Susan Westhafer Furukawa, "The Afterlife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Historical Fiction and Popular Culture in Japan" (Harvard UP, 2022)

Susan Westhafer Furukawa, "The Afterlife of T...

Up next

Mulholland Drive at 25: Film Quarterly

In this episode, J. M. Tyree, the editor of Film Quarterly discusses a dossier of articles about David’s Lynch’s 2001 Mulholland Drive on its 25th anniversary with dossier editor Eileen G’Sell. Film Quarterly (FQ) is published four times a year by the University of California Pre ...  Show more

Ed Park, "Three Tenses" (Random House, 2026)

Three Tenses (Random House, 2026) by Ed Park is not quite a memoir, not quite fiction, not quite poetry and not quite prose—and yet it transcends the sum of all its not-quite parts as a resonant portrait of its young artist. Written when he was 28, Park’s “transmission from the n ...  Show more

Recommended Episodes

EPISODE 103: The Lone Samurai, Miyamoto Musashi (Part 2)
History on Fire

Ever since I started History on Fire, one topic has been the most consistently requested by listeners. Over the years, I received hundreds of messages asking me to cover the life of Miyamoto Musashi. That time has come. Here we go. Musashi has been the subject of one of the great ...  Show more

Hiromu Nagahara, "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie: Japan's Pop Era and Its Discontents" (Harvard UP, 2017)
New Books in East Asian Studies

Tokyo Boogie-Woogie: Japan's Pop Era and its Discontents (Harvard University Press, 2017) by Hiromu Nagahara is the first English-language history of the origins and impact of the Japanese pop music industry. The book connects the rise of mass entertainment, epitomized by ryūkōka ...  Show more

EPISODE 102: The Lone Samurai, Miyamoto Musashi (Part 1)
History on Fire

Ever since I started History on Fire, one topic has been the most consistently requested by listeners. Over the years, I received hundreds of messages asking me to cover the life of Miyamoto Musashi. That time has come. Here we go. Musashi has been the subject of one of the great ...  Show more

Shogun and Shinto: What Life Was Like In Feudal Japan
Echoes of History

What was life like in feudal Japan? If you were born into the chaos of the Warring States period, would you have been a farmer, a merchant or a samurai? Or perhaps even an Emperor?Delving into the history behind the latest Assassin’s Creed game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Matt Lew ...  Show more