Episode 78 - The Sage of Mita

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2014

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Our topic this week is the Meiji intellectual Fukuzawa Yukichi. From the second son of a poor samurai family he rose to be one of Japan's most prominent intellectuals, and helped define what it meant for Japan to be a modern country. His influence was tremendous, but it also had a darker side; in his works lie the kernel of what would later become Japanese imperialism and ultra-nationalism.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
0:03.6	Audible has over 150,000 titles to choose from, all compatible with iPhone, Android,
0:10.5	Kindle, or your MP3 player of choice.
0:13.6	For listeners of the show, Audible is offering a free 30-day trial membership, complete with credit
0:19.2	for a free audiobook of your choice.
0:22.0	You can cancel any time and keep the free book or keep going with one of Audible's subscription
0:26.4	offers.
0:27.7	Go to audibletrial.com slash Japan to claim your offer.
0:33.2	This week, I'm going to recommend Forgotten Ally, China's World War II, 1937 to 1945, by Rana Mitter.
0:42.9	We're going to be dealing with the relationship between the two neighboring powers of Asia in a series of future episodes,
0:50.0	and when we do, I'll be drawing very heavily from Midder's work on Chinese politics
0:54.4	and the way in which China's leaders saw Japan.
0:58.4	It's an intelligent and clearly written work, and I recommend it very highly.
1:03.5	Go to audible trial.com slash Japan to claim your copy.
1:26.5	Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast.
1:30.5	Episode 78, The Sage of Mita.
1:36.7	This week we're going to talk about a man whose career essentially made his name synonymous with the spirit of westernization that defined the Meiji period.
1:41.7	Despite never actually holding a rank in the Meiji government and in fact
1:45.7	working for the Tokugawa for about eight years, Fukuzha Yukichi became one of the best
1:51.4	known proponents of westernization in Japanese history. His thinking helped define the Meiji
1:57.4	age. Not that you would know it to look at the beginning of his life.
2:03.2	Fukuzau Yikichi was born in the commercial hub of Osaka on January 10, 1835.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -3783 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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