S01E07 Birgit Tremml Werner introduces Yamada Nagamasa (1590-1630), whom some scholars

called the "Columbus of Japan" in the 1940s-a label, she argues, which tells us as much about

twentieth-century as seventeenth-century history. Interviewed by Joachim Kurtz and Martin Dusinberre.

S01E06 Lisa Yoshikawa illustrates how academic historians in modern Japan used the

professionalisation of studying and writing about the past to establish politically opportune narratives

for a modern imperial state. Interviewed by Birgit Tremml Werner and Martin Dusinberre.

S01E05 Stefan Tanaka suggests that Japanese intellectuals "discovered" Japan's

past in the mid-nineteenth century, both by reconsidering China's place in the world and by thinking

about time in new ways. Interviewed by Martin Dusinberre and Birgit Tremml Werner.

S01E04 David Mervart traces the entanglements of foreign trade and book collecting in

so-called "closed Japan", and the ways that Japanese translators came to conceive of-and

embody-the republic of letters. Interview: Martin Dusinberre and Birgit Tremml Werner

S01E03 Leigh Jenco considers what debates about the history of Taiwan in seventeenth-century

China bring to our theoretical understanding of imperialism. Interviewed by Martin Dusinberre and Birgit

Tremml Werner.

S01E02 Joachim Kurtz discusses the changing ways in which Confucius has been understood in

the last five hundred years—from “philosopher” to “Chinese” sage whose

teachings are incompatible with Western modernity. Interviewed by Martin Dusinberre.

S01E01 15past15 is a new podcast which discusses how the past is made, and by whom. Its

first season focuses on history and history-writing in East Asia, from the sixteenth century to today.

Interviewees debate Confucius’s comeback, the Chinese Renaissance, the Eurasian Republic of

Letters, the Columbus of Japan, the methodologies and writing of global history, and much more—all

in a fifteen-minute format (more or less). Interviews will be released weekly.