A Short History of Japan Podcast

"How did it come to this?" - This must have been the question the Christian missionaries asked themselves as Hideyoshi followed by successive Tokugawa Shoguns made life unbearable for Christians in Japan.  If only we had handed over the ship...if only we'd handed over the treasure.....if only we had that Englishman beheaded.....

It would be hard to find a group of Japanese more oppressed than the Christians.  But why were they especially targeted?   What threat did they represent?

To Christian missionaries, Japan was a most attractive prospect. Literate, cultured and rich - the Jesuits arrived in Japan in the 1500s and set about a process of conversion: from the lowest peasant to the highest warlord.  In Part One, we chart the rise and rise of Christianity under Nobunaga and Hideyoshi - before things turned sour.

With the destruction of the Toyotomi at Osaka in 1615, the Tokugawa clan were unrivalled in their domination of Japan.  They would establish a Shogunate that would last over 200 years.  But how did they change Japan from a nation perpetually at war to one of enforced peace?

The Siege of Osaka Castle in the winter of 1614-15 and the final Battle for Osaka Castle in the summer of 1615 marks the final chapter in the Sengoku Jidai. After years of rivalry between the forces of the Toyotomi and the Tokugawa the final question of who would dominate Japan for the next few hundred years was decided - but not before conspiracy, cowardice, spanked bottoms and cross dressing was tried as a winning strategy!  Here is a map of the events discussed in the podcast.

Tokugawa Ieyasu had won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and set up organising Japan under his clan’s domination.  However, safely ensconced in Osaka Castle was Hideyori, son of Hideyoshi; the last of the Toyotomi.  Tokugawa Ieyasu knew that he would never be safe until the last of the Toyotomi claims to control of Japan were snuffed out.

And the winner is of the Size-L Oda Nobunaga t-shirt - complete with his slogan “Tenka Fubu” (The Realm Subjected to Military Power) is……………………

I went to Japan with 25 students and 2 other teachers.  In this podcast I’ll tell you where we went with a particular emphasis on the historical dimension (obviously!) and *drum roll* I bought you a present!!  Well, there is a competition and a prize!  Here is the map of the places we went and a link to a sliderocket presentation with some pics too!

With Hideyoshi’s body barely cold, the plotting and scheming began in earnest.  This was the complete opposite of what Hideyoshi had hoped and begged for - for the sake of his infant son.  But promises to a dead man counted for little when the domination of Japan was in the offing.  Here is a google map with a few locations of the places mentioned in this cast

My mother says that the cemetery is full of people who thought they were indispensable - but in Hideyoshi’s case, he would have been right.  His fervent desire was to ensure that his son, Hideyori, would be able to maintain the Toyotomi rule over Japan.  In the end, he had to rely on promises of men he clearly didn’t trust.

In 1592 and 1598 Hideyoshi pointed the enormous Japanese capacity for warfare at the task of conquering one of the greatest civilizations in the world, China.  In this episode we discuss why he decided that that was a good idea and how it all went.