Hello and welcome to the history of Japan podcast, episode 471, The Osaka Incident.

Today, I want to discuss an interesting little moment in the history of Imperial Japan, that

despite being often relegated to a simple footnote or offhanded mention, has a lot of value

to say.

It's a moment that ties into everything from Japan's tradition of political liberalism,

to overseas empire, to relations with Korea, to feminism, and which, in a nice bit of foreshadowing, also sets up the next series of episodes I Want to Run.

So today is all about the Osaka incident of 1885, which I imagine most of you have never heard of, but which makes for one hell of a story in its own right.

This is the moment when a group of Japanese reformers from the Freedom and People's Rights Movement

decided to gather weapons

in Osaka in preparation for a journey to Korea, where they would overthrow the local government

and install a new regime based on liberal ideas.

Which probably is not what you expected in terms of where that sentence went, so let's

talk about how we get here.

Which, of course, first means we need to do two things.

Review Japan's relationship with Korea in 1885, and remind ourselves of the freedom and

people's rights movement.

So, for a quick refresh, during the latter years of Japanese feudalism, the relationship between Japan and Korea was

one of stability and economic and cultural exchange.

On the Japanese end, the relationship was managed by the Seoul clan, a family of Daimyo or

feudal lords, who had been recognized as the rulers of Tsushima, the island in the midst of the

straits between Japan and Korea.

The Soe clan had worked its relationship with Korea's monarchs out centuries earlier, back

...