Hello, the episode you're about to listen to is part of a multi-part series introducing an overview

of Japanese history.

This is a repeat of one of the original projects the History of Japan podcast was built on,

and is intended to serve as an update and supplement to these original works.

After 10 years, my hope is to return to this approach and to do it a little bit better,

given the skills that I have improved in the intervening years.

If you haven't been doing so already, you should listen to these episodes sequentially,

starting with episode 501.

Without any further ado, enjoy the episode.

Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, episode 505, the more things change.

The academic Ross Bender said of Japan in the 8th century, the 700s, in other words, that, quote,

the 8th century represents a critical period for later Japanese culture,

an era whose institutions and ways of thinking helped shape the rest of Japanese history.

And he's absolutely right to say this.

Our basic narrative of Japanese history so far, which has largely been focused on the lives of the elite, but that can't really be helped given the sources available to us, let's

followed a pretty clear pattern.

In the 6th century, so the 500 CE, the Yamato Kingdom reign into its first major setbacks

at home and abroad after several centuries of largely unchecked

expansion from its home base in what's now Nara Prefecture. As we've seen over the last

couple of episodes, the kingdom, both its emperors and the powerful Omudaji or clan chieftains

who helped govern it, responded with a series of reforms intended to strengthen the

dynasty. In particular, starting in the 600s, those reforms became increasingly shaped by

...