Episode 103 - The Path of the Righteous Man

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2015

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What do you get when you cross radical Confucianism with armed samurai? Japan's first samurai rebellion since the 1630s, and a recipe for one fascinating episode. Cannons, torture, and philosophy: this episode has it all!

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
0:03.5	Audible has over 180,000 titles to choose from, all compatible with iPhone, Android,
0:10.5	Kindle, or your MP3 player of choice.
0:13.8	For listeners of the show, Audible is offering a free 30-day trial membership, complete with a free
0:19.3	audiobook of your choice.
0:21.0	You can cancel any time and keep the free book, or keep going with one of Audible's subscription offers.
0:26.7	Go to audible trial.com slash Japan to claim your offer.
0:31.7	This week, I'm going to recommend Confucius, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed from the Great
0:36.9	Courses series.
0:38.3	At least two of those people are pretty important for understanding Japanese history,
0:42.3	and I'm told the other two did some important stuff too.
0:45.3	Go to audible trial.com slash Japan to claim your copy. Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 103, The Path of the Righteous Man.
1:15.7	This is one of those stories I first encountered as a bit of a throwaway in a textbook,
1:20.3	further proof of the corruption and rod of the Tokugawa system during the early 1800s.
1:26.1	And it's absolutely true that this story, well, that's part of it,
1:30.2	but it's also an interesting story in its own right.
1:34.1	You see, it also sheds light on something I've been thinking about a bit,
1:37.3	an idea I stole from the fascinating podcaster Dan Carlin
1:41.0	about the notion of an intellectual contagion, an idea that spreads like a virus,
1:46.4	and like a virus represents a threat, in this case to the powers that be.
1:51.5	Our virus starts with a man named Oshoi Haichiro, born in 1793 in Osaka.
1:57.8	At the time, Osaka was the economic heart of Japan. It was home of the largest and most
	...

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