Episode 146 - The Birth of the Samurai, Part 1
History of Japan
Isaac Meyer
4.7 • 790 Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2016
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we'll be starting a short series about the advent of the samurai class. First, what came before the samurai, and why did Japan's emperors decide to devolve more and more power to provincial warriors?
Transcript
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| 1:26.8 | Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast. |
| 1:32.0 | Episode 146, The Birth of the Samurai, Part 1. |
| 1:41.3 | So one of the things I've had to learn to accept about this show is that it is always going to skew more heavily towards modern history. |
| 1:45.2 | That's where my training is, that's where most of my knowledge is. |
| 1:51.8 | And yet, there's so much to talk about with early Japanese history. This is one of those topics that is central to the story of Japan, and that I've given real short shrift, too. |
| 1:58.1 | It's time to talk about the rise of the samurai. Now, just a forewarning, this is going to be a |
| 2:04.6 | multi-parter, but not in the same depth as fall of the samurai was. I could do that in part because the |
| 2:11.5 | Meiji Restoration was a part of my PhD field exams, and as a result, I really know the material very well. |
| 2:20.2 | This is not going to be as in-depth of a discussion, but I think it is worth taking a few |
| 2:25.3 | episodes to take a second glance at the early samurai. Before we do that, though, it's important |
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