subscribers by 2023, so please check it out! ▼Please support me through Ko-fi (a donation platform like Patreon)▼ https://ko-fi.com/letsaskshogo The management (filming, editing, etc.) of the new Asayama Ichiden Ryu's English Channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" is completely my voluntary work. If I am not able to pay for the expensive bullet train fare from Kyoto to Ibaraki Prefecture (where the main Dojo is located), and hotel/filming expenses, this activity will cease. Please help us spread and preserve this 400-year-old martial art. In return, I will try my best to create the most educational and exciting content about Japanese Kobudo. ▼The BEST online katana shop for martial arts (Iaido, Kendo, etc.): Tozando▼ https://tozandoshop.com/letsaskshogo Everything I use for my katana training is bought at this shop! I still use the first training katana I bought in 2016, and it is still in good shape! ▼The recommended online katana shop for decorations and cosplay: Mini Katana▼ https://minikatana.com/SHOGO *Get 15% OFF off all their products by purchasing through my affiliate link ▼Where you can meet me in Kyoto, Japan | Yushinkan Samurai Experience with Modern-day Musashi▼ A 90-minute experience in Japan where beginners can learn how to wield, draw, sheath, and swing the katana from the modern-day Musashi! I, Shogo, will be your interpreter to lead you into the wonderful world of samurai martial arts! Make your reservation here: https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/4577764?locale=en A video of me visiting this experience: https://youtu.be/MqBCAC42zAM

Someone just became a new dad and Beautiful no longer has any sleep.Want to support the show?https://www.patreon.com/TKOrajioContact us at:tkorajio@gmail.comInstagram: tko_rajioTwitter @TKO_RAJIOThirst Alert BGM: Deoxys Beats - Ｌｏｖｅｒ[ｓ]https://soundcloud.com/deoxysbeats1

What can we say? February kind of got away from us and between dog health problems, people health problems and some other stuff we took a couple more weeks off than we planned. But we're excited to be back and talking about more anime! This episode we're starting off with a Vibe Check for a bunch of titles we were maybe unsure about in the beginning of the season. We're talking Tomo-chan, Angle Next Door, Tokyo Revengers, and Trigun-Stampede just to name a few. We're a good ways through the season so we wanna see how we feel about these now that they've had some room to breathe. From there it's all things Aggretsuko Season 5! We got surprisingly political with this last season, which may have been the final season period. We're giving our takes on it as well as the series as a whole and our undying respect to the death metal red panda that captures the spirit of millennial rage. We've got a little glimpse into the anime awards for 2022 to round out the episode, Crunchyroll has dropped their winners so we'll be doing the same soon!Power Rankings live @tjapod on instagram

Dr. Barbara Kellerman is a Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership. She was the Founding Executive Director of the Center, and a member of the Kennedy School faculty for over twenty years. Kellerman has held professorships at Fordham, Tufts, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Washington, Uppsala, Dartmouth, and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. During the spring 2022 term she was Visiting Professor of Leadership at Christopher Newport University. She also served as Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Leadership at the University of Maryland.Kellerman received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College, and her M.A. M.Phil., and Ph.D. (in Political Science) degrees from Yale University. She was awarded a Danforth Fellowship and three Fulbright fellowships. Kellerman was cofounder of the International Leadership Association (ILA) and is the author and editor of many books including The Political Presidency; Bad Leadership; Followership ; Leadership: Essential Selections on Power, Authority, and Influence (2010); The End of Leadership (2012); Hard Times: Leadership in America (2014), Professionalizing Leadership  (2018); and (with Todd Pittinsky) Leaders Who Lust: Power Money Sex Success Legitimacy Legacy. Kellerman has appeared on media outlets such as CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, Reuters, and BBC, and has contributed articles and reviews to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, and the Harvard Business Review.Barbara Kellerman has spoken to audiences worldwide, including in Berlin, Moscow, Sao Paolo, Jerusalem, Mumbai, Toronto, Kyoto, Beijing, Sydney, and Seoul. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Leadership Association. In 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 she was listed by Global Gurus as among the “World's Top 30 Management Professionals.” Her most recent book – The Enablers: How Team Trump Flunked the Pandemic and Failed America – was published in August 2021 by Cambridge University Press. A Quote From This Episode"I hope your listeners will forgive me for having a leader of the year who by almost every count is evil. But there you go. It's an instruction and a lesson that we need to learn evil leaders can have an enormous impact, and in this case, Vladimir Putin did."Resources Mentioned in This EpisodeLeader of the Year – 2022Women Leaders LeavingAbout  Scott J. AllenWebsiteMy Approach to HostingThe views of my guests do not constitute "truth." Nor do they reflect my personal views in some instances. However, they are important views to be aware of. Nothing can replace your own research and exploration.About The International Leadership Association (ILA)The ILA was created in 1999 to bring together professionals interested in the study, practice, and teaching of leadership. 

J1 Matchday 3 wasn't quite as eventful as its two predecessors, but with two big derbies on the slate there was never going to be a shortage of talking points. In Part 1 of this episode (to 32:40) Alan Gibson from JSoccer Magazine joins to chat about Kobe maintaining their perfect start to the season as they swept to victory over Gamba Osaka in the Kansai Derby. In Part 2 we cover first victories of the season for Urawa, Kyoto and Tosu (to 51:45), then Kashima and Fukuoka making it two wins from three (to 1:05:25), before we chat about the three draws from the weekend, and look ahead to J1 Matchday 4.

International Women's Day Special: Mizuki Hsu, a Japanese DEI practitioner born and raised in Kyoto, lost her ability to walk at the age of two. She subsequently started living her life in a wheelchair and once had no clue if she could have her own family. Now married to a Taiwanese husband with two kids, Mizuki works with multinational corporations to implement diversity, equity and inclusion strategy. She talks to Proudly Asian about her passion to promote equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities, biases she has overcome, and how DEI can be effectively integrated into global businesses. ------------------------------------------------------- Stay Connected with Proudly Asian: Website - https://proudly-asian.com Instagram - https://instagram.com/proudly.asian Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtBzoAJQGbEB_K9Se8AlYlQ Send us a voice message - https://anchor.fm/proudlyasian/message Support us - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/proudlyasian Email us - proudlyasianpodcast@gmail.com

The capital had been utterly destroyed by the Onin War and when the conflict ended, it was time to rebuild. The Bakufu needed to rebuild its image and Shogun Ashikaga Yoshihisa saw an opportunity in neighboring Omi Province, where a Daimyo of the Rokkaku had been seizing lands without permission.Support the show

Like buses, you wait around for an abroad in Japan podcast, then two come at once!AbroadInJapanPodcast@gmail.com for all your messages... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode we start our look at the reign of Ame Kunioshi Hiraki Niha, aka Kinmei Tennō. We'll start off with a look at his ascension to the throne and some of the politics that we can see going on in the court. We'll also discuss some of the theories regarding this reign, particularly its chronological placement in the Chronicles, which may not be exactly as it seems. Still, we are in what many consider to be the historical period, meaning that the records the Chroniclers were working from are assumed to be more accurate—they were likely using more written material, including books we no longer have extant. However, that doesn't mean everything is factual, and it is clear there are still some lacunae in the texts and some additional massaging by the Chroniclers themselves. For more information, check out https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-81   Rough Transcript: Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 81, the Politics of the Early Yamato Court. Last episode, before our Nara tour interlude, we covered the life of Takewo Hiro Kunioshi Tate, aka Senka Tennō.  He picked up where his brother, Magari no Ohine, aka Ankan Tennō, had[EB1]  left off, and is said to have reigned for about two and a half years, from 536 to 539.  During that time we see more of the rise of the family of Soga no Omi but we also see the Ōtomo no Muraji and the Mononobe going quite strong.  The sons of Ōtomo no Kanamura ended up involved with the government in Tsukushi, aka Kyuushuu, as well as the war efforts across the straits, mainly focused on Nimna and the surrounding areas.  Indeed, as we talked about last episode—episode 80—it is said that Ohtomo no Sadehiko went to Nimna and restored peace there, before lending aid to Baekje[EB2] .  This preoccupation with Nimna and events on the Korean peninsula are going to dominate our narrative moving forward, at least initially.  Much of the next reign focuses on events on the peninsula, rather than on the archipelago.  Oddly, this preoccupation isn't found everywhere.  In the Sendai Kuji Hongi—and other copies of the same work—there appears only a brief mention of Nimna, aka Mimana, in the record, which otherwise simply talks about inheritance and similar issues. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before we dive into all of that, to include all of the peninsular goodness that we have coming our way, let's briefly talk about some of the things a little closer to home.  Mainly, let's talk about the succession and who our next sovereign appears to be. So first off, his name is given as Ame Kunioshi Hiraki Hiro Niha, and he is posthumously known to us as Kimmei Tennō.  For my part, rather than repeating the whole thing, I'm going to refer to him simply as Ame Kunioshi, though I'm honestly not sure if the best way to parse his name, assuming it isn't just another type of royal title.  He is said to have been the son of Wohodo no Ōkimi, aka Keitai Tennō, and his queen, Tashiraga, a sister to Wohatsuse Wakasazaki, aka Buretsu Tennō. This would all seem pretty straightforward if it weren't for the fact that two of his half-brothers had taken the throne before him.  Prince Magari and his brother, Takewo, were descended through another line, that of Menoko, daughter of Owari no Muraji no Kusaka.  Menoko did not appear to meet the Nihon Shoki's Chroniclers' strict requirements for being named queen—namely, they don't bother to trace her lineage back to the royal line in some way, shape, or form.  As such, the Nihon Shoki tries to pass off the reigns of the two brothers as though they were just keeping the seat warm while Ame Kunioshi himself came of age. None of the language used, however, really suggests that they were not considered legitimate in the eyes of their respective courts, and in all aspects they played the part of sovereign, and it is quite likely that if they had reigned long enough, or had valid heirs, themselves, we may be reading a slightly different story.  As it is, the Chroniclers likely manipulated the narrative just enough to ensure that things made sense in terms of a linear progression. And that manipulation hardly stopped at his ascension.  The account of Ame Kunioshi on the throne is filled with questionable narration.  Beyond just the fantastical—accounts of kami and of evil spirits—much of the reign is focused on events on the Korean peninsula, and these are almost always portrayed as actions by the Kingdom of Baekje, one of the three largest kingdoms across the straits, along with Silla and Goguryeo.  Baekje, in turn, is portrayed in the Nihon Shoki as a loyal vassal state, constantly looking to the sovereign of Yamato as their liege and attempting to carry out their will. For the most part, this is a blatant attempt by the Chroniclers to place Yamato front and center, and in control of events on the mainland.  Taken at face value, it has for a long time fueled nationalist claims to the Korean peninsula, and may have even been designed for that very purpose.  Remember, a history like this was written as much for a political purpose as it was record for posterity, and the narration is about as trustworthy as that of a certain fictional radio host in a sleepy desert community.  And yet, we want to be careful about throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater, here.  The Nihon Shoki is a treasure trove of stories about this period and what was happening on the mainland, even if we have to be careful of taking everything at face value.  The details given in the text are sometimes more than any other sources we have for this period, and they are certainly closer to the source.  Korean sources, such as the Samguk Sagi, the Samguk Yusa, and the Tongkam all have their own gaps in the literature of the time, as well as their own political aims and goals, such that even they are suspect.  Sure, the flowery speechification is probably a little too much, but much of the back and forth seems reasonable, and there are numerous times where the Nihon Shoki directly quotes the copy of the Baekje annals that they had at the time—a text that is no longer extant, and which seems to have items that did not make it into later collections.  By following the back and forth and the flow of allegiances and deceptions, and looking at who was said to have been involved—both the individuals and the countries—we might be able to draw a picture of this era. And what a picture it will be.  I probably won't get to it all today, but there is conflict over Nimna, with Baekje and Yamato typically teaming up against Silla and Goguryeo, but there are other things as well.  For one thing, nothing in this era is cut and dried, and while there are overarching themes, alliances were clearly fluid, and could quickly change.  Furthermore, all this activity spawned a new level of interaction, particularly between Baekje and Yamato, and we see a new era of Baekje sharing their knowledge with Yamato.  For instance, this reign we see the first mention of Yin-Yang Divination studies—the famous Onmyouji—as well as calendrical studies in the archipelago.  We also see the arrival of Buddhism to the islands.  Well, at least we see the formal introduction of Buddhism; given all of the people in the archipelago who came over from the continent, there were likely more than a few Buddhists already living in the archipelago, but it hadn't grown, yet, to be a State religion, as it would be in later centuries. To try to do this period justice, I'm going to try to break things down a bit so that we can focus on various themes as we move through the stories here.  It will probably take us a few episodes to get through.  Furthermore, at some point here I want to talk about this new religion, Buddhism, and how it traveled all the way from India to the islands of Japan.  But for now, let's focus on the Chronicles. Not all of what is talked about in this reign is focused on the mainland, so I'm going to start us off talking about the stories about this period that are taking place in the islands themselves, starting with how Ame Kunioshi came to the throne.  Or rather, with some events just before he came to the throne. The first story about Ame Kunioshi comes when he is simply a prince—it is unclear during which reign this is supposed to have happened, only that it happened before he came to the throne.  The Chronicles say that Ame Kunioshi had a dream in which he was told to seek out a man named Hata no Ōtsuchi. We've seen in the past these kinds of oracular dreams, where the gods, or kami, will speak directly to a person—often to the sovereign or someone close to the sovereign.  By all accounts, the ability to act as a conduit for the kami was an important aspect of rulership and political power at this time, and we've seen the supposed consequences of not listening to such an oracle as well.  And so he sent people out to find this man, who was eventually found in the Kii district of the land of Yamashiro. Now this area is not surprising.  It is identified as the area, today, in the modern Fushimi district of Kyoto.  In fact, it includes the area of the famous Fushimi Inari Taisha—the Fushimi Inari shrine.  That shrine is also connected to the Hata family. For those who don't recall, the Hata family appear to have been descended from weavers who were brought over from the continent.  The kanji used for their name is the same as that of the Qin dynasty, from which we get the modern name of China, though the pronunciation is taken from the word “Hata”, which appears to refer to a type of cloth, and also resembles the word for banners or flags.  We mentioned them some time back in episode 63, when we talked about one of the early heads of the Hata, who was given the name Uzumasa.  That name is still used to identify a district in Kyoto to this day. And so here we are, back in the Kyoto area, near Fushimi shrine, which is also, as it happens, connected to the Hata family.  That story is found not in the Nihon Shoki, but rather it is attributed to fragments of the Yamashiro no Fudoki.  In that account we hear tell of a wealthy man named Irogu, whom we are told is a distant relative of Hata no Nakatsu no Imiki—no doubt a contemporary to the Yamashiro Fudoki, and the reason the story made the cut.  Irogu, it seems, had made himself wealthy through rice cultivation.  In fact, he had so much rice that he was using mochi—pounded glutinous rice cakes—as targets for his archery practice.  As he was shooting at the mochi, suddenly one of them turned into a swan and flew up into the sky, up to the top of a nearby mountain.  Where it landed rice, or “ine”, began to grow. That mountain is none other than the site of Fushimi Inari Shrine, a shrine that will show up again and again in various stories, as it was quite prominent.  Though the shrine was only founded in the 8th century, the story may indicate that there were older rituals, or perhaps that it was a focus of worship much like Mt. Miwa, down in the land of Yamato, to the south, and that shrine buildings were simply added to the mountain at a later date.  Fushimi is, of course, the place, and Inari is the name of the god, or kami, worshipped at the shrine.  Inari is a god of farming—specifically of rice cultivation—and today small Inari shrines can be found throughout Japan.  They are typified by red gates—usually multiple gates, one after the other, often donated by various individuals.  In addition, one might see Inari's servants and messengers, foxes, which take the place of the lion-dogs that often guard shrine precincts.  Importantly, these foxes are not the kami themselves, but simply the kami's messengers.  Still people will often bring gifts of oily, deep fried tofu—abura-age—said to be a favorite of foxes, to help ensure that their prayers—their messages to the kami—are swiftly and properly delivered. I could probably do an entire episode on Fushimi Inari and Inari worship in Japan.  There is so much material on the phenomenon on foxes, or kitsune, and fox-spirits, especially with the co-mingling of both continental and insular belief, which is sometimes at odds.  For now, however, we can confine ourselves to the fact that Fushimi clearly had connections to the Hata family, who have shown up a few times in the past, but are still largely taking bit roles in things at the moment.  Nonetheless, since the Chroniclers were writing from the 8th century, things like this, which were no doubt important to the powerful families of their day, were often included. Getting back to our main story, when Hata no Ōtsuchi came before the prince, Ame Kunioshi, he told a story of how he had been traveling the land, coming back from trading in Ise, when he came upon two wolves, fighting each other on a mountain.  The wolves were each covered in blood from their hostilities, and yet, through all of that, Hata no Ōtsuchi recognized them as visible incarnations of kami.  Immediately he got off his horse, rinsed his hands and mouth to purify himself, and then made a prayer to the kami.  In his prayer he admonished them for delighting in violence.  After all, while they were there, attacking each other, what if a hunter came along and, not recognizing their divine nature, took both of them?  With his earnest prayer he got them to stop fighting and he then cleaned off the blood and let them both go, thus saving their lives. Hearing such a story, Ame Kunioshi determined that his dream was likely sent by the same kami saved by Ōtsuchi, or perhaps another spirit who had seen his good deed, who was recommending this good Samaritan to the prince.  And who was he to deny the kami?  So when he came to the throne, Ame Kunioshi put Hata no Ōtsuchi in charge of the Treasury. That would have to wait until he actually ascended the throne, however; an opportunity that preserved itself with the death of his half brother, Takewo no Ōkimi.  When Takewo passed away in 539, we are told that the ministers all requested that Ane Kunioshi take the throne, but at first he deferred, suggesting that the wife of his eldest half brother, Magari no Ohine, aka Ankan Tennō, take the throne, instead. This was the former queen, Yamada, daughter of Ōke no Ōkimi, aka Ninken Tennō, so no doubt she had a good sense of how the government should work.  Yet she, too, waved off the honor.  Her reasoning, though, is a very patriarchal and misogynistic diatribe about how women aren't fit four the duties of running the country.  Clearly it is drawn from continental sources, and it always makes me wonder.  After all, the Nihon Shoki was being written in the time of rather powerful women controlling the Yamato court – which, I imagine irked some people to no end, especially those learned in classic literature, such as the works of Confucius. So I wonder why this was put in.  Did he truly defer to her?  Or was this just to demonstrate his magnanimous nature?  Was she pushed aside by the politics of the court?  I also wonder why they went to her, and not Takewo's wife.  It is also interesting to me that the Chroniclers only note her own objections to her rule, and there isn't a peep out of the assembled ministers. There appears to be another possible angle.  Some scholars have pointed out inconsistencies with the timeline and events in the reign of Ame Kunioshi that may have actually happened much earlier, including the arrival of Buddhism.  They suggest that perhaps there was a period of multiple rulers, possibly rival dynasties, with Magari no Ohine and his brother, Takewo, handling one court and Ame Kunioshi ruling another.  If that were the case, then was Yamada the senior person in the other line?  At the very least she represents the transfer of power and authority over to Tashiraga's lineage. Moving forward, we're going to want to pay close attention to these kinds of political details.  Often we'll see how how princes of different mothers will end up as pawns in the factional infighting that will become de rigeur in the Yamato court, with different families providing wives in the hopes that they might eventually be family members to the next sovereign. So, however it really happened, Ame Kunioshi took the throne.  He reappointed Ōtomo no Kanamura and Mononobe no Okoshi Ōmuraji and named Soga no Iname no Sukune back to his position as Ō-omi.  He set up his palace at a place called Shikishima, in the district of Shiki in the middle of the Nara Basin in the ancient country of Nara—still within sight of Mt. Miwa and, by now, numerous kofun built for previous kings, queens, and various nobles.  Both the Emishi and the Hayato are said to have come and paid tribute—apparently part of the enthronement rituals—and even envoys from Baekje, Silla, Goguryeo and Nimna are said to have stopped in with congratulatory messages.  These were probably fairly pro forma messages to maintain good—or at least tolerable—relations between the various states of the day, not unlike today when various people call a newly elected president or prime minister to congratulate them on their own entry to office. He also took as his Queen his own niece, daughter of his half-brother, the previous sovereign, Takewo Hiro Kunioshi Tate, aka Senka Tennō.  Her name was Ishihime, and she would provide Ame Kunioshi with several children, including the Crown Prince, Wosada Nunakara Futodamashiki no Mikoto, aka the eventual Bidatsu Tennō. By the way, for anyone concerned that Ame Kunioshi was” robbing the cradle”, so to speak, remember that he was already 33 years younger than his brother.  It is quite possible, assuming the dates are correct, that he and Ishihime were roughly the same age.  To put it another way, if Ame Kunioshi was a Millennial, his brother Takewo had been a Boomer, meaning that Ishihime was likely either Gen X or a Millennial herself, to extend the analogy. Of course, they were still uncle and niece, so… yeah, there's that.  I could point out again that at this time it was the maternal lineage that determined whether people were considered closely related or not.  Children of different mothers, even with the same fathers, were considered distant enough that it was not at all scandalous for them to be married, and that we probably should be careful about placing our own cultural biases on a foreign culture—and at this point in history many aspects of the culture would be foreign even to modern Japanese, just as a modern person from London would likely find conditions in the Anglo Saxon era Lundenwic perhaps a bit off-putting.  Still, I don't think I can actually recommend the practice. Now it is true he was coming to the throne at relatively young age.  He was probably about 30 years old when he took charge of the state, while his brothers, their father's eldest sons, had come to the throne much later in life, in their 50s or 60s.  And if Ame Kunioshi was actually ruling earlier then he might have been younger, running the state of Yamato—or at least some part of it—when he was still in his early 20s. Along with Ishihime, Ame Kunioshi took several other wives.  The first two were Ishihime's younger sisters, Kurawakaya Hime and Hikage.  Then there were two daughters of Soga no Iname—and yes, *that* Soga no Iname, the re-appointed Ō-omi.  At least three of the next four sovereigns would come from those two unions, and I'll let you take a guess at how the Soga family's fortunes fared during that time.  Finally, the last wife was was named Nukako, and she was the daughter of Kasuga no Hifuri no Omi.   Kasuga was also the family name of Kasuga no Yamada no Himemiko, who had turned down the throne to allow Ame Kunioshi to ascend, though we don't hear too much else from the Kasuga family.  This could be connected to that, although it is hard to be certain.  For the most part the Kasuga family seems to stay behind the scenes, but the fact that they are inserting themselves into the royal line at different points would seem to be significant.   The Soga, on the other hand, are going to feature quite prominently in matters of state moving forward. While it is unclear just when the various marriages occurred—they may have happened before or after his ascension to the throne—it is interesting to see how much influence the Soga family may have had in the royal bedchamber, something we would do well to remember as we look into this period.  And while the Soga family was on the rise, other families were not doing so well.  In particular, it seems that something happened to the Ōtomo family. Now don't get me wrong, Ōtomo Kanamura, that veteran courtier, was reappointed as Ōmuraji at the start of the reign, and given all of his influence up to this point, he clearly had been doing something right.  But then we have a single incident at the start of Ame Kunioshi's reign that makes me wonder. It took place during a court visit to Hafuri-tsu-no-miya over at Naniwa—modern Ōsaka.  Hafuri would appear to refer to a Shinto priest, so apparently they were at the palace—or possibly shrine—of the Priest, at least as far as I can make out.  When Ame Kunioshi went out, much of the court came with, including Ōtomo no Kanamura, Kose no Omi no Inamochi, and Mononobe no Okoshi.    Of those three, Kose no Inamochi seems a bit of an odd choice, but we'll go with it, for now. While they were there, away from the palace, talking over various subjects, the conversation turned towards talk about invading Silla.  At this, Mononobe no Okoshi related the story of how Kanamura had basically orchestrated giving up four districts of Nimna over to Baekje.  Those were the Upper and Lower Tari, Syata, and Muro.  This had pissed off Silla, who no doubt wanted as much of a buffer state between them and their allies as possible, and who also may have felt that Nimna and other border states were theirs to manipulate.  Through all of these talks and deliberations, which apparently went on for some time, Kanamura stayed at home, out of the public eye, feigning illness.  Eventually, though Awomi no Ōtoshi no Magariko came to check in on him and see how he was doing, and Kanamura admitted that he had simply been feigning illness to get out of the humiliation of having given up the provinces so many years ago. Hearing of this, Ame Kunioshi pardoned Ōtomo no Kanamura of any guilt.  He could put the past behind him and speak nothing of it. And he did.  Speak nothing of it, that is.  Or at least nothing that was recorded in the Chronicles.  From here on out, we don't hear of Kanamura—and barely of Ōtomo.  There is a brief mention of Kanamura's son, Sadehiko, who had gone to the Korean peninsula to fight back in the previous reign.  Then, another member of the Ōtomo pops up again in the reign of Bidatsu, but this appears to be the last time we see an “Ōtomo no Ōmuraji”—no other Ōtomo would be recorded as having taken that position, even though others, particularly the Mononobe, would continue to be honored with the title up through at least the 7th century. Ōtomo no Kanamura's exit at this point in the narrative seems somewhat appropriate, as the narrative will go on to focus on Nimna, and the violence on the peninsula.  That fighting would consume much of the next century, with Silla eventually winding up on top, but that was not always a foregone conclusion.  In the meantime there were numerous battles, back and forth.  Sometimes it was Silla and Goguryeo against Baekje and Yamato.  Other times, Silla and Baekje fought against Goguryeo.  Then there were the smaller states of Kara, Ara, Nimna, and more. With all of that chaos, the Chronicles record numerous people from the peninsula coming to stay in the archipelago, but also there were many ethnic Wa people—possibly from Yamato, especially based on their names—that went to live and fight on the peninsula as well.  Family names such as the Mononobe, Ikuba, and even Kibi show up with Baekje or Silla titles, intermingled with other names of unknown, though likely peninsular, origin.  This intermingling would appear to indicate that the states of the Korean peninsula were multi-ethnic states, with individuals from all over.   Despite—or perhaps even because of—all the fighting, there seems to be an increased intercourse between the various states, as well as with states like the Northern Wei, to the West, in the Yellow River Basin, and Liang, to the South, along the Yangtze. We'll dive into all of that chaos and confusion—and try to draw a few more concrete facts and concepts—next time. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support.  If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

On the show this time, it's the infectious & ferocious power punk of Japan's Otoboke Beaver. Otoboke Beaver is a punk rock quartet from Kyoto, Japan. They've got a sense of humor to complement their freak-flag feminism, and an awareness of their growing global audience. Their latest album is named 'Super Champon.' You might misread it as Super Champion - but Champon means “mixed” like the pork and seafood ramen of the same name. The self-described “Japanese girls 'knock out or pound cake' band” are incredible musicians, with a super fun inclusive energy. The record is available on Damnably and Bandcamp. Recorded 10/14/2022. I am not maternal (​ア​イ​ド​ン​ビ​リ​ー​ブ​マ​イ​母​性​) YAKITORI (​ヤ​キ​ト​リ​) I checked your cellphone (​携​帯​み​て​し​ま​い​ま​し​た​) datsu . hikage no onna PARDON? (​パ​ー​ド​ゥ​ン​) I don't want to die alone (​孤​独​死​こ​わ​い​) Watch the full Live on KEXP session on YouTubeSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the show this time, it's the infectious & ferocious power punk of Japan's Otoboke Beaver. Otoboke Beaver is a punk rock quartet from Kyoto, Japan. They've got a sense of humor to complement their freak-flag feminism, and an awareness of their growing global audience. Their latest album is named 'Super Champon.' You might misread it as Super Champion - but Champon means “mixed” like the pork and seafood ramen of the same name. The self-described “Japanese girls 'knock out or pound cake' band” are incredible musicians, with a super fun inclusive energy. The record is available on Damnably and Bandcamp. Recorded 10/14/2022. I am not maternal (​ア​イ​ド​ン​ビ​リ​ー​ブ​マ​イ​母​性​) YAKITORI (​ヤ​キ​ト​リ​) I checked your cellphone (​携​帯​み​て​し​ま​い​ま​し​た​) datsu . hikage no onna PARDON? (​パ​ー​ド​ゥ​ン​) I don't want to die alone (​孤​独​死​こ​わ​い​) Watch the full Live on KEXP session on YouTubeSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

本集由凱勝電訊贊助播出。本次遊北海道，網路也是一路順暢沒問題！ 凱勝的eSIM卡網頁： https://bit.ly/3Sk4Nvj 04b讀者可直接九折！eSIM詳細的說明或其他上網方式請見部落格文章！ https://linshibi.com/?p=40550 teamLab最強週邊--UZU拉麵 曾到豐洲看teamLab Planets TOKYO的朋友時候可能會注意到這間很特別的拉麵店，像走入另一個展場，強烈的視覺風格讓人印象深刻！ 造訪在京都的本店，從空間設計或食物本身都令人難忘，如同店名（uzu日文是漩渦）整個人被吸進去，非常能了解為什麼會連續兩年入選米其林必比登，真的是很完整的teamLab體驗！ 推薦：濃湯拉麵優於清湯拉麵；特別推薦茶拉麵--想像不到的味道！小狸超愛！ 京都本店：Vegan Ramen UZU Kyoto https://vegan-uzu.com/pages/uzu-kyoto 京都府京都市中京区梅之木町１４６ 交通：京都市營地下鐵東西線、京都市役所前徒歩6分 京阪電車、神宮丸太町駅徒歩10分 菜單： ヴィーガンラーメン　深緋（醤油）¥1,600 ヴィーガンラーメン　山吹（辛味噌）¥1,600 ヴィーガンラーメン　蘇芳（花椒辛味噌つけ麺）¥1,800 ヴィーガンラーメン　茶¥1,800 ヴィーガンラーメン　八草（甘辛味噌）¥2,200 美山 五味の湯葉巻き¥1,400 ヴィーガン押し寿司¥1,800 ¥1,100/Half 營業時間：星期四五六日 11:30～15:00(L.O.14:30) 18:00～22:00(L.O.21:00) ※安全管理的原因，禁止6歳以下兒童入店。 豐洲分店：Vegan Ramen UZU Tokyo https://vegan-uzu.com/pages/uzu-tokyo 東京都江東区豊洲6-1-16 teamLab Planets TOKYO 敷地内 菜單： ヴィーガンラーメン醤油¥1,320 ヴィーガンラーメン味噌(辛)¥1,320 營業時間： 星期一到五：11:00 - 19:00 星期六日：10:30 - 19:00 特別延長期間： 3月20日(月)、3月22日(水) - 3月24日(金)、3月27日(月) - 3月31日(金)、5月1日(月) - 5月2日(火) 10:30 - 19:00 歡迎追蹤林氏璧孔醫師的發聲管道，了解最新的日本旅遊和疫情訊息！ 我的電子名片 https://lit.link/linshibi 日本優惠券大平台和近期活動資訊 https://linshibi.com/?p=20443 歡迎贊助04b喝咖啡 https://pay.firstory.me/user/linshibi Powered by Firstory Hosting

Intro and outro @nikkos ramone Edited and recorded @mzoundz. Recently, I read an article in Conness Traveler magazine that gave a list of the places to travel This year. Since the airports are more packed than they were pre Covid, I thought I'd dedicate this episode to some of the top places to travel. I'm Drea, the hostess of Drea's point of view, and I would like to welcome you to my show. Drea's point of view is on Facebook, IG Clubhouse and Pinterest. You can also find me on Twitter @Dreapoint. The first place on the list is Auckland New Zealand. It is known for keeping covid under control. They have non-stop flights from six cities in February. They'll be celebrating the Chinese New Year with the Lantern festival. In March They'll have Pacifica, the largest Pacific Island festival in the world. Next on the list known for island getaways and safari lodges is Kenya. In Nairobi, they opened some new hotel concepts. The Social House of Nairobi opened pre pandemic and has 83 rooms of local products. On my list is Morocco known for desert stays and design exhibits. Marrakesh known to attract designers. There's also the Museum of African Contemporary Art. Memphis, Tennessee is on that list and I can agree to that. It has a lot of museums, good food and blues. There's a lot more than just Beale Street, so if you ever go, don't just go to Beale Street and Graceland. If you go in May, you can enjoy the world champion barbecue contest as Memphis in May, which is a long month long celebration. They have a lot of unique hotels opening there, including the Memphian and if I'm not mistaken, they have the Peabody Hotel at the top of it. They have these ducks that actually they're trained. They line up in a circle. It's very cute to see. So definitely add Memphis to your list. Nepal is on the list. For those of you interested in mountain retreats. tea houses and a culinary experience is what attracts people to Taiwan. One area can not pronounce this, Ximending was just named one of the 51 coolest neighborhoods in the world. There's also a high speed rail in Thailand, one of the oldest cities. Japan is now open and welcoming people visa free. Those who have been Vaxxed don't need a covid test, but those who are un vaxxed need a negative test. Tokyo and Kyoto are the best places to see. I went once about seven years ago and was surprised at how reasonable prices were. They don't take tips either. I found that out when I tried to tip my server. She actually followed me out the door, ran after me and gave it back to me. It's a civilized society too, so it was definitely worth the visit for that alone. Bangkok is on this list for their culinary scene, their Virginia Blue Ridge mountains home to the Blue Ridge Parkway, also known as America's Favorite Drive. If you're big on adventure, hiking, horseback, archery, or even golf, then this is a place for you. Turks and Caicos is known for cruise upgrades and sleek resorts. White sands and blue waters is what attracts visitors there. More properties are planning to come this year, including the 31 acre South Bank, Turks and Caicos and the Strand Turks and Caicos, which is 20 minutes south of Grace Bay. Zamora, Spain is on the list and it has the most Romanesque architecture in Europe. It's also known for its lakes. Toro is their wine region. There is much more on the list. So where are you planning to visit? One of my cities to visit this year is Rio. My quote of the day comes from James Miser and it says, if you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people you might better stay home. Before I go, I wanna remind you to turn your notifications on so that you're one of the first to know of my new episodes. I am not trying to change your point of view. All I ask is that you listen to Drea's point of view. Thank you for listening. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dreaspointofview/message

▼My New Channel: Let's ask Seki Sensei | Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu▼ https://www.youtube.com/@letsasksekisensei Are you a Japanese budo martial art lover watching this video? Then I am now running the best channel for you to learn more about samurai, katana, and budo martial arts from a Kobudo master who is running a 400-year-old Ryuha. Our goal is to achieve 100,000 subscribers by 2023, so please check it out! ▼Please support me through Ko-fi (a donation platform like Patreon)▼ https://ko-fi.com/letsaskshogo The management (filming, editing, etc.) of the new Asayama Ichiden Ryu's English Channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" is completely my voluntary work. If I am not able to pay for the expensive bullet train fare from Kyoto to Ibaraki Prefecture (where the main Dojo is located), and hotel/filming expenses, this activity will cease. Please help us spread and preserve this 400-year-old martial art. In return, I will try my best to create the most educational and exciting content about Japanese Kobudo. ▼The BEST online katana shop for martial arts (Iaido, Kendo, etc.): Tozando▼ https://tozandoshop.com/letsaskshogo Everything I use for my katana training is bought at this shop! I still use the first training katana I bought in 2016, and it is still in good shape! ▼The recommended online katana shop for decorations and cosplay: Mini Katana▼ https://minikatana.com/SHOGO* Get 15% OFF off all their products by purchasing through my affiliate link ▼Where you can meet me in Kyoto, Japan | Yushinkan Samurai Experience with Modern-day Musashi▼ A 90-minute experience in Japan where beginners can learn how to wield, draw, sheath, and swing the katana from the modern-day Musashi! I, Shogo, will be your interpreter to lead you into the wonderful world of samurai martial arts! Make your reservation here: https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/4577764?locale=enA video of me visiting this experience: https://youtu.be/MqBCAC42zAM

▼My New Channel: Let's ask Seki Sensei | Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu▼ https://www.youtube.com/@letsasksekisensei Are you a Japanese budo martial art lover watching this video? Then I am now running the best channel for you to learn more about samurai, katana, and budo martial arts from a Kobudo master who is running a 400-year-old Ryuha. Our goal is to achieve 100,000 subscribers by 2023, so please check it out! ▼Please support me through Ko-fi (a donation platform like Patreon)▼ https://ko-fi.com/letsaskshogo The management (filming, editing, etc.) of the new Asayama Ichiden Ryu's English Channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" is completely my voluntary work. If I am not able to pay for the expensive bullet train fare from Kyoto to Ibaraki Prefecture (where the main Dojo is located), and hotel/filming expenses, this activity will cease. Please help us spread and preserve this 400-year-old martial art. In return, I will try my best to create the most educational and exciting content about Japanese Kobudo. ▼The BEST online katana shop for martial arts (Iaido, Kendo, etc.): Tozando▼ https://tozandoshop.com/letsaskshogo Everything I use for my katana training is bought at this shop! I still use the first training katana I bought in 2016, and it is still in good shape! ▼The recommended online katana shop for decorations and cosplay: Mini Katana▼ https://minikatana.com/SHOGO* Get 15% OFF off all their products by purchasing through my affiliate link ▼Where you can meet me in Kyoto, Japan | Yushinkan Samurai Experience with Modern-day Musashi▼ A 90-minute experience in Japan where beginners can learn how to wield, draw, sheath, and swing the katana from the modern-day Musashi! I, Shogo, will be your interpreter to lead you into the wonderful world of samurai martial arts! Make your reservation here: https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/4577764?locale=enA video of me visiting this experience: https://youtu.be/MqBCAC42zAM

Why Make Podcast, Wendy Maruyama Episode Part II TranscriptTime Code00:00 Robb HelmkampHello and welcome to Why Make, where we talk to makers from different disciplines about what inspires them to make.With your hosts Robb Helmkamp and. Erik Wolken Erik Wolken. If you would like to learn more about the makers we interview on Why Make please go our website why-make.comRobb HelmkampAnd please help support the Why Make podcast and Why Make productions by making a tax refundable donation to us on Fractured Atlas.Erik WolkenFractured Atlas is our new non profit fiscal sponsor which allows us to access a wide range of funding possibilities including funding available only for non-profits Robb HelmkampVisit https://fundraising.fracturedatlas.org/the-why-make-project or go to the donate to Why Make page on Why-Make.com 01:03 Robb HelmkampWelcome to our first podcast of the 2023 season of Why Make. This episode is part two of our in depth conversation with the artist Wendy Maruyama.Erik Wolken Wendy Maruyama is a furniture maker, sculptor and retired educator who resides in San Diego California. Wendy's work has tackled a wide scope topics from traditional furniture forms to exploring her Japanese heritage and the imprisonment of Japanese Americans during WW2 to the issue of endangered speciesRobb HelmkampAs we discuss later in the podcast Wendy was born with significant hearing loss and cerebral palsy and at her request, to aid our listeners, we have included a full transcript of our conversation on our web page for this episode which can be found on the podcast page of why-make.com It can also be found in the episode notes on Apple podcastsErik WolkenPlease join us and take a listen to our wide ranging discussion with one of the more amazing artists in the woodworking field, Wendy Maruyama.02:06 Erik Wolken Moving along Wendy, let's talk about the next phase of your work. Because the next phase of your work use do start to tackle some of your identities in your bodies of work in Turning Japanese, Simple Pleasures and Indulgences & Men in Kimonos you do start to sort of not only address your heritage, but really start to use narrative in your work. What was what was behind all of that? I mean, what do you think was the inspiration behind that? The whole thing that started with Turning Japanese and Men in Kimonos exploring your cultural identity.02:42 Wendy MaruyamaI think the Turning Japanese series the Men in Kimono riff came from my first trip to Japan could be in '92 maybe I can't remember but I'd never been to Japan until the early 90's and like anybody else I was just amazed by what I was seeing over there especially the craft scene. There is such a strong craft heritage in Japan not only with woodworking, ceramics of different styles at the same time some of the fields like textiles really evolved into the modern times to use the unusual fibers and metal in weaving. And then of course, going to downtown Tokyo in the Shibuya District dominated with all this neon stuff, it was very much like Blade Runner if you've seen the movie Blade Runner? It was clearly based on Tokyo. And so there are these two very different aspects of Japan, the old and the very, very, very new high tech side of it. There is a little bit of conflict to you know, I'd be riding on the subway and you can see these Japanese business men reading these pornographic cartoons it was called Manga. I think it was it all these lady with big boobs, it's all cartoons. It was such a flurry of images and so I think some of that was mostly my personal response to what I saw in Japan and I realized that I didn't fit even though I was Japanese American. Japanese descent. I did not fit into that whole culture, I mean, even if I tried. I mean, I'm kind of proud of it from a distance but I realized I don't think like that. So, maybe that was kind of a mixture of sadness and relief in a way. It is a very patriarchal society so there was that and it was kinda just a response to my experiences going to Japan.05:44 Erik WolkenAnd the other interesting thing about that body of work is you begin to introduce using video and still images into it too. And you're really starting to truly experiment with your craft and and I thought that was absolutely wonderful. You know, you reached outside the box, which I think is what we all aim to do as artists. When you first started using video and still images? And where did that come from?06:11 Wendy MaruyamaI'm trying to think. Trying to remember if the Tasmanian Tiger piece was first, I think it was. But anyway, in the Turning Japanese series I started using photo's because I went to a flea market in Kyoto. It's one best thing about Japan! It's amazing what you can find at the flea market. Some love it. If you ever go to Japan, make sure that you go into a big flea market either in Kyoto or Tokyo. The stuff that you find is amazing, but anyway, I came across a box of old black and white photographs of Kabuki actors. And I found out later that in Kabuki theater, women were not allowed to perform. I don't know if that is the case now? But women were not allowed to perform in Kabuki and so the female characters in a Kabuki play were always played by men who were expert at mimicking the feminine movement of women in the story. So all these men I mean all these women in kimono were actually men and they were quite beautiful and alluring and I was just kind of fascinated by that, how these beautiful, these men were. And they were prettier than I was and I thought it be kinda fun to use some of these images. At the same time, I'm a big Japanese sci-fi fan I think that was because that was the first time I saw Japanese people in a movie. It was in a Godzilla movie where you see all these Japanese people running from Godzilla. In one of the Godzilla movies there's these twin fairies (the Shobijin). I don't know if you remember they were sidekicks to Mothra, who was another monster. So I wanted to create this sort of these twin geisha women in the image of this. Oh I don't know, it's amazing about Photoshop, I was taking Photoshop class, and it's amazing how you can make fantastical images using Photoshop. So that was an opportunity to experiment with different media. I tend to jump around from, you know, from subject to subject cause that's the way my life goes. I'm not one to stay with one idea for 40 years, I think I would be bored to death. So it's important for me to just kind of reflect my life through my work. And so hopefully you get an idea what I've been going through by seeing my work in a linear pattern.09:41 Erik Wolken Yes, you definitely see a progression of your work, because then the next body of work you move on to is Executive Order 9066. And the Tag Project. And of course this is referring to, and I'm going to use the correct terminology. This is referring to the incarceration and or imprisonment of the Japanese people on the West Coast of America during World War Two. Just to give you an idea of the scope of this project, and Wendy you can go on to talk about it more, but there were 120,000 Japanese, people of Japanese heritage, imprisoned during EO 9066. And the Tag Project, you printed out a replica of the original tags, these people wore as they were sent to their prison camps. 120,000 tags, that is a mind boggling number.10:38 Wendy MaruyamaThat's a lot of tags. I started this the body of work when I was an artist in residency at SUNY New York, SUNY Purchase that is State University of New York Purchase. I knew that I needed to do this work, but I wasn't really ready until then. I mean it's a really hard topic because my mother's side of the family was deeply impacted by Executive Order 9066 because they were in Los Angeles at the time when Pearl Harbor was bombed and all that happen. But what struck me and kind of made me sort of angry was I was really surprised at how many people didn't even know about this episode in American history, especially on the East Coast and in the south and even now sometimes you run into people who don't even know about it. I think people know, more people know about it now. But even 15 years ago, when I started this project I was running across a lot of people who didn't know, they kind of knew but they didn't really know. And when you tell them how many people were sent away to these prison camps but it's daunting to think about. And so I also thought a lot about the Holocaust too. It doesn't hold a candle to what happened here, but still the fact that Executive Order 9066 happened in this country, this country of freedom and all that. I just really wanted to bring that to the forefront with my work. And I also wanted to get to know more of the Japanese American community. And so one of the first things I did was that I reached out to the local San Diego Japanese American historical society to learn more about Executive Order 9066. And I started talking to a lot of other people who were sent to prison in Poston, which was in Arizona. Most people from San Diego were sent to prison camp in Arizona. And that's when I started to make it into a community project and I would host these tag writing parties we would have different chores people would stamp tags, they would write the names, they would tie, tie them together, there were a lot of processes in for each tag and the only way I was going to be able to do 120,000 tags was to make it a community project. But hopefully make it an educational project, but also social advocacy project. So that people can learn about what happened. And I would show a slide show before we would start working on the tags. I was going to temples and churches and high school classrooms, and college classes, and galleries and museums. So it was kind of a broad outreach and it took 4 years but we did manage to finish all the tags in time for the 70th anniversary of Executive Order 9066.Erik WolkenThat was a massive undertaking, what led you I mean, what led you at the beginning to first think of producing these 120,000 tags?14:54 Wendy Maruyama I must have been crazy, you know. I started out by making just a few tags of people that my family knew. And I was incorporating them into cabinet pieces and for instance this one cabinet had the image of a young Japanese American girl in the back. And the tags were all showed they were under the age of 10 and were sent to camp in 1942. But then a friend of mine, Christine Lee came to visit me in NY and she said, you know, it would be amazing if you could do all 120,000 tags. Now, Christine, kind of, she does this kind of work, you know that that very labor intensive. And at first I thought she was crazy. but then, you know, I thought about it and the impact it would have would be so much more powerful than just seeing a couple of tags here and there. And um I like the idea of art reaching in... You know, I am kind of a shy person and so it is really hard for me to like reach out to strangers and just interact. I think it has a lot to do with my hearing disability,, it kind of forced me to do that. 16:44 Erik Wolken Right. And, and I mean, we'll have pictures of all this up on our website. But um just to paint a picture. So there's two pieces to the Tag Project in EO 9066. So there is the Tag Project, which represents all 120,000 people that were imprisoned, and then... Robb HelmkampIn 10 camps I correct?17:03 Erik WolkenRight. Memorializes, the 10 camps that were mostly over the Southwest, and just amazing images of these places where people were housed for three, four years, and it's an equally intense part of the piece. You know, I would I would encourage people to look into it further. And also there is a great website called www.densho.org, which will help better inform you about the incarceration and imprisonment of people of Japanese, Japanese Americans remember these were Americans, Japanese Americans during World War Two.Robb HelmkampAnd then there's also you've kept quite a blog about the process of the project on your website.17:50 Wendy MaruyamaI did and I feel bad that I haven't really kept it up to date, but it was really to follow the whole process of the tag project. At the same time I wanted to share relevant news articles that were not only about the Executive Order 9066, but just discrimination. I remember working on the tags and this whole outcry with a woman at the UCLA library posted a video of herself complaining about Asian students in the library and she was making fun of the way they talked, shing shong chi chong. But video went viral, and it kind of backfired on her. Discrimination on that level is still alive and well, most people know now. Erik Wolken So moving on to your next advocacy project, because this really is a phase of your life where you're taking on a very much the role of an advocate is the Wildlife Project. Do you want to describe the Wildlife Project a little bit?19:07 Wendy MaruyamaLike I have said before, and I think you know this, I love animals more than people, who are just awful. I started reading too many articles about the demise of the elephant in particular. Poaching for the ivory and it's not only just the elephants, but rhinoceros and tigers, all for the sake of being able to show off someone's wealth. The elephant population was really precariously dropping to the point the danger of becoming extinct. So I wanted to do a whole series of work, kind of highlight this issue. And at the same time, I meet somebody, Elizabeth Kozlowski, who was an independent curator and she wanted me to do an exhibition at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, which is where she was working at the time. And so that was the incentive to make a whole body of work about wildlife. Again, you know elephants are big and I wanted to be able make these huge pieces and I had to figure out a way to make them big without making them heavy and difficult to manage. At the time, I was working in a very small studio. And so I came up with the idea of making them out of very thin pieces of wood and sewing them together. When I was in high school, I loved to sew and the fabrication of making a dress or an article of clothing, is very three dimensional and it could be applied very easily to other materials like cardboard and wood and paper. I guess it's like a form of origami, creating volume with these very flat surfaces. So that was how that work came about and then it was accompanied with a bunch of other pieces.Erik WolkenThe other thing that fascinated me about that show is that the other pieces were in different mediums. You did a huge rhinoceros in plaster and then you did a pangolin which I'm not really familiar with what a pangolin is, in rattan It was you still continue to experiment and I just find that wonderful.22:06 Wendy Maruyama It's fun, you know like I said I think wood working just doing woodworking would really bore me to death. Just some materials they have a different capacity to express a different idea. The thing about glass is that I was able to, I was offered a residency at Pilchuck so it is kind of funny how these opportunities come together and make it possible to integrate projects and so I was able to spend I think it was two weeks or three weeks at Pilchuck and I was given two amazing glass blowers to help me make these tusks and I mean obviously glass was the perfect medium. And it was kind of tricky because you know William Morris, William Morris was a hot glass blower, he's still blowing glass he became known for the very large blown primitive forms. But he also did elephant tusks but it was a different context. He presented them a just large sculptures of beautiful tusks and I wanted to portray the tusks as being bloody and taken from a living animal. So the glassblowers and I had a conversation about that you know I said I don't want to do it if you feel like it treads too closely to other glass blowers work. But my message is completely different and they agreed that it would work with kind of presentation that I was using. The tusks were created through the help of Dan Friday and Nancy Callan who are amazing glass blowers in the Seattle area.Erik Wolken Right and then of course there's the life size and burlap rhinoceros!Wendy MaruyamaWhat was I thinking, right um.24:38 Robb Helmkamp You were thinking about that old desk that you made a long long time ago with chicken wire and Paper Mache?Wendy MaruyamaI learned a lot from that Paper Mache piece, you know I thought about that Paper Mache piece when I was doing the plaster rhino. It's kind of funny how that comes around again. The rhino was necessary to make because I wanted to have I wanted to have that scale and I wanted it be made out of plaster because it was white and fragile and it was like a ghost. But now I need to find someone who needs a plaster rhino, so if you know anybody that wants it, and if you can pay for shipping you're welcome to have it.Erik Wolken I would take the plaster Rhino. But Robb will have to pay for the shipping!25:31 Robb HelmkampWe might be able to work something out. I mean, I could put it behind me here in my office but...Wendy MaruyamaIt's the size of the small Volkswagen bug that's how big it is. Robb HelmkampAll right, we're coming out to San Diego to get that.25:41 Erik Wolken Well speaking of the Wildlife Project one of the pictures will post on the website is a wonderful picture of Robb and I and Tommy Simpson in front of one of the elephant masks when we were filming the Tommy Simpson documentary and we didn't end up using it in the documentary but it's it was it was just a wonderfully sweet moment of talking about, about your piece Wendy with Tommy Simpson. As we were as we were filming for the Tommy Simpson documentary.Wendy MaruyamaTommy Simpson, like I said, you know he was a huge inspiration back in 1970-71. I still have the very first book that he did that got torn up from years of flipping through it and sharing with my students.Robb HelmkampIts well loved and well used.Wendy MaruyamaThat really makes me happyErik Wolken The was the book was published I think...Wendy MaruyamaI would never have known that I would cross paths with Tommy Simpson back then. I mean he was like a movie star back then in the 70's and then we he came to visit San Diego one year. Oh ahhhh He stayed at my house!27:06 Erik WolkenSo let's talk about your most recent bodies of work the Color Field pieces and Memory because you're sort of leaving advocacy and going back to your roots in color. I love the Color Field pieces there, you know you're just really exploring the basics of color which is I just find incredibly appealing and almost a 2D sense as opposed to a three dimensional sense although there's texture.27:34 Wendy MaruyamaI um, you know, after doing Executive Order 9066 and the Elephant Project I was kind of beat up emotionally. It was really tough working on those pieces and it was even tougher for me to talk about those pieces after being asked to give talks during shows, it was kind of difficult to hold myself together. but anyway I'm getting better at it now. I can start talking about these things without breaking out in tears, but I needed to do something that was not heavy I needed to go back to using color again in a very pleasant way. It was an invitation to show that got me started on the Color Field pieces. Somebody in Colorado was having an exhibition of Bauhaus inspired furniture. because I think it was like 100th anniversary of Bauhaus and there is a Bauhaus Institute in Aspen so they wanted to do an exhibition of furniture but the problem was I hated Bauhaus furniture it wasn't really my thing. all that metal tubing and whatever. But I loved Annie Albers, who was a weaver with the Bauhaus movement, and she had a wonderful use of color and so I modeled my work after Annie Albers. It was kind of down my alley in terms of exploring color again. That's why they became two dimensional because of the weavings they were inspired by.29:41 Robb Helmkamp Were the pieces that you created where they kind of modeled after tambours? Like on a piece of furniture...Wendy MaruyamaYeah that's true I forgot that... I'm glad you mentioned that because tambour pieces were one of my favorite things to make actually. I've made a lot of carcass pieces that have tambours and I love the textural qualities of tambours. Yeah, for sure that was an inspiration.Robb Helmkamp Your use of more muted colors. From the Bauhaus movement I guess Annie's kind of take on it is really nice. It's nice to see that side of Bauhaus.30:26 Wendy MaruyamaI usually like punch colors but I wanted to experiment with a different tone of colors.Robb HelmkampVery beautiful. So let's talk about a little bit about Memory, one of the last bodies of work that you've, you've completed. 30:43 Wendy MaruyamaLets see in 2018 my uncle died... I have an aunt and uncle I am very close to they were kind of like second mom and dad and my uncle had severe dementia and he finally passed. I think it was 2018. I'm trying to remember but so my aunt was living alone and turned out that she had dementia as well. She was such a brilliant women and was such a role model for me it was really tough to see her decline. So we made the decision at the end of 2019 put her into a memory care facility, and so... and then of course Covid hit so right after we put her there we weren't even able to visit her for about 6 months. There was a lot of guilt and concern and so that was kind of tough. Like I said your getting older and you go through these phases and then go through things with your parents. Some of your friends may die. You know some of this stuff that you're going through at my age anyway. So the memory series was first about her loosing her memory but it's also about memories that people keep and I think it's a very powerful thing. Memories kind of get reused in a way there kind of special after a while, you start thinking about dreams that you've had and they're very similar to many different things that are kind of not intangible things that you think about. In short the work of trying to make these intangible things tangible, relatable in a very tactile way. So the memory piece I did about my aunt has a black lacquered mirror that goes from completely reflective to becomes very distorted at the very end to where you don't recognize yourself anymore, and the case that it is in has a kind of Asian aesthetic to it, being Japanese American. But there is a dysfunctional door on the left side it moves but it really doesn't function to any degree. That was referencing lack of memory, her inability to solve problems. I think that black mirrors have a lot of meaning, you know the iPhone is a black mirror, a black mirror to technology. And in Japan, this is interesting because I think I need a black mirror, the geisha woman in Japan as they aged began to use black lacquer as a mirror because the black lacquer kind of made your wrinkles go away. So you couldn't see your wrinkles so the process of aging is sort of disguised in a black mirror. Yeah, anyway, so the whole black mirror series is about conveying depth. So deep looking into that black lacquer. It looks like you're looking into a deep dark hole. Well you're looking at a reflection. It's been a lot of fun working with you with the black lacquer and I've been really lucky, because um... I don't know if you know Greg Johnson? He's a finisher in upstate New York he has been doing the black lacquer mirrors for me and he does such a beautiful job.35:11Erik Wolken The Black Mirror is just an incredible metaphor. That's just incredibly powerful.35:16 Wendy MaruyamaIt's so rich you know it's interesting how the many things you think about when you look at it. Plus I love the TV series I've seen the Black Mirror. I love that TV show.Robb Helmkamp Isn't it great? I've watched it through and through. It makes you think!Erik Wolken So and starting to wrap this up, Wendy. What are you working on now? What's your what's your what's your next body of work or what are you what are you moving forward with now?35:48 Wendy MaruyamaI am still finishing up the Black Mirror (Memory) series and wrapping up that little chair (Matador) I was telling you about earlier. But I don't really know now what I am going to be making next but hopefully I have been talking to Tom Loeser about doing something together. We were talking about maybe showing together again? No, we haven't looked at the details yet. But it is always kind of fun to show with a good old friend.Erik Wolken Well, Wendy, I just want to wrap this up because this has been an absolutely wonderful conversation with you.Wendy MaruyamaOh, good. I'm glad I hope you can get at least 10 minutes out of it.Robb HelmkampOh, I think we can at least do 15. No Wendy it's been an absolute pleasure talking with youErik Wolken Right and we always end… by saying Why MakeRobb HelmkampWhy Make36:47 Wendy MaruyamaThank you very much. Why Make

When studying mokuhanga, whether you're an academic, a creator, or for general interest, there are some scholars and academics that are mandatory in your studies.  Claire Cuccio is that particular scholar. Currently based in Seattle, and working in international education for 20 years, Claire has been a resident in Asia as an Asian print and handcraft culture specialist and cultural heritage educator. While also working for the International Mokuhanga Conference and conducting research on Nepalese woodblock print culture, Claire has been an asset to the mokuhanga community for some time.  On this episode I speak with Claire about how she got involved in studying print culture in Japan and Asia. We talk on the sensibility of mokuhanga and how Claire is driven by her personal relationships. We also discuss the economics of mokuhanga history and her work with Nepalese printmaker, Kabi Raj Lama.  Please follow The Unfinished Print and my own mokuhanga work on Instagram @andrezadoroznyprints or email me at theunfinishedprint@gmail.com  Notes: may contain a hyperlink. Simply click on the highlighted word or phrase. Artists works follow after the note. Pieces are mokuhanga unless otherwise noted. Claire Cuccio  - her International Mokuhanga Conference lecture from 2022 can be found, here. Claire's work with woodpaperhand can be found here which contains links to many of her projects and lectures.  The New Yorker -  is a weekly magazine which began publishing in 1925 in the United States. It is published by Condé Nast. It is a magazine that covers American and world politics, culture, and arts from around the world, and New York City.  Washington University in St. Louis - is an acclaimed private research university located in St Louis, Missouri, USA. It has an edownment of 13.3 billion. The school covers many subjects and career paths such as medicine and law. More information can be found on their website, here. Myōjō - (明星) was a monthly literary and arts magazine based in Japan. It began publication in 1900 but ended its run in 1908.  It was published by Shinshisha. It was revived twice from 1921-1927, and from 1947-49 by different publishers. The magazine was made famous because of the first sōsaku hanga print ever made by Yamamoto Kanae, “The Fisherman.”  Myōjō cover from February, 1901 Harpers - is a monthly magazine in the United States, published by Harper Collins and was founded in 1850. The magazine covers politics, culture, art, history amongst other subjects. More info can be found, here. Yosano Akiko (1878-1942) - was the pen name of Shō Hō, a Japanese poet, pacifict and feminist. Her work was in the tanka format of poetry, which is 5-7-5-7-7. The Masterclass website has an interesting article describing tanka poetry, here. Tekkan Yosano (1873-1935)- was the husband of Yosano Akiko. He too was a poet and activist in early Twentieth Century Japan. As Claire mentions in her interview, Tekkan founded Myōjō in 1900.  sōsaku-hanga - or creative prints, is a style of printmaking which is predominantly, although not exclusively, prints made by one person. It started in the early twentieth century in Japan, in the same period as the shin-hanga movement. The artist designs, carves, and prints their own works. The designs, especially in the early days, may seem rudimentary but the creation of self-made prints was a breakthrough for printmakers moving away from where only a select group of carvers, printers and publishers created woodblock prints.  Fujishima Takeji (1867-1943)  - was a Japanese painter. He studied Western painting (yōga) in the Romantic and impressionistic styles, but also painted Japanese themes. He made mokuhanga during the sōsaku hanga period of Japanese printing, carved and printed himself.  Dawn Drizzle at Kawaramachi (1934) Ishii Hakutei (1882-1958) - was a Japanese painter who studied Western style painting. He became editor of the first incarnation of Myōjō in 1900, helping to publish Kanae's “Fisherman” print. Hakutei is famous for his Twelve Views of Tōkyō prints which he printed himself.  Twelve Views of Tōkyō: Yanagibashi (1910) Kyoto Consortium for Japanese Studies (KCJS) - located on the campus at Doshisha University, the KCJS is a fully immersive langauge school both culturally and linguistically. It has 13 member universities from the United States. More info can be found, here. Henry Smith II - is a professor emeritus at Columbia University. The article he wrote about the hanmoto system and Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962) can be found, here.  Rebecca Salter - is the President of The Royal Academy of Arts, in London, England. She is also an artist who has written two books about Japanese woodblock printing, Japanese Woodblock Printing (2001), and Japanese Popular Prints (2006). She worked with the Satō Woodblock Print Workshop, documenting their process. Her interview with The Unfinished Print can be found, here.  shadow cast one (2015) Satō woodblock workshop - is a traditional Japanese woodblock production house based in Kyōto, Japan. Here is an article from The Journal of Modern Craft with Rebecca Salter regarding this workshop.  International Society for Education Through Art (InSEA) - is a non governmental, associated with the United Nations, organization which tries to promote creative education around the world via events. They work with 70 countries from around the world. Find out more about what they do at their website, here. Moya Bligh (1954-2009) - was an Irish mokuhanga printmaker based in Kyoto. She lived in Japan for 30 years, having moved there permanently in the 1980's. A graduate of Tama Art University, Moya studied with Akira Kurosaki (1937-2019) and regularly conducted mokuhanga workshops in Ireland and Japan. Ms. Bligh's legacy in mokuhanga continues to this day. Beyond Wood 1 (2002) Kyoto Seika University - is a private university based in Kyōto, Japan. It is a university focused on art and scholarship. More info, here.  Elizabeth Forrest - is an award-winning Canadian artist and mokuhanga prinmaker. She has been producing mokuhanga since the late 1980's when she lived and studied in Kyōto. She has studied with the late Akira Kurosaki. More info about Elizabeth's work can be found, here.  Glancing North II (2009) Keiko Kadota (1942-2017) - was the director of Nagasawa Art Park at Awaji City from 1997-2011, and then of MI Lab at Lake Kawaguchi from 2011 until her passing. Uchiwa fans - are a craft style of hand held fan commonly seen in the summer time in Japan. There are several types of uchiwa fans, according to Kogei Japan. First, is Chinese inspired, second, is Southern inspired, and lastly, Korean inspired. Uchiwa fans are shaped like a ping pong paddle. There are various styles of fans in Japan. More info about uchiwa fans and others can be found here at Japanobjects.com. New Year Card - called nengajo (年賀状) in Japanese, these cards have been traditionally passed from person to person since the Heian Period (794-1185). Mokuhanga practitioners make them as well, creating a new one every year focusing on the zodiac sign of the year as a theme. Kyōto Handicraft Center - opened  in 1967, it is a center dedicated to the traditional crafts of Japan. Located near the Heian Shrine in central Kyōto they offer work shops, food, a restaurant, and a bookshop for national and international tourists. On their website in English you can order from their online shop, shipping internationally. More info, here.  Kamigata Ukiyo-e Museum - is mokuhanga museum in Ōsaka that focuses on ukiyo-e era woodblock prints of actors. It is made up of four floors with a rotating exhibition and demonstration space. It's near the Dōntombori, a canal which runs from the Dōtonbori Bridge to Nipponbashi Bridge. It is a tourist hotspot in Ōsaka. More info, in Japanese, here.  Terry McKenna - is a mokuhanga printmaker based in Karuizawa, Nagano, Japan. He studied under Kyōto-based mokuhanga artist Richard Steiner. Terry also runs his own mokuhanga school in Karuizawa. His interview with The Unfinished Print can be found, here. Richard Steiner's interview with The Unfinished Print can be found, here.  Beyond Raging Waves (2017) David Bull - is a Canadian woodblock printmaker, and educator who lives and works in Japan. His love of mokuhanga has almost singlehandedly promoted the art form around the world. His company, Mokuhankan, has a brick and mortar store in Asakusa, Tōkyō, and online, here.  The Seacoast in Summer (2007-9) Doi Hangaten -  is a mokuhanga print publisher located in Tōkyō, Japan. Once a publisher of prints associated with the shin-hanga movement of the ealry twentieth century, the company continues to publish reproductions of famous Japanese prints, in the old ways. Most recently, the Doi family have collaborated with David Bull and Mokuhankan to publish new verions of some of the old blocks from almost 100 years ago. More info about the Doi Hangaten can be found here, here and here. The collaboration videos produced by Mokuhankan regarding the Doi family and the subsequant collaboration can be found, here.      Matsushima (1936)   Was designed by Tsuchiya Koitsu (1870-1949), and printed by Mokuhankan with Shun Yamamoto, who is himself an accomplished printmaker.  The Adachi Institute of Woodblock Prints - is a print studio located in Tōkyō. Established in 1994 in order to promote and preserve the colour woodblock print of Japan. More information, in English and in Japanese.  Narita, Chiba, Japan - is a city located roughly 70km from the city of Tōkyō. Known predominantly as the home to Narita International Airport. The city and its environs have a long and rich history unto itself. For tourist information,  here. For the history of protest in the area, here. Andy Warhol (1928-1987) was an influential artist and filmmaker who ushered in the genre of art, considered as "pop art."     Sunset Series (1972) screen-print   Kabi Raj Lama  - is a Nepalese printmaker based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He has lived and worked in Japan studying mokuhanga, has travelled the world involved in art residences, studying printmaking. Lama works in intaglio, screen-printing, lithography, and mokuhanga. See Claire's above video from the IMC about Kabi Raj Lama's life and history. HIs Instagram can be found, here.     Kabiraj 5 (2017)   The Kentler International Drawing Space - is an art gallery located in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York. It has hosted several mokuhanga centred exhibitions. The most recent was Between Worlds as hosted by The Mokuhanga Sisters, from July 17 - July 31, 2022. More info, here.    The Mokuhanga Sisters - are a mokuhanga collective consisting of Yoonmi Nam, Mariko Jesse, Lucy May Schofield, Melissa Schulenberg, Kate MacDonagh, Katie Baldwin, Mia-O, Patty Hudak, and Natasha Norman. website,  Instagram   Between Worlds - was a mokuhanga specific show hosted by the Kentler International Drawing Space from July 17 - July 31, 2022.    Books Kinokuniya - is a Japanese chain of bookstores located throughout every Prefecture in Japan and around the world. More info, here.    Peter Ujlaki - is a gallerist and scholar based in Ashiya, Hyōgō, Japan. His website Osakaprints.com has been an asset when researching and discussing prints from the Kamigata (Kansai) region of Japan. His website buys and sells prints from the above region of Kyoto, Ōsaka, and Kobe. The history of woodblock prints from this region is different than of Tōkyō. You can find Peter's wesbite, here.   senjafuda - are the votive slips Claire brings up in her interview. These were hand printed slips pasted by the worshipper onto the Buddhist temple of their choosing. These slips had many different subjects such as ghosts, Buddhist deities, and written characters. Japan Experience has bit of history of senjafuda, here.   The Bai people - are an ethnic group located in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hunan Provinces of China. The Bai people have unique festivals, foods, and architecture.    Nishiki-e (錦絵) - is the Japanese phrase for multi-colour woodblock prints, otherwise known as brocade pictures.    Sea of Japan - is a body of water which lies beteween Japan, the two Koreas, and Russia. It is predominantly referred to as the Sea of Japan but is also known as the East Sea or Korean East Sea. The dispute of naming rights is on going.    International Mokuhanga Conference - is a bi-yearly conference dedicated to mokuhanga which started in 2011 by the International Mokuhanga Association. Each conference is themed. The latest conference was in 2021, delayed a year because of the pandemic. More information can be found, here.     Tuula Moilanen - is a Finnish mokuhanga printmaker and painter based in Finland. She lived and studied in Kyōto from 1989-2012,  where she learned her printmaking at Kyōto Seika University and from printmaker Akira Kurosaki (1937-2019). Her work can be found, here.   Return To Home (2014)   geidai (芸大) -  is the Japanese word for “arts college.”    Lauren Pearlman Sugita - is the owner and operator of the Japanese paper educator and supplier, Paper Connection. Based in Rhode Island, USA, Paper Connection has been supplying artists and educators with paper from many countries for over thirty years. More info can be found, here.  Echizen - is a region in Fukui Prefecture, Japan associated with Japanese paper making. It has a long history of paper making. There are many paper artisans in the area. One famous paper maker is Iwano Ichibei. He is a Living National Treasure in paper making, and the ninth generation of his family is still making paper today. More info can be found here in English, and here in Japanese.  hosho paper - is a handmade and machine made paper from Japan used for printmaking. Some information can be found here. Ibe Kyoko -  is a Japanese artist who works with washi, Japanese paper. She produces installations, prints, stage art, and Japanese folding screens (byōbu). You can find more information about her work on her website, here. An interview with the artist can be found here, at the Noyes Museum of Art in Stockton.   Recycling Washi Tales - is a performance piece by Kyoko Ibe and playwright Elise Thoron,  made about Japanese paper making and with washi. It is four stories, narrated,  taking the observer through different parts of Japanese paper history. More info can be found here on PBS.    Vietnamese paper (dó) - a great video from Business Insider,  here, about the history and modern production of Vietnamese paper in Bac Ninh Province, Vietnam. Vietnamese paper goes as far back as the 13th Century with book making and folk art. Information regarding the Zó Project, a non profit for preserving traditional Vietnamese paper, mentioned in the video can be found, here.   BlueCat Paper -  is a paper company based in Bangalore, India. They make various handmade paper in India, different shapes and colours. They upcycle their paper, meaning that everything is reused in the making of their paper. More info can be found, here.   handmade paper from Laos - South East Asia has had a tradition of papermaking for 700 years. Laotian paper is made of mulberry. More info can be found, here   handmade paper from Bhutan -  Bhutan has a history of handmade paper using the Daphne plant. Stemming from the eighth century, papermaking in Bhutan is made throughout the country. In 1990 the Bhutanese Travel and Tourist Agency wanted to preserve Bhutanese handmade paper. They sent Norbu Tenzin to learn papermaking in Shimane Prefecture, Japan. More info can be found at thre North Bengal Tourism site, here.   Lokta paper - is a Nepalese paper which also uses the bark of the Daphne tree. It is usually sold with various prints and designs.  More info can be found at Paper Connection, here.   © Popular Wheat Productions opening and closing musical credit - Stakes Is High, the instrumental by James Dewitt Yancey [J Dilla] (1974-2006). This beat was used by De La Soul, and released on the record Stakes Is High (1996) released by Tommy Boy Records. RIP David Jude Jolicoeur [Trugoy the Dove] (1968-2023) logo designed and produced by Douglas Batchelor and André Zadorozny  Disclaimer: Please do not reproduce or use anything from this podcast without shooting me an email and getting my express written or verbal consent. I'm friendly :) Слава Україну If you find any issue with something in the show notes please let me know. ***The opinions expressed by guests in The Unfinished Print podcast are not necessarily those of André Zadorozny and of Popular Wheat Productions.***      

It's still the middle of winter for us here in the midwest, but a ray of warmth and sunshine has finally arrived it seems. Summertime Rendering has been out for almost a year in Japan and finally Disney has decided to get its act together and release it in the west. We're both pretty stoked on the show and feel it was well worth the wait, but if you need convincing we've got an in depth spoiler free review to get you to watch it. We also had the release of Junji Ito Mainiac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre over on Netflix. This one's maybe a little more up in the air, but if you're curious we have our thoughts on it as well. Lastly we had a fair bit of little news come out this week, some cool and some not so cool, but we'll do our best to keep you informed and give you our take on current anime events as well. Power Rankings live @tjapod on instagram

Pdubz and Beautiful discuss the comments given. Also, we would appreciate it if anyone can recommend us some decent food.Want to support the show?https://www.patreon.com/TKOrajioContact us at:tkorajio@gmail.comInstagram: tko_rajioTwitter @TKO_RAJIOThirst Alert BGM: Deoxys Beats - Ｌｏｖｅｒ[ｓ]https://soundcloud.com/deoxysbeats1

Happy Valentine's Day! This is a bonus episode inspired from the four piece compilation from 2022. This week we highlight four past discussions. Firstly we have interviewer Guy Perryman (UK) inquiring Tiffany of her cultural experiences between the Philippines and Japan, then sharing an important message as a LGBTQ+ activist in Japan with Masa Yanagisawa (JP),  living with Japanese monks with Felicity Tillack (AUS),  and lastly, living as an LGBTQ+ individual in Japan with Maeve Duvally (US).To our wonderful listeners, let us know which episodes in 2022 you enjoyed most!Special Announcement: Don't forget to reserve your spot on our Zenscape Wellness Retreat from April 7th, 8th & 9th in Hiroshima! Feel free to send an email at breakfastwithtiffanyshow@outlook.com for more information.  Mentioned Episodes & Links; EP 124: Guy Perryman Interviews Featuring Tiffany Rossdale ~ https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com/podcast/episode/7c4efdd6/guy-perryman-interviews-featuring-tiffany-rossdale EP 125: Marriage For All Japan With Guest Masa Yanagisawa ~ https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com/podcast/episode/785af340/marriage-for-all-japan-with-guest-masa-yanagisawa EP 126: The Reality Of Living With Japanese Monks ~ https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com/podcast/episode/7bca680e/the-reality-of-living-with-japanese-monks EP 127: Is Japan A Safe Country For Transgenders? ~ https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com/podcast/episode/7c2823f0/is-japan-a-safe-country-for-transgenders Support the showBreakfast With Tiffany Show Official Facebook Page ~ https://www.facebook.com/breakfastwithtiffanyshow Tiffany's Instagram Account ~ https://www.instagram.com/tiffanyrossdaleofficial/ For coaching sessions & programs with Tiffany, check out her official page ~ https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com Breakfast With Tiffany Show Youtube Channel ~ https://bit.ly/3vIVzhE Breakfast With Tiffany Show Official Page ~ https://www.tiffanyrossdale.com/podcast For questions, requests, collaborations and comments, feel free to reach us via our e-mail~breakfastwithtiffanyshow@outlook.com

Episode 137. One of the most famous sweet treats to come out of Japan in recent years are the seasonal and sometimes funky-flavored Nestle KitKats. It seems that for every season or any reason there is an exclusive, limited edition KitKat flavor. To celebrate Valentine's Day, we thought it might be fun to pair some unusually-flavored Japanese KitKats with some absolutely unique sakes. Along the way Timothy and John discuss the different ways that Valentine's Day is celebrated over in Japan vs. here in the States… “Obligation Chocolate” anyone? Let's see if these KitKat pairings will break our hearts – or help us find true sake love. Join us! #SakeRevolutionSupport the show

MusicCrying Laughing by Dent MayMadison by DrugdealerElizabeth Taylor by Pete YornBuddy by Tim HeideckerSospetti by MastonRuthless by CannonsLove on the Run by Broken BellsChampion by WarpaintExopalace by Vinyl WilliamsAshore of the Cosmic Sea by Gloria de Oliveira & Dean HurleyPlease Let Me Wonder by She & HimAll This Is That by The Beach BoysInevitable Ecstasy by Tycho, Superposition, and Alan WattsIt's 6am in Kyoto by Sweatson KlankAll music in today's episode has been sourced via fair use for education, criticism, and evaluation. If you like the songs you hear, please consider supporting these artists by purchasing the music, rather than streaming it.Alexander Woell on TwitterAlexander Woell on Instagram

#101: Travel writer Brandon Presser joins Chris to discuss all things Japan. They cover why they both love the country so much, what makes it worth a visit, where you should go, what you should see and do, and all the incredible foods you should be trying (including their favorite spots to eat at). Brandon Presser (@brandpress) is a freelance travel writer who has lived in Japan twice, written 3 books on the country and has traveled there in all but one of the last 20 years. Aside from Japan, he's also written 50+ travel guidebooks, contributes to numerous travel publications and recently released his latest book: The Far Land. Full show notes at: https://allthehacks.com/japan-brandon-presser Partner Deals Inside Tracker: 20% off personalized wellness & nutrition plans backed by science goodr: Free shipping on $75 stylish Snow G Goggles Kubera: 14 day trial of the world's most modern wealth tracker for $1 Athletic Greens: Free 1 year supply of Vitamin D and 5 free travel packs Selected Links From The Episode Brandon Presser: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Website  Tokyo Sites: Meiji Shrine | Shibuya Crossing | Imperial Palace | Four Seasons Hotel (Imperial Gardens view) | Team Labs Planets | 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT Neighborhoods: Shimokitazawa | Kichijōji | Daikanyama | Nakameguro | Jiyūgaoka | Odaiba Dine/Drink: Maisen | Kagari Ramen | Kikanbo | Rokurinsha | Min Min | Savoy (Azabu Juban) | Tama | Tatemichiya | Haritts | Sushizanmai | Deus ex Machina | Bar Trench | Bar Tram | Bar Benfiddich | Breakfast Club | Bear Pond Espresso | 7-Eleven snacks Accommodations: Aman | Hilton Tokyo | Grand Hyatt Tokyo Shopping: Omotesando | Tsukiji Outer Market (shopping & dining) Kyoto Sites: Kiyomizu-dera Temple | Yasaka Pagoda Neighborhoods: Gion | Sanjō Dine/Drink: Pizzaria Napoletana Da Yuki | Bar Rocking Chair | Yugen | Ippodo Tea | Monk | House of KI NO BI | Yasai Hori Accommodations: Park Hyatt Kyoto Shopping: Secondary Destinations Kyushu (volcanoes, hot spring culture) Ōita Prefecture Beppu (Stay: Intercontinental) Yufuin Shikoku (small villages, farming/rural) Hokkaido (natural destination, skiing) Niigata (Design Hotels: Satoyama Jujo) Transportation Suica Card Yamanote Line Miscellaneous information Ratings/Reviews: Tabelog The 10 best Japanese convenience store souvenirs Full Show Notes Introduction (00:00) Why Japan? (01:31) Japan: Post-pandemic and post-olympics (04:12) How to plan for your first visit to Japan (07:50) Destinations outside of Tokyo and Kyoto (09:52) The best time of year to visit (12:12) Is it beneficial to have a guide? Can people get by using English? (13:51) Understanding the rating/review system (15:20) Japanese people and culture (17:43) Culture: Meeting & getting to know the locals (21:49) Tokyo: How to geographically think about the city (24:59) Transportation and the Suica pre-paid transportation card (29:07) Tokyo: What to eat, drink, do (33:21) Misnomer: Tokyo is expensive (36:17) Dining in Tokyo (36:47) Dining etiquette: Tipping (37:57) Dining etiquette: Meal times (38:58) Segmented dining (40:23) Food specialties (41:18) Restaurant/bar/cafe recommendations (42:46) More things to see and do in Tokyo (49:28) Nightlife scene (59:03) Is Japan family-friendly? (1:01:13) Kyoto (1:04:02) What to know about visiting Kyoto (1:07:29) Working with high-end travel planners/Access to personalized luxury cultural experiences (1:09:44) How the hotel industry has changed due to the pandemic (1:12:57) Top things to see and do, and where to stay (1:16:51) Kyoto: What to eat, drink, do (1:20:12) Specific types of foods to try (1:22:51) Other things to see and places to explore in Kyoto (1:24:53) Etiquette: Be engaging and show appreciation (1:25:53) Beyond Tokyo and Kyoto: Emerging destinations and interesting places (1:27:07) Shopping in Japan (1:36:21) Osaka (1:36:50) Seto Inland Sea (1:38:45) Where to find Brandon online (1:40:18)

Pete and Chris will return this super soaraway Sunday for more abroad in japan! woohoo! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Starting a business is never easy, but in the last few years there's been more than usual to deal with. Many would assume it's not been a great time to start trading but we speak to three business owners who did just that. Tina Kayoma is the co-founder of Project of Japan in Kyoto. A business that sells products made by Japanese crafts people across the world. She opened her first shop last year. Maria Jose Hernadez is in Switzerland where she runs a confectionary business called El Caramelo and Lisa Nielson is in Ghana where she runs Tiny Reusers, a business that sells second hand baby items. They come together in this episode to explain what it's been like setting up a business where they live. They also discuss the good and bad moments they've had and give their tips for anyone else looking to start a business. Producer/presenter: Hannah Mullane Image: Tina Kayoma, Maria Jose Hernadez and Lisa Nielson; Credit: BBC

▼My New Channel: Let's ask Seki Sensei | Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu▼ https://www.youtube.com/@letsasksekisensei Are you a Japanese budo martial art lover watching this video? Then I am now running the best channel for you to learn more about samurai, katana, and budo martial arts from a Kobudo master who is running a 400-year-old Ryuha. Our goal is to achieve 100,000 subscribers by 2023, so please check it out! ▼Please support me through Ko-fi (a donation platform like Patreon)▼ https://ko-fi.com/letsaskshogo The management (filming, editing, etc.) of the new Asayama Ichiden Ryu's English Channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" is completely my voluntary work. If I am not able to pay for the expensive bullet train fare from Kyoto to Ibaraki Prefecture (where the main Dojo is located), and hotel/filming expenses, this activity will cease. Please help us spread and preserve this 400-year-old martial art. In return, I will try my best to create the most educational and exciting content about Japanese Kobudo. ▼The BEST online katana shop for martial arts (Iaido, Kendo, etc.): Tozando▼ https://tozandoshop.com/letsaskshogo Everything I use for my katana training is bought at this shop! I still use the first training katana I bought in 2016, and it is still in good shape! ▼The recommended online katana shop for decorations and cosplay: Mini Katana▼ https://minikatana.com/SHOGO* Get 15% OFF off all their products by purchasing through my affiliate link ▼Where you can meet me in Kyoto, Japan | Yushinkan Samurai Experience with Modern-day Musashi▼ A 90-minute experience in Japan where beginners can learn how to wield, draw, sheath, and swing the katana from the modern-day Musashi! I, Shogo, will be your interpreter to lead you into the wonderful world of samurai martial arts! Make your reservation here: https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/4577764?locale=enA video of me visiting this experience: https://youtu.be/MqBCAC42zAM

▼My New Channel: Let's ask Seki Sensei | Kobudo Asayama Ichiden Ryu▼ https://www.youtube.com/@letsasksekisensei Are you a Japanese budo martial art lover watching this video? Then I am now running the best channel for you to learn more about samurai, katana, and budo martial arts from a Kobudo master who is running a 400-year-old Ryuha. Our goal is to achieve 100,000 subscribers by 2023, so please check it out! ▼Please support me through Ko-fi (a donation platform like Patreon)▼ https://ko-fi.com/letsaskshogo The management (filming, editing, etc.) of the new Asayama Ichiden Ryu's English Channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" is completely my voluntary work. If I am not able to pay for the expensive bullet train fare from Kyoto to Ibaraki Prefecture (where the main Dojo is located), and hotel/filming expenses, this activity will cease. Please help us spread and preserve this 400-year-old martial art. In return, I will try my best to create the most educational and exciting content about Japanese Kobudo. ▼The BEST online katana shop for martial arts (Iaido, Kendo, etc.): Tozando▼ https://tozandoshop.com/letsaskshogo Everything I use for my katana training is bought at this shop! I still use the first training katana I bought in 2016, and it is still in good shape! ▼The recommended online katana shop for decorations and cosplay: Mini Katana▼ https://minikatana.com/SHOGO* Get 15% OFF off all their products by purchasing through my affiliate link ▼Where you can meet me in Kyoto, Japan | Yushinkan Samurai Experience with Modern-day Musashi▼ A 90-minute experience in Japan where beginners can learn how to wield, draw, sheath, and swing the katana from the modern-day Musashi! I, Shogo, will be your interpreter to lead you into the wonderful world of samurai martial arts! Make your reservation here: https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/4577764?locale=enA video of me visiting this experience: https://youtu.be/MqBCAC42zAM

Welcome to ‘Japanese Travel Trivia’, your ultimate guide to the hidden gems and unique experiences of Japan. From the bustling streets of Tokyo to the tranquil temples of Kyoto, we’ll…

This episode we take a look at the reign of Takewo Hiro Oshikuni Tate, aka Senka Tenno, and we take our first steps into what is referred to as the Asuka Period, due to the large number of rulers who had courts in the region of Asuka in the southern Nara Basin. For more information, check out https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-80 Rough Transcript: Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is Episode 80: The Asuka Period Begins! When last we looked at the Chronicles, we were in the reign of Magari no Ohine, aka Ohoye—though we've gone with Ohine so I'm going to stick with that—aka Ankan Tennou.  Assuming the dating in the Chronicles is correct, he was born about 465, and would have come of age in the era of Wakatakiru no Ohokimi, aka Yuuryaku Tennou.  When his father, Wohodo no Ohokimi, first took the throne in 507, Ohine would  would have been in his early forties—his father only in his mid to late 50s.  And so when his father passed away about 25 years later, Ohine was already into his late 60s, himself.  It is unclear whether his father reigned for 25 or 28 years; the Chronicles say 25, officially, but then note that there is another source that claims it was 28.  It goes on to skip over about three years, during which Ohine himself didn't take the throne, allowing for 28 years to have passed.   That discrepancy of three years may not seem like much, but it is still curious. Realistically, though, he had his hand on the tiller of the ship of state for much longer.  We see his hand in stories dated to about 513, when he is shown politicking on national issues, taking a royal princess as his wife, and being established as the heir apparent.  So he is actively participating in the government, and while it does appear that the long tradition of co-rulership, which we've discussed a few times, may have died out around this period, there seems little doubt as to his influence in the court. And yet, Ohine's reign only lasted two years.  He was perhaps 68 or 69 years old when he took the throne, and he would die in the following year.  Despite his influence, his father's long reign had kept him off the throne for much of that time, and he was likely considered venerable even as he took the throne.  He was succeeded by his maternal brother, the second eldest son of Wohodo no Ohokimi, who full name was Take-wo Hiro Kunioshi Tate.  Based on his age and the dating in the Chronicles, he was only about one year younger than his older brother.  So everything I said above about Ohine coming to the throne at a late age applies to Takewo as well - he would have also been through almost 7 decades by that point, so he was no spring chicken. It is unclear what Takewo's role was, growing up.  He was the second son.  His older brother was the heir apparent, and had his elder brother had children, no doubt those children would have been expected to inherit.  However, such as not meant to be, as Magari no Ohine died childless. Here I should point out that there were other brothers, since in the stories we've seen so far there has not necessarily been an insistence on the eldest brother taking the throne.   One of these brothers was the young Ame Kunioshi Hiraki Hiro Niwa no Mikoto.  Born to Wohodo and his formal queen, Tashiraga, he would have been 26 at the time of Magari no Ohine's death.  Young, in comparison to Takewo, but not impossibly so, and certainly old enough to have taken the throne.  In fact the Chronicles treat it as a forgone conclusion, though that is likely more twenty-twenty hindsight than anything else.  Besides, although his mother was queen, that appears to have been a blatantly political marriage, designed to join Wohodo's line with that of the previous sovereigns.  Even Ohine had married a royal princess from the previous ruling line, and Takewo would be little different.  Still, it seems likely that Takewo and Ohine were likely from the more favored line, at least at the time, and as they took the throne, had they had heirs who could follow after them those heirs would have likely been the new royal lineage. So: both Ohine and his brother came to the throne quite late in their lives, and neither would hold it for very long.  That doesn't mean, though, that there aren't some important tidbits for us in their stories.  As we've discussed in the last few episodes, a lot happened during Ohine's reign, particularly with the establishment of various royal granaries.  His entry in the Nihon Shoki is over twice the length of Takewo's, even though the latter's reign was longer, though not by much—lasting from the twelfth month of 535 to the spring of 539—a little more than three years, all told.  Still, Takewo's reign has a few notable events.  First such thing is the enthronement ceremony in the twelfth month of 535, as the Ministers of the court delivered up to Takewo the regalia—the sword and the mirror.  Notice that there is no mention of the jewel, and neither is their mention of the seal, which was the item given to Takewo's father, Wohodo, on *his* ascension, which we discussed back in Episode 75.  This continues something of a trend, where the sword and the mirror are the truly public regalia. Then, they moved the palace, as was customary.  The Chronicles say that they set it up in Ihorino, in Hinokuma.  This has traditionally been identified as being in the Hinokuma district of Asuka, near Omiashi jinja.  Omiashi jinja claims to be the family shrine of the Aya, one of the families that trace their lineage back to the weavers brought over from the Korean peninsula.  That family, much like the current dynasty, traced their own lineage back to the time of Homuda Wake, and I wonder if there wasn't some kind of connection that would have made Hinokuma important to the sovereign and the court back in the early 6th century. It is also near the site of the ruins of Hinokuma temple, said to have been established over a century later, in 686.  Temples often were their own kind of symbol, and likely spoke to some importance for this area at the time it was founded, though it is likely that was coincidental to the site's use by Takewo and his court, assuming the Chronicles can be trusted on that point. Now some of you, like me, may have picked up on the location of this palace; that is to say, Asuka.  As in the Asuka period.  This is the period, between the 6th and 7th centuries, when many of the sovereigns based their capitals out of this region south of Kashihara in the Nara Basin, and hence the name.  We'll talk more on this periodization—as well as the various dates and what they mean—later on in the episode.  For now, just know that this area, which is rich in archaeological evidence for this period, is going to be of particular importance to us—so much so that scholars have named an era after this region. After setting up the palace, we are told that Takewo appointed his ministers.  Two of the names are no surprise—Ohotomo no Kanamura and Mononobe no Arakahi were still around, and had continued in positions of power.  Two new names join the list, however:  Soga no Iname no Sukune was made Oho-omi, and Abe no Ohomaro no Omi was made Daibu. Soga no Iname comes from the famous Soga clan.  They claimed descent through none other than the famous Katsuragi no Sotsuhiko, and have popped up now and again.  For more on Sotsuhiko, check out episode 47.  The last mention appears to be during the reign of Wakatakiru no Ohokimi, when they mentioned Soga no Karako—which looks like it may be talking about someone born on the Korean peninsula.  Given their connections to the continent and their eventual connection with Buddhism—as we'll see in later episodes they played a large role in bringing it over and popularizing it in Japan—it seems quite likely that they had ties to the Korean peninsula.  Here, we see Soga no Iname being made Ohoomi, the head of the Soga no Omi family, and what appears to be a rank of prime minister, although so far the actual authority of the Oho-omi in State affairs seems a bit hit or miss. Abe no Ohomaro, on the other hand, is being made Daibu.  This term is interesting—they are not making Ohomaro the head of the Abe clan, which would also be Ohoomi, one assumes, just like the Ohomuraji of the Ohotomo and Mononobe, though there are a lot of “Omi” ranked families that have been mentioned, but only a handful who have been mentioned as Oho-omi.  The term “daibu” has shown up a few times in the Chronicles before, and generally just seems to refer to high ranking court officials, generally, though here it seems to be a specific court title.  It would certainly be used that way, later, but it is also possible that, like Omi, it was originally just a more general term for high ranking ministers. The Abe family has shown up here and there.   Much like the Mononobe, their family name appears to suggest that they were originally formed as one of the “-Be” corporate family groups, though of course they show up in the Chronicles well before that would seem to have been the case, and have been prominent enough to marry daughters off to various sovereigns, so they at least claim something of a pedigree.  They would continue to be important at court, and appear to have been close allies with the Soga clan, at least in this period. There are a host of famous Abe throughout history.  From the poet, Abe no Nakamaro, to the famous Onmyoji, or Yin-yang diviner, Abe no Seimei.  There was a branch of Abe in the Tohoku region that regularly caused problems for later courts.  And of course there is the modern political dynasty, as well, including the late Prime Minister, Abe Shinzo.  However, it is somewhat difficult to know just who is actually related.  The poet Nakamaro may be named for a village, rather than for his relationship to the court family.  There are even different ways of spelling and pronouncing the Abe name, even in the Nihon Shoki itself.  The Abe family was large enough that it would not have been difficult for someone to claim a relationship that didn't exist, particularly in some of the more chaotic times.  Still, we'll try to keep track of them as best we can, at least as they interact with our narrative.  In this case, that means keeping an eye on Abe no Ohomaro and his position at court. Besides affirming the ministers, there was also the appointment of a queen.  Here we again see the trend to connect this dynasty with the previous, as Takewo's primary wife was none other than Tachibana no Nakatsu, a daughter of Ohoke no Ohokimi, aka Ninken Tennou.  Together they had one son and three daughters, so technically it would appear that he did have an heir when he passed, but as we'll see, that isn't quite how the succession ended up working out. One of the major events of this reign seems rather substantial.  That's the creation of a government house—basically an administrative center—in northern Kyushu, specifically in Nanotsu no Kuchi.  Ostensibly it was to organize granaries to consolidate and distribute food as necessary.  Of course, it can't be forgotten that rice was not just food, but also the basis of the economy.  So granaries were just as much a place that taxes could be collected, and that would have given officials there a tidy sum, some of which was no doubt destined for Yamato, but which I imagine was also used to help grease the wheels of local government. We've seen this coming for some time.  We see the military subdual of Kyushu in the old stories, and we see various people sent out to bring it to heel or otherwise administer at least the northern areas, which would have been part of the critical trade routes between Yamato and the mainland.  Mononobe no Arakahi had been sent down with what we are told was a “battleax” of office to put down the Iwai Rebellion.  That was about ten years ago, and we see Arakahi still in the government.  Now, however, Yamato seems to be consolidating its hold over the area, instituting economic controls, beyond just the threat of military force. There are also the various areas and families that they drew upon to fund and kickstart this venture.  Most of it is from the Yamato region—Mamuta, in Kawachi; Owari, near modern Nagoya; Nihinomi, likely near Ohosaka; and Iga.  The families in charge of this include Aso no Kimi, who must have had some leverage in Mamuta; Soga no Iname, who held influence of the Owari no Muraji; Mononobe no Arakahi, who apparently was in charge of the Nihinomi no Muraji; and then the Abe family, who directed the Iga no Omi.  Of these, I find the Aso no Kimi most intriguing, as the others are all related to the great ministers of state.  Aso no Kimi feels out of place, to me.  It may be a reference to Mt. Aso or similar.  But I also can't help but notice that we have one Great Minister missing:  Ohotomo no Kanamura, though not for long. The rest of the setup of this government house—what sounds suspiciously like the area we'll later come to know as the Dazaifu—included commandments that the local regions of the island of Kyuushuu also provide funds, which is to say rice.  They consolidated reserves from Tsukushi, Hi, and Toyo, which is mostly northern Kyushu. This was all in the year 536.  Whether that is when it was commanded or that is when it was setup is not quite clear to me.  One suspects that it would have fallen to Mononobe no Arakahi to administer things from this new government center, if it weren't for that fact that Arakahi passed away only about a month later. It is unclear who administered this new government house immediately, but in the year following, 537, and with Silla breathing down Nimna's neck, Takewo's government assigned Ohotomo no Kanamura's sons, Iwa and Sadehiko, to assist Nimna.  Iwa took charge of the government in Tsukushi, which would have been supplying any adventures on the peninsula, including raising troops and making preparations. Meanwhile his brother, Sadehiko went to Nimna and, we are told, “restored the peace” there, as well as lending aid to Yamato's ally, Baekje. This is rather vague.  I don't see anything in the Samguk Sagi that clearly equates to this.  In 532, the Silla Annals talk about the King of Keumgwan Kara surrendering to Silla, though Kara would continue to be a going concern for at least another sixty years or so.  It is possible that this had something to do with this new expedition around 537, but it isn't clear. Takewo would pass away in 539.  His kofun near Mt. Unebi, just a little ways north of his palace at Hinokuma.  It is identified as one in modern Toriyacho.  It is said that he was buried together with his wife, Tachibana, and one of their children, who died while still quite young. And that's where we might end things, but there are a few other points to note for this period.  For one thing, this is a great time to discuss periodization in Japanese history, since some people claim that the Asuka period started during this reign—specifically referencing the date of 538. Periodization of historical eras often seems straightforward, but more often than not it is anything but.  Periods may be designated for political reasons or even cultural.  Political reasons may include things like a change in government, or even a change in the location of government.  Certainly the Nara period, starting in 710, is based quite squarely on the foundation of Heijo-kyo, the continental style capital in modern Nara city.  Likewise the Heian and Kamakura eras are often dated from the founding of the governments in those areas. However, just because the government moved does not necessarily mean that things changed overnight, or even much at all.  Likewise there were smaller changes that often happened within these periods, so within the Heian and Kamakura periods, you get terms like the Fujiwara and Insei periods to denote specific aspects of who was controlling the government at any given time. For some, that means that the Asuka period doesn't start until the reign of Toyomike Kashikiya-hime, aka Suiko Tenno, in 593, and by the narrowest definition only continues until the Taika reforms in 645, which are easily defined political dates with broad agreement across the scholarship for when they occurred. And yet, we know that there were governments based out of the Asuka period before that, if the Nihon Shoki is to be at all believed.  So if this is about the location of the capital, why not start it with Takewo and his palace?  Shouldn't that be the start of the so-called “Asuka Period”?  After all, during this period the sovereigns continued the practice of building new palaces upon their ascension, with most, though not all, being in the Asuka area.  And yet, that probably wouldn't really help break up the period in the most meaningful ways.  After all, if we go with that idea, why not start when Wohodo no Ohokimi built his palace in Iware, just a little to the north?  What was so different from one to the other? On the other hand, cultural periods tend to focus on changes in things like art or even thought.  These often overlap well, but not exactly, with political periods.  For instance, you may hear about the Higashiyama period, a time in the Muromachi when the Higashiyama era of Kyoto was ascendant, and it was influencing artistic growth and evolution across the country.  But even that is a hard thing to tack down. For the Asuka period, perhaps the biggest change – and one we will spend a lot of time discussing – was the introduction of Buddhism, that foreign religion from India, transported across Eurasia to the Korean peninsula and then over to Japan.  The primary figure to whom the spread of Buddhism in Japan is attributed is the enigmatic Shotoku Taishi, who served as a regent for Toyomike Kashikiya hime, and instituted myriad reforms, often along continental models.  And yet, if we want to look at the start of Buddhism, that actually goes further back—and for many it goes back all the way to the years included in this reign—specifically the year 538. Now the year 538 in the Nihon Shoki contains no mention of Buddhism.  In fact, the Nihon Shoki wouldn't have a record of anything related to Buddhist teachings coming to Japan until about 13 or 14 years later, in the reign of the following sovereign, known as Kimmei Tenno, whom we will be getting to shortly.  This chronicle states that it was in about 552 when an envoy from Baekje brough an image of the Buddha as well as Buddhist scriptures to the court.  However, these days it seems that many scholars prefer a date of 538 for this particular event.  The 538 date comes from the records of Gangoji Temple—the Gangouji Garan Engi—as well as the Jouguu Shoutoku Houou Teisetsu, aka the Jouguu-ki.  This latter is purported to be a biography of Shotoku Taishi, and comes from the 8th century, so contemporary with the Nihon Shoki, the Kojiki, and the Sendai Kuji Hongi.  Both of these sources lend credence to the idea of 538 being when these Buddhist icons first came over, and so many people will start the Asuka period at this date. To be clear, it isn't as if Buddhism came over once and that was the end of it and everybody became Buddhist.  This is just the first recorded instance of Buddhist items and ideas entering Japan—it wasn't until later, as the court was adopting more and more continental ways, that Buddhism really gained acceptance and spread.  Eventually it seems that state sponsorship of temples would override the construction of large kofun, as economic resources and labor were shifted to these new institutions of the state, bringing the Kofun era to its eventual end.  But that is still down the road for us.  Right now we are just at the beginning of the introduction of Buddhism, and while things are changing and the state is definitely growing, life didn't suddenly take a turn one way or the other. As for the date of 538—why was this, in hindsight, incredibly important religious and cultural event not mentioned in the reign of Takewo?  Why was it instead mentioned in the reign of his successor? I've seen a few theories, but nothing that can concretely answer this question.  Of course, there is the possibility that Takewo just wasn't as impressive.  The Chronicles seem to take issue with both his lineage and his elder brother's, suggesting they weren't true heirs because they did not have the full pedigree that someone like their brother, Ame Kunioshi, had.  Of course, that could also have something to do with the path history took—to the Chroniclers it only made sense, but I think we can all see how that could have turned out differently. There is also a theory that Ame Kunioshi, aka Kimmei Tenno, was actually co-ruling.  Some have even suggested that Takewo and his brother, Magari no Ohine, were fictional,  though why they would need to pad things out is anybody's guess.  It certainly does not seem unreasonable to think that some tradition of co-rulership had briefly continued in some form.  As such, it may be that it did happen during Ame Kunioshi's reign, but that said reign overlapped with his brother.  If that were the case, the Chroniclers may have been teasing the two apart to provide a more direct narrative. In the end, it is hard to know exactly why the dates don't correspond between the different documents, but for our part I think we can say that we have now at least dipped our toes into the Asuka Period, especially as we get into the reign of Takewo's younger step-brother, the youngest son of Wohodo no Ohokimi, or so we are told:  Ame Kunioshi Hiraki Hiro Niwa, aka Kimmei Tennou But that will be for another episode, and there is so much to talk about:  More contact with the continent, further discussion of the coming of Buddhism, and perhaps a look at some of the archaeology, including some volcanic events that don't seem to have made it into the Chronicles themselves.  All of that, coming up. Until then, thank you for listening and for all of your support.  If you like what we are doing, tell your friends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen to podcasts.  If you feel the need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we have information about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFi site, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our main website, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some more discussion on topics from this episode. Also, feel free to Tweet at us at @SengokuPodcast, or reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.    

It's here! Winter 2023 is in full swing and there are 37 new titles and another 18 returning. If you're bad at math that's 55 shows that we watched at least 3 episodes of  and are now ranking based on our own personal preference with a questionable degree of objectivity. If you want to know what we're watching this season as well as a little bit about every new title out right now then this massive episode is a great place to start. Since it's the new year  we'll remind you how this goes, we've got a one sentence summary for every new show this season as well as a select few that we've singled out in our tier system to talk more about why we rated it where we did. There's a lot of solid titles on offer this season, and plenty that are enjoyable despite their lack in quality as well, so here you go! What are you watching this season?Power Rankings live @tjapod on instagram

The spirit of mokuhanga can be found throughout the world. You may find mokuhanga anywhere, in one place, yet pursue it in another. On this episode I speak with long time mokuhanga printmaker David Stones. David has lived and worked in Japan for over forty years, all in the rural area around Okazaki City, in Aichi Prefecture. David has dedicated his life to making mokuhanga in Japan. I speak with David about how he found his way to Japan from England, and how he began working with and studying under famous sōsaku hanga printmaker Tomikichirō Tokuriki (1902-2000) in Kyoto. We discuss what it's like to live and work in a rural part of Japan, how documenting a Japanese historical past affects his work and talk about his relationship with nature.  Please follow The Unfinished Print and my own mokuhanga work on Instagram @andrezadoroznyprints or email me at theunfinishedprint@gmail.com  Notes: may contain a hyperlink. Simply click on the highlighted word or phrase. Artists works follow after the note. Pieces are mokuhanga unless otherwise noted. David Stones  - website, video produced by Satomi Okane, here.  Tiles Oshibuchi (date unknown) Trans Siberian Railway - is a rail line that services Russian cities from Moscow to Vladisvostok. It is 9,289 km long. It has been in service since 1904. More information can be found, here.  letterpress - is a type of relief printing by using a printing press. It was popular during Industrialization and the modernity of the West. By the mid twentieth century, letterpress began to become more of an art form, with artists using the medium for books, stationary, and greeting cards. Tomikichirō Tokuriki (1902-2000) - was a Kyoto based mokuhanga printmaker and teacher. His work touched on many themes and styles. From “creative prints” or sōsaku hanga in Japanese, and his publisher/printer prints, or shin hanga prints of traditional Japanese landscapes.  Hamaotsu (date unknown) Wood Block Print Primer -  is a book first published by Hoikusha Publishers in the late 1960's in soft cover and, strangely, published in 1970 in hardcover by Japan Publications Inc. If anybody has more information on this book, send me an email. deshi (弟子) - is the Japanese word for pupil, or student. Studying in Japan - going to Japan to study your field, your art, or your interests can be a complicated process. You can go and take short term courses and workshops without a special visa in Japan, but if you are looking for a long term option to study, I suggest checking out University websites, artist in residence programs etc in your chosen field as all will have their own application processes.  shukubo (宿坊) - is a dormitory, or hostel, in a Buddhist temple in Japan. You can find some of those “temple-stays” in Kyoto, here. Okazaki, Aichi - is a relatively large city of around 300,000 people. It is about 45 minutes outside of Nagoya City. It is known for its seasonal activities, reconstructed castle, Tokugawa history, and food. More info can be found, here Richard Steiner - is a mokuhanga printmaker based in Kyoto, Japan. He has been producing mokuhanga for over 50 years. More information about his work can be found on his website, here. And his interview with The Unfinished Print, can be found here. David Bull - is a Canadian woodblock printmaker, and educator who lives and works in Japan. His love of mokuhanga has almost singlehandedly promoted the art form around the world. His company, Mokuhankan, has a brick and mortar store in Asakusa, Tōkyō, and online, here.      The River In Winter - From "My Solitudes" series (2007-9)   oban - is a print size in mokuhanga. The standard size is, generally speaking, 39 x 26.5 cm. The Japanese Gallery in London has a solid list on the variants of mokuhanga print sizing, here.  gomazuri - is a mokuhanga technique where slight pressure is used with pigments too make a “spotty” image, what look like sesame seeds. It can add depth to your prints. An excellent description of this technique can be found at David Bull's woodblock.com, which posted Hiroshi Yoshida's entire book 'Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking' (1939), here.  Woodblock Diary - is a book self published by David Stones, and can be found on his website. Tōkyō Tower - is a communications tower located in the Minato district of Tōkyō, Japan. It was built in 1958 and, before the construction of Tōkyō Skytree to compete, was one of the few views of Tōkyō open to the public. For many, including me, it is a nostalgic piece of Tōkyō architecture with a lot of affinity.  More info can be found, here. Chubu Electric Power Mirai Tower -  is a communications tower locasted in the Japanese city of Nagoya. It was constructed in 1954 making it the oldest communications tower in Japan. More info, in Japanese, can be found, here. Taishō Period  (1912-1926) - a short lived period of Japanese modern history but an important one in world history. This is where the militarism of fascist Japan began to take seed, leading to The Pacific War (1931-1945). More info can be found, here. Nagoya City and District Courthouse  - built in 1922, this courthouse was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1984. More information can be found here at Japan Travel, about the history of the courthouse. Preservation of Historic Sites and Buildings - is a Parliamentary recognition in England which attempts to preserve historical buildings through various charitable organizations. English Heritage, established as a charity in 2015 preserves designated historic buildings and properties in England. And The National Trust, founded in 1895 is an independent charity which does the same as EH.  Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950) - a watercolorist, oil painter, and woodblock printmaker. Is associated with the resurgence of the woodblock print in Japan, and in the West. It was his early relationship with Watanabe Shōzaburō, having his first seven prints printed by the Shōzaburō atelier. This experience made Hiroshi believe that he could hire his own carvers and printers and produce woodblock prints, which he did in 1925.  The Cave Temple at Anjata (1931) urushi  - is a type of lacquer used  in Japanese lacquerware for hundreds of years especially in maki-e lacquer decoration. A very good blog posting by Woodspirit Handcraft has great information about urushi, here. Echizen - is a region in Fukui Prefecture, Japan associated with Japanese paper making. It has a long history of paper making. There are many paper artisans in the area. One famous paper maker is Iwano Ichibei. He is a Living National Treasure in paper making, and the ninth generation of his family still making paper today. More info can be found here in English, and here in Japanese.  Satomi Okane - is a filmmaker,  director of video production for her production company, Penny Black Productions. She has worked on various videos dealing with the preservation of nature, and culture in Satoyama. Her work can be found at her Torikono Sekai website, here, and her YouTube channel, here. Lynita Shimizu - is a mokuhanga printmaker based in Connecticut. She studied under Tomikichirō Tokuriki, and Yoshisuke Funasaka. Her work is colourful and powerful, dealing with nature. More info can be found, here, on her website. Her interview with The Unfinished Print, can be found, here.  kura (蔵) - is a Japanese storehouse  © Popular Wheat Productions opening and closing musical credit - Fugazi - Stacks. From the album, Steady Diet of Nothing. (Discord, 1991) logo designed and produced by Douglas Batchelor and André Zadorozny  Disclaimer: Please do not reproduce or use anything from this podcast without shooting me an email and getting my express written or verbal consent. I'm friendly :) Слава Україну If you find any issue with something in the show notes please let me know. ***The opinions expressed by guests in The Unfinished Print podcast are not necessarily those of André Zadorozny and of Popular Wheat Productions.***