History of Japan

This week, something a bit different: the start of a history of conspiracy theories in Japan. This first episode is mostly framing: what is conspiracism as a mindset, and how is it different from actual conspiracies?  Show notes here [https://isaacmeyer.net/2025/06/episode-584-the-all-seeing-eye-part-1/].

This week: we take a look at the genre of the yakuza movie, or ninkyo eiga, which started off as a branch of the samurai film genre before becoming very much its own thing--and, for a decade  or so in the 1960s and 1970s, dominating the Japanese box office. Show notes here [https://isaacmeyer.net/2025/06/episode-583-the-men-of-chivalry-part-3/].

This week: we take a look at postwar samurai film/jidaigeki in order to understand better the trajectory of the most influential genre in the history of Japanese film. Why did jidaigeki, a staple of pre-1945 film, storm back with a vengeance to the big screen after the end of World War II? What makes post-1945 samurai films distinctive or unique? And what about their relationship to another archetype of international film: the American Western? Show notes here [https://isaacmeyer.net/2025/06/episode-582-the-men-of-chivalry-part-2/].

This week, we're starting a history of the most famous genre in the history of Japanese film: the jidaigeki, and its related genre of the ninkyo eiga. This week: what do we know about early jidaigeki, and how do they fit into the wider history of early Japanese film? Show notes here [https://isaacmeyer.net/2025/06/episode-581-the-men-of-chivalry-part-1/].

This week: we wrap up the miniseries with the end of Akebono's career, as the first gaijin yokozuna takes his post-dohyo trajectory in a very different direction from the other yokozuna before him (or at least, from most of the other yokozuna before him). Plus some final thoughts on sumo today. Show notes here [https://isaacmeyer.net/2025/05/episode-580/].