Podcasts about sekigahara

Tony's back from Ireland and Steve's shot out of a cannon! Get ready for a wild ride. Today the gang runs down a bunch of games they've been playing including Transgalactica, Sekigahara The Unification of Japan, The White Castle, Steam Power, Shackleton Base, and a feature review of Galileo Galilei by new designer Tomas Holek. Then after Tony T wrestles the News hosting duties away from Steve, the gang reads and discusses some spicy hot takes submitted by Cabalists! Transgalactica: 00:04:31, Sekigahara: 00:14:35, The White Castle: 00:21:38, Steam Power: 00:32:26, Shackleton Base: 00:42:12, Galileo Galilei: 00:56:08, News with Tony T: 01:27:01, Cabalist Spicy Hot Takes: 02:16:49. Check out our sponsors Restoration Games at https://restorationgames.com/. Game Toppers at https://www.gametoppersllc.com/. And CGE at https://czechgames.com/.

This episode we continue with the Jinshin War.  This episode we follow Prince Oama on his dramatic escape to the east:  From Yoshino he dashed through the mountains, through Iga and over to Ise.  In so doing he secured both Suzuka and Fuwa--areas that would be important chokepoints throughout Japan's history.   For more information, check out our blogpost at: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-130 Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 130: Jinshin no Ran, Part II:  Gathering Stormclouds.   The soldier on watch was doing his best to keep alert.  The night shift was never pleasant duty, and it was even less pleasant out here in the mountains.  There were plenty of sounds in the night—birds and animals out in the darkness—but rarely was there much actual action.  At least the sky was clear, with only the occasional cloud. Guarding a post station was hardly the worst duty in the world. There was a decent amount of traffic: after all, they were along one of the major routes between Ise and Yamato.  But at night, well, who wanted to try and navigate the mountain roads?  That was a great way to fall into a river and drown, or get lost in the woods, unable to find your way back to civilization. It must have been a shock when he saw a light in the distance.  There were almost always a few fires somewhere in the village, but most of them were out or covered at this time of night, with the exception of the odd torch.  But this was something more.  At first the guard thought it was just his eyes playing tricks on him.  And then he wondered if it was some kind of mountain spirit—he'd heard of ghost parades that could come and take people in the night.  He shivered, and instinctively checked his own torch to ensure that it was burning well and bright.  Indeed it was. It took him a little time for his eyes to adjust again to the darkness, but now, sure enough, he saw the torches coming—and not just one, many of them, and he could now hear the faint metallic clank of metal on metal.  He then heard a faint sound like a tight rope being suddenly plucked.  It only just started to dawn on him what was happening when the first arrows started to rain down on his position. They were under attack!   Welcome back.  This episode we are continuing with our coverage of the Jinshin no Ran—the Jinshin War of 672—and if you haven't already, I highly recommend you start with episode 129, where we talk about some of the background for what was happening.  That said, let's do a quick recap to bring us up to speed on where we are.  And then we'll dive into an account of an absolutely unbelievable journey, which is impressive for multiple reasons, but mostly for the speed at which it was able to take place. So as you may recall, Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tennou, passed away at the end of 671 after months of illness.  After falling ill, the Chronicles tell us that he offered the state to his younger brother, the Crown Prince, Prince Ohoama, but Ohoama was warned that it was a trap, and as such, he turned down the offer.  Instead, he retired from his position to become a monk, and left for Yoshino, taking half of his household with him.  With Ohoama retired, Naka no Oe's son, the 23 year old Prince Ohotomo, took the throne. After Naka no Oe's death, Ohotomo effectively ruled Yamato from the Ohotsu palace in Afumi, running things along with the ministers of the left and right, Soga no Akaye and Nakatomi no Kane, and other high ministers.  Though the Nihon Shoki does not acknowledge it, Ohotomo is thought to have been a formal sovereign, in deed if not in name, at this point.  Much later, he would be given the posthumous name of “Koubun Tennou”. It would seem that Ohotomo and the Afumi court had misgivings about Prince Ohoama's promise to retire from the world and not challenge the throne.  The Nihon Shoki recounts that they began to make subtle preparations for a conflict, including levying men to build Naka no Oe's tomb, but issuing them weapons instead of tools.  They also set up checkpoints along the road from the court in Ohotsu down to Asuka—the main route to where Ohoama was residing in Yoshino.  And then, finally, someone told Ohoama that they were no longer allowing Prince Ohoama's people to cross the Uji bridge to bring him and his household supplies. Prince Ohoama was not going to sit idly by while the Afumi court gathered up enough forces to claim he was doing something treasonous and then march on him in Yoshino.  And so he sent one of his trusted vassals to the east to seek support.  Meanwhile, he himself was making ready to move.  There was just one more thing before setting out:  seeing if he could get posting bells.  This was sparked by the words of one of his advisors, who suggested that they should be careful.  They did not have many soldiers in Yoshino, and they had already sent out a general like Woyori to start raising troops in the East.  At the same time, if the Afumi Court was also maneuvering, it was likely that they would have sent words to the various post stations to bar the roads and prevent any movement. As such, Prince Ohoama decided to send several messengers to ask for Posting Bells, so that Ohoama and his men could make use of the official horses at the various post stations, allowing them to travel much more quickly and freely.  However, it was not clear if such orders had come and, if they had, where the local government officiallys might place their loyalty. Of particular importance was the case of Prince Takasaka, who was in charge of the Okamoto Palace, and thus the governance of the ancient capital. He would be the one to grant posting bells if they were to receive them.  If he provided the bells, then Ohoama and his party could assume they would have little to no trouble making their way East. And so Prince Ohoama sent his evnoys to the Okamoto palace.The messengers requested posting bells, but Prince Takasaka refused to issue them.  This sent a clear message to Prince Ohoama:  the Afumi court had no intention of letting him and his household have free access to the roads, and the local officials in Asuka were not going to provide any support.  In fact, Prince Takasaka now knew that Ohoama planned to travel, and if he wanted to, Takasaka could likely raise troops to try and stop Ohoama from leaving.  At the very least he would no doubt be sending a swift horse to Ohotsu to inform the Afumi court.  Ohoama and his followers would have to hurry if they wanted to do anything. And so, on the 24th of the 6th month, the same day that he got word back about the posting bells,  Prince Ohoama made the decision to move.  He and his entourage left quickly—he didn't even let anyone saddle a horse for him or prepare his carriage.  He just started to head out on foot on a journey to the East – and keep in mind that everything I'm going to describe in the next few minutes happened over the course of one night, truly an epic journey for Ohoama and all of those with him..  The Chronicles lists about 20 men and over ten women who originally set out with Ohoama from Yoshino, including his wife, the Royal Princess Uno no Sarara, daughter of Naka no Oe.  She wasn't walking, however—she followed a little behind in a palanquin, or litter, carried on poles.  I do wonder if those carrying the palanquin are among those mentioned, or were they servants or even enslaved persons who weren't considered worthy of note. The path they traveled wound its way through the mountains.  Streams and rivers had carved channels and valleys into these mountains.  People had settled these areas, and created paths through the wilderness.  Now, the valleys were fairly well populated, with roads connecting the communities that had grown up in the nooks and hollers. These facilitated trade through the mountain communities and between the eastern and western sides of the Kii peninsula, but even still, it was difficult terrain.  Unlike roads in the flat plains, the width of the roads in the mountains would have been constrained by steep mountainsides and the natural twists and turns of the valleys.  There may have been rope or wooden bridges that they had to cross, as streams constantly flow down the hill sides to the river below.  This route would make it much easier to avoid any official Afumi forces that might have been sent out, as those would likely be sticking to the main roads, but there were still government outposts along the way.  If these outposts proved loyal to the Afumi court, they could raise the alarm and send a messenger on horseback, who could likely flee much more quickly than Ohoama's men could follow.  And if Afumi learned that Ohoama was on the move, they could quickly mobilize their forces, secure key strategic points, and Ohoama's mad rush would be for naught.   The path Ohoama chose would lead from Yoshino, through the valleys, up through Iga, and then over to Suzuka, in Ise—modern Mie prefecture.  The journey was long and it wasn't going to be easy, but they needed to move quickly. Speaking of which, since Ohoama was traveling on foot, one of his men, Agata no Inukahi no Ohotomo, gave Prince Ohoama his own horse to ride.  Oh, and in case you are wondering: There are a lot of people named “Ohotomo” in the narrative, not just the Prince, Ohoama's nephew and rival for the throne.  Sorry, it was apparently a somewhat popular name AND it was also a clan, or uji, name as well.  I'll try to distinguish some of them in the podcast blog page. The party hadn't traveled far when Ohoama's own carriage—or possibly a palanquin, like his wife's—showed up for him, so I assume Ohotomo got his horse back, but they were still constrained to the speed of their slowest member, and I doubt that the mountain roads were all that wide and flat—most likely just the opposite. The group journeyed upstream along the Tsuburo river and eventually made it to Aki, in the area of Uda, due east of Sakurai and Mt. Miwa.  Here they were overtaken by two men, known as Ohotomo no Muraji no Makuda and Kibumi no Muraji no Ohotomo, both hurrying on from the Yoshino Palace. Makuda had been at the Afumi court, but word was starting to spread there that there was going to be some kind of move against Prince Ohoama, so he and his brother, Ohotomo no Fukei, had feigned illness and returned to their home in the Asuka region.  Once there, Makuda had made straightaway for Yoshino, only to find that Ohoama was already on the move.  Ohotomo no Fukei, on the other hand, chose to stay in the area of Asuka and see what he could do there.  He was looking to see what kind of forces he could raise in the ancient capital region.  We'll learn more about him, later. It was also in Aki, apparently, where they met Hashi no Muraji no Mate, who was from the Department of the official rice fields.  Even though he was a government official, he was a supporter of Ohoama and his cause, and so he supplied Ohoama and his people with food for their journey. Just north of the Aki fields they came upon Kammura—thought to be near modern Kaguraoka—where the Yoshino forces conscripted 20 hunters into service, almost doubling their numbers, and now they at least had some weapons with them.  Prince Mino, and presumably his men, also joined forces with Ohoama and his party—their ranks were starting to grow. In Uda, they were no doubt glad of any assistance, and at the government offices in the village of Uda itself, they were also warmly welcomed.  There they found 50 pack-horses that were laden down with rice meant for the hot baths at Ise.  The rice was discarded and Ohoama commandeered the pack animals so that his forces could ride, rather than walk.  Nonetheless, it was still a long way to go.  Indeed, night was approaching by the time they reached Ohono—likely the modern area of Muro-ohono and Ohonoji, along the Uda river.  They didn't want to stop, but it could be treacherous trying to navigate in the mountains in the dark.  What they needed was a light source.  And so we are told that they pulled down some of the fences of nearby houses and created makeshift torches to light their way.  Thus they were able to continue on until they reached the town of Nabari at approximately midnight. Nabari was not quite so friendly.  It was the home of a post-station, which had a duty to report things to the Afumi court.  Ohoama and his men arrived with their torches and in the middle of the night they attacked and set fire to the post station.  One can only imagine how surprised those manning the station must have been.  Presumably Ohoama's party took any horses and provisions, both for their own use and so that they couldn't be used against them.  To those members of the village that were woken up and who came out to see what was going on, Ohoama's entourage proclaimed that Prince Ohoama was heading east and that people should join them.  More specifically we are told that he said that the “Sumera no Mikoto” was on his way to the East Country. I want to pause here a moment, because there are some that say that this was the first use of the term “Sumera no Mikoto”, or, as we more commonly read the characters today, “Tennou”.  At the very least we believe that the term “Tennou” may have first used in this time period—though I do wonder about it being used in this particular instance.  I'll come back to this at the end, but for now, let's get back to the story.  So Ohoama announced to the people that he, the sovereign—for he had declared himself as such—was heading to the Eastern lands, and he invited anyone who wished to join him.  Nobody took him up on his offer, however.  It must have sounded crazy.  Ohoama had swept in at midnight, his forces carrying torches, and had attacked the post station, the symbol of the government in their midst.  I imagine that the people wanted little to nothing to do with any further conflict if they could help it. Continuing on in the darkness, Ohoama and his party came to a river—probably the Nabari River.  The Chronicle refers to it as “Yokokawa”, a term that shows up multiple times, and means something like “side river” and I suspect it was just the name for a river that ran alongside the fields or something similar.  As they were crossing, a dark cloud spread across the night sky for over 10 rods—about 100 feet.  Ohoama kindled a light and took a look at a geomantic rule to determine what it could mean.  This “rule” was possibly a type of stick or even a kind of compass-like device with a square bottom and round top, indicating the heavens and the earth.  He announced to everyone that the cloud was an omen that the country would be divided into two parts but, ultimately, their side would win out. One can only imagine how tired and worn out everyone was at this point, but apparently this urged them onward.  They reached Iga, where once again, they attacked and set fire to the posting station. Now getting through Iga must have had Ohoama's head on a swivel.  After all, Prince Ohotomo's mother was apparently from that region – he was the Iga Royal Prince, after all - so it would be understandable if people were loyal to him.  Fortunately, for Ohoama, he had his local supporters as well.  In fact, Joan Piggot points out in “The Emergence of Japanese Kingship” that Ohoama may have had a surprising amount of support from the various local elites.  Remember that the policies that Naka no Oe and the court had put into place had given power to court appointed officials at the expense of the traditional local elites.  So it may have been that those traditional local elites were more inclined to assist Ohoama against the Afumi Court, while those appointed officials, such as those who were managing the post stations, were more likely to swing the other way, since their positions and their stipends were directly reliant on the court's good graces.  This seems to have been the case in this instance, around Nakayama, in Iga, where we are told that they met with local district governors who had heard that Ohoama was on the move and who had raised several hundred men in support of his cause.  Now their ranks really had grown—compared with the relatively small group that had first set out from Yoshino the previous day, there were now hundreds of men on the march. Ohoama's forces finally arrived at the plain of Tara, or Tarano, by dawn, and with the sun coming over the mountains they briefly stopped for a moment to catch their breath and eat something.  They had just marched through the night—a distance of approximately 70 kilometers, or 43 and a half miles.  That included stops to attack and set fire to two post stations along the way, and much of the journey early on was done on foot.  During that march, their ranks had grown tremendously.  This is an incredible feat, especially with much of it being accomplished at night. Let's also quickly discuss those extra troops that had come to his banner.  Remember that prior to this, Prince Ohoama had sent messengers ahead to Mino and Owari to try and raise forces in those areas.  They had likely traveled these same roadways, and told  any allies they had to prepare.  So while the forces were raised quickly, there were no doubt some logistics that went into it. After a brief rest, the army was back on their feet, heading to Yamaguchi—modern Tsuge city.  Here Ohoama was greeted by his son, Prince Takechi, who had come from Afumi down through Kafuka—modern Kouka, aka Kouga.  He had brought several other men of his own, and presumably soldiers as well. The entire party crossed Mt. Miyama and into Suzuka, in Ise, where they were joined by the provincial governor, Miyake no Muraji no Iwatoko; Deputy Governor, Miwa no Kimi no Kobuto, and the magistrate of the famous hot baths, Tanaka no Omi no Tarumaro, among others.  That same morning, they set a troop of 500 soldiers to guard the pass.  After all, it would do them no good to have a government force suddenly appear behind them.  Also, you may recall that Ohoama's request to his allies in Mino was to take the Fuwa pass, in the north—the area more popularly known today as Sekigahara.  So now, with both the Suzuka and Fuwa passes under Ohoama's control, his forces controlled access to the Eastern countries.  The only other viable route, at least if you didn't want to get lost in the mountains, was to take the road to the north, through Koshi, and that was going to be a slog around or over the Japan Alps. So a garrison was left as a rear guard, but the troops who were not staying to guard the pass continued, turning northwards.  By sunset on the 25th day of the 6th month of 672, they had reached the foot of Kahawa Hill.  Here, Ohoama's consort, Princess Uno no Sarara, asked if they could take a break.  She was not exactly used to this kind of travel, and even riding on a palanquin, she was exhausted and fatigued.  As they looked to the sky, though, it was clear that dark clouds were gathering.  So they cut their rest short and pushed on, hoping to make it to the government offices at Mie—likely meaning modern day Yokkaichi city. Sure enough, as they continued to march, the heavens opened with a thunderstorm pouring down on them.  The entire army was soaked to the bone.  Cold and wet, when they did get to the government center or Mie district, they deliberately set fire to an entire building just so that the troops could try to warm themselves a bit.  Those who had set out from Yoshino had marched over 122km, or 75 miles, including over 700 meters of elevation up and 800 meters down.  Checking a map of the route, it suggests that a person walking it, today, without any breaks, would take around 28 hours to complete the trip, and indeed, Ohoama's took roughly one and a half days.  That includes time for their assaults on the various post stations, and a brief rest at the Tara fields.  Now, granted, they had procured horses for parts of that, and many of the soldiers had not necessarily been there since the beginning, but it is still an incredible feat, when you think about it.  I'm honestly surprised that it doesn't get more of a mention in various historical contexts.  Then again, we are still well before the age of the Samurai, which is the period most martial historians typically examine. So that night, as they were settling in at the Mie government center following their amazing dash across the mountains, word came from forces at Suzuka:  Prince Yamabe and Prince Ishikawa had apparently come to offer their allegiance to Ohoama.  However, as they weren't known to the men, they were held at the Suzuka barrier until someone could verify.  Ohoama sent Michi no Atahe no Masubito to go fetch them and bring them to him. The following morning, Ohoama worshipped towards Amaterasu on the banks of a river in the district of Asake.  Thinking about it, I'm not sure if they meant that he worshipped south, in the direction of Ise Shrine, or if he worshipped east, the direction of the rising sun.  The exact direction doesn't entirely matter, but I think we will come back to this, as it would have consequences later on. Later, Masubito returned from his errand, catching back up to the army, which was continuing on its way.  It turns out that it was not Princes Yamabe and Ishikawa that Masubito had found at Suzuka, but instead  Ohoama's own son, Ohotsu, who had come along to join his father.  I presume he had been traveling under a false name in case he ran into men loyal to the Afumi court.  He was followed by a number of others, including a list of names which I am not going to go over here because it wouldn't mean all that much.  Suffice it to say that the Chroniclers were doing their best to make sure that various families were remembered for what they did. Now just as Prince Ohotsu was joining the main force, Murakami no Woyori arrived with word that 3,000 Mino troops were mobilized and currently blocking the Fuwa Road.  You may recall that Woyori was the one that Ohoama had sent to Mino for just that purpose, scouting out the lay of the land. Ohoama sent Prince Takechi ahead to Fuwa to organize the forces there.  Then he sent two others to mobilize troops along the Tokaido region, and two others were sent into the mountains to levy soldiers from the Tousando region.  As a quick reminder: the Tokaido was the eastern sea highway, while the Tousando, the Eastern Mountain Road, went through the middle of eastern Honshu, through the more mountainous regions.  Together, these two routes would have pulled from the most populous regions of the east. As for Ohoama, he took up residence at the government center in Kuwana, where he spent some time resting for a bit. Now just as Ohoama was building up his forces, so, too, was the Afumi court.  As soon as word made it to the capital that Ohoama was on the move, chaos ensued.  Many people fled the capital, some heading to the East, perhaps to join Ohoama, while others went to hide in the mountains and marshes until all the chaos was over and the dust settled.  The young Prince Ohotomo asked the ministers what he should do, and they recommended that he immediately set out with cavalry to pursue Ohoama and catch him before he could assemble too many troops.  However, he decided not to heed their advice, instead opting to assemble an army of his own, to add to the soldiers that had already been levied.  He sent Ina no Iwasuki, Fumi no Kusuri, and Wosaka no Ohomaro to the East country, while Hodzumi no Momotari, his younger brother, Ihoye, and Mononobe no Hiuga headed to the Yamato capital—which is to say Asuka.  Ohotomo also sent Saheki no Wotoko to Tsukushi and Kusu no Iwate to Kibi, all with orders to levy troops.  He gave Wotoko and Iwate special instructions, since there was some concern that neither Tsukushi nor Kibi would be compliant, as they both had been supported by Ohoama and may feel ties to him.  So if the leaders of either of those areas were to resist, Wotoko and Iwate were authorized to execute them for treason. As Iwasuki, Kusuri, and Ohomaro headed east, they traveled around Lake Biwa and were headed to the Fuwa pass, not knowing that it was already controlled by Ohoama's forces.  Iwasuki, however, was cautious.  He realized that they might be ambushed, and so he held back from the main group.  Sure enough, he was right:  Kusuri and Ohomaro were ambushed and captured, at which point Iwasuki fled, barely escaping. The following day, Prince Takechi sent a note to his father asking him to move closer to Fuwa, so that they could better communicate with the front line.  Ohoama headed out, but left Princess Uno in Kuwana, which was well situated between Fuwa and Suzuka, and was likely far enough from the front lines to ensure that it wouldn't be disrupted by skirmishes at the passes.  As Ohoama then traveled through Wohari, the governor, Chihisakobe no Muraji no Sabichi, also joined him with a force of 20,000 men.  Ohoama had them divided up and set them on roads to various places as needed. Ohoama finally reached Nogami, just on the eastern edge of modern Sekigahara.  This is near where Tokugawa Ieyasu would eventually make his first camp as well, at his fateful battle here just under a thousand years later.  At Nogami, Ohoama would set up his headquarters, Nogami no Miya, or the Nogami Palace.  Meanwhile, Prince Takechi would handle the troops in the main part of the area near the pass, known as Wazami.  As Ohoama reached Nogami, Takechi came to conference with him.  He noted that there had already been an altercation—they had taken prisoners, who claimed that they were actually headed east to raise troops for Ohoama, but given that they didn't know who they were AND that Iwasuki had fled back towards Ohotsu-kyo suggested that this was not exactly the case. Following that incident, and a fair amount of speechifying, Ohoama eventually placed Prince Takechi formally in charge of the army, presenting him the gift of a saddle-horse.  Takechi went back to his camp at Wazami.  That night, a severe thunderstorm broke out.  Ohoama prayed that if the kami favored his case, they would make the storm abate, and immediately the thunder and lightning stopped. The next day, on the 28th, Ohoama traveled over to Wazami to review the troops and check on the military arrangements, before returning back to Nogami.  He likewise went out the following day, issuing commands through Prince Takechi, and then returned again to Nogami. At this point, soldiers were likely on their way from the Eastern provinces and elsewhere.  On the one hand, they wanted to wait and make sure that they had all the troops they needed.  But on the other hand, they didn't want to wait too long.  The Afumi court was likewise building up its forces, and the longer they waited, the greater the chance that they could dig in and entrench themselves.  Something would have to happen, soon. But that something will have to wait for the next episode.    Before we finish, though, I do want to come back to something:  the title “Tenno”, or “Sumera no Mikoto”.  Up to this point, evidence suggests that the term used for the sovereign of Yamato was not “Tennou” as we know it today, but instead was the term “Oho-kimi”.  “Oho-kimi”, or basically the “Big Kimi”—something like the primary lord—was the one lord of lords of Yamato.  But that was probably something based on local concepts of governance.  With the introduction of new ideas of governance, many based on the Han and Tang dynasty models, we see a shift in the terminology. There are poems that come from the era of Naka no Oe—Tenji Tennou—that use terms like “Huang” (皇) and “Di” (帝)—“Kou” and “Tei” in Japanese.  These are imperial terms from the continent.  At some point, however, we see that they use “Tian” (天) and “Huang” (皇).  “Tianhuang” becomes “Tennou” (天皇) when read in Japanese, and it critically utilizes the character “Tian” for Heaven.  Interestingly, this does not appear to be a term that was ever commonly used for rulers in the area of modern China.  I seem to recall that it was used here and there, but not with any frequency.  There is some thought that it may have been pulled from a term for the north star, or pole star, which sometimes used the term, I suspect referring to that star as the Heavenly Ruler—the star that the heavens themselves were focused on. For a variety of reasons, we see a particular emphasis on Heaven, and on Amaterasu, in the decades following 672, and it is thought that this is all connected.  And so it is generally from some time here, in the late 7th century, that we can probably start to refer to the sovereigns as “Tennou”. Although, it is unclear to me if the authors of the Nihon Shoki pronounced it like this or not, later glosses given for the characters in Japanese is “Sumera no Mikoto”, the kun'yomi, or Japanese reading.  The problem is that the Nihon Shoki projects this term back to the very beginning of the narrative, with “Jimmu Tennou” being the first.  However, we have some evidence that the earlier term was, as as I said before, “Ohokimi”.  For many years, there was an idea that the term “Sumera no Mikoto” first appeared in the era of Toyomike Kashikiya Hime, aka Suiko Tennou, probably because that is when Buddhism and continental studies really seem to kick off.  However, there really is no evidence of its use then, and it seems that more scholars today place its use in the late 7th or early 8th century. So there is the possibility that this title was first used by Ohoama, as some claim, when he declared that the “Sumera no Mikoto” or “Tennou” was heading to the Eastern countries.  Of course, that could also just be dramatic license by the Chroniclers, who were less concerned with what, exactly, he said and more concerned with the meaning of it all.  We've also known them to swap out older terms for those in use in the 8th century, updating the narrative. Regardless, I think that about this time we can start to refer to the sovereigns of Yamato—and eventually Japan, or Nihon, another somewhat controversial term—as “Tennou”, or “Sumera no Mikoto”, from about this period.  I'll probably still use the term “sovereign” in general, and I'll try to avoid the term “imperial” for anything prior to the 19th century, when it became a standard English translation.  After all, Empires were the rage—Chinese, Ottoman, British, Austrian, French, Spanish, you name it.  Everyone had an empire, and so Japan, following that model, must also have been an “empire”.  Even today, it is officially the “Imperial Household” and that is the official translation. However, I want to be cautious about using that translation too early, however.  The institution of “Tennou”, while modeled on the Tang dynasty, took on its own character.  As such, I think that it is best to avoid the term for now, because it really was its own thing, and I don't want to conflate too many foreign concepts of “emperor” with the idea of the Japanese ruler. As for the term “Sumera no Mikoto”—it does not appear to me that the etymology of this term is clearly known.  One explanation is that “Sumera” is related to the word “Suberu”, to rule.  “Sumera” is also defined as meaning something precious, though I'm not sure if that meaning existed before its use to refer to the sovereign.  “Mikoto” is simply an honorific referring to the sovereign, meaning “royal” or “imperial”.  I suspect that the term “Tennou” came over first, and later it became glossed as “Sumera no Mikoto”, which may have been an earlier term, but we don't have any clear evidence.  Variations do appear in the Man'yoshu, the collection of ancient poems, so the concept was clearly around by the 8th century. Anyway, I think that's enough.  We'll probably talk about it more when we get to the rise of the worship of Amaterasu.  Until then, let's continue with our series on the Jinshin War. Next episode we will kick off with some of the actual fighting and campaigns in Afumi, Iga, and in Yamato.  Until then, thank you once again for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please 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 reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

The sovereign, Naka no Oe is dead, and with his death comes an all too familiar tradition: different factions warring for the throne.  And this time it isn't just something we are guessing at, we get a front row seat to the show, with enough details to fill several episodes.  In Part I we will look at what kicked off the war--or at least what we know--and discuss a few of the theories.  We will also go over some of the events that happened while Prince Otomo was the head of state. For more, check out our podcast webpage at https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-129 Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is episode 129:   The Jinshin no Ran, Part I: Prologue to War. The long bridge at Uji arched over the river, like a wooden rainbow.  Former Crown Prince Ohoama, his head shaved and wearing the garments of a monk, was carried over the bridge.   This was no simple priestly procession, however: he was accompanied by his entire household. Some on foot, and some on horseback.  Even the kesa, once meant to be a symbol of priestly humility and simplicity, cried out that this was a man of wealth and power and status. The procession made its way across the bridge, headed south, to the ancient Yamato capital and then on to the mountain passes beyond, where the cherry trees would bloom, come the spring.  At the north end of the bridge, the high ministers and nobility of Yamato watched them go.  The ministers of the Left and the Right stood in the cold, winter air, wrapped in their warmest clothing, but it wasn't just the weather that was causing a chill.  To some, this seemed a miracle—a clear sign that the succession would now be an easy one, with Ohoama taking himself off the board.  But to others, they weren't so sure. While many of Yamato's traditions had evolved or changed—or even been outright replaced by continental ideas—many still remembered how things had been.  The bloody politics and power struggles that often accompanied any transition of power.  Naka no Oe had risen to power in just such a fashion.  Now that he was not long for this world, would his legacy be any less violent? Greetings, everyone, and welcome back.  Last episode we took you through the official reign of Naka no Oe, aka Tenji Tennou.  Granted, this reign was only from 668 to 671, but Naka no Oe had already been putting his stamp on the state for over 33 years.  Now, however, he was dead, as were those who had helped him implement his enormous changes, and with his death there was the question:  Who would now ascend to the throne? And that question brings us to today's topic:  The Jinshin no Ran, also known as the Jinshin War.  This was a succession dispute that occurred in the year 672 following the death of Naka no Oe, between Naka no Oe's son Ohotomo and his brother Ohoama.  The name, “Jinshin”, is formed much as the name of the “Isshi” incident, using the sinified Japanese reading of the sexagenary cycle characters used for the year.  672 was a “Mizu-no-e Saru” year, or what we today might just call a “Water Monkey” year.  Read together, these characters can be pronounced “Jinshin”, hence “Jinshin no Ran”. Quick digression:  That word “Ran”, indicating a war or similar martial disturbance, is the same character used as the title of the famous Kurosawa film that took Shakespear's King Lear story and set it in the Warring States period of Japan.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it—definitely a classic.  Not exactly relevant here, but still worth it. But back to the Jinshin War: we're going to likely spend a few episodes on this, not just because it is important, but also because the record is fairly detailed, and I'd like to use it to really help us get an idea of what was going on.  This episode we'll look at the broad picture: some of the causes of the war and where things were, generally speaking, just before the major campaigns kicked off. Of course, this isn't the first succession dispute in the Chronicles, but this one is incredibly detailed, and especially importantbecause it goes to the heart of the legitimacy of the royal family—the imperial family—for at least the next century.  To a certain extent, I would also suggest that it was exactly the kind of thing that the Nihon Shoki was created to address: an official history as propaganda for the Japanese court, telling  the court approved story of the royal family and providing justification as to why they are in power.  Along the way it also props up the lineages of other elites. So let's go over the basic story of the conflict before we get into the details.  I know, I know: spoilers.  But I think it will help to have context for what we are talking about right now.  To try to summarize: Ohoama, Naka no Oe's brother, is mentioned as the Crown Prince throughout Naka no Oe's reign, but just before Naka no Oe's death, Ohoama declined the position and went to Yoshino to become a Buddhist monk.  This allowed Naka no Oe's son, Prince Ohotomo, the current Dajo Daijin, or head of the council of state, to run the government and eventually take the throne.  However, shortly into Prince Ohotomo's reign, Ohoama raised an army and fought with Ohotomo and the court at Ohotsu-kyo, known as the Afumi court.  After a couple of months of intense fighting, Ohoama defeated the Afumi forces and Ohotomo.  Ohoama would go on to take the throne, becoming known as Temmu Tennou.  He is credited with starting the projects that culminated in the creation of the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. On the surface, this could easily look like a simple case of usurpation—especially if you come from a cultural background where sons are expected to inherit from their fathers, as is common in many European monarchies.  However, we have to remind ourselves that this isn't Europe.  For centuries, succession in Yamato had been much more chaotic than that.  Often succession went not to a son or daughter, but first to a brother, and even then it didn't necessarily go to the oldest brother, or to the oldest child.  Even designating an heir wasn't a guarantee that, after a ruler's death, someone else wouldn't come along and change things by force. Of course, the Nihon Shoki appears to lay out various rules for succession.  In most cases, your mother has to be descended—however distantly—from a previous sovereign.  Also, inheritance typically doesn't come at the attainment of adulthood.  It isn't like someone turns 20 and they are suddenly eligible.  We see plenty of reigns that are passed off as regencies—that is, the sovereign is legally just a caretaker for the throne until the true heir comes of age.  Perhaps the most famous of these is Okinaga Tarashi Hime, aka Jingu Tenno, who supposedly held the throne from the death of her husband until their son, Homuda Wake, aka Ojin Tenno, was of age.  But it isn't like she just abdicated.  In fact, I don't think we've seen a single example where a regent has abdicated the throne.  The only real abdication that we see is in 645, when Takara Hime, known as Kogyoku Tenno during her first reign, abdicated after the Isshi Incident.  There are also plenty of examples of possible claimants to the throne who certainly seem like they may have been supremely qualified for the position who end up dying or being killed, sometimes with the specific claim that they were trying to usurp the throne.  The most recent example is Furubito no Oe, who likely was in line to inherit the throne from Takara Hime prior to the Isshi Incident.  It doesn't help that the Chronicle often only calls people by their titles:  so it is the “Crown Prince” who does such and such, or it is “the sovereign”—without explicitly naming who that person is.  Of course, this is sometimes made clear by context, but that can't always be relied upon. This is compounded by the fact that at this time, Wa cultural norms were being overwritten by continental concepts of propriety and morality, with the growth of reading and continental works introducing many people to the discourses of Confucius and others.  Borrowing governmental structures and ideas from a Confucian state meant that Confucian ideals would get pulled along as well, even if those structures and ideas weren't strictly Confucian.  An example is the importance of filial piety, and so-called “Proper” relationships between people.  In some cases Confucian or even Buddhist concepts were used to explain and rationalize existing traditions, and in others they were used to provide a counter-narrative.  Thus the world described by the Nihon Shoki is one that was no doubt much more comprehensible to an 8th century member of court than to someone from the 3rd. I say all that so that we can keep an eye out for the Chroniclers' bias and perhaps give some thought to what might not have gotten written down. The creation of the Ritsuryo state was the culmination of over 33 years of work.  During that time, the Yamato court had centralized their power and control.  The Chronicles, looking back at the end of the process, report this as a good thing, and it is hard to argue that these reforms truly did lead to the country of Japan as we know it, today.  However, it probably wasn't all lollipops and rainbows.   The centralization of authority received pushback, and we see the center flexing its military might as well as legal and moral authority.  The new Ritsuryo state claimed a much greater control over land and resources than any previous government had done or  been able to do.  Even if the 5th century sovereign Wakatakeru no Ohokimi, aka Yuryaku Tenno, had people at his court from Kyushu to Kanto, influence isn't the same as control.  Up until the Ritsuryo reforms, it appears that local administrators had a lot of leeway in terms of what happened in their local domains.  After all, what could Yamato do about it?  As long as “taxes” were paid, then there was no reason for Yamato to otherwise interfere with local events, and even if there were, who would they get to enforce their will? But In the Ritsuryo system, at least conceptually, the State had local governors who reported back to the central authority.  These governors  were set apart from the Kuni no Miyatsuko, the traditional local authority, and their income was tied to the court. Moreover, this system wasn't just tradition and the whims of the elites: it was codified in written laws and punishments.  In fact, the Record of the Fujiwara—the Toushi Kaden—claims that the entire legal code was written down in 668 by their patriarch, Nakatomi no Kamatari, prior to his death.  There are also other references to this compilation, known to us as the “Oumi Code”, referencing the region that the court had moved to:  Afumi, around Lake Biwa.  Unfortunately, we don't have any extant copies of what, exactly, the Code said, other than various laws explicitly noted in the Nihon Shoki.  Still, we can assume that it was probably similar to later codes, which would have been using the Oumi code as a base from which to work from. The new authority for this code descended from the throne, based on continental and even Confucian concepts of the State.  And Naka no Oe had no doubt been the one to help maintain continuity over the past three decades.  Now he was dead, so what came next? Well based on what we have in the Nihon Shoki, that should be obvious:  His brother, the Crown Prince, Ohoama, would take the throne, wouldn't he?  After all, he was the designated Crown Prince, and he had been in that role, promulgating orders, and otherwise acting as we might expect, at least since Naka no Oe had given up the position. And yet, it seems there was some doubt.  After all, while a brother—or sister—inheriting the throne was hardly unheard of, Naka no Oe did have children of his own.  Most importantly, there was his son, Prince Ohotomo.  Ohotomo was only about 23 years old, but he had been made the Dajoudaijin, the head of the Council of State, which one would think would put him in a position of tremendous authority. Naka no Oe apparently had some inkling that there could be a succession dispute upon his death.  And so, two months after he had taken ill, as it became painfully obvious that he might not recover, he called in his brother, Crown Prince Ohoama, and he told him clearly that it was his intention to have his brother succeed him on the throne. Before going much further, I would note that the entries in the Nihon Shoki that speak to this incident are spread across two different books in that chronicle.  Part of it takes part in the chronicle of Tenji Tennou (Naka no Oe), but then the reign of Temmu Tennou (Ohoama) is actually broken up into two books, the first of which is often considered the history of the Jinshin Ran, while the second is really Temmu's reign.  And in some cases we get slightly different versions of the same event.    The Nihon Shoki was written less than 50 years after the events being discussed, so likely by people who had actual memory of what happened, it was also propaganda for the regime in power at the time.  So as we read through the events, we have to be critical about our source and what it is telling us. To that end, I'll mostly start out with the narrative as it appears in the Nihon Shoki, and then we can look back and see what else might be going on if we make some assumptions that the Chroniclers may not be the most reliable of narrators for these events. Anyway, getting back to the story as we have it in the Nihon Shoki:  So the person sent to fetch Prince Ohoama to come see his brother, the sovereign, was a man by the name of Soga no Yasumaru.  And Yasumaru brought not only the summons, but a warning, as well.  He told Prince Ohoama to “think before you speak”.  This suggested to Ohoama that there was some kind of plot afoot. And lest we forget, for all that Naka no Oe is often put up on a pedestal for his role in the Taika reforms and founding the nation—even the posthumous name they gave him was the “Sovereign of Heavenly Wisdom”—that pedestal he stands on is covered in blood.  Naka no Oe's political career starts with the brazen murder of Soga no Iruka in full view of all the gathered nobility, and is immediately followed with him marshalling forces against Soga no Emishi, who set fire to his own house rather than surrender. And then, shortly into the Taika period, Naka no Oe had his own brother, Furubito no Oe, killed so that he wouldn't be a threat.  And later, when he just heard a rumor that Soga no Ishikawa no Maro—his father-in-law, Prime Minister of the Right, and co-conspirator—was having treasonous thoughts, he gathered up forces to have him and his family murdered. And though it may have been a bit less bloody, let's not forget his apparent falling out with his uncle, Karu, where he left the giant palace complex at Naniwa and took the entire royal family to Asuka against his uncle, the sovereign's, wishes. Add to that the note from the Fujiwara family records, the Toushi Kaden, about the party at the “shore pavilion” where Ohoama spiked a spear through a plank of wood which rattled Naka no Oe enough that he was contemplating having him taken out right there.  According to that account, it was only the intervention of Nakatomi no Kamatari that saved Ohoama's life.  Even if it weren't true, it likely illustrates something about how their relationship was viewed by others. Given all of that, I think we can understand how Ohoama might not be entirely trusting of his older brother's intentions.  So when that same brother offered him control of the government, Ohoama was suspicious.  Perhaps it was because he was already the Crown Prince, the expected heir, so why would Naka no Oe be offering him the throne?  Perhaps it was some kind of test of his loyalty? And so Prince Ohoama declined.  He claimed that he had always had bad health, and probably wouldn't be a good choice.  Instead, he put forward that the Queen, Yamatobime, should be given charge, and that Naka no Oe's son, Prince Ohotomo, should be installed as the Crown Prince—the new successor to the throne.  Furthermore, to demonstrate his resolve, he asked to be allowed to renounce the world and become a monk. Indeed, immediately after the audience with his brother, Prince Ohoama went to the Buddhist hall in the palace itself and had his head shaved and took holy orders.  He even gave up any private weapons that he might have—likely meaning not just his personal weapons, but any private forces that might be under his command.  The sovereign himself sent his brother a kesa or clerical garment, apparently approving of—or at least accepting—his decision. Two days later, Prince Ohoama went back to his brother and asked to be allowed to leave for Yoshino to go and practice Buddhism there.  He was given permission and he headed out.  The ministers of the left and right, that is Soga no Akae and Nakatomi no Kane, along with Soga no Hatayasu, a “Dainagon” or Chief Counselor, and others, all traveled with him all the way to Uji, where they saw him off.  By evening he had made it as far as the Shima Palace, which is assumed to have been in Asuka—possibly at or near the site of the old Soga residence.  The following day he was in Yoshino. Arriving at Yoshino with his household, Prince Ohoama gave his servants a choice—those who wished could take orders and stay with him in Yoshino.  Those with ambitions at the court, though, were allowed to return back to Ohotsu, presumably going to work for another family.  At first, none of them wanted to leave his side, but he beseeched them a second time, and half of them decided to stay and become monks with him while half of them left, returning to the court. As we mentioned earlier, another royal prince—and possibly crown prince—had taken a similar option back in the year 645.  That was Prince Furubito no Oe, half-brother to Naka no Oe and Ohoama.  We talked about that back in episode 109.  As with that time, taking Buddhist orders and retiring from the world was meant to demonstrate that the individual was renouncing any claims on the throne and was no longer a threat to the succession. The Nihon Shoki notes, though, that as Prince Ohoama was leaving Uji, some commented that it was like the saying: “Give a tiger wings and let him go.”  The first part of that is no doubt referencing a saying still used in Mandarin, today:  “Rúhǔtiānyì” or “Yǔhǔtiānyì, meaning to “add wings to a tiger”—in other words to take something strong and make it even more powerful.  In this case, the choice to renounce the succession and leave court made Ohoama more powerful and then set him free to do what he wanted. There is a lot of speculation around what actually happened.  Prince Ohotomo had only recently come of age and been given the important position of Dajo Daijin.  Still, he was also only 23 years old.  Now, granted, Naka no Oe hadn't been much older, himself, when he instigated the Isshi Incident, but most sovereigns aren't mentioned as having come to the throne themselves until they were maybe 30 years old or more.  Still, there is at least one theory that suggests that Naka no Oe wanted to have his brother, Ohoama, step aside and let Ohotomo take the throne.  According to that theory, his request for Ohoama to succeed him as ruler eas a ruse to get Ohoama to admit his own ambition, which Naka no Oe could then use as a pretext to get rid of his brother. There is another theory that Naka no Oe wanted Ohoama to step in as effectively regent:  Ohoama would rule, but Ohotomo would then inherit after him. Ohoama's counterproposal is intriguing.  He suggested that the affairs of state should be given to Yamato-bime, Naka no Oe's queen, and that she should rule as regent until Ohotomo was ready.  Of course, we have examples of something like this, most recently from the previous reign.  Takara Hime came to the throne, originally, because her husband, who was the sovereign, passed away and their children were not yet of age to take the throne.  However, there is something interesting, here in the relationship between Yamato Bime and Ohotomo.  Because while Yamato Bime was the queen, and daughter, herself, of Furubito no Oe, Ohotomo was not clearly of the proper parentage.  He was not Yamato Bime's son – she had no children herself - , but  his mother was simply a “palace woman” named “Iga no Uneme no Yakako”.  This suggests that she was an uneme from Iga named Yakako, and we are given no details about her parentage.    She is also listed as the last of Naka no Oe's consorts, suggesting to the reader that she was the lowest in status. For this reason Ohotomo is known as the Iga Royal Prince, Iga no Miko. Of course, there are plenty of reasons why the Chroniclers might not want to give any glory to Prince Ohotomo or his mother.  After all, the story works out best if Ohoama should have just been the sovereign all along.  And this could all be technically true—the best kind of true—while also omitting key details so that the reader draws a certain inference.  The Chroniclers were pulling from lots of different sources, and you didn't have to do a lot of changing things when you could just not put them in in the first place.  In other cases we know that they changed the records, because we see them using anachronistic language that doesn't make sense if drawn from a contemporary record. And so we have at least a couple of theories of what might be going on here, beyond just the straight narrative.   One idea is that Naka no Oe wanted Ohotomo to inherit all along, and perhaps he thought Ohoama could be a regent to help him out once Naka no Oe passed away.  Or maybe he just wanted Ohoama out of the way.  There is also the theory that the Nihon Shoki is, in fact, correct, that Naka no Oe wanted to give the state to Ohoama, but the latter refused, either misunderstanding Naka no Oe's intentions or perhaps gauging the feeling at court—perhaps it wasn't Naka no Oe that Ohoama was worried about, but rather some of the high nobles and officials?   It is probably telling that Ohoama's reported solution was to have Yamato-bime act as regent, with Ohotomo eventually inheriting. Whatever the actual reason, Ohoama declined Ohoama headed off to self-imposed exile in Yoshino. Meanwhile, back in Afumi in the Ohotsu capital, Ohotsu-kyo, Ohotomo was now the de facto Crown Prince.  We are told that on the 23rd day of the 11th month of 671 he took his place in front of the embroidery figure of Buddha in the Western Hall of the Dairi, the royal quarters of the Ohotsu Palace.  He was attended by the Minister of the Left, Soga no Akaye, the Minister of the Right, Nakatomi no Kane, as well as Soga no Hatayasu, Kose no Hito, and Ki no Ushi.  Taking up an incense burner, Ohotomo made a vow that the six of them would obey the sovereign's commands, lest they be punished by the various Buddhist and local deities. These five ministers, along with Ohotomo, are going to show up again and again.   Moving forward, they would manage the government, and would be generally referred to as the Afumi court. And it is clear that the Chroniclers laid the blame for anything that might happen at their feet. The Afumi court would continue court business as usual, and they were immediately thrown into the thick of it.  For instance, they were likely the ones to entertain the Tang envoys that arrived that same month.  You see, the priest Douku (or possibly “Doubun”), along with Tsukushi no Kimi no Satsuyama, Karashima no Suguri no Sasa, and Nunoshi no Obito no Iwa, had finally made it back from their journey to the mainland.  They brought with them Guo Wucong along with an embassy from the Tang court that numbered approximately 600 members, as well as ambassador Sathek Sonteung, of Silla, with his own embassy of about 1400 people. This enormous entourage sailed in 47 ships, and they had anchored at the island of Hijishima.   The Governor of Tsushima, responsible for being the first line of met with them.  Given then number fo ships, they didn't want it to look like it was a hostile invasion, so the governor sent a letter to  Prince Kurikuma, the viceroy of Tsukushi, to let him know what was happening.  Prince Kurikuma had them send Doubun and others ahead to the capital, so that they could let the court know that a massive embassy had arrived, and to prepare the way for them. However, with the sovereign in extremely poor health, and the court otherwise preoccupied with preparations for what might come next, , they kept the embassy at Tsukushi, for the time being.  We are told that that they sent presents on the 29th for the king of Silla, but no indication of them being brought to the court. Enormous foreign embassies aside, the Afumi court had plenty to deal with close to home.  It didn't help that the day after Ohotomo and the ministers had gathered to make their oaths, a fire broke out in the Ohotsu palace, apparently originating with the third storehouse of the treasury.    Several days later, the five ministers, attending the Crown Prince, Ohotomo, made oaths of loyalty in the presence of Naka no Oe, whose condition was only growing worse.  And four days later, on the third day of the fourth month, Naka no Oe passed away.  He was then temporarily interred in what is referred to as the “New Palace”. And contrary to what Ohoama had suggested, there is no indication that Queen Yamato-bime was installed as any kind of regent.  Instead it seems as if Ohotomo was just jumping in and taking the reins.  Granted, he also had the Council of State to lean on, so there's that.  The Chronicles are pretty quiet for a couple of months after Naka no Oe's death, and then we are told that Adzumi no Muraji no Inashiki was sent to Tsukushi to let the Tang ambassador Guo Wucong know the news.  We are told that on the 18th day of the 3rd month, Guo Wucong, I presume having made it to Ohotsu, publicly mourned the late sovereign.  Three days later, on the 21st, he made obeisance at the court, presumably to Ohotomo, and offered up a box with a letter from the Tang emperor and various presents in token of goodwill for the sovereign of Yamato.  A couple of months later, the Afumi court returned the favor, presenting armor, bows, and arrows as well as cloth, floss, and silk.  Later in that same 5th month, Guo Wucong and his people departed for the continent. And here is where we hit one of the big questions of this whole thing:  Had Ohotomo been formally invested as sovereign, yet?  We clearly see that he had his father's ministers on his side, and they were running things.  Then again, it took years after Takara Hime's death before Naka no Oe, himself, formally stepped up. It is quite possible that Ohotomo was not yet invested, and perhaps that was, in part, because there was another person with a claim who was still alive.  It is hard to say. What we do know is that the consensus opinion for centuries was that Ohotomo was never formally invested as sovereign.  He is certainly seen as having inherited the governance of the kingdom, but he was never considered one of the official sovereigns.  That all changed in relatively recent times.  In fact, it wasn't until 1870, the early years of the Meiji period, that Prince Ohotomo was given a posthumous title and regnal name:  Koubun Tennou.  Today, the Imperial Household Agency and some historians consider Ohotomo to have been an official sovereign, but that isn't everyone.  If he was, though, much what we see would have been happening at his court. That same month that Guo Wucong departed, Prince Ohoama got wind that something hinky was afoot.  Ohoama was residing as a monk in Yoshino, but by all accounts he still had half of his household staff, his wives, and family, all with him.  Also, as the former Crown Prince, he clearly had friends and allies.  After all, he was still a member of the royal household. And so it was in the 5th month that he heard from one Yenewi no Muraji no Wogimi that there was something amiss.  For one thing, the Afumi court had called up laborers to build the tomb for Naka no Oe, but word was that they had issued those so-called laborers with weapons rather than tools.  Wogimi seemed worried that they were preparing to do something about Ohoama.  After all, even though he had theoretically retired from the world, as long as he was alive, he still had a claim on the throne, similar to the problem of Prince Furubito no Oe back in 645. Someone else told Ohoama that they noticed pickets were being set up in various places between the Afumi and Yamato—another sign that the Afumi court was apparently expecting some kind of military action.  Furthermore, the guards at the Uji bridge were no longer allowing supplies bound for Yoshino and Ohoama's household. It seemed clear that something was up, and so Ohoama made an announcement:  while he had renounced the royal dignity and retired from the world, it was only because of his poor health and a desire to live a long and happy life.  If that life was being threatened by forces outside of his control, then why would he let himself be taken quietly? From that point, he seems to have started plotting and gathering  forces of his own, in case things came to a head.  Of course, there are those who suggest that, in truth, Ohoama had been plotting and raising forces ever since he started his exile in Yoshino—or at least since his father passed away.  Indeed, once things kick off, you'll notice how quickly people are levying troops, as if spontaneously deciding to support Ohoama's cause, and I would suggest that there was probably lot of back and forth that we just don't see because it was never recorded. Things reached a tipping point on the 22nd day of the 6th month.  That is when Ohoama gave orders to three of his vassals, Murakami no Muraji no Woyori, Wanibe no Omi no Kimide, and Muketsu no Kimi no Hiro.  He claimed that the Afumi Court was plotting against him, so he asked his vassals to go to the land of Mino—modern Gifu prefecture—and to reach out to Oho no Omi no Honeji, the governor of the Ahachima district hot springs—now the area of Anpachi.  Honeji was to levy soldiers and set them out on the Fuwa road—this was the road from Mino to Afumi, and was one of the few ways in and out of Afumi region. As we've mentioned in the past, the benefit of Ohotsu-kyo was its naturally defended position.  Lake Biwa is surrounded on all sides by mountains, and there were only a few ways in and out.  The Fuwa Pass is at the edge of a location that you may have heard of: today we know that region as Sekigahara.  That is because it was one of several seki, or barriers, set up to help check movements across the archipelago.  To the south, one could also use the Suzuka pass, where there would likewise be set up the Suzuka no Seki, or Suzuka barrier.  Suzuka was accessible from Afumi via the regions of Koga and Iga.  There was also the Afusaka no Seki, between Afumi and the area of modern Kyoto, and the Arachi no Seki, between Afumi and Tsuruga, on the Japan Sea—where many of the Goguryeo missions had arrived. Of these, the Afusaka barrier and the Fuwa barrier were probably the most well known and most heavily traveled.  Control of the Fuwa pass would be critical throughout Japan's history, controlling much of the traffic between eastern and western Japan.  Hence why, over 900 years later, another fight would come to a head here, as the battle of Sekigahara would see Tokugawa Ieyasu's eastern forces defeating the western army of Ishida Mitsunari.  That battle is seen as a decisive victory that birthed the Tokugawa shogunate, who would rule Japan for the next 250 years. So for Ohoama, having Honeji and his men take control of the Fuwa barrier was critical, as it would limit the Afumi court's ability to levy forces in the eastern provinces. A few days later, Ohoama was himself about to move out,  but his advisors stopped him.  They were worried about heading east without an army, yet.  Ohoama agreed, and he wished that he hadn't sent Woyori out just yet—Woyori was someone he trusted, militarily.  Instead, however, he had to make do.  And so he had Ohokida no Kimi no Yesaka, Kibumi no Muraji no Ohotomo, and Afu no Omi no Shima go to Prince Takasaka, who was in charge of the Wokamoto Palace in Asuka, and apply for posting bells—the tokens that would allow him and others use the various official post stations to supply them with provisions as they traveled.  Speaking of this palace,  although the court had moved to Ohotsu, a palace was maintained in Asuka.  After all, this was still seen as the “ancient capital” and the home to a lot of powerful families, so it makes sense that the royal family kept the palace in working order.  It also appears to have functioned as the local government headquarters for the region, with Prince Takasaka, or Takasaka no Ou, at its head. Asking for the posting bells was a test by Ohoama.  If he received them, then great, it would give him the ability to travel to the east, where he could presumably raise troops to protect himself.  However, if Prince Takasaka refused, then that would be a sign that the Afumi government had, indeed, sent word that Ohoama was not supposed to go anywhere.  If that was to happen, then Afu no Shima would return to Yoshino to let Ohoama know, while Ohokida no Yesaka would go to Afumi to tell Ohoama's sons, Prince Takechi and Prince Ohotsu, to make haste and meet him in Ise. Sure enough, Prince Takasaka refused the posting bells, and so, on the 24th of the 6th month, Prince Ohoama made the decision to move.  They left quickly—he didn't even let anyone saddle a horse for him or prepare his carriage.  He just started to head out on foot on a journey to the East. That journey would set in motion the coming conflagration.  Ohoama and his allies would quickly gather their forces in an incredibly short period of time, starting with a daring trek across the mountainous path between Yoshino and the land of Ise.  At the same time, the Afumi court would levy their own forces.  It was now a race for people and positions.  And to see how that race progressed, I'll ask you to tune in next episode, when we take a look at the opening moves in the war for the throne of Yamato.Until then, thank you once again for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please 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 reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

Shogunatet, som existerade från medeltiden till den industriella revolutionen, innebar att den militära ledaren shogunen hade all makt på kejsarens bekostnad. Ursprungligen var "shogun" en titel för militära befälhavare, men när centralmakten försvagades av rivalitet mellan kejsaren, ex-kejsare och Fujiwara-ätten, fick samurajerna ökad makt. På 1100-talet ledde detta till att en militärdiktator tog kontrollen.Shogunatet var anpassningsbart och kunde omforma sig över tid. Tokugawa-shogunatet (1603–1868) blev Japans mest stabila era, men dess fall markerade början på en ny tid. Under ytan på ett till synes stillastående samhälle pågick gradvisa förändringar. Japan var isolerat, styrt av ett strikt klassystem och reglerat enligt samurajernas kod.I podden Historia Nu samtalar programledaren Urban Lindstedt med Ingemar Ottosson, docent i historia vid Lunds universitet, aktuell med boken Shogun: Generalerna som ledde Japan (2025).Shogunatet – eller bakufu – har rötter i Japans tidiga historia. Redan under Yamato-riket på 300-talet formades centralmakt under kinesiskt inflytande. Men på 800-talet började kejsarens makt vackla, vilket öppnade för militära ledare. Titeln "shogun" användes först i krig mot emishi-folket, men dessa generaler styrde inget eget shogunat. Det förändrades 1192 då Minamoto no Yoritomo utnämndes till seii taishōgun och grundade ett verkligt parallellt maktcentrum.Det första shogunatet etablerades i Kamakura (1185–1333), där samurajerna fick en central roll. Makten förflyttades från hovet i Kyoto till krigarnas hierarki, med drag av europeisk feodalism. Alla tre shogunat följde mönstret av dynastisk uppgång och fall. Shogunerna varierade stort i duglighet – från marionetter till historiska gestalter som Yoritomo, Yoshimitsu och Ieyasu.Med tiden förändrades shogunrollen från krigsherre till civil ämbetsman. Den mest stabila perioden inleddes med Tokugawa Ieyasus seger vid Sekigahara 1600, vilket ledde till hans utnämning till shogun 1603. Tokugawa-styret, med säte i Edo, byggde ett samhälle präglat av militär, byråkrati och neokonfucianism. Kejsaren behöll en symbolisk roll, medan verklig makt låg hos shogunen.Samhället styrdes med strikt klassindelning: samurajer, bönder, hantverkare, köpmän. Länsherrar (daimyōer) kontrollerades genom sankin-kōtai – ett system som tvingade deras familjer att bo i Edo, vilket motverkade uppror. Landet isolerades genom sakoku-politiken: endast holländare fick bedriva handel via ön Dejima. Kristendom förbjöds, missionärer avrättades och utländska kontakter begränsades kraftigt.Paradoxalt nog blomstrade kulturen: kabuki, haiku och urban tillväxt i städer som Osaka och Edo. Trots det yttre lugnet började samhället långsamt förändras. Samurajerna, som en gång var krigare, förvandlades till byråkrater utan svärd. Köpmännen, trots sin låga formella status, blev ekonomiskt mäktiga.Bild: Porträtt av Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), grundare av Tokugawa-shogunatet. Målningen är utförd av konstnären Kanō Tan'yū och finns i huvudtornet på Osaka slott. Källa: Wikipedia Kanō Tan'yū, Public Domain.Musik: ”Japanese Hotchiku Flute” av Velimir Andreev (Psystein), Storyblocks Audio.Lyssna också på Samurajerna dominerade Japan under ett millenium.Klippare: Emanuel Lehtonen Vill du stödja podden och samtidigt höra ännu mer av Historia Nu? Gå med i vårt gille genom att klicka här: https://plus.acast.com/s/historianu-med-urban-lindstedt. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Edward from Heavy Cardboard joins Candice to discuss the appeal of heavy board games, the ones they've been diggin, and the ones where the juice is worth the squeeze.00:00:00 Introduction00:15:38 Fresh Plays00:16:35 Ayar: Children of the Sun00:25:38 Cosmic Frog00:31:54 Speakeasy00:40:23 Dungeon Degenerates00:54:25 Heavy Games: When the Juice is Worth the Squeeze00:56:15 The Heaviness in Board Games01:16:59 Age of Steam01:22:22 Leaving Earth01:26:20 Crystal Palace01:30:52 Black Rose Wars: Rebirth + Age of Innovation01:34:04 Stress Botics: Odyssey01:40:25 Feudum01:42:53 Edward's List of Games Worth the Squeeze (Stress Botics Odyssey, Age of Steam, Antiquity, Pax Transhumanity, Reef Encounter, Weimar: The Fight for Democracy, Tales of the Northlands: The Sagas of Noggin the Nog, Mr. President, Die Macher, John Company, Dilluvia Project, The Colonists, For-Ex, Sekigahara)01:46:24 Candice's List of Games Worth the Squeeze (Feudum, Too Many Bones, Spirit Island, Mage Knight, COIN & ICS series, War of the Ring: Second Edition, TI4, Cerebria, Here I Stand, Fields of Fire)01:51:08 D-Day at Omaha Beach01:55:38 Sign-offThank you to our sponsor, CATAN Studio!Hope you can join us for our 2025 BGG conventions! For more details and to register for your badge: BGG.Spring May 22-26BGG.CON November 19-23Web: https://boardgamegeek.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@boardgamegeekTwitter: https://twitter.com/BoardGameGeekEmail: podcast@boardgamegeek.com

Pour ce 4e épisode de portraits historiques, nous allons parler du 3e unificateur du Japon : Ieyasu. Ieyasu prend la suite de Hideyoshi, le shogun qui a ordonné la mort du fameux maître de thé Sen no Rikyu, dont je vous ai fait le portrait dans l'épisode précédent.Je vous ai un peu parlé lors de cet épisode, ainsi que dans celui portant sur les samouraï, du contexte très tumultueux du 16e siècle. Mais pas suffisamment encore pour pleinement planter le décor dans lequel émerge Ieyasu. Imaginez un pays en proie au chaos, un territoire morcelé en des dizaines de fiefs où seigneurs et guerriers s'entretuent pour un lopin de terre ou un titre prestigieux. Le Japon du XVIᵉ siècle, c'est une arène où l'honneur et la trahison s'entrelacent dans une danse meurtrière. Un champ de bataille permanent où les seigneurs de guerre, ou daimyos, s'affrontent sans relâche dans l'espoir d'unifier le pays sous leur bannière. L'époque est marquée par les trahisons, les sièges sanglants et les alliances aussi éphémères qu'un haïku dans le vent.Dans ce tumulte, un homme ne se précipite pas vers la gloire à coup de sabre. Il attend, il calcule, il place ses pièces une à une sur l'échiquier du pouvoir. Il observe ses rivaux se briser contre les tempêtes qu'ils ont eux-mêmes déclenchées. Et quand il agit enfin, c'est pour frapper d'un coup décisif.Cet homme, c'est Tokugawa Ieyasu. Son arme ultime n'est ni le katana, nom que l'on donne au long sabre des samourai, ni les armes à feu qui sont introduites à la même époque sur le champs de bataille. Non, son arme, c'est une patience infinie et un instinct politique redoutable. En 1600, après des décennies de manœuvres habiles, il triomphe à Sekigahara et pose les fondations d'un Japon stable et prospère pour plus de 250 ans. Cette période, c'est l'époque d'Edo.Dans cet épisode, nous verrons comment Ieyasu a survécu à son enfance d'otage, tissé des alliances clés, conquis le pouvoir par la ruse et a instauré une paix durable.Vocabulaire :- Le Sankin-kotai : les seigneurs doivent vivre une année sur deux à Edo (Tokyo), maintenant leurs familles comme otages.Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

Following the death of Takara Hime, and the war on the Korean peninsula, Naka no Ōe was taking hold--or perhaps keeping hold--of the reins of government.  He wasn't finished with his changes to the government.  He also had a new threat--the Tang Empire.  They had destroyed Yamato's ally, Baekje, and defeated the Yamato forces on the peninsula.  While the Tang then turned their attention to Goguryeo, Yamato could easily be next.  The Tang had a foothold on the Korean peninsula, so they had a place to gather and launch a fleet, should they wish to bring Yamato into their empire. For more, especially to follow along with some of the names in this episode, check out our blogpost at https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/episode-125     Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua and this is episode 125: The Sovereign of Heavenly Wisdom The people of Baekje looked around at the strange and unfamiliar land.  They had fled a wartorn country, and they were happy to be alive, but refugee status was hardly a walk in the park.  Fortunately, they still knew how to farm the land, even if their homeland was hundreds of miles away, across the sea, and occupied by hostile forces.  Here, at least, was a land where they could make a home for themselves. Some of them had to wonder whether this was really permanent.  Was their situation just temporary until their kingdom was restored?  Or were they truly the last people of Baekje, and what would that mean? Either way, it would mean nothing if they didn't work the land and provide for their families.  And so, as with displaced people everywhere, they made the best of the situation.  They had been given land to work, and that was more than they could have asked for.  They might never return to Baekje, but perhaps they could keep a little of it alive for themselves and their descendants. Greetings, everyone, and welcome back.  Last episode we talked about the downfall of Baekje and the defeat of the Yamato forces at the battle of Hakusukinoe, also known as the Battle of Baekgang, in 663.  And yet, something else happened as well: the sovereign, Takara Hime, aka Saimei Tennou, died as the Yamato forces were setting out.  Immediately Prince Naka no Oe took the reins of government.  He would be known to later generations as Tenji Tennou, with Tenji meaning something like “Heavenly Wisdom”. Now Prince Naka no Oe has been in the forefront of many of our episodes so far, so I'd like to start this episode out with a recap of what we've heard about him so far, as all of this is important to remind ourselves of the complex political situation.  I'm going to be dropping – and recapping – a lot of names, but I'll have many of the key individuals listed on the podcast website for folks who want to follow along.  I would note that this episode is going to be a summary, with some extrapolation by me regarding what was actually happening.  Just remember that history, as we've seen time and again, is often more messy and chaotic than we like, and people are more complex than just being purely good or evil.  People rarely make their way to the top of any social hierarchy purely through their good deeds.  To start with, let's go back to before the year 645, when Naka no Oe instigated a coup against Soga no Iruka and Soga no Emishi.  In the Isshi Incident, covered in Episode 106, Naka no Oe had Soga no Iruka murdered in court, in front of his mother, Takara Hime, when she sat on the throne the first time.  And yet, though he could have taken the throne when she abdicated in apparent shock, he didn't.  Instead, he took the role of “Crown Prince”, but this wasn't him just sitting back.  In fact, evidence suggests that he used that position to keep a strong hand on the tiller of the ship of state. Prior to the Isshi Incident of 645, the rule of the Yamato sovereign had been eroded by noble court families.  These families, originally set up to serve the court and its administration, had come to dominate the political structures of the court.  The main branch of the Soga family, in particular, had found its way to power through a series of astute political marriages and the support of a new, foreign religion:  Buddhism.  Soga no Iname, Emishi's grandfather, had married his daughters to the sovereigns, and thus created closer ties between the Soga and the royal line.  He also helped ensure that the offspring of those marriages would be the ones to take over as future sovereigns.  Soga no Iname, himself took the position of Oho-omi, the Great Omi, or the Great Minister, the head of the other ministerial families.  As Prime Minister, he held great sway over the day-to-day running of the court, and execution of much of the administration.  Much of this was covered in previous episodes, but especially episodes 88, 90, 91, 92, 95, 98, 99, and 103. Soga no Umako, who succeeded his father as Oho-omi, was joined in his effort to administer the government by his grand-nephew, Prince Umayado, also known as Shotoku Taishi, son of Tachibana no Toyohi, aka Youmei Tennou, and thus grandson of Umako's sister, Kitashi-hime, and the sovereign known as Kimmei Tennou.  Umayado's aunt, sister to Tachibana no Toyohi, was Kashikiya Hime, or Suiko Tennou.  The three of them:  Soga no Umako, Prince Umayado, and Kashikiya Hime, together oversaw the development of Yamato and the spread of Buddhism.  Buddhism was also controversial at first, but they turned it into another source of ritual power for the state—ritual power that Soga no Umako, Prince Umayado, and even Kashikiya Hime were able to harvest for their own use. Unfortunately, the Crown Prince, Umayado, died before Kashikiya hime, suddenly leaving open the question of who would take the throne.  Soga no Umako himself, passed away two years before Kashikiya Hime.  When she in turn passed away, there was another struggle for the throne, this time between the descendants of Crown Prince Umayado and Soga no Umako.  Eventually, Soga no Umako's son and heir, Soga no Emishi, made sure that a more pliant sovereign, Prince Tamura, would take the throne, and Prince Umayado's own son, Prince Yamashiro no Oe, was cut out of the succession.  Soga no Emishi, serving as prime minister, effectively ran things much as his father had.  When Tamura diedhis queen, Takara Hime, took the throne, rather than passing it back to Umayado's line—no doubt with Emishi's blessing.  He was careful, however, not to provoke direct action against Yamashiro no Oe, possibly due to the reverence in which Yamashiro's father, Prince Umayado, aka the Buddhist Saint Shotoku Taishi, was held.  Meanwhile, Emishi appears to have been cultivating his grandson by way of Prince Tamura, Furubito no Oe, to eventually succeed to the throne, trying to duplicate what his own father Umako and even grandfather had been able to accomplish. Soga no Emishi's son, Soga no Iruka, was not quite so temperate, however.   Who would have thought that growing up at the top of the social hierarchy might make one feel a bit arrogant and entitled?   When Soga no Emishi was ill, Soga no Iruka took over as Prime Minister, and he didn't just stand back.  He decided that he needed to take out Furubito no Oe's competition, and so he went after Yamashiro no Oe and had him killed. Unfortunately for him, he apparently went too far.  There were already those who were not happy with the Soga family's close hold on power—or perhaps more appropriately, this particular line of the Soga family.  This kind of behavior allowed a group of discontented royals and nobility to gain support. According to the popular story recounted in the Nihon Shoki, the primary seed of resistance started with a game of kickball, or kemari.  Nakatomi no Kamako, aka Nakatomi no Kamatari, was the scion of his house, which was dedicated to the worship of the traditional kami of Yamato.  The Nakatomi were ritualists: in charge of chanting ritual prayers, or norito, during court ceremony.  This meant that their powerbase was directly challenged by the increasing role of Buddhism, one of the Soga patriarchs' key influences on the political system. Kamatari was feeling out the politics of the court, and seemed to be seeking the support of royal family members who could help challenge the powerful Soga ministers.  He found that support in two places.  First, in Prince Karu, brother to Takara Hime, the current sovereign, who had been on the throne ever since her husband, Tamura, had passed away.  And then there was the Prince Katsuraki, better known to us, today, as Prince Naka no Oe.  A game of kemari, where a group of players tried to keep a ball in the air as long as they could, using only their feet, was a chance to get close to the Prince.  When Naka no Oe's shoe flew off in the middle of the match, Kamatari ran over to retrieve it.  As he offered the shoe back to its owner, they got to talking, and one of the most impactful bromances in Yamato history was born. The two ended up studying together.  The unification of the Yellow River and Yangzi basin regions under the Sui and Tang, and the expansion of the Silk Road, had repercussions felt all the way across the straits in Yamato.  Naka no Oe and Kamatari were both avid students and were absorbing all that the continent had to throw at them about philosophy and good governance.  As is so often the case, it seems like idealistic students were the fertile ground for revolutionary new thoughts. There were problems implementing their vision, however.  Although the Nihon Shoki claims that Naka no Oe was the Crown Prince, that honor was probably given to Prince Furubito no Oe, who would have no doubt perpetuated the existing power structures at court.  This is something that the Chroniclers, or perhaps those before them, glossed over and may have even tried to retconned, to help bolster the case that Naka no Oe was actually working for the common good and not just involved in a naked power grab for himself.  There is also the question as to where Yamashiro no Oe had stood in the succession, as he likely had a fair number of supporters. With the destruction of Yamashiro no Oe's family, however, the balance of power shifted.  Although Soga no Emishi had long been an influential member of the court, and not solely because of his role as Prime Minister, Soga no Iruka was relatively new to power.  Yamashiro no Oe's family, in turn, likely had a fair number of supporters, and even neutral parties may have been turned off by Iruka's violent methods to suppress an opponent who had already been defeated politically.  Naka no Oe and Kamatari seem to have seized on this discontent againt the Soga, but they needed at least one other conspirator.  They achieved this by offering a marriage alliance with Soga no Kurayamada no Ishikawa no Maro, a lesser member of the Soga household, whose own immediate family had been supporters of Yamashiro no Oe, and so likely had plenty of grievances with his cousins.  Naka no Oe married Ishikawa no Maro's daughter, Wochi no Iratsume, also known as Chinu no Iratsume.  Together, these three—Naka no Oe, Kamatari, and Ishikawa no Maro—brought others into their plot, and finally, in 645, they struck.  Soga no Iruka was killed at court, in front of a shocked Takara Hime and Prince Furubito no Oe.  By the way, this is another thing that suggests to me that Furubito no Oe was the Crown Prince, because why was he front and center at the ceremony, while Naka no Oe was able to skulk around at the edges, tending to things like the guards?  After the assassination at the court – the Isshi Incident -- Naka no Oe gathered forces and went after Soga no Emishi, since they knew they couldn't leave him alive.  With both Soga no Emishi and Soga no Iruka dead, and Takara Hime having abdicated the throne in shock at what had just occurred, Naka no Oe could have taken the throne for himself.  However, in what was probably a rather astute move on his part, he chose not to.  He recognized that Furubito no Oe's claim to the throne was possibly stronger, and those who had supported the Soga would not doubt push for him to take the throne.  And so, instead, he pushed for his uncle, Prince Karu, to ascend as sovereign.  Karu was Takara Hime's brother, and they could use Confucian logic regarding deference to one's elders to support him.  Plus, Karu's hands weren't directly bloodied by the recent conflict. As for Prince Furubito, he saw the way that the winds were blowing.  To avoid being another casualty, he retired from the world, taking the vows of a Buddhist monk.  However, there were still supporters who were trying to put him on the throne and eventually he would be killed, to avoid being used as a rallying point. Prince Karu, known as Jomei Tennou, ruled for around a decade. During that time, Naka no Oe and his reformers helped to cultivate a new image of the state as a bureaucratic monarchy.  Naka no Oe was designated the Crown Prince, and Nakatomi no Kamatari was made the “Inner Prime Minister”, or Naidaijin.  Ishikawa no Maro was made the minister of the  Right, while Abe no Uchimaro was made Minister of the Left, and they ran much of the bureaucracy, but the Naidaijin was a role more directly attached to the royal household, and likely meant that Kamatari was outside of their jurisdiction, falling into a position directly supporting Naka no Oe.  They instituted Tang style rank systems, and set up divisions of the entire archipelago.  They appointed governors of the various countries, now seen as provinces, and made them report up to various ministers, and eventually the sovereign.  After all, if you were going to manage everything, you needed to first and foremost collect the data.  This period is known as the Taika, or Great Change, period, and the reforms are known as the Taika reforms, discussed in episode 108. They even built a large government complex in the form of the Toyosaki Palace, in Naniwa, though this may have been a bit much—for more, check out episodes 112 and 113. Years into the project, though, things seem to have soured, a bit.  Rumors and slander turned Kamatari against his ally, Ishikawa no Maro, resulting in the death of Ishikawa no Maro and much of his family.  Naka no Oe and other members of the royal family eventually abandoned the Naniwa palace complex, leaving now-Emperor Karu and the government officials there to run the day-to-day administration, while much of the court made its way back to the Asuka area.  Karu would later pass away, but the throne still did not pass to Crown Prince Naka no Oe, despite his title.  Instead, the throne went back to Takara Hime.  This was her second reign, and one of only two split reigns like this that we know of.  The Chroniclers, who were creating posthumous titles for the sovereigns, gave her two names—Kogyoku Tennou for her reign up to 645, and then Saimei Tennou for her second reign starting in 655.   During her latter reign, Naka no Oe continued to wield power as the Crown Prince, and the Chroniclers don't really get into why she came back into power.  It may be that Naka no Oe, in his role as Crown Prince, had more freedom: although the sovereign is purportedly the person in power, that position can also be limiting.  There are specific things which the sovereign is supposed to do, rituals in which they are expected to partake.  In addition, there were restrictions on who was allowed into the inner sanctum of the palace, and thus limits on who could interact with the sovereign, and how.  That meant that any sovereign was reliant on intermediaries to know what was going on in their state and to carry out their orders.  As Crown Prince, Naka no Oe may have had more flexibility to do the things he wanted to do, and he could always leverage the sovereign's authority. When Baekje was destroyed, and Yamato decided to go to their aid, Naka no Oe appears to have had a strong hand in raising forces and directing movements, at least within the archipelago.  When Takara Hime passed away rather suddenly, he accompanied her funerary procession much of the way back, and then returned to Tsukushi—Kyushu—to direct the war.   This is the same thing that Toyotomi Hideyoshi would do when he sent troops to Korea in the late 16th century.  Moving headquarters closer to the continent would reduce the time between messages.  Theoretically he could have moved out to the islands of Iki or Tsushima, but I suspect that there were more amenities at Tsukushi, where they even built a palace for Takara Hime—and later Naka no Oe—to reside in.  It was likely not quite as spectacular as the full-blown city that Hideyoshi developed in a matter of months, but the court could also leverage the facilities previously created for the Dazaifu. The war took time.  This wasn't like some “wars” that were more like specific military actions.  This was a war that dragged on for several years, with different waves of ships going over to transport people and supplies.  Things came to a head in the 9th month of 663, roughly October or November on the Western calendar.  The Baekje resistance was under siege, and their only hope was a fleet of Yamato soldiers coming to their aid.  The Yamato fleet met with a much smaller Tang fleet at the mouth of the Baek River—the Hakusukinoe.  They attempted to break through the Tang blockade, but the Tang had positional advantage and were eventually able to counterattack, destroying the Yamato fleet.  Without their relief, the Baekje resistance fell. The remnants of the Yamato army, along with those Baekje nobles that were with them, headed out, fleeing back to the archipelago.  One presumes that there may have been other Baekje nobles, and their families, who had already made the trip. After the entry describing this rout, on the 24th day of the 9th month of 663, we have a gap in the Chronicles of just a little more than 4 months.  We then pick up with Naka no Oe's government starting to look at internal affairs.  For one thing, we are told that he selected his younger brother, the Royal Prince Ohoama, as Crown Prince, and he made updates to the cap-rank system, changing it from 19 ranks to 26 ranks.  The first six ranks remained the same, but the name “kwa”, or “flower”, for the 7th through 10th ranks was changed to “Kin”, meaning “brocade”.  Furthermore, a “middle” rank was added between the Upper and Lower ranks, further distinguishing each group, and adding 6 extra ranks.  Finally, the initial rank, Risshin, was divided into two:  Daiken and Shouken.  We aren't told why, but it likely meant that they could have more granular distinctions in rank. At the same time that was going on, the court also awarded long swords to the senior members of the great families, and short swords to the senior members of lesser families.  Below that, senior members of the Tomo no Miyatsuko and others were given shields and bows and arrows.  Furthermore, the vassals, or kakibe, and the domestic retainers, or yakabe, were settled, to use Aston's translation.  The kanji used in the text appears to refer to settling a decision or standardizing something, rather than settling as in giving a place to live.  It seems to me to mean that the court was settling servants on families: determining what kind and how many servants that various houses could have based on their position in the hierarchy.  I can't help but notice that all of these gifts were very martial in nature.  That does not mean, of course, that they were necessarily because of the war over Baekje, nor that they were in response to the concern about a possible Tang invasion -- we've seen in the past where swords were gifted to people who had served the court --but it is hard not to connect these gifts with recent worries.  We also know that this year, Naka no Oe turned his focus on building defenses, setting up guards and beacon fires on the islands of Tsushima and Iki.   Should any unknown fleet be seen coming to the archipelago, the fires would alert the forces at Kyushu, so they could send word and prepare a defense. In addition, the court built an impressive defense for Tsukushi—for the Dazai itself, the seat of the Yamato government in Kyushu.  It is called the Mizuki, or Water Castle, though at the time “castle” was more about walls and fortifications than the standalone fortress we tend to think of, today.  Along those lines, the Mizuki was an earthen embankment, roughly 1.2 kilometers long, extending from a natural ridgeline to the west across the Mikasa river.  Archeological evidence shows it had a moat, and this line of fortifications would have been a line of defense for the Dazai, should anyone try to invade.  This construction was so large and impressive that you can still see it, even today.  It stands out on the terrain, and it is even visible from overhead photographs. In the third month of 664, we are told that Prince Syeongwang of Baekje and his people, were given a residence at Naniwa.  In fact, even though Baekje was no longer an independent kingdom, there appear to have been thousands of Baekje people now living in Yamato, unable to return home.  Many of these were former nobles of the Baekje court, which Yamato treated as a foreign extension of its own.  Resettling these people would be a major theme for the Chronicles, but we will also see, as we read further on, how their talents were leveraged for the state. Also in the third month, a star fell in the north—it says “in the north of the capital”, but I suspect that anywhere north, south, east, or west of the capital would have seen the same thing “in the north”.  There was also an earthquake, which isn't given any particular significance, beyond its mention as a natural phenomenon. On the 17th day of the 5th month of 664, so roughly 2 months later, we are told that Liu Jen'yuan, the Tang dynasty's general in Baekje, sent Guo Wucong  to Yamato with a letter and gifts.  We aren't told the contents of the letter, but one imagines that this may have been a rather tense exchange.  Yamato had just been involved in open warfare against Tang forces on the peninsula, and they still weren't sure if the Tang empire would come after them next.  Their only real hope on that front was Goguryeo, since the Tang and Silla were still trying to destroy the Goguryeo kingdom, and that may have kept the Tang forces tied up for a while.  No doubt Guo Wucong would have seen some of the defenses that Yamato was constructing during his visit. Guo Wucong would hang around for about seven and a half months.  He was given permission to take his leave on the 4th day of the 10th month.  Naka no Oe had his friend and Inner Prime Minister, Nakatomi no Kamatari send the Buddhist Priest, Chisho, with presents for Guo Wucong, and he and his officers were granted entertainments  before they left as well. Finally, Guo Wucong and his people returned to the Tang on the 12th day of the 12th month. While the delegation from the Tang was in Yamato, we are told of several tragedies.  First was that Soga no Murajiko no Oho-omi had passed away.  Soga no Murajiko appears to have been another son of Soga no Kuramaro, and thus brother to Soga no Ishikawa no Maro.  Unfortunately, we don't have much more on him in the record. Just a month later, we are told that the “Dowager Queen” Shima passed away.  Aston translates this as the Queen Grandmother, suggesting that she was Naka no Oe's grandmother. We are also told, that in the 10th month of 664, around the time that Guo Wucong was given leave to depart, that Yeon Gaesomun, the Prime Minister—though perhaps more correctly the despotic ruler—of Goguryeo, died.  It is said that he asked his children to remain united, but, well, even if we didn't know how it all turned out, I think we would look somewhat skeptically on any idea that they all did exactly as they were told.  Sure enough, in 667 we are told that Gaesomun's eldest son, Namseng, left the capital city of Pyongyang to tour the provinces, and while he was gone his younger brothers conspired with the nobility, and when he came back they refused to let him back in.  So Namseng ran off to the Tang court and apparently helped them destroy his own country. This is largely corroborated by other stories about Goguryeo, though the dates do seem to be off.  Tang records put Gaesomun's death around 666 CE, which the Samguk Sagi appears to follow, but on his tomb the date would appear to be 665.  Confusion like this was easy enough given the different dates and trying to cross-check across different regnal eras.  Sure, there were some commonalities, but it was very easy to miscount something. One last note from the twelfth month of 664—it seems that there were omens of apparent prosperity that came to the court from the island of Awaji.    First, there was rice that grew up in a farmer's pig trough.  The farmer's name is given as Shinuta no Fumibito no Mu, and Mu gathered this rice and stored it up, and thus, every day his wealth increased.  Then there was the bridal bed of Iwaki no Sukuri no Oho, of Kurimoto district.  They claimed that rice grew up at the head of his brides' mattress during her first night's stay with him.  And this wasn't just some brand new shoot, but overnight it formed an ear, and by the morning it bent down and ripened.  Then, the following night, another ear was formed.  When the bride went out into the courtyard, two keys fell down from heaven, and after she gave them to her husband, Oho, he went on to become a wealthy man. The exact purpose of these stories is unclear, but it seems to be that the Chroniclers are choosing to focus on stories of wealth and growth, which speak to how they wanted this reign as a whole, including the sovereign, to be remembered. However, more tragedy struck the following year, in 665,  when Hashibito, another Dowager Queen – this time the wife of Karu, aka Koutoku Tennou - passed away on the 25th day of the 2nd month.  On the first day of the 3rd month, 330 people took Buddhist vows for her sake. We are also told that in the second month the ranks of Baekje were cross-referenced with the ranks of Yamato, and then ranks were given out to some of the Baekje nobles that had come over to Yamato.  Kwisil Chipsa, who was originally ranked “Dalsol” in Baekje, was accorded “Lower Shoukin”.  That was rank 12 of the 26.  In comparison, “Dalsol” seems to have been the 2nd rank of 16 in Baekje.  Along with handing out rank, over 400 Baekje commoners, both men and women, were given residence in the Kanzaki district in Afumi.  This appears to be an area along the Aichi river, running from the Suzuka Mountains, west towards Lake Biwa. The court granted them rice-lands in the following month.  At the same time, several high ranking Baekje nobles were put in charge of building castles at strategic points around the archipelago.  These included one castle in Nagato, as well as the castles of Ohono and Woyogi, in Tsukushi.  Two years later, in 667, we also see the building of Takayasu castle, in Yamato and Yashima castle in Yamada, in Sanuki—modern Kagawa, on Shikoku, facing the Seto Inland Sea passageway.  Kaneda castle in Tsushima was also a Baekje-built one. We mentioned something about these castles last episode.  They were in the Baekje style, and as I said, the term “castle” here is more about the walls, which were largely made of rammed earth ramparts.  This means that you pile up earth and dirt in a layer and then the laborers use tools specifically to tamp it down until it is thick and hard.  Then another layer is piled on top and the process is repeated.  These walls were often placed on mountain tops, and they would follow the terrain, making them places that were easy to defend.  Beyond that, they didn't necessarily have a donjon keep or anything like that—maybe a tower so that one could see a little further, but being at the top of a mountain usually provided all the visual cues that one needed. We know there were other castles made as well.  For example, I mentioned last week about Kinojo, in Okayama, the ancient Kibi area.  Kinojo is not mentioned in the Nihon Shoki, but it clearly existed back then, and matches the general description of a 7th century mountain castle as built in Baekje.  The name means Demon Castle, and there is a story about it that is connected to the local Kibitsu Jinja—the Shrine to Prince Kibi.  According to legend, Kibitsu Hiko, aka Prince Kibitsu or, perhaps more appropriately, the Prince of Kibi, came to the area around the time of the Mimaki Iribiko, so probably about the 3rd century, at the head of a large force.  Kibitsu Hiko had come to defeat the demon, Ura, who lived in the nearby castle, hence Kinojo, and legend says that he freed the people from the demon's rule. As I also mentioned, last week, this particular castle may have ended up in the Momotaro story.  There are those who believe that the story of Momotarou is based on the story of Prince Kibitsu Hiko, and his defeat of the so-called demon, “Ura”.   Certainly the story has grown more fantastical, and less connected to the ancient history of the Kibi region, but it still may have its origin in a much more standard legend of a founding prince of the ancient Kibi kingdom that was later changed into a fairy tale.   More likely, the castle was built by a Baekje nobleman, often thought to be a prince, who settled in the area.  There is the possibility that the demon's name “Ura” came from a mistranslation of his name, or it is also possible that he was unrelated to the story at all.  The Kibitsu Hiko legend may have incorporated the castle, Kinojo, at a later date, once people had forgotten when and why the castle was actually built. It would make sense if Kinojo had been built as part of the defenses for Yamato, as that area overlooks a large part of the fertile plains of Okayama and out beyond Kojima to the Seto Inland Sea -- it is perched over a key overland route from the western edge of Honshu to Yamato, and there would have been several ways to signal boats to put to sea to intercept forces on the water.  . This all suggests to me that Kinojo was probably part of Naka no Oe's castle-building effort, even if it isn't specifically remembered in the Chronicle.  But building castles wasn't enough to bring peace of mind that Yamato would survive a Tang invasion, and it is possibly as a defensive measure that Naka no Oe would go on to do something truly incredible—he would eventually move the capital from Asuka and Naniwa all the way to the shores of Lake Biwa itself, establishing the Ohotsu palace.  This was a truly extreme step that didn't endear Naka no Oe to the court, but it had several advantages.  For one thing, this move pulled the capital further away from the sea routes, meaning that if they were attacked, they had a more defensible position.  Even more so than Yamato, the Afumi region around Lake Biwa is surrounded by mountains, with a few narrow passes that restricted movement in and out. One of these is the famous Sekigahara, which remained a choke point even up to modern times.  The name even means the Field of the Barrier, indicating the barrier and checkpoint that had been set up there in ancient times.  Moving the capital also pulled the court away from some of the previous political centers, which may have been another feature that made it attractive to Naka no Oe.  Many capital moves have been made, at least in part, to get farther away from strong Buddhist temples, and this certainly would have moved things out of the Asuka region, which by now was a hotbed of Buddhist temple activity. But we'll talk about that all more, next episode.  Until then, thank you once again for listening and for all of your support. If you like what we are doing, please 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 reach out to our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan

Acquista i libri di Francesco Dei dal suo sito internet www.francescodei.com, Amazon o nelle principali librerie sparse sul territorio.Questa è la seconda parte della chiacchierata fatta con Francesco Dei, autore di libri storici sul Giappone e non solo. Mentre nella prima parte Francesco ci ha narrato la battaglia di Sekigahara, in questa seconda parte scopriremo come il risultato di quello scontro abbia plasmato i successivi 270 anni della storia giapponese, dall'ascesa alla carica di Shogun del clan Tokugawa, fino alla creazione della Repubblica di Ezo, breve esperimento repubblicano giapponese.Data la quantità di argomenti trattati, questa seconda parte risulterà meno lineare della precedente, ma assumerà i tratti di una vera chiacchierata, a cui spero vivamente vogliate partecipare nei commenti.La trascrizione è disponibile sul sito:https://www.podcastdelloshogun.itCerca il podcast sui social!https://www.facebook.com/podcastdelloshogunhttps://www.instagram.com/podcastdelloshogun/https://www.tiktok.com/@podcastdelloshogun---Mi trovi anche su Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/18pSpwnHNWevxRPaFpXh26Su Apple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-dello-shogun/id1649546421Su Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/@PodcastDelloShogunSu Spreaker:https://www.spreaker.com/show/podcast-dello-shogun---Se desideri sostenere il podcast, puoi farlo in due modi:- Tramite ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/podcastdelloshogun- Tramite Paypal: https://paypal.me/podcastdelloshogunFonti:SAMURAI - LA GUERRA DELL'ANNO DEL DRAGO, LA CADUTA DELLO SHOGUNATO E LA RESTAURAZIONE MEIJIpodcastdelloshogun.itfrancescodei.comImmagine:La battaglia di Ueno#podcast #podcastitalia #francescodei #samurai #shogun #japanese #giappone #giapponese #japan #storia #history #storiagiappone #storiagiapponese #guerra #culturagiapponese #giapponefeudale #culturaorientale #letteratura #letteraturagiapponese #shinobi #shinobinomono #sengokujidai #sengoku #tokugawa #toyotomi #oda #ninja #podshogun

Acquista i libri di Francesco Dei dal suo sito internet www.francescodei.com, Amazon o nelle principali librerie sparse sul territorio.Benvenuti a questa prima parte di una lunga chiacchierata fatta con l'autore Francesco Dei.Abbiamo parlato di un bel po' di cose, soprattutto inerenti ai suoi libri e in questa prima parte non potevamo non parlare della Battaglia di Sekigahara e di come questa abbia rappresentato la fine di un'epoca e l'inizio di un'altra, l'omega e l'alfa, appunto.A circa 2.30 si fa riferimento al film di Kurosawa Akira "Trono di Sangue" chiamandolo erroneamente "Trono di Spade".La trascrizione è disponibile sul sito:https://www.podcastdelloshogun.itCerca il podcast sui social!https://www.facebook.com/podcastdelloshogunhttps://www.instagram.com/podcastdelloshogun/https://www.tiktok.com/@podcastdelloshogun---Mi trovi anche su Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/18pSpwnHNWevxRPaFpXh26Su Apple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-dello-shogun/id1649546421Su Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/@PodcastDelloShogunSu Spreaker:https://www.spreaker.com/show/podcast-dello-shogun---Se desideri sostenere il podcast, puoi farlo in due modi:- Tramite ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/podcastdelloshogun- Tramite Paypal: https://paypal.me/podcastdelloshogunFonti: Francesco Dei - Storia dei Samurai: Cronache del periodo degli Stati in GuerraImmagini: Celebrazione della vittoria a Sekigahara - Tsukioka Yoshitoshi#podcast #samurai #shogun #storia #japan #japanese #giappone #giapponese #cultura #medioevo #bushido #podcastitalia #nippon #history #sekigahara #toyotomi #oda #tokugawa #sengokujidai #francescodei #dei #battaglia #podshogun

2024 was a special year for Carnival and the Japan-New Orleans connection! Lafcadio Hearn's life & works inspired the theme for Rex Parade 2024: "The Two Worlds of Lafcadio Hearn - New Orleans & Japan". But why Hearn? What went into the float design? What other ways has Hearn left a lasting impact on both New Orleans & Japan? Find out today with a super-sized special Mardi Gras bonus episode, featuring insights from Rex historian/archivist Will French & historian/archivist emeritus Dr. Stephen Hales, Royal Artists float designer/artistic director Caroline Thomas, Lafcadio Hearn's great grandson Bon Koizumi,  legendary chef John Folse, Captain of the Krewe of Lafcadio John Kelly, JSNO's resident Lafcadio Hearn expert Matthew Smith, and even the Mayor of Matsue Akihito Uesada! Get ready for Mardi Gras 2025 by reflecting on this unique connection between New Orleans & Japan!------ About the Krewe ------The Krewe of Japan Podcast is a weekly episodic podcast sponsored by the Japan Society of New Orleans. Check them out every Friday afternoon around noon CST on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Want to share your experiences with the Krewe? Or perhaps you have ideas for episodes, feedback, comments, or questions? Let the Krewe know by e-mail at kreweofjapanpodcast@gmail.com or on social media (Twitter: @kreweofjapan, Instagram: @kreweofjapanpodcast, Facebook: Krewe of Japan Podcast Page, TikTok: @kreweofjapanpodcast, LinkedIn: Krewe of Japan LinkedIn Page, Blue Sky Social: @kreweofjapan.bsky.social, & the Krewe of Japan Youtube Channel). Until next time, enjoy!------ Music Credits ------Background music provided by: Royalty Free Music by Giorgio Di Campo for Free Sound Music http://freesoundmusic.eu FreeSoundMusic on Youtube  Link to Original Sound Clip------ Audio Clip Credits ------Thanks to Dominic Massa & everyone at WYES for allowing us to use some of the audio from the below Rex Clips:Segment about Royal Artist & Float DesignFull 2024 Rex Ball Coverage (Krewe of Lafcadio/Nicholls State segment)Thanks to Matsue City Hall & Mayor Akihito Uesada for their video message below:Message from Matsue Mayor Akihito Uesada------ Support the Krewe! Offer Links for Affiliates ------Use the referral links below & our promo code from the episode!Support your favorite NFL Team AND podcast! Shop NFLShop to gear up for football season!Zencastr Offer Link - Use my special link to save 30% off your 1st month of any Zencastr paid plan! ------ Past KOJ Hearn/Matsue/History Episodes ------Foreign-Born Samurai: William Adams ft. Nathan Ledbetter (Guest Host, Dr. Samantha Perez) (S5E17)Foreign-Born Samurai: Yasuke ft. Nathan Ledbetter (Guest Host, Dr. Samantha Perez) (S5E16)Explore Matsue ft. Nicholas McCullough (S4E19)Jokichi Takamine: The Earliest Bridge Between New Orleans & Japan ft. Stephen Lyman (S4E13)The Life & Legacy of Lafcadio Hearn ft. Bon & Shoko Koizumi (S1E9)Matsue & New Orleans: Sister Cities ft. Dr. Samantha Perez (S1E2)------ Links about Rex ------2024 Rex Parade/Float PDF with Full DesignsCaroline Thomas's Website------ JSNO Upcoming Events ------JSNO Event CalendarJoin JSNO Today!

A reading and commentary on Dr. Edwin Vieira's By Tyranny Out of Necessity: The Bastardy of Martial Law, Chapter 4, Section 3. The discussion revolves around the themes of liberty and security, drawing on historical and contemporary contexts. The episode begins with a Samurai maxim, "After the victory, tighten your helmet strap," attributed to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a Sengoku Jidai warlord who rose from peasant roots to become a de facto leader before Tokugawa Ieyasu's victory at Sekigahara. Hideyoshi's philosophy of preparing for future challenges even after victories is emphasized, highlighting the nature of change and impermanence. The episode then transitions to contemporary political changes, noting favorable shifts towards liberty in December 2024 but also recognizing opposing forces, such as attacks on private property and ongoing global conflicts. The speakers stress the importance of warriors expecting the unexpected and practicing mindfulness, sensory clarity, and equanimity. A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing Dr. Edwin Vieira's book, "By Tyranny Out of Necessity, the Bastardy of Martial Law," which explores the concept of martial law and its implications. The speakers outline the plans and policies for martial law, emphasizing the constitutional remedies available and the role of the Second Amendment in supporting a well-regulated militia. They argue that decentralized, localized execution of law prevents tyranny and highlight tools of liberty like jury nullification, secession, and revolution. The episode delves into the theory of martial governance, where military deployment imposes law and order, potentially leading to the suppression of legitimate governments by rogue officials. The speakers discuss the authority of the occupant in occupied territories, the potential for martial governance to override constitutional protections, and the imposition of censorship, control of communication, and restriction of movement. The speakers also address the potential for a national paramilitary police state, justified by emergencies and war powers, and call for refutation of legal arguments for martial law and governance. They emphasize the importance of martial arts training, armed self-defense, and the need for the public to be organized, armed, and disciplined to maintain constitutional order. Stay in touch: Link.EverydaySamurai.Life Book: https://go.everydaysamurai.life/EoGCS 00:00 Mindfulness skills to combat technocracy and tyranny. 00:36 - Samurai Maxim and Political Changes 03:21 - Martial Law and Government Authority 05:39 Military occupation replaces legitimate government's authority. 06:43 - Military Occupation and Governance Rules 07:25 War could lead to military governance overriding laws. 11:01 - Control Over Occupied Territories 11:25 Occupier may suspend or corrupt local courts. 14:47 - Martial Law Regulations 15:49 General rule: aid enemy, tried by military. 18:42 - Authority and Requisition Rights 20:36 Loss of communication, freedom, and forced labor. 22:25 - Occupation Law and Governance 22:42 Occupiers exploit immunities, fostering lawless institutional culture. 26:19 - Legal Rationalizations of Martial Governance 29:49 - Analysis of Police State Apparatus 29:31 Constitution opposes martial governance; skepticism warranted. 33:22 - Role of Martial Governance 34:52 Martial arts: truth, discernment, governance, freedom. 35:45 Discernment, books, training: securing a free state.

This season was a long one! The Krewe re-groups to reflect on Season 5 as a whole, and everything that went into it...  with a SPECIAL GUEST! Join us for one last audio journey in Season 5 as we discuss all the milestones, top moments, challenges, & fun anecdotes, in addition to a look ahead to Season 6 & listener feedback! Let's GO!------ About the Krewe ------The Krewe of Japan Podcast is a weekly episodic podcast sponsored by the Japan Society of New Orleans. Check them out every Friday afternoon around noon CST on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Want to share your experiences with the Krewe? Or perhaps you have ideas for episodes, feedback, comments, or questions? Let the Krewe know by e-mail at kreweofjapanpodcast@gmail.com or on social media (Twitter: @kreweofjapan, Instagram: @kreweofjapanpodcast, Facebook: Krewe of Japan Podcast Page, TikTok: @kreweofjapanpodcast, LinkedIn: Krewe of Japan LinkedIn Page, Blue Sky Social: @kreweofjapan.bsky.social, & the Krewe of Japan Youtube Channel). Until next time, enjoy!------ Support the Krewe! Offer Links for Affiliates ------Use the referral links below & our promo code from the episode!Support your favorite NFL Team AND podcast! Shop NFLShop to gear up for football season!Zencastr Offer Link - Use my special link to save 30% off your 1st month of any Zencastr paid plan! ------ JSNO Upcoming Events ------JSNO Event CalendarJoin JSNO Today!

How many original castles does Japan ACTUALLY have standing? Where is Japan's oldest castle located? When counting castles in Japan, do castle ruins factor in? The Krewe is joined by William de Lange, the author of An Encyclopedia of Japanese Castles & many other Japan-related publications, to get the answer to these questions and so many more!------ About the Krewe ------The Krewe of Japan Podcast is a weekly episodic podcast sponsored by the Japan Society of New Orleans. Check them out every Friday afternoon around noon CST on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Want to share your experiences with the Krewe? Or perhaps you have ideas for episodes, feedback, comments, or questions? Let the Krewe know by e-mail at kreweofjapanpodcast@gmail.com or on social media (Twitter: @kreweofjapan, Instagram: @kreweofjapanpodcast, Facebook: Krewe of Japan Podcast Page, TikTok: @kreweofjapanpodcast, LinkedIn: Krewe of Japan LinkedIn Page, Blue Sky Social: @kreweofjapan.bsky.social, & the Krewe of Japan Youtube Channel). Until next time, enjoy!------ Support the Krewe! Offer Links for Affiliates ------Use the referral links below & our promo code from the episode!Support your favorite NFL Team AND podcast! Shop NFLShop to gear up for football season!Zencastr Offer Link - Use my special link to save 30% off your 1st month of any Zencastr paid plan! ------ Past KOJ Architecture & History Episodes ------Foreign-Born Samurai: William Adams ft. Nathan Ledbetter (Guest Host, Dr. Samantha Perez) (S5E17)Foreign-Born Samurai: Yasuke ft. Nathan Ledbetter (Guest Host, Dr. Samantha Perez) (S5E16)Change in Urban & Rural Japanese Communities ft. Azby Brown (S5E15)KOJ Podcast S5E6 - Inside Japanese Homes & Architecture ft. Azby Brown (S5E6)Kendo: The Way of the Sword ft. Alexander Bennett, 7th Dan in Kendo (S4E16)Jokichi Takamine: The Earliest Bridge Between New Orleans & Japan ft. Stephen Lyman (S4E13)The Chrysanthemum Throne ft. Dr. Hiromu Nagahara [Part 2] (S2E18)The Chrysanthemum Throne ft. Dr. Hiromu Nagahara [Part 1] (S2E17)The Age of Lady Samurai ft. Tomoko Kitagawa (S1E12)------ Links about William de Lange ------An Encyclopedia of Japanese Castles (Amazon)Japan Then & Now (Amazon, Released June 2024)Walking the Edo Sanpu (Amazon, Released August 2024)William's Website------ JSNO Upcoming Events ------JSNO Event CalendarJoin JSNO Today!

¡Vótame en los Premios iVoox 2024! Hemos tenido ocasiones de hablar de los guerreros samurái del Japón feudal, pero pocas veces hemos reparado en el rol de las mujeres en el seno de esta casta guerrera. De la mano de todo un experto en la materia, Ruben Ibarzabal, viejo amigo de este programa y autor del libro Crónicas de los samuráis (Satori, 2020), hablaremos de las mujeres samuráis, desde la mítica Tomoe Gozen hasta Hosokawa Gracia, la dama cristiana que acabó dando la vida para apoyar al bando Tokugawa en los albores de la batalla de Sekigahara. Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

The Battle of Sekigahara, on 21st October, 1600, was the largest in Japanese feudal history, with over 160,000 troops involved. And stakes were high: the victor, Tokugawa Ieyasu, became the Shōgun of Japan, initiating the Edo period; whilst the leader of the losing Western army, Ishida Mitsunari, was beheaded. The battle itself was chaotic, partly due to defections, with several commanders secretly switching sides, leading to confusion and collapse. But, despite the battle's inclusion of modern firearms introduced by the Portuguese, the aftermath saw a return to the cult of the sword!  In this episode, Arion, Rebecca, and Olly discover how the morning fog caused a clumsy start to the fighting; explain how Toyotomi Hideyoshi's succession struggles lead to a powerful power vacuum; and reveal how Ieyasu matched his superiority in battle with some seriously savvy backstairs politicking… Further Reading: • 'Shōgun: The Incredible True Story of the Battle of Sekigahara' (Esquire, 2024): https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a60382366/shogun-battle-of-sekigahara-true-story/ • ‘Battle of Sekigahara - Gettysburg National Military Park' (U.S. National Park Service, 2022): https://www.nps.gov/gett/learn/historyculture/battle-of-sekigahara.htm • ‘Masterpiece: Lord Toranaga Fights And Wins The Battle Of Sekigahara Against Ishido And Becomes Shogun' (NBC, 1980): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGYI6NVtzAg Love the show? Support us!  Join 

This one goes out to all the ladies out there... well, and the fellas too if you're interested! The Krewe sits down with avid shojo enthusiast Taryn of Manga Lela Instagram/TikTok fame to talk all things shojo. Together they explore the variety of shojo genres, some challenges faced in the shojo industry, & what makes shojo different from those rambunctious shonen titles! Don't miss out!------ About the Krewe ------The Krewe of Japan Podcast is a weekly episodic podcast sponsored by the Japan Society of New Orleans. Check them out every Friday afternoon around noon CST on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Want to share your experiences with the Krewe? Or perhaps you have ideas for episodes, feedback, comments, or questions? Let the Krewe know by e-mail at kreweofjapanpodcast@gmail.com or on social media (Twitter: @kreweofjapan, Instagram: @kreweofjapanpodcast, Facebook: Krewe of Japan Podcast Page, TikTok: @kreweofjapanpodcast, LinkedIn: Krewe of Japan LinkedIn Page, Blue Sky Social: @kreweofjapan.bsky.social, & the Krewe of Japan Youtube Channel). Until next time, enjoy!------ Support the Krewe! Offer Links for Affiliates ------Use the referral links below & our promo code from the episode!Support your favorite NFL Team AND podcast! Shop NFLShop to gear up for football season!Zencastr Offer Link - Use my special link to save 30% off your 1st month of any Zencastr paid plan! ------ Past KOJ Anime/Manga/Pop Culture Episodes ------The Japanese Pop Music Scene ft. Patrick St. Michel (S5E10)Akira Toriyama: Legacy of a Legend ft. Matt Alt (S5E3)The History & Evolution of Godzilla ft. Dr. William (Bill) Tsutsui (S5E1)Thoughts on Godzilla Minus One ft. Dr. William (Bill) Tsutsui (S4Bonus)The History of Nintendo ft. Matt Alt (S4E18)Visiting Themed Cafes in Japan ft. Chris Nilghe of TDR Explorer (S4E15)Japanese Mascot Mania ft. Chris Carlier of Mondo Mascots (S4E8)Tokusatsu Talk with a Super Sentai ft. Sotaro Yasuda aka GekiChopper (S4E6)The Evolution of PokéMania ft Daniel Dockery [Part 2] (S4E3)The Evolution of PokéMania ft Daniel Dockery [Part 1] (S4E2)Japanese Independent Film Industry ft. Award Winning Director Eiji Uchida (S3E18)City Pop & Yu ft. Yu Hayami (S3E14)How Marvel Comics Changed Tokusatsu & Japan Forever ft Gene & Ted Pelc (Guest Host, Matt Alt) (S3E13)Talking Shonen Anime Series ft. Kyle Hebert (S3E10)Japanese Pro Wrestling ft. Baliyan Akki (Part 2) (S3E6)Japanese Pro Wrestling ft. Baliyan Akki (Part 1) (S3E5)Exploring Enka ft. Jerome White Jr aka ジェロ / Jero (S3E1)Japanese Arcades (S2E16)How to Watch Anime: Subbed vs. Dubbed ft. Dan Woren (S2E9)Japanese Theme Parks ft. TDR Explorer (S2E4)Manga: Literature & An Art Form ft. Danica Davidson (S2E3)The Fantastical World of Studio Ghibli ft. Steve Alpert (S2E1)The Greatest Anime of All Time Pt. 3: Modern Day Anime  (2010's-Present) (S1E18)The Greatest Anime of All Time Pt. 2: The Golden Age  (1990's-2010's) (S1E16)The Greatest Anime of All Time Pt. 1: Nostalgia (60's-80's) (S1E5)We Love Pokemon: Celebrating 25 Years (S1E3)Why Japan ft. Matt Alt (S1E1)------ Links about Taryn/Manga Lela------Taryn's LinksTaryn on TikTokTaryn on InstagramTaryn on Twitter/X------ JSNO Upcoming Events ------JSNO Event CalendarJapan Fest Sign-UpJSNO Annual Meeting RegistrationJoin JSNO Today!

Historians Nathan Ledbetter & Dr. Samantha Perez rejoin the Krewe to continue our conversation on foreign-born samurai, this time highlighting the life of William Adams! In this episode, we explore his relationships with both Japanese & non-Japanese while in Japan, the similarities between William Adams's story & House of the Dragon (what?!), how he was a big inspiration for James Clavell's classic novel (and the adaptations) Shogun... AND SO MUCH MORE!------ About the Krewe ------The Krewe of Japan Podcast is a weekly episodic podcast sponsored by the Japan Society of New Orleans. Check them out every Friday afternoon around noon CST on Apple, Google, Spotify, Amazon, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.  Want to share your experiences with the Krewe? Or perhaps you have ideas for episodes, feedback, comments, or questions? Let the Krewe know by e-mail at kreweofjapanpodcast@gmail.com or on social media (Twitter: @kreweofjapan, Instagram: @kreweofjapanpodcast, Facebook: Krewe of Japan Podcast Page, TikTok: @kreweofjapanpodcast, LinkedIn: Krewe of Japan LinkedIn Page, Blue Sky Social: @kreweofjapan.bsky.social, & the Krewe of Japan Youtube Channel). Until next time, enjoy!------ Support the Krewe! Offer Links for Affiliates ------Use the referral links below & our promo code from the episode!Support your favorite NFL Team AND podcast! Shop NFLShop to gear up for football season!Zencastr Offer Link - Use my special link to save 30% off your 1st month of any Zencastr paid plan! ------ Past KOJ History Episodes ------Foreign-Born Samurai: Yasuke ft. Nathan Ledbetter (Guest Host, Dr. Samantha Perez) (S5E16)Kendo: The Way of the Sword ft. Alexander Bennett, 7th Dan in Kendo (S4E16)Jokichi Takamine: The Earliest Bridge Between New Orleans & Japan ft. Stephen Lyman (S4E13)How Marvel Comics Changed Tokusatsu & Japan Forever ft Gene & Ted Pelc (Guest Host, Matt Alt) (S3E13)The Chrysanthemum Throne ft. Dr. Hiromu Nagahara [Part 2] (S2E18)The Chrysanthemum Throne ft. Dr. Hiromu Nagahara [Part 1] (S2E17)The Age of Lady Samurai ft. Tomoko Kitagawa (S1E12)The Life & Legacy of Lafcadio Hearn ft. Bon & Shoko Koizumi (S1E9)------ Links about Nate ------Ubisoft's Echoes of History "Japan's First Unifier: Oda Nobunaga"Ubisoft's Echoes of History "Samurai vs Shinobi: The Tensho Iga War"Nate on BlueSky------ JSNO Upcoming Events ------JSNO Event CalendarJoin JSNO Today!

Ito-koku and Na-koku were the next two countries on the path of the Wei envoys noted in the Gishiwajinden.  They likely refer to the areas known today as Itoshima and Fukuoka, so what do we know about these places in the Yayoi period, and how is it that by the 3rd century Yamato seemed to have taken the foremost position on the archipelago and not one of these other countries, where wet paddy rice agriculture and other continental technologies first arrived in the archipelago. For more see our podcast blog post at: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/itoandna Rough Transcript Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.  My name is Joshua, and this is Gishiwajinden Part Five: Ito-koku and Na-koku This episode we are finishing up our Gishiwajinden Tour, focusing on our journey to Ito-koku and Na-koku, or modern day Itoshima and Fukuoka. We'll talk about what we know from the records of these two areas in the Yayoi and early Kofun periods, and then look at some of the later history, with the development of the Dazaifu, the build up of Hakata and Fukuoka, and more.  A key thread through all of this will be our discussion about why it was Yamato, and not these early states, who eventually became paramount.  If this is where things like wet paddy rice agriculture started, and they had such close ties to the continent, including sending a mission to the Han dynasty, why did the political center shift over to Yamato, instead?  It is certainly something to wonder about, and without anything written down by the elites of Na and Ito we can only really guess based on what we see in the histories and the archaeological record. We ended our tour in Na for a reason: while the Gishiwajinden—the Japanese section of the Wei Chronicles—describes the trip from the continent all the way to Yamatai, the locations beyond Na are largely conjecture.  Did ancient travelers continue from Na along the Japan Sea coast up to Izumo and then travel down somewhere between Izumo and Tsuruga to the Nara Basin?  Or did they travel the Inland Sea Route, with its calmer waters but greater susceptibility to pirates that could hide amongst the various islands and coves?  Or was Yamatai on the island of Kyushu, and perhaps the name just happens to sound similar to the Yamato of Nara?  Unfortunately, the Wei Chronicles have more than a few problems with accuracy, including problems with directions, meaning that at most we have some confidence in the locations out to “Na”, but beyond that it gets more complicated.  And even “Na” has some questions, but we'll get to that later. Unlike the other points on our journey, we didn't stay overnight at “Ito-koku”, , and we only briefly stayed at Na—modern Fukuoka, but I'll still try to give an account of what was going on in both places, and drawing on some past visits to the area to fill in the gaps for you.   Both the Na and Ito sites are believed to be in the modern Fukuoka prefecture, in Itoshima and Fukuoka cities.  Fukuoka prefecture itself actually spans all the way up to the Shimonoseki straits and includes the old territory of Tsukushi—Chikuzen and Chikugo—as well as the westernmost part of Buzen, the “closer” part of the old land of “Toyo” on the Seto Inland Sea side of Kyushu.  When it comes to locating the country of Ito-koku, we have lots of clues from current place names.  The modern Itoshima peninsula, which, in old records, was known as the country of Ito, and was later divided into the districts of Ito and Shima.  Shima district, at the end of the peninsula, may have once been an island—or nearly so.  It is thought that there was a waterway between the two areas, stretching from Funakoshi bay in the south to Imazu Bay, in the north, in Fukuoka proper.  Over time this area was filled in with deposits from the local rivers, making it perfect for the Yayoi style wet rice paddy agriculture that was the hallmark of the growth in that period.  And indeed there are certainly plenty of Yayoi and Kofun era ruins in the area, especially in eastern reaches of the modern city of Itoshima, which reside in the valley that backs up to Mt. Raizan.  There you can find the Ito-koku History Museum, which tells much of the story of Ito. The Weizhi, or the Wei Chronicles, note that Ito-koku had roughly a thousand households, with various officials under their own Queen, making it one of the few Wa countries that the Chroniclers specifically noted as being a “kingdom”, though still under the nominal hegemony of the queen of Yamatai or Yamateg.  If you continue eastward along the coast from Itoshima, you next hit Nishi-ku, the Western Ward, of modern Fukuoka city, which now continues to sprawl around Hakata Bay.  Nishi-ku itself used to also be known as “Ito”, though spelled slightly differently, and you can still find Ito Shrine in the area. So was this part of Ito-koku also? It's very possible.   Na-koku, or the country of Na, was probably on the eastern edge of modern Fukuoka, perhaps around the area known as Hakata down to modern Kasuga.  Much like in Karatsu, this area features some of the earliest rice fields ever found in Japan – in this case, in the Itazuke neighborhood, just south of Fukuoka airport.  The land here is mostly flat, alluvial plains, formed by the rivers that empty out into Hakata Bay, another great area for early rice agriculture. Locating the country of Na is interesting for several reasons.  For one, unlike all of the other Wei Chronicles sites we've mentioned, there is no clear surviving placename that obviously matches up between “Na” and the local area.  It is a short enough name that it may simply be difficult to distinguish which “Na” is meant, though there is a “Naka” district in Kasuga that may show some promise.  There certainly is evidence for a sizeable settlement, but that's much more tenuous than the placenames for other areas, which remained largely in use in some form up to the modern day, it would seem. The name “Na” shows up in more than just the Weizhi, and it is also mentiond in the Houhan-shu, or the Record of the Later Han, a work compiled later than the Weizhi, but using older records from the Late Han dynasty period.  There it is asserted that the country of Na was one of the 99 some-odd countries of Wa, and they sent an embassy to the Later Han court, where they received a gold seal made out to the “King of Na of Wa”.  We talked about this in Episode 10: The Islands of the Immortals: That seal, made of gold, was seemingly found in the Edo period—1784, to be precise.  A farmer claimed to have found it on Shika island, in Hakata Bay, which is quite prominent, and connected to the mainland with a periodically-submerged causeway.  The description of the find—in a box made up of stones, with a large stone on top that required at least two men to move it—seems like it could have been an old burial of some kind.  The island certainly makes sense as an elite burial site, overlooking Hakata Bay, which was likely an important feature of the lifeways of the community.  While there have been questions about the authenticity of the seal, if it is a forgery, it is quite well done.  It looks similar to other Han era seals, and we don't really have a way to date the gold it is made of.  Without the actual context we can't be quite sure. This certainly seems like pretty strong evidence of the country of Na in this area, somewhere – probably not on the island itself, then close by.So unless something else comes along, I think we can say that this is at least the vicinity of the old country of Na.  Okay, so now that we've talked in general about where these two places were, let's go back and look at them in more detail. The Ito-koku site is just up the coast from where we stayed for Matsuro-koku, in Karatsu, which all makes sense from the position of the Chronicles in that it says the early envoys traveled overland from one place to the other.  Of course it also says they traveled southeast, which is not correct as the route is actually northeast.  However, they had traveled southeast from the Korean peninsula to Tsushima and then Iki and Matsuro, so that direction was well established, and this is an easy enough error that could have been made by the actual envoys or by later scribes, as it would be a one character difference. For Ito-koku, as with Matsuro-koku, we have no large, reconstructed sites similar to Harunotsuji on Iki or Yoshinogari, further inland in Saga prefecture, where we have an entire, large, so-called “kingly” settlement.  There is evidence of settlements, though, both near the major burial sites as well as around the peninsula.  And as for those burial sites, well, Ito has a few, and they aren't merely important because of their size.  Size is often an indication of the amount of labor that a leader must have been able to mobilize, and so it can be used to get a general sense of the power that a given leader or system was able to wield, as they could presumably turn that labor to other users as well. However, it is also important to look at other factors, like burial goods. What kind of elite material was the community giving up and placing with the deceased? That is the case with the first site we'll discuss, the Hirabaru burial mound.  At first glance it isn't much—a relatively unassuming square mound, about 12 by 14 meters, and less than 2 meters in height.  It was discovered in 1965 by a farmer who started digging a trench to plant an orchard and started pulling up broken pieces of a bronze mirror, one of the first clues that this was someone important.  They later found various post holes around the site, suggesting that it was more than just an earthen mound, and as they excavated the site they found pottery, beads, mirrors, and more. Let's start with those post-holes.  It looks like there was at least one large pillar set up due east of the burial.  We don't know how tall it was, but it was likely of some height given the size of the pillar hole—I've seen some estimates that it could have been up to 70 meters tall.  A tall pole would have provided visibility, and it may also be significant that it was east, in the direction of the rising sun.  We know that the ancient Wa had a particular connection with the sun, and this may be further evidence of that.  There are other holes that may be a gate, and possible a storehouse nearby, presumably for various ritual items, etc.  Suddenly, even without knowing exactly what was there, we start to see a picture of a large, manmade complex that seems to be centered on this burial and whomever is there. On top of that, there was a mirror in the tomb that was larger than any other ever found in Japan at that time—certainly the largest round mirror of that period.  It is not one of the triangular rimmed mirrors that Yamato is known for, but may have been part of another large cache brought over from the mainland.  About 40 mirrors in total, many of them very large, were found buried in the tomb, some of which appear to have been broken for some reason.  Furthermore, the large mirrors appear to fit within the dimensions given the Great Mirror—the Yata no kagami—housed at the sacred Ise Shrine.  There is a document in 804, the “Koutai Jingu Gishiki Chou”, detailing the rituals of Ise shrine, which describes the sacred mirror sitting in a box with an inner diameter of 1 shaku, 6 sun, and 3 bu, or approximately 49.4 centimeters, at least using modern conversions.  The same measurements are given in the 10th century Engi Shiki.  So we can assume that the mirror in Ise, which nobody is allowed to actually see, let alone measure, is smaller than that, but not by much, as the box would have been made to fit the mirror, specifically.  It isn't like you can just grab a box from Mirror Depot.  The mirrors found at Hirabaru Mound measure 46.5 centimeters, and have a floral pattern with an eight petaled flower on the back.  Could this mirror be from the same mold or the same cache, at least, as the sacred mirror at Ise?  At the very least, they would seem to be of comparable value.   In addition, there were many beads, jars, etc.  Noticeably absent from the burial were swords and weapons.  Based on this, some have argued that this was the burial of a queen of Ito-koku.  There is evidence that this may be the case, but I don't think the presence of weapons, or the lack thereof, is necessarily a good indicator. After all, we see in the old stories that women were also found wielding swords and leading troops into battle. So it's dangerous to make assumptions about gender based on this aspect alone. I wonder if the Hirabaru tomb assemblage might have more to do with something else we see in Yamato and which was likely applicable elsewhere in the archipelago: a system of co-rulership, where one role might have to do more with administrative and/or ritual practice, regardless of gender. This burial assemblage or mirrors and other non-weapons might reflect this kind of position. The Weizhi often mentions “secondary” or “assistant” positions, which may have truly been subordinate to a primary ruler, or could have just been misunderstood by the Wei envoys, who saw everything through their particular cultural stratification.  In a similar fashion, early European explorers would often name people “king”—from the daimyo of Sengoku era Japan to Wahunsenacawh, known popularly as “Powhatan” for the name of his people, on what would become known as North America.  That isn't to say that these weren't powerful individuals, but the term “king” comes with a lot of Eurocentric assumptions and ideas about power, stratification, etc.  Is there any reason to believe that the Wei envoys and later chroniclers were necessarily better at describing other cultures? And of course we don't have any physical remains of the actual individual buried there, either. However, there is a good reason to suggest that this may have been a female ruler, and that *is* because of something in the Weizhi, which specifically says that the people of Ito lived under the rule of a female king, aka a queen, using a description not unlike what is used for Queen Himiko.  In fact, Ito gets some special treatment in the record, even though it isn't the largest of the countries.  Let's look at those numbers first: Tsushima is said to have 1,000 households, while Iki is more like 3,000.  Matsuro is then counted at 4,000 families, but Ito is only said to have 1,000, similar to Tsushima.  Just over the mountains and along the Bay, the country of Na is then counted at a whopping 20,000 households, so 20 times as many.  These numbers are probably not entirely accurate, but do give an impression of scale, at least. But what distinguishes Ito-koku in this is that we are told that it had a special place for envoys from the Korean peninsula to rest when they came.  It makes you wonder about this little place called Ito. Hirabaru is not the only kingly tomb in the area.  Walk about 20 to 30 minutes further into the valley, and you might just find a couple of other burials—in particular Mikumo-Minami Shouji, discovered in 1822, and Iwara-Yarimizo, which includes artifacts discovered in the 1780s in the area between Mikumo and Iwara as they were digging a trench.  Based on evidence and descriptions, we know that they pulled out more bronze mirrors and other elite goods indicative of the late Yayoi paramounts. In these areas they have also found a number of post holes suggesting other buildings—enough to perhaps have a relatively large settlement. As noted earlier, we do not have a reconstructed village like in Harunotsuji or Yoshinogari, given that these are private fields, so the shape of the ancient landscape isn't as immediately impressive to people looking at the area, today.  The apparent dwellings are largely found in the triangle created between two rivers, which would have been the water source for local rice paddies.  The tombs and burials are found mostly on the outskirts, with the exception of the kingly burial of Mikumo-Minami Shouji.  This is also interesting when you consider that the later Hirabaru mound was situated some distance away, raising a bunch of questions that we frankly do not have answers for. The area of these ruins is not small.  It covers roughly 40.5 hectares, one of the largest Yayoi settlements so far discovered.  Of course, traces of other large settlements—like something in the Fukuoka area or back in Yamato—may have been destroyed by later construction, particularly in heavily developed areas.  This is interesting, though, when you consider that the Weizhi only claimed some 1,000 households. There are also other graves, such as various dolmens, across Ito and Shima, similar to those found on the peninsula, and plenty of other burials across both ancient districts.  And as the Yayoi culture shifted, influence of Yamato can be seen.  While Ito-koku clearly had their own burial practices, which were similar to, but not exactly like, those in the rest of the archipelago, we can see them start to adopt the keyhole style tomb mounds popular in Yamato. During the kofun period, the area of Itoshima built at least 60 identified keyhole shaped tombs, with a remarkable number of them from the early kofun period.  Among these is Ikisan-Choushizuka Kofun, a large, round keyhole tomb mound with a vertical stone pit burial, estimated to have been built in the latter half of the 4th century.  At 103 meters in length, it is the largest round keyhole tomb on the Genkai coast—that is to say the northwest coast of Kyushu. All of these very Yamato-style tombs would appear to indicate a particular connection between Ito and  Yamato—though what, exactly, that looked like is still up for debate.  According to the various early Chronicles, of course, this would be explained because, from an early period, Yamato is said to have expanded their state to Kyushu and then even on to the Korean peninsula.  In particular, the Chronicles talk about “Tsukushi”, which is both used as shorthand for the entirety of Kyushu, while also indicating the area largely encompassing modern Fukuoka prefecture.  On the other hand, this may have been a sign of Ito demonstrating its own independence and its own prestige by emulating Yamato and showing that they, too, could build these large keyhole tombs.  After all, the round keyhole shape is generally thought to have been reserved, in Yamato, for members of the royal family, and Ito-koku may have been using it similarly for their own royal leaders.  It may even be something in between—Ito-koku may have recognized Yamato's influence and leadership, but more in the breach than in actuality.  Afterall, until the standup of things like the various Miyake and the Dazai, we aren't aware of a direct outpost of the Yamato government on Kyushu.  The Miyake, you may recall, were the ”royal granaries”, which were basically administrative regions overseeing rice land that was directly controlled by Yamato, while the Dazai was the Yamato government outpost in Kyushu for handling continental affairs.  On top of a lack of local control in the early Kofun, the Weizhi appears to suggest that the Yamato paramount, Himiko, was the “Queen of the Wa” only through the consensus of other polities, but clearly there were other countries in the archipelago that did not subscribe to her blog, as it were, as they were in open conflict with Yamato.  This all leads into something we've talked about in the main podcast at various times, but it still bears discussing:  How did Yamato, over in the Nara Basin, become the center of political life in the Japanese archipelago, and why not somewhere in Kyushu, like ancient Na or Ito?  While we don't entirely know, it is worth examining what we do and some of the factors that may have been in play.  After all, Kyushu was the closest point of the main Japanese islands to the mainland, and we see that the Yayoi culture gets its start there.  From there, Yayoi culture spread to the east, and if we were to apply similar assumptions as we do on the spread of the keyhole shaped kofun, we would assume that the culture-givers in the west would have held some level of prestige as groups came to them to learn about this new technology, so why wasn't the capital somewhere in Kyushu?  We likewise see other such things—Yayoi pottery styles, fired in kilns, rather than open fired pottery; or even bronze items brought over from the continent.  In almost every instance, we see it first in Kyushu, and then it diffuses eastward up to the edge of Tohoku.  This pattern seems to hold early on, and it makes sense, as most of this was coming over from the continent. Let's not forget, though, that the Yayoi period wasn't simply a century: by our most conservative estimates it was approximately 600 years—for reference, that would be roughly equivalent to the period from the Mongol invasions up to the end of the Edo period, and twice as long as the period from Mimaki Iribiko to the Naka-no-Oe in 645, assuming that Mimaki Iribiko was ruling in the 3rd century.  So think about all that has happened in that time period, mostly focused on a single polity, and then double it.  More recent data suggests that the Yayoi period may have been more like an 1100 to 1300 year range, from the earliest start of rice cultivation.  That's a long time, and enough time for things in the archipelago to settle and for new patterns of influence to form.  And while Kyushu may have been the first region to acquire the new rice growing technology, it was other areas around the archipelago that would begin to truly capitalize on it. We are told that by the time the Wei envoys arrived that the state of Yamato, which we have no reason not to believe was in the Nara Basin, with a focus on the area of modern Sakurai, had approximately 70,000 households.  That is huge.  It was larger than Na, Ito, and Matsuro, combined, and only rivaled in the Weizhi by Touma-koku, which likely referred to either the area of Izumo, on the Japan Sea coast, or to the area of Kibi, along the Seto Inland Sea, both of which we know were also large polities with significant impact in the chronicles.  And here there is something to consider about the Yayoi style agriculture—the land determined the ultimate yield.  Areas with more hills and mountains are not as suited to wet rice paddy agriculture.  Meanwhile, a flat basin, like that in Yamato, which also has numerous rivers and streams draining from the surrounding mountains into the basin and then out again, provided the possibility for a tremendous population, though no doubt it took time to build. During that time, we definitely see evidence of the power and influence of places like Na and Ito.  Na sent an embassy to the Han court—an incredible journey, and an indication of not only their interest in the Han court and continental trade, but also their ability to gather the resources necessary for such a journey, which likely required some amount of assistance from other, nearby polities.  Na must have had some sway back then, we would assume. Meanwhile, the burial at Ito shows that they were also quite wealthy, with clear ties to the continent given their access to large bronze mirrors.  In the absence of other data, the number and size of bronze mirrors, or similar bronze items, likely only useful for ritual purposes, indicates wealth and status, and they had some of the largest mirrors as well as the largest collection found for that period.  Even into the stories in the Nihon Shoki and the Kojiki we see how mirrors, swords, and jewels all are used a symbols of kingship.  Elite status was apparently tied to material items, specifically to elite trade goods.  Assuming Yamato was able to grow its population as much as is indicated in the Weizhi, then by the 3rd century, they likely had the resources to really impress other groups.  Besides things like mirrors, we can probably assume that acquisition of other goods was likewise important.  Both Ito and Yamato show evidence of pottery shards from across the archipelago, indicating extensive trade networks.  But without any other differentiating factors, it is likely that Yamato, by the 3rd century, at least, was a real powerhouse.  They had a greater production capacity than the other states listed in the Weizhi, going just off of the recorded human capital. And this may answer a question that has been nagging me for some time, and perhaps others:  Why did other states acquiesce to Yamato rule?  And the answer I keep coming back to is that it was probably a combination of wealth, power, prestige, ritual, and time. For one thing, wealth: Yamato had it.  That meant they could also give it.  So, if Yamato was your friend, you got the goods, and you had access to what you need.  You supported them, they could help you with what you needed.  These transactional alliances are not at all uncommon, and something I think most of us can understand. There is also power—specifically military power.  With so many people, Yamato would likely have been a formidable threat should they decide that violence was the answer.  That said, while we read of military campaigns, and no doubt they did go out and fight and raid with the best of them, it's expensive to do so.  Especially exerting control over areas too far out would have been problematic, especially before writing AND horses.  That would be costly, and a drain on Yamato's coffers.  So while I do suspect that various military expeditions took place, it seems unlikely that Yamato merely bested everyone in combat.  Military success only takes you so far without constant maintenance. And so here is where I think prestige and ritual come into play.  We've talked about how Yamato did not exactly “rule” the archipelago—their direct influence was likely confined to the Kinki region for the longest period of time.  And yet we see that they influenced people out on the fringes of the Wa cultural sphere: when they started building large, keyhole shaped kofun for their leaders, and burying elites only one to a giant mound, the other areas of Japan appear to have joined in.  Perhaps Yamato was not the first to build a kofun for a single person, but they certainly were known for the particular shape that was then copied by so many others.  But why? We don't know for certain, but remember that in Yamato—and likely the rest of the Wa cultural sphere—a large part of governance was focused on ritual.  The natural and what we would consider the supernatural—the visible and invisible—worked hand in hand.  To have a good harvest, it required that workers plant, water, harvest, etc. in the right seasons and in the right way.  Likewise, it was considered equally important to have someone to intercede with the kami—to ensure that the rains come at the right time, but not too much, and a host of other natural disasters that could affect the crop. And if you want to evaluate how well ritual works, well, look at them.   Are you going to trust the rituals of someone whose crops always fail and who barely has a single bronze mirror?  Or are you going to trust the rituals of someone with a thriving population, multiple mirrors, and more?  Today, we might refer to this as something like the prosperity gospel, where wealth, good health, and fortune are all seen as stemming from how well one practices their faith, and who's to say that back in the day it wasn't the same?  Humans are going to human, after all. So it makes sense that one would give some deference to a powerhouse like Yamato and even invite their ritualists to come and help teach you how it is done.  After all, the local elites were still the ones calling the shots.  Nothing had really changed. And here is where time comes in.  Because over time what started as an alliance of convenience became entrenched in tradition.  Yamato's status as primus inter pares, or first among equals, became simply one of primus.  It became part of the unspoken social contract.  Yamato couldn't push too hard on this relationship, at least not all at once, but over time they could and did demand more and more from other states. I suspect, from the way the Weizhi reads, that Yamato was in the early stages of this state development.  The Weizhi makes Queen Himiko feel like something of a consensus candidate—after much bickering, and outright fighting, she was generally accepted as the nominal paramount.  There is mention of a male ruler, previously, but we don't know if they were a ruler in Yamato, or somewhere else, nor if it was a local elite or an earlier paramount.  But not everyone in the archipelago was on board—Yamato did have rivals, somewhere to the south (or north?); the directions in the Weizhi are definitely problematic, and it may refer to someone like the Kuma or Kumaso people in southern Kyushu or else people that would become known as the Emishi further to the east of Yamato. This lasted as long as Yamato was able to continue to demonstrate why they were at the top of this structure.  Theoretically, anyone else could climb up there as well, and there are certainly a few other powerful states that we can identify, some by their mention and some by their almost lack of mention.  Izumo and Kibi come to mind almost immediately. The Weizhi makes it clear that Himiko's rule was not absolute, and part of her reaching out to the Wei in the first place may have been the first attempt at something new—external validation by the continent.  A large part of international diplomacy is as much about making people believe you have the power to do something as actually having that power.  Getting recognition from someone like the Wei court would further legitimize Yamato's place at the top of the heap, making things easier for them in the long run. Unfortunately, it seems like things did not go so smoothly, and after Himiko's death, someone else came to power, but was quickly deposed before a younger queen took over—the 13 year old Toyo.  Of course, the Wei and then the Jin had their own problems, so we don't get too many details after that, and from there we lose the thread on what was happening from a contemporary perspective.  Instead, we have to rely on the stories in the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki, which are several hundred years after the fact, and clearly designed as a legitimizing narrative, but still present us something of a picture.  We don't see many stories of local elites being overthrown, though there do seem to be a fair number of military campaigns.  Nonetheless, even if they were propped up by Yamato, local elites likely had a lot of autonomy, at least early on, even as they were coopted into the larger Yamato umbrella.  Yamato itself also saw ups and downs as it tried to figure out how to create a stable succession plan from one ruler to the next.  At some point they set up a court, where individuals from across the archipelago came and served, and they created alliances with Baekje, on the peninsula, as well as with another polity which we know of as Nimna.  Through them, Yamato continued to engage with the continent when the dynastic struggles there allowed for it.  The alliance with Baekje likely provided even more legitimacy for Yamato's position in the archipelago, as well as access to continental goods. Meanwhile the court system Yamato set up provided a means for Yamato to, itself, become a legitimizing factor. Hierarchical differences in society were already visible in the Yayoi period, so we can generally assume that the idea of social rank was not a new concept for Yamato or the other Wa polities.  This is eventually codified into the kabane system, but it is probably likely that many of the kabane came about, originally, as titles of rank used within the various polities.  Yamato's ability to claim to give—or even take away—that kabane title, would have been a new lever of power for Yamato.  Theoretically, other polities could just ignore them and keep going on with their daily lives, but if they had already bought into the social structure and worldview that Yamato was promoting, then they likely would have acquiesced, at least in part, to Yamato's control. Little by little, Yamato's influence grew, particularly on those closer to the center.  Those closer, and more affected, started to listen to Yamato's rules about kofun size and shape, while those further on the fringes started to adopt Yamato's traditions for themselves, while perhaps maintaining greater independence. An early outlier is the Dazai.  It is unclear whether this was forcibly imposed on the old region of Na and nearby Ito, or if it was more diplomatically established.  In the end, though, Yamato established an outpost in the region early on, almost before they started their practice of setting up “miyake”, the various royal granaries that appear to have also become local Yamato government offices in the various lands.  The Dazai was more than just a conduit to accept taxes in the form of rice from various locals—it was also in charge of missions to the continent.  Whether they were coming or going, military or diplomatic, the Dazai was expected to remain prepared.  The early iterations were likely in slightly different locations, and perhaps not as large, but still in roughly the area near modern Fukuoka and Dazai.  This was a perfect place not only from which to prepare to launch or receive missions from the continent, but also to defend the nearby Shimonoseki straits, which was an important entryway into the Seto Inland Sea, the most direct route to Naniwa and the Yamato court. The first iterations of direct Yamato control in Tsukushi—modern Fukuoka—claim to have been focused largely on being a last point to supply troops heading over to fight on the peninsula, not unlike the role of Nagoya castle on the Higashi-Matsuura peninsula in the 16th century.  Over time, though, it grew into much more.  The Weizhi, for its part mentions something in the land of Ito, where there were rooms set up for envoys from the continent, but the Dazai was this on steroids. Occasionally we see evidence of pushback against Yamato's expansion of powers.  Early on, some states tried to fool the envoys into thinking that they were Yamato, perhaps attempting to garner the trade goods for themselves and to take Yamato's place as the interlocutor between the Wa polities and the continent.  We also see outright rebellions—from Iwai in Kyushu, in the 6th century, but also from various Emishi leaders as well.  The Iwai rebellion may have been part of the impetus for setting up the Dazai as a way to remotely govern Tsukushi—or at least help keep people in line.  For the most part, though, as time goes by, it would seem that Yamato's authority over other polities just became tradition, and each new thing that Yamato introduced appears to have been accepted by the various other polities, over time.  This is likely a much more intricate process than even I'm describing here, but I'm not sure that it was necessarily a conscious one; as the concept of Yamato as the “paramount” state grew, others ceded it more and more power, which only fed Yamato's self-image as the paramount state.  As the elites came under the Yamato court and rank system, they were more closely tied to it, and so Yamato's increased power was, in a way, passed on to them as well.  At least to those who bought in. By the 5th century, we know that there were families sending people to the court from as far away as Hi no Kuni in Kyushu—near modern Kumamoto—and Musashi no Kuni in the east—including modern Saitama.  All of that said, while they may have subordinated themselves to Yamato in some ways, the various polities still maintained some independent actions and traditions.  For example, whatever their connection to Yamato, the tombs at Itoshima also demonstrate a close connection to the peninsula.  The horizontal entry chamber style of tomb—something we saw a lot in Iki, and which seems to have been introduced from the continent—started to become popular in the latter half of the 4th century, at least in the west of the archipelago. This is well before we see anything like it in Yamato or elsewhere, though it was eventually used across the archipelago.  Itoshima appears to have been an early adopter of this tomb style, picking it up even before the rest of the archipelago caught on, making them the OG horizontal chambers, at least in Japan. Ultimately, the image we have of Ito-koku is of an apparently small but relatively influential state with some influence on the cross-strait trade, with close ties to Yamato. The history of the region seems a bit murky past the Kofun period.  There are earthworks of an old mountain castle on Mt. Raizan that could be from the Asuka period, and in the 8th century the government built Ito castle on the slopes of Mt. Takaso, possibly to provide some protection to the Dazaifu, which was the Yamato outpost in Kyushu, and eventually became the main administrative center for the island.  It seems, then, that whatever power the country of Ito may have once had, it was subsumed by the Dazai, which was built a little inland, east of the old Na territory.  Furthermore, as ships grew more seaworthy over time, they could make the longer voyages straight to Iki or Tsushima from Hakata.  For the most part, the area of the Itoshima peninsula seems to have been merely a set of districts in the larger Tsukushi and then the Chikuzen provinces.  The area of Na, meanwhile, which is said to have had 20,000 households in the 3rd century—much larger than nearby Ito—was completely eclipsed by the Dazaifu after the Iwai rebellion.  After the fall of Baekje, the Dazaifu took on even greater administrative duties, and eventually took over all diplomatic engagement with the continent.  They even set up a facility for hosting diplomatic envoys from the continent.  This would come to be known as the Kourokan, and they actually found the ruins of it near the site where Maizuru castle was eventually built in what is now Chuo-ku, or the central ward, of Fukuoka city. From the Heian period onwards, the Harada family eventually came to have some power in the area, largely subordinate to others, but they built another castle on Mt. Takaso, using some of the old Ito Castle earthworks, and participated in the defense of the nation during the Mongol invasions. The Harada family rose briefly towards the end of the Sengoku Period, pushing out the Otomo as Hideyoshi's campaign swept into Kyushu.  They weren't quite fast enough to join Hideyoshi's side, though, and became subordinate to Kato Kiyomasa and eventually met their end during the Invasions of Korea. The Ito district at some point after that became part of the So clan's holdings, falling under Tsushima's purview, along with a scattering of districts elsewhere, all likely more about the revenue produced than local governance.  In the Edo period, there were some efforts to reclaim land in Imazu bay, further solidifying links with the Itoshima peninsula and the mainland, but that also fits in with the largely agricultural lifestyle of the people in the region.  It seems to have remained largely a rural backwater up into modern times, when the Ito and Shima districts were combined into an administrative district known as “Itoshima city”. Meanwhile, the Dazaifu continued to dominate the region of modern Fukuoka.  Early on, worried about a Silla-Tang alliance, the Yamato state built massive forts and earthworks were built around the Dazaifu to protect the region from invasion.  As the Tang dynasty gave way to the Song and Yuan dynasties, however, and the Heian court itself became more insular, the Dazaifu's role faded, somewhat.  The buildings were burned down in the 10th century, during the failed revolt of Fujiwara no Sumitomo.  The government never rebuilt, and instead the center of regional government shifted to Hakata, closer to the bay. Appointed officials to the Dazai were known as the Daini and the Shoni.  Mutou Sukeyori was appointed as Dazai Shoni, the vice minister of the Dazaifu, in the late 12th century.  Though he had supported the Taira in the Genpei wars, he was pardoned and made the guardian of Northern Kyushu, to help keep the region in check for the newly established Kamakura Bakufu.  He would effectively turn that into a hereditary position, and his family became known as the “Shoni”, with their position eventually coming to be their family name.  They would provide commendable service against the Mongol invasion, and eventually became the Shugo Daimyo over much of western Kyushu and the associated islands, though not without pushback from others in the region. Over time, the power of the Shoni waned and various other daimyo began to rise up.  The chaos of the Sengoku period saw the entire area change hands, back and forth, until Hideyoshi's invasion of Kyushu.  Hideyoshi divided up control of Kyushu, and Chikuzen, including the areas of Hakata and modern Itoshima, was given to Kobayakawa Takakage.  Hideyoshi also began to redevelop the port of Hakata.  After the battle of Sekigahara, Kobayakawa Hideaki, Takakage's adopted son and nephew to the late Hideyoshi, was transferred to the fief of Okayama, and the area of modern Fukuoka city was given to Kuroda Nagamasa, creating the Fukuoka Han, also known as the Kuroda Han. Nagamasa would go on to build Maizuru Castle on the other side of the Naka river from the port of Hakata, creating two towns with separate administration, each of which fell under the ultimate authority of the Kuroda.  Hakata, on the east side of the river, was a city of merchants while Fukuoka was the castle town, and largely the domain of samurai serving the Kuroda.  The Kuroda would remain in control of the Fukuoka domain through the Edo period, and only lost control at the very start of the Meiji, as the domain system in general was dissolved. Over that time, Hakata remained an important port city, and the samurai of Fukuoka were known for maintaining their martial traditions. In the Meiji era, samurai from the Kuroda Han joined with other Kyushu samurai, rising up during Saigo Takamori's rebellion.  Later, it would be former samurai and others from Fukuoka who would form the Gen'yosha, an early right wing, nationalist organization that would greatly influence the Japanese government heading into the latter part of the 19th and early 20th century. But that is getting well into more modern territory, and there is so much else we could discuss regarding the history of this area, and with any luck we will get to it all in time.  For now, this concludes our Gishiwajinden Tour—we traveled from Kara, to Tsushima and Iki, and then on to Matsuro, Ito, and Na.  From here the envoys traveled on to Fumi, Toma, and then Yamato.  Fumi and Toma are still elusive locations, with various theories and interpretations as to where they were.   For us, this was the end of our journey. Next episode we will be back with the Chronicles and getting into the Taika era, the era of Great Change.  There we will really see Yamato starting to flex its administrative muscles as it brings the various polities of the archipelago together into a single state, which will eventually become known as the country of Nihon, aka Japan. Until then, thank you for listening.  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 reach out to us at our Sengoku Daimyo Facebook page.  You can also email us at the.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.  Thank you, also, to Ellen for their work editing the podcast. And that's all for now.  Thank you again, and I'll see you next episode on Sengoku Daimyo's Chronicles of Japan.

Episodio especial en el que vamos a completar una Tier List donde Alex ha escogido veinte juegos a los que aun no ha jugado y los vamos a organizar en orden de prioridad en el que debería jugarlos. Ahí os va el listado de juegos: (0:12:32) A Study in Emerald (0:24:10) Biosphere (0:32:06) Bora Bora (0:42:57) Carson City (0:50:53) Decrypto (1:01:30) Innovation (1:08:00) Le Havre (1:13:56) Macao (1:20:21) Mage Knight (1:23:20) Memoir '44 (1:27:00) Nations (1:30:34) Polis (1:35:38) Los Principes de Florencia (1:40:31) Rokoko (1:44:27) Sekigahara (1:50:13) Solarius Mission (1:55:12) The Cousin's War (1:55:53) Through the Ages (1:58:18) Twilight Struggle (2:05:42) Valley of the Kings

Hace una década que nuestro alma máter lleva diciéndole al Inquisidor que había que dedicar un audio a Shogun, la magnífica serie de TV de Jerry London de 1980 basada en el best seller homónimo de James Clavell (1975). Como en LBP nos tomamos las cosas muy a pecho -aunque evidentemente, también con mucha calma-, al fin nos hemos puesto manos a la obra, justo a punto de estrenarse la nueva versión por cierto, y para la ocasión hemos reunido una mesa de excepción, encabezada por nuestro experto en el país del sol naciente, el samurái Rubén Ibarzabal en carne y hueso. Junto con él, Bikendi Goiko-uria, Pello Larrinaga, Aritza Alzibar y Mikel Carramiñana. Un quinteto inédito en la Biblioteca para seguir las andanzas del piloto Blackthorne arribando al Japón de 1600, en vísperas de la batalla de Sekigahara que llevaría al shogunato a Toranaga. Se trata de una novela y una serie con no pocas licencias y estereotipos, pero basada en hechos y personajes reales, pero que además nos permite acercarnos de un modo extraordinario al Japón de la época. Por lo extenso de la primera sección no habrá segundo plato en el menú de hoy, pero sí que os ofreceremos un contenido de anteriores temporadas. Se trata de una vieja entrega de los Enemigos de Roma que tendrán a una mujer, Teuta de Iliria, como protagonista. Una reina que osó enfrentarse a la todavía República romana con una flota de piratas que resultaron todo un quebradero de cabeza para la incipiente potencia del Mediterráneo. Escucha el episodio completo en la app de iVoox, o descubre todo el catálogo de iVoox Originals

It's no secret that Takehiko Inoue is one of the undisputed masters of the manga art form, so it's about time we gave one of his works the Mangaroos treatment. Vagabond is an epic historical action manga, with some of the most gorgeous art to ever grace a page. It is violent and passionate and breathtaking. We discuss whether sexy cougar Okou is, in fact, TOO sexy. We ponder how it might feel if your kid's good for nothing friend took him to Sekigahara and whether you might sic a posse on him in response, and plot his demise. Also, is basketball the modern day equivalency of samurai battles? Listen in and find out!Get in touch with us!Email: mangaroospodcast@gmail.comEverywhere else: @mangaroos

Thời Chiến Quốc là một thời đại loạn lạc bậc nhất trong lịch sử Nhật Bản. Các daimyo (đại danh - hay như ta thường gọi là lãnh chúa cho quen thuộc) nổi lên cát cứ khắp nơi để thâu tóm quyền lực. Quyền lực của Mạc phủ Ashikaga và Thiên hoàng xuống thấp đến mức không ai coi trọng, hữu danh vô thực. Suốt hơn một thế kỷ dài đằng đẵng, các lãnh chúa gây chiến, triệt hạ, thâu tóm lẫn nhau để mong thâu tóm cả thiên hạ trong tay. Thế cục biến đổi theo nhiều cách không ai có thể đoán định được. Trong số hằng hà sa số cái tên xuất hiện trong thời đại này, nổi bật nhất vẫn là ba cái tên: Oda Nobunaga, Hashiba Hideyoshi (sau này là Toyotomi Hideyoshi) và Tokugawa Ieyasu. Câu chuyện về cách ba người họ kết thúc thời Chiến Quốc chắc khá nhiều người đã biết rồi: Nobunaga quét sạch thiên hạ, Hideyoshi tiếp bước công việc ấy và cuối cùng Ieyasu hoàn thành nó. Đó là nói một cách vắn tắt, còn thực sự chuyện chẳng hề đơn giản hay "hòa bình" như thế. Thiên hạ về tay Tokugawa, phải trải qua bao biến cố, mà lớn nhất chính là một trận đại chiến được coi là "trận chiến lớn nhất Nhật Bản". Đó là trận đại chiến diễn ra tại cánh đồng Sekigahara tháng 10 năm 1600. Trận đại chiến phân chia thiên hạ, cuộc quyết đấu đẫm máu giữa Toyotomi và Tokugawa. __ Tủ sách hoành tráng của Spiderum: https://shope.ee/2q3x7O0fxv Các đầu sách bạn có thể quan tâm: - Người trong muôn nghề - Định hướng nghề nghiệp toàn diện: https://shope.ee/AURO9YQc3A - Người trong muôn nghề: Ngành IT có gì?: https://shope.ee/9pBhMKT9Oy - Người trong muôn nghề: Ngành Kinh tế có gì? - Tập 1: https://shope.ee/9UYqxiUQ4w - Người trong muôn nghề: Ngành Kinh tế có gì? - Tập 2: https://shope.ee/9KFQlPV3Pv - Người trong muôn nghề: Ngành Sáng tạo - Nghệ thuật có gì?: https://shope.ee/9zV7YdSW47 - Người trong muôn nghề: Ngành Xã hội - Nhân văn có gì?: https://shope.ee/5pfYayiNWK - Mùi mẹ - Món quà dành tặng người phụ nữ yêu thương: https://shope.ee/6AIOzah6qU - DevUP - Phát triển toàn diện sự nghiệp lập trình viên: https://shope.ee/9esHA1Tmjx - Seneca: Những Bức Thư Đạo Đức – Chủ Nghĩa Khắc Kỷ Trong Đời Sống - Tập 1: https://shope.ee/6zrW08ngb2 - Seneca: Những Bức Thư Đạo Đức – Chủ Nghĩa Khắc Kỷ Trong Đời Sống - Tập 2: https://shope.ee/A9oXkwRsj8 - Mở khóa thương mại điện tử Việt Nam: https://shope.ee/5V2iCMjeCI - Doing good better - Làm việc thiện đúng cách: https://shope.ee/6KbpBtgTVV - Động lực nội tại - Làm sao để yêu công việc và đạt đến thành công: https://shope.ee/6UvFOCfqAW - Bước ra thế giới: Cẩm nang du học và săn học bổng: https://shope.ee/5fM8Ofj0rJ - Chuyện người chuyện ngỗng (Vũ Hoàng Long): https://shope.ee/4AXKcUjKAQ __ Hóng các cuộc hội thoại thú vị, nhiều kiến thức bổ ích trên kênh Talk Sâu: https://b.link/talksau Lắng nghe những câu chuyện về thế giới nghề nghiệp cùng podcast Người Trong Muôn Nghề: https://b.link/NTMN-Podcast ______________ Bài viết: Sekigahara - Trận chiến phân chia thiên hạ Được viết bởi: Hải Stark Link bài viết: https://spiderum.com/bai-dang/Sekigah... ______________ Giọng đọc: Nguyễn Lê Minh Thi Editor: Hikari ______________ Bản quyền video: Spiderum Bản quyền nhạc: Youtube Audio Library, Epidemic Sound ______________ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spiderum/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/spiderum/support

KKTV 旺年會｜日劇、動畫最強檔Ｘ各國好劇、綜藝、電影，每月銅板價輕鬆追！買一送一超狂優惠 ➟ https://go.fstry.me/3MMJp0Q —— 以上為 Firstory DAI 動態廣告 —— 小額贊助支持本節目： https://open.firstory.me/user/ck2ymcbpa2cpi0869qq23bkji 留言告訴我你對這一集的想法： https://open.firstory.me/user/ck2ymcbpa2cpi0869qq23bkji/comments 【H&M 365 EP.294】 1600-10-21 關原之戰 一場終結日本戰國時代一切戰爭的戰爭？ 《關原之戰》Sekigahara, 2017 . ➡ 收看YouTube影像：https://youtu.be/FiWkU8678Kw ➡ 收聽PODCAST聲音：https://open.firstory.me/story/cla15aruc004i01u9doth0rdu/platforms .

“All warfare is based on deception.” — Sun Tzu Ever since I started History on Fire, one topic has been the most consistently requested by listeners. Over the years, I received hundreds of messages asking me to cover the life of Miyamoto Musashi. That time has come. Here we go. Musashi has been the subject of one of the greatest bestsellers ever written, a novel by Eiji Yoshikawa that sold over 120 million copies. And yet, the story of his life is mixed with so many myths and legends that it's rather difficult to separate fact from fiction. He lived across the late 1500s and early 1600s, during the waning phases of the Warring States period. By that point, after over 100 years of on and off civil war, Japan was a country suffering with PTSD. Soldiers and civilians alike had all been exposed to insane amounts of bloodshed and brutality during the Sengoku Jidai. Musashi was born in the midst of that, so it's little surprised that his is a tale filled with intensity and violence. In this first of two episodes, I'll dive in to make sense of the contradictory evidence available: from his childhood marred by a terrible relationship with his father to his possible participation in the uber-famous battle of Sekigahara, from his first duel to the death at the age of 13 to his conflicts with the Yoshioka family and with Sasaki Kojiro, and much more! If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content. All the links to History on Fire social media can be found at https://linktr.ee/danielebolelli Including the HOF YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFCiqHbWJO26nFzUP-Eu55Q Substack: https://substack.com/@danielebolelliInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyonfire/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@historyonfirepodcast Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at https://dakotapurebison.com/ History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. Also, thank you to St. John's College for sponsoring this episode. Please, check out https://www.sjc.edu/podcast If you'd like to go to Japan for a historical tour with yours truly as a guide, please check out https://geeknationtours.com/tours/signature-battlefield-series-classic-samurai-from-the-gempei-war-to-the-mongol-invasions-2023/Shoutout to the podcast Echoes of History, a deep dive into history Inspired by Ubisoft's famous video game series Assassin's Creed. Check it out wherever you listen to podcasts.

Dans ce premier chapitre de Soleil Rouge, nous plongeons dans l'histoire de la célèbre Bataille de Sekigahara et du Japon de la Période Edo. Tout commence en 1853 avec le départ du Commodore Matthew C. Perry et sa flotte américaine vers les rives de l'archipel japonais. Ce voyage marque le début d'une ère de bouleversements qui secouera le Japon ancestral jusqu'à ses fondations. Dans ce chapitre inaugural, nous jetterons les bases de la période Edo, évoquant la paix relative et l'isolement séculaire qui ont défini le Japon pendant des siècles. Les scènes épiques de la Bataille de Sekigahara, un moment clé dans l'histoire japonaise, serviront de toile de fond pour comprendre les origines de la Période Edo et les bouleversements qui suivront. #HistoireDuJapon #BatailleDeSekigahara ------------------------------------------------------ Le site d'Odyssia 2.0 pour retrouver tous les podcasts: https://podcast.ausha.co/odyssiapodcast Retrouvez-moi sur les réseaux sociaux : Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Odyssia2.0 Twitter – https://twitter.com/Odyssiapodcast Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/odyssia2.0/ ------------------------------------------------------

After the Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu continued carefully and gradually accumulating his own power and was named Seii-tai-shogun in 1603. This episode also features the adventures of William Adams, the first Englishman to come to Japan.Support the show

Ishida Mitsunari gathered the various factions that composed his Western Army, hoping to face off against Tokugawa Ieyasu in Mikawa Province. Ieyasu had other plans, however, and confronted Mitsunari in Mino Province instead. The battle that ensued was legendary, and the winner would gain control over the entire nation.Support the show

Hear about travel to Hikone and Gifu in Central Japan as the Amateur Traveler talks to Miyuki Seguchi from the Japan Experts Podcast about he home region of Japan where she is a tour guide. Why should you visit Central Japan? Miyuki says, "A lot of travelers from North America or the West when they travel to Japan, they will stay in Japan for two to three weeks, and they usually travel from the eastern part of Japan to the western part of Japan or vice versa, but most of them do not stop off at the central region especially the southern part of Gifu to the eastern part of Shiga. So this part of Japan is simply not as well known as major tourist destinations, but there are a lot of places to visit, and these places are usually less busy and easy to access by public transport. If you want to explore some unique local areas with hidden gems that give you a great idea of authentic local life." The journey begins with a visit to Hikone, a city located in the Chubu region, home to the well-preserved Hikone Castle, one of Japan's five national treasure castles. Visitors can also enjoy a boat ride on the moat surrounding the castle and explore the beautiful gardens. Additionally, Miyuki recommends a boat trip to Chikubu Island on Lake Biwa to experience the coexistence of Shinto and Buddhism. Next, the itinerary takes travelers to Sekigahara, a town known for the historic Battle of Sekigahara which changed Japan's history. Here, they can visit the Battlefield Memorial Museum to learn about the battle. Moving west, the tour arrives in Gifu City, the largest city in Gifu Prefecture. A unique highlight here is the Ukai Cormorant Fishing, a tradition dating back over 1,300 years. This fishing method involves trained cormorant birds catching fish. The fishermen have an honorary position delivering fish to the Japanese imperial family. The Nagaragawa Ukai is famous for preserving this tradition, and visitors can experience it between May and October. There's also the opportunity to visit the Ukai Cormorant Fishing Museum for deeper insights into this cultural practice. Go out at night on a boat to watch this spectacle. For accommodations, staying in a traditional ryokan is recommended, where you can try the high-quality multi-course Japanese meal called kaiseki ryori. Don't miss the chance to visit a hot spring or onsen. The next day, explore the Kawaramachi district, a historic area with traditional merchant houses. The Nagaragawa River, one of Japan's cleanest rivers, has contributed to the development of craft-making, particularly Japanese paper called washi. Climb Mt. Kinka to get a panoramic view of the region, including the Japan Alps and the city of Nagoya. The summit can be reached by cable car or a one-hour hike. In the north of Gifu, you can explore Mino and Seki cities. Seki is renowned for its sword and knife-making tradition, offering the chance to witness skilled craftsmanship. Mino is also famous for its washi paper production, and you can visit the Washinary shop for various washi products. Overall, Gifu Prefecture offers a blend of traditional culture, scenic beauty, and unique experiences. If you travel between Tokyo and Kyoto, you will pass right by. show notes - https://amateurtraveler.com/travel-to-hikone-and-gifu-japan/

«La strada di mille miglia inizia con il primo passo.»La voce dietro al microfono è di Nicola, per quella che potrebbe essere la sua ultima recensione. A chiudere il mio ciclo di consigli letterari vi porto nuovamente un'opera che proviene dal paese del Sol Levante: Musashi. Scritto da Eiji Yoshikawa, apparve per la prima volta a puntante su di un prestigioso giornale nipponico tra il 1935 e il 1939. La prima edizione Superbur della Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli risale al 1994, con la traduzione italiana di Pier Francesco Paolini.Musashi è un romanzo storico che narra le gesta di Miyamoto Musashi, celebre spadaccino noto per l'utilizzo di due spade, nato probabilmente nel 1584 e morto nel 1645. Pur mantenendosi fedele ai fatti storici, Yoshikawa intreccia abilmente dettagli di fantasia, come le imprese ardimentose, le coincidenze fatali, e una grande storia d'amore autenticamente giapponese. Quest'opera non solo ha goduto di molteplici pubblicazioni in volume, ma sono stati tratti ben sette film e svariate opere teatrali.Passiamo ora alle tre ottime ragioni per leggerlo. Per prima cosa, essendo un romanzo storico, la storia narrata restituisce in maniera fedele un pezzo cruciale della storia giapponese. Per i grandi appassionati di storia è dunque una chicca imperdibile. Un secondo punto di forza deriva dal Musashi storico, il quale non era solo un abile spadaccino, ma aveva anche scritto delle opere filosofiche di cui siamo tutt'ora in possesso. Leggere Musashi è dunque un modo per iniziare ad avvicinarsi alla sua filosofia e agli insegnamenti della cosiddetta Via della Spada. La citazione in apertura non era che un assaggio di questi scritti. Infine la parte “romanzata” della storia sarà in grado di catturare tutti i lettori grazie alla varietà degli episodi, degli incontri e delle avventure che vivrà il protagonista.Cosa ci racconta Musashi? Come anticipato il romanzo storico segue la vita di Miyamoto Musashi e lo fa partendo dal dato storico della battaglia di Sekigahara, avvenuta nel 1600. Il giovane Shinmen Takezō, che solo in seguito diventerà Miyamoto Musashi, giace ferito tra i cadaveri di quella terribile battaglia. L'avventura di Takezō non poteva cominciare in modo peggiore: uno sconfitto dalla storia. Grazie all'aiuto dell'amico Matahachi, anche lui scampato alla disastrosa battaglia, Takezō si riprenderà dalle ferite e dalla delusione della sconfitta. Inizia così per i due giovani un lungo viaggio fatto di incontri e di separazioni, di rocambolesche fughe, di storie d'amore e soprattutto di duelli. A cambiare la vita di Takezō sarà specialmente l'incontro con il monaco Takuan, che lo convincerà ad adottare il nome di Miyamoto Musashi e seguire la Via della Spada. Da quel momento in poi Musashi vivrà solo per la Via, con l'obiettivo di diventare il migliore di tutti. Fondamentale per Musashi sarà anche la sua storia d'amore con l'amica d'infanzia Otsū, la quale passerà la vita cercando di ricongiungersi al suo amato, per poi riuscirci prima di uno dei momenti più noti del romanzo: il duello contro Sasaki Kojirō, divenuto ormai l'emblema dei duelli tra samurai.Quello che riesce a fare Yoshikawa è dunque catturare un preciso momento storico e restituircelo nella sua realtà. Quel periodo fu un periodo di transizione estremamente tumultuoso, dove dopo anni di guerre tra i signorotti locali, i cosiddetti daimyō, la nazione venne finalmente unificata sotto il potere del primo shōgun, Tokugawa Ieyasu. La dinastia dei Tokugawa portò al Giappone duecento anni di pace e prosperità, con una profonda e netta divisione delle classi sociali, ma ci vollero tre generazioni per ottenere quel risultato. Negli anni della vicenda di Musashi la situazione era però ancora instabile, e il romanzo mostra bene i fermenti sociali e gli spostamenti avvenuti. Con la pace si giunse alla realizzazione che il potere militare non era più indispensabile, mentre era fondamentale il talento amministrativo. I samurai si trasformarono così in burocrati. Più delle prodezze di guerra contavano disciplina, autocontrollo e istruzione. E così Miyamoto Musashi si fa portavoce di questa transizione, passando da combattente istintivo a uno che anelava l'autodisciplina zen, alla completa padronanza interiore di sé e un senso di comunicazione con la natura circostante. Da semplice samurai a fondatore di una scuola di scherma e filosofo. Insomma In tempo di pace le arti marziali diventano un mezzo per rinvigorire il carattere.

In this episode we come to the Battle of Sekigahara. In addition to the battle itself we explore the aftermath and ramifications for several of the major combatants. patreon.com/user?u=52803321

War has always been a central backdrop or subject of storytelling, but certain events have more impact than others. For American Comics, it's the Western Theater of WWII, but for Manga, it tends to be the Sengoku Jidai, and in particular, the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. Often seen as an almost mythical event, this battle was such a turning point in history that nearly any feudal manga (or even some placed in the modern day) will have elements or events related to this battle. This battle influences viewpoints and stories in ways that sometimes are overlooked or passed by. Join us for an examination of how this event influenced manga storytelling both overtly and in less obvious ways, and how the themes springing from this event have influence over how manga tells stories even today.

The Sengoku Period, or Warring States Era, of Japan began in 1467 with the Onin War. Feudal Japan was characterized by violence between warring states, where kinsmen cut each other down in bids for territorial superiority. Independent warlords among the domains unleashed their samurai and fighting men on each other in anarchic attempts to gain dominance. Rivalries ebbed and flowed. Alliances formed and were shattered. Allegiance among warlords was only to self, cooperation existed only when it benefitted the warlords. For the peasant class life was hell, which resulted in regular instances of ikki, or peasant class uprisings. Power began to consolidate in the mid-16th century when a group of warlords had singled themselves out as primary dominators in their regions, having bested their rivals. These “great power” warlords boasted superior militant groups, greater territorial expansion, and grew their base through the exploitation of their weaker neighbors. But when great powers exist, great conflict arises. From the conflicts of these superior warlords came the unification campaigns of Sengoku Japan. Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu were the three great warlords at the center of Japan's unification. Nobunaga died in 1582 before Japan could be truly unified and the rogue warlords brought to heel. His successor Hideyoshi accomplished unification in 1590, though resistance had not been entirely eradicated. It was Tokugawa Ieyasu, after Hideyoshi's death in 1598, that made Japan whole in 1600 after the Battle of Sekigahara. A battle which brought about Japan's final Shogunate, and in which this episode's subject participated at the age of only sixteen. Miyamoto Musashi, born Miyamoto Bennosuke, met with difficulty at a young age and some details of the legendary swordsman remain unclear. However, one defining theme is evident even in his earliest years: that Miyamoto's life was to be one characterized by violence. The Book of Five Rings: Link You can find the Hardtack socials, website, and Patreon via ⁠linktree⁠. If you have any feedback on Hardtack episodes or suggestions for future episodes, please send an email to hardtackpod@gmail.com Don't forget to rate and subscribe! Make your Own Hardtack! Hardtack Recipe (Survival Bread) - ⁠Bread Dad  Sources: BRINKLEY, Frank, and Dairoku KIKUCHI. A History of the Japanese People from the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era ... By Capt. F. Brinkley ... with the Collaboration of Baron Kikuchi ... With 150 Illustrations ... and Maps. New York & London, 1915. Miyamoto, Musashi, and William Scott Wilson. The Book of Five Rings. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2012. Miyamoto, Musashi, Lawrence A. Kane, and Kris Wilder. Musashis Dokkodo (The Way of Walking Alone): Half Crazy, Half Genius, Finding Modern Meaning in the Sword Saints Last Words. Burien, WA: Stickman Publications, 2015. TC 2-91.4 Intelligence Support to Urban Operations, TC 2-91.4 Intelligence Support to Urban Operations § (2015). https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/tc2_91x4 FINAL.pdf. Wilson, William Scott. The Lone Samurai: the Life of Miyamoto Musashi. Boston: Shambhala, 2013. Yoshikawa, Eiji, Charles S. Terry, Edwin O. Reischauer, and Eiji Yoshikawa. Musashi. New York: Kodansha, 2012. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hardtackpod/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/hardtackpod/support

Our saga takes us through the battle of Havsfjord, a kind of Norwegian battle of Sekigahara, and into the fate and destiny that eventually drives the reluctant Ingimund to move to Iceland. Plus there are some shamans. Some who predict Ingimund's future and in a moment of petulance transports an amulet of his all the way to Iceland just to prove a point. Plus some others who are hired to track it down, while locked in a shed, and are to be paid in butter and tin. We get a little more insight into free-will, predestination, and what his honorable to this people. Maps of locations mentioned in the Sagas: sagamap.hi.is To sign up for new episode notifications and to receive the  "Very Brief Introduction to Philosophy for Martial Artists" PDF as well  as a full translation of Chapter 51 of the Budoushoshinshu about  disciplined martial arts training... go to: walkingtengu.wix.com/tengu and scroll to the bottom to enter your email.

Warrior quotes on strategy, resilience, and vision from one of the greatest samurai warriors in history who wrote The Book of Five Rings. The Book of Five Rings is a text on kenjutsu and the martial arts in general, written by the Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi around 1645. Many translations have been made, and it enjoys an audience considerably broader than other martial artists and people across East Asia. Who was Miyamoto Musashi? Miyamoto Musashi, original name Miyamoto Masana, artistic name Niten, (born 1584, Mimasaka or Harima, Japan—died June 13, 1645, Higo), was a famous Japanese soldier-artist of the early Edo (Tokugawa) period (1603–1867). Musashi began his career as a fighter early in life when, at age 13, he killed a man in single combat. In 1600 he was on the losing side of the Battle of Sekigahara (which paved the way for establishing the Tokugawa shogunate), becoming one of the rōnin (masterless samurai). In time he set out on a personal quest to develop perfect sword technique. He invented the nitō ichi-ryū, the style of fencing with two swords, and is often referred to today as kensai (‘‘sword saint''). Musashi claimed to have fought in more than 60 individual sword fights, many of which were to the death and all of which he won. Musashi's most famous encounter took place in 1612, against his arch-rival Sasaki Kojirō, a swordsman whose skill was reported to be equal to his own. The contest took place on a small island off the coast of Japan. While being rowed out to the dueling site, Musashi fashioned a wooden sword out of an oar. When the two enemies finally met on the beach, Musashi quickly dispatched Kojirō with a well-placed blow to the head using his wooden sword. After that, feeling that he had reached his peak as a swordsman, Musashi retired from the dueling life, though he trained some students and helped to suppress the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637. (brittanica) All My Links: https://linktr.ee/karatjuicepodcast --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/karatjuicepod/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/karatjuicepod/support

In the second part of our episode covering the Battle of Sekigahara we discuss the size of the two armies that will meet to give an idea of the scale of the coming battle.

He killed a man in combat when he was 13 years old. He was one of the fiercest Japanese warriors of his day, and he also created and perfected an art form. This Episode is Brought To you by HAINES KNIVES Find your new favorite knife at http://HainesKnives.com/mancast or follow on social media @birdforge Testicular Fortitude means having deep seated masculine courage and strength. Balls. Guts. Manlihood. Testicular Fortitude on the Manlihood ManCast is where we take a look at men who have beat the odds, men whose courage has left a lasting legacy. Testicular Fortitude Do you have testicular fortitude? Do you want to embrace your life of courage? Join our elite group of powerhouse men who are changing the world. http://Manlihood.com/brotherhood Todays' man with Testicular Fortitude is Miyamoto Musashi. He is also known by the names Miyamoto Masana or Niten. Born in 1584 in feudal Japan, Musashi began fighting as a warrior very young. At the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, his fellow soldiers lost - which made him a ronin. A ronin was a masterless samurai. They were like the Wild West Gunslingers of the American West– soldiers for hire, duelists, and mercenaries. They were competitive, sometimes hired to protect, but usually they fought for their own honor, rather than someone else's. He worked toward mastering his skills with the sword. His goal was to create the perfect sword technique, and what he created would become known as kensai. Kensai is a fencing style with two swords. Musashi fought and won more than 60 sword duels, many to the death. On one occasion, the youthful Musashi traveled to Kyoto to fight the master at the Yoshioka family school of martial arts. He arrived late, but the duel went on. It was not a battle to the death, but a wooden sword duel. One blow from Musashi and Yoshioka Seijuro was out of the fight with serious injury to his shoulder and arm. Seijuro resigned from teaching and became a monk. His status and honor as master had been skunked by a young man. The new head of the family challenged Musashi. Musashi arrived late again, but killed him with a blow to the head. Now, the Yoshioka family, dishonored by Musashi's prowess in battle, invited Musashi to another duel with the new head of the family, a 12 year old boy. They knew he had been late to the last two duels, so they plotted an ambush. This time, though, Musashi arrived early, and saw the family setting up the ambush. He attacked and killed the boy, and then victoriously fought his way through the mob of mercenaries that meant to kill him. In 1612, Musashi's most notorious duel was fought against Sasaki Kojiro. His rival was known to be as good if not better of a swordsman as himself. The battle was fought on a remote island off the coast. As they rowed out to the battleground, Musashi carved a wooden sword from his oar. And then, entering the fight, quickly killed Kojiro with a strike to the head with the wooden sword. Musashi knew it was time to “quit while he was ahead,” and retired from sword fighting. He did go on to train other swordsmen, and write a very well known war strategy known as The Book of Five Rings. That book would go on to inspire and inform many warriors, and later western business executives in the 1970s after it was translated to English. His writings are full of inspiration, motivation, and a perspective which sounds as though it could have been written today as much as in the 15th century. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/manlihood/message

James Clavell - Shogun (chronologicznie pierwsza część Azjatyckiej Sagi).https://naprzemytniczychszlakachksiazka.blogspot.com/p/ksiazka-opis-streszczenie.htmlhttps://www.facebook.com/naprzemytniczychszlakachksiazka/https://www.facebook.com/DariuszHStobieckiAutorRozmowa z Darkiem o historii Singapuru:https://www.spreaker.com/user/bilberry/hdd21-singapurhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMIPAwHliew

The political fallout in Japan following the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, in this first part of our section covering the Battle of Sekigahara we explore the dynamics of power shifts leading to the outset of conflict which will soon result in the battle itself.

Trine University's Humanities Symposia concludes with a presentation by Patrick Ridout, assistant director of information services, titled “Wartime Secrets: The Secret Origins of Comic Protagonists.” From Captain America's creation in World War II to Vagabond's Battle of Sekigahara and the more recent War Heroes conflict in Afghanistan, each reflection of war comes with an origin story of super science, magic, aliens, gods and religion that become molded by each conflict in different ways. The presentation will look at how each war has impacted society's views of heroes and villains, and how that has impacted the origins of comic heroes and villains born of conflict.

Join Joe as he visits Pax Unplugged with the DoaM recorder in tow to document the weekend and notable plays live along the way. Hear from Joe on a HOT mic in his car, in a diner, in the gaming hall, and apparently in an airplane hangar. Sekigahara, Pennsylvania Railroad, Klask, Cat in the Box, and more discussed on the show.    3:10 - Clear the Decks - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/247957/clear-decks 5:00 - Gorus Maximus  - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/253756/gorus-maximus 6: 40 - 9 Lives - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/189190/9-lives 9:00 - Crokinole 10:20 - Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan – https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25021/sekigahara-unification-japan 12:50 - Day 2 Wrap Up 14:00 - Twilight of the Gods – https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/206904/twilight-gods 17:00 - Pennsylvania Railroad - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/270110/pennsylvania-railroad 22: 45- Klask -https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/165722/klask - 25:00 Cat in the box - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/345972/cat-box-deluxe-edition - 29:00 – Gemini Gauntlet- https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/337238/gemini-gauntlet - 30:30 Ghosts of Christmas https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/281619/ghosts-christmas - 31:00 The Two Heirs - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/369869/two-heirs -36: 35 Pax Pamir 2E - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/256960/pax-pamir-second-edition 40:00 Day 2 Thoughts and Pax Unplugged Size 44:00 Day 3 Wrap Up 45:45 1830 - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/421/1830-railways-robber-barons 47:00 1862 USA - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11284/1862 http://www.dadsonamap.com Support the Show - Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/dadsonamap Twitter and Instagram - @dadsonamap BGG Guild - http://tiny.cc/DoaMGuild Merch Store - https://teespring.com/stores/dads-on-a-map Contact us at dadsonamap@gmail.com  

Who was Miyamoto Musashi? Miyamoto Musashi, original name Miyamoto Masana, artistic name Niten, (born 1584, Mimasaka or Harima, Japan—died June 13, 1645, Higo), famous Japanese soldier-artist of the early Edo (Tokugawa) period (1603–1867). Musashi began his career as a fighter early in life when, at age 13, he killed a man in single combat. In 1600 he was on the losing side of the Battle of Sekigahara (which paved the way for establishing the Tokugawa shogunate), becoming one of the rōnin (masterless samurai). In time he set out on a personal quest to develop perfect sword technique. He invented the nitō ichi-ryū, the style of fencing with two swords, and is often referred to today as kensai (‘‘sword saint''). Musashi claimed to have fought in more than 60 individual sword fights, many of which were to the death and all of which he won. (brittanica.com) What is Bushido? (bu·shi·do/ˈbo͞oSHēˌdō/, Japanese: “Way of the Warrior”) The Bushido code of conduct, closely tied to Samurai culture, played an important role in the expansion of Asian art, Japanese values, and many important traditions like tea ceremonies and the art of samurai sword-making. An unwritten code of chivalrous behavior, Bushido later became the basis for the teaching of ethics in Japan, with principles that still remain relevant today. Below, our editors explore the history of the Bushido, or Samurai code, along with modern interpretations of how the code can be applied to everyday life. Bushido is a code of conduct that emerged in Japan from the Samurai, or Japanese warriors, who spread their ideals throughout society. They drew inspiration from Confucianism, which is a relatively conservative philosophy and system of beliefs that places a great deal of importance on loyalty and duty. The Bushido code contains eight key principles or virtues that warriors were expected to uphold. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/karatjuicepod/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/karatjuicepod/support

Uma batalha que durou apenas um dia, mas ditou os rumos dos próximos séculos de todo o Japão. Separe trinta minutos do seu dia e aprenda com o professor Vítor Soares (@profvitorsoares) sobre o que foi a Batalha de Sekigahara. - Se você quiser ter acesso a episódios exclusivos e quiser ajudar o História em Meia Hora a continuar de pé, clique no link: www.apoia.se/historiaemmeiahora - Compre nossas camisas, moletons e muito mais coisas com temática História na Lolja! www.lolja.com.br/creators/historia-em-meia-hora/ - PIX e contato: historiaemmeiahora@gmail.com Apresentação: Prof. Vítor Soares Roteiro: Prof. Vítor Soares e Prof. Victor Alexandre (@profvictoralexandre) Edição: Victor Portugal. REFERÊNCIAS USADAS - Tales of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. Okanoya Shigezane - Uma breve história da Ásia. Colin Mason - História do Japão: uma introdução. Emiliano Unzer (@emilianounzer) - Battle of Sekigahara | Encyclopedia Britannica - A Batalha de Sekigahara. Albert Caballé Marimón - Batalha de Sekigahara | Nippo Brasil - A História do Japão | Canal Nostalgia

A samurai places a curse on his enemy: whoever hurts his family will be maimed or die a horrible death. A curse on one family is a blessing spell to the other family. But are curses effective against people who don't believe in them?Deaf since birth, Anne Hansell is a third generation Japanese-American and distant relative to Mitsunari Ishida, who lost the Battle of Sekigahara to Tokugawa. During a visit to Japan, her Japanese family encouraged her to learn about her samurai heritage by reading Japanese history books, where she learned that some people believe a samurai's curse could be very powerful. This prompted her to write “The Burning Police Car.”  She is now living with her husband, a New England gentleman, in Southern California.You can read "The Burning Police Car" at https://www.kaidankaistories.com.You can hear Steven Lester's Carr story "The Betrothed" here: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/45976776Follow us on: Twitter at: Japanese Ghost Stories @ghostJapaneseInstagram: WhiteEnsoJapanYouTube: Kaidankai: Ghost and Supernatural StoriesFacebook: Kaidankai: Ghost and Supernatural Stories Help me pay the contributors for their work. Donate to the Kaidankai through Ko-Fi. Thank you! https://ko-fi.com/kaidankaighoststories

A Homo Ludens podcast exclusive episode where we talk about wargame related stuff we did in summer of 2022. Part 1: 00:00 - Summer debrief discussion about things we watched, read and played with Joe Dewhurst Games discussed: Bayonets & Tomahawks, Wilderness Wars, Brian Boru, Combat Commander, Ahoy, Pax Pamir, Pax Viking, Pax Renaissance, Turncoats Interlude: 54:26 Georges Delerue - Capri Part 2: 57:03 - Collective review of this summer's “Club de jeu” game, Sekigahara released by GMT Games in 2011, designed by Matt Calkins. Guests for the discussion: Stuart & Luis. Outro: 01:59:08 Haruomi Hosono - Sports Men To become part of the Homo Ludens community & support the show, send me a Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/homoludens1871 Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/homoludens1871

We conclude our coverage on the Sengoku Jidai this week by covering the Battle of Sekigahara, which concluded the warring states period and sent Japan into multiple centuries of isolationism. The battle could have gone either way, but Tokugawa Ieyasu eventually comes out on top at the third ruler, following Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Follow us on Twitter (@gems_history), Instagram (@gems_of_history_podcast), and TikTok (@gemsofhistorypod)! Also join the conversation on Facebook in The Agora - Gems of History Discussion group!

Charles StonebridgeBorn: 1965Died: 2022by Anne HansellAnne Hansell is a third generation Japanese-American, and on her mother's side, is related to General  Mitsunari Ishida who lost the Battle of Sekigahara to Tokugawa.  She's written many short stories since she was a child, and is a member of California Writers' Club and Online Writing Workshop for SF, Fantasy and Horror. She lives with her husband (a New England gentleman) in Southern California.You can read "Charles Stonebridge" at https://www.whiteenso.com/ghost-stories-2022Win a copy of "Messengers of the Macabre: Hallowe'en Poems" Follow us on Twitter (@ghostJapanese) or Instagram: WhiteEnsoJapan or post a comment on a tweet/post. Donate through Ko-Fi. https://ko-fi.com/kaidankaighoststories

Episode 120 is here! Take a listen as we talk about a game that had escaped us for a long time; Ginkgopolis. We talk all about this game, what we felt about it, and the interesting combo of styles within it. We then head into the topic to discuss tile laying, which is the main aspect of Ginkgopolis. We end the episode by telling you our favorite trees! Be sure to like, share, and subscribe. Please give us a rating, and let us know what you think! Game Talk: 18:10 Top Shelf Topic: 32:06 Pint Sized Question: 44:48 Game Mentions: Brass: Carcassonne, Catan, Isle of Skye, Alhambra, Sekigahara, Twilight Imperium, Twilight Struggle, Food Chain Magnate Support: If you would like to help us improve our product, here's where you can do that! www.patreon.com/MalthausGames podpledge.com?p=3D8L1M1V4S7F8... ko-fi.com/malthausgames Sound Attributions: Something Elated by Broke For Free, Downloaded from freemusicarchive.org/music/Bro... Edits: Cut to length and Faded in. Heavy Happy With Drums by Ryan Cullinane, Downloaded from freemusicarchive.org/music/Ryan Cullinane/Heavy Happy With Drums – Beat Driven Productions – Heavy Happy With Drums Edits: Cut to length and faded out. Crowd in a bar (LCR recording) by Leandros.Ntounis, downloaded from freesound.org/people/Leandros... Edits: Cut to length, added vocals and own recorded drink making sounds. Vinyl_record_needle_static_01.wav by joedeshon, downloaded from freesound.org/people/joedesho... Edits: Cut to length, added to music and raised volume level. Hidden Wall Opening by ertfelda, downloaded from freesound.org/people/ertfelda... Edits: Adjust volume and cut to length added jungle sound and voice. Yucatan jungle.mp3 by folkart films, downloaded from freesound.org/people/folkart%... Edits: Adjust volume, cut to length, added door sound and voice. Footsteps, Concretem A.wav by InspectorJ, downloaded from freesound.org/people/Inspecto... Edits: Cut to length, adjusted volume, added jungle sounds and voice. Fantasy Sounds Effects Library, Ambience_Cave_00.wav by LittleRobotSoundFactory, downloaded from freesound.org/people/LittleRo... Edits: Cut to length, faded in, adjusted volume and added footsteps, jungle sounds, stone door, and voice. Game Show Theme Tune by FoolBoyMedia, downloaded from freesound.org/people/FoolBoyM... Edits: Cut to length, added vocals, adjusted volume. Audience, Theatre Applause.wav by makosan, downloaded from freesound.org/people/makosan/... Edits: Added music, added voice, cut to length and adjusted volume.

I was sitting in the lecture theater, as usual in the front row, so that I could catch everything that was being said. University was a big deal for someone who climbed out of the trench and put the shovel down on a Friday and hit the campus the next Monday. Calling me earnest about my studies doesn't even get close. On this occasion we had a guest lecturer, who was giving a talk on the battle of Sekigahara, a turning point in Japanese history which would usher in hundreds of years of rule by the one family, the Tokugawas.   The Professor was reeling off the ten reasons why Tokugawa Ieyasu won the battle and I was diligently scribbling down all of these logical, worthy points.  At the end of the ten points, he then said these were not the reasons and then spent the remainder of the lecture explaining his view on the real reasons for Ieyasu's success.  This was very clever.   By providing sound, credible reasons first, he had established his command of the literature and the related scholarship.  It all sounded very convincing to me and what is more I had invested myself in recording it all.  The bait and switch technique now elevated him above the rough and tumble of academic insurgencies over the finer points of history, to stand above the fray and position himself as the one who really knew his stuff.  His reputation was enhanced by a conjurer's trick of making the penny disappear and then draw it out from behind your ear.    Academic illusionist or not, it worked like a charm.  Think about the standard business presentations you have been exposed to.  They are usually pedestrian affairs, involving the doling out of data and information, specialised only in delivering the talk in a deadly boring manner.    Today we presenters face the most difficult presentation environment in history.  It has never been this bad. Our audience are glued to their phones and live in the internet for disturbingly long periods of the day. They have microscopically short concentration spans, are quickly distracted and constantly moving, ever doom scrolling and unable to settle.  Then we turn up for our little party piece representing our industry and firm.  Getting and keeping  people's attention has become the search for the holy grail for presenters.   Are we allowed to use magic tricks to grab and hold their attention?  Absolutely we are!  This is a zero sum game we are involved with here and we either get our point across or we don't even get a desultory reception.  Technology and social media have made us experts at pattern recognition.  This has always been a strength of our species, which has kept us going, as we anticipate trouble before it arrives.  This means that as speakers the pattern interrupt aspect of what we are doing becomes very important.   The lecturer mentioned earlier took us down a predictable path, with a fulsome list of plausible explanations.  He then executed a pivot and pulled off a pattern interrupt telling us all of that was codswallop.  We were invested in what he had told us and I for one, had written it all down, so the shock was palpable when he said to forget about all that stuff.  “Hello, hello”, I thought, “what is going on here”. He had removed the central pillar of our commitment to the content and now promised to replace it with a much sexier version.   When we are giving our talks, this can sometimes be added to our repertoire of techniques for commanding the attention of the audience.  We can start with a predictable, safe version for the crowd, leading them up the garden path with content which is persuasive, plausible, cogent and rational.  Throwing all of that overboard creates a vacuum.  Our brain doesn't like that and wants the correct version to be implanted, so we are all ears to hear the truth, the real story.   We have also self-elevated ourselves above the fray and self-selected ourselves as the superior being, the enlightened purveyor of the most accurate knowledge and best quality information on the subject.  This is a major credibility boost and the audience is wide open to it, because of the way we have set it up.  The flip side is you have to have the goods. If you say the standard interpretation is rubbish, then your next contribution had better be totally worthy of the rock star you are purporting to be.   Obviously, we wouldn't put ourselves up on the high wire without a safety harness, if we were not confident we could carry this off.  This is where we need to have real knowledge and better research on the subject than our audience.  We also have to deliver the talk with a passion for sharing key information with our audience.  They will absorb the trick if they feel the intention was pure.  Just being a trickster won't work.  We have to deliver unexpected value and exceed audience expectations.

Ueno Park in Tokyo is so popular, it is hard to imagine ghosts being there. But the park is the site of an ancient temple. And where there are temples, there are graveyards. And where there are graveyards...In Anne Hansell's story The Ueno Park Incident, you get to meet a few. Anne Hansell is a third generation Japanese-American, and on her mother's side, is related to General  Mitsunari Ishida who lost the Battle of Sekigahara to Tokugawa.  She's written many short stories since she was a child, and is a member of California Writers' Club and Online Writing Workshop for SF, Fantasy and Horror. While visiting relatives in Tokyo, she visited Ueno Park, which her uncle later informed her has a notorious reputation as a haunted place. She lives with her husband (a New England gentleman) in Southern California.The Ueno Park Incident is read by Anneliese Nakahara-Knight, who lives in Tokyo and helps people of all ages and backgrounds get in touch with their musical selves through the power of their voice and body. www.albamusictogether.com