How Everyday People Built Medieval Japan

Gone Medieval

History Hit

History

4.6 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2024

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When it comes to Japan in the Middle Ages, we think mostly of stories of the Shogun, samurai and ninjas. But for a society dominated by the court and military elite, much was dependent on the labour of skilled people.

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega talks to Dr. Paula Curtis, to find out more particularly about Japan’s metal casters who rose to technical and social preeminence, creating strategic ties and trade networks that would have an influence for centuries to come.

This episode was edited by Ella Blaxill and produced by Rob Weinberg.

Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code MEDIEVAL sign up now for your 14-day free trial >

You can take part in our listener survey here.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	If you're enjoying all the content in this episode and the rest of the
0:03.2	gone medieval series then why not join us for a trip retracing the discovery of
0:07.8	Richard the third we're visiting key locations that tell the story of the life and death of King Richard the third.
0:15.3	To book now or find out more about this and other historical trips, just go to Historyhit.com
0:21.6	forward slash trips. History Hit.com. Forward slash Trips.
0:24.0	Hello and
0:27.0	and welcome to God Medieval from History Hit.
0:32.0	I'm Dr. Eleanor Yannaga, and today's episode,
0:35.0	we will be speaking with Dr. Paula Curtis,
0:37.0	a historian of pre-modern Japan at UCLA.
0:40.0	Today, we'll be talking about artisans in late medieval Japan, how they form trade networks,
0:45.8	what it meant to be an ordinary but skilled person in Japanese society, and why we in the global
0:51.4	North often want to overlook regular people to tell stories about samurai.
0:56.1	Paula, thank you so much for being here. I'm absolutely delighted to chat Japan.
1:00.8	Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
1:02.6	Let's just start off in the way that I think we have to because I think it's pretty fair to say that
1:08.6	the average person in the global north unfortunately doesn't really have an opportunity to study Japanese history very often.
1:16.0	And with that in mind, can you help us unpack the term late medieval Japan?
1:21.0	Because it's pretty laden with meaning right it absolutely is as many of your
1:27.5	listeners may know the quote-unquote medieval period for Japan scholars stretches from roughly the 12th century to the end of the 16th century.
1:37.0	And you know if you want to get really technical some people say it is 1185 to about 1603 or 1615 and this is because the conventional periodization
1:47.9	schema aligns with the rise and fall of political institutions and the concept of quote unquote medieval was borrowed liberally
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.