The History of the World Podcast, written and presented by Chris Hasler

Volume 4, The Medieval World.

Episode 60, The Battle of Dan Naurra. Oh, you know, it's all.

Oh, you know. Oh, now. This week's episode takes us to 12th century Japan. The country of Japan is made up from a number of islands.

The four largest islands are in close proximity to each other and are easy to recognize as Japan on a map.

The largest of all the islands, Honshu, stretches from west to east and then northwards and contains

the capital city of Tokyo.

To the north of Honshu is the island of Hokkaido. Populations living in the north of

Honshu likely migrated north to the island of Hokkaido, bringing Japanese culture to this island.

The smallest of the four largest islands is called Shikoku, lying directly south of the western part of Honshu.

Finally, to the west of Honshu is the island of Kuesu and in order to reach the south coast of Honsu

if traveling by boat from the Korean Peninsula on the Asia mainland you have to

negotiate a narrow strait of water between the islands of Honsieu and Kuesu.

The narrow strait of water is referred to as the Kenmon Strait and is the site of this

week's featured battle, the Battle of Dannerura.

The first human migrations to the Japanese islands would have been around 40,000 years ago and if those migrations came from the Korean Peninsula, then the area of the Kanmon Strait would have been one of the first Japanese

locations to have been discovered, although the sea levels would have been much lower

and the islands were probably linked together.

The cultures of Japan developed and supplanted each other and they were likely encouraged

by migrations from mainland Asia to the Japanese islands.

The most influential cultures of mainland Asia would have been the Chinese cultures.

The ancient Jowmon culture of hazy origins

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