The Kojiki

This episode is rated mature.Horror and uncanny stories are fundamental elements of Japanese storytelling.We’ll start with a note about genre in general and “horror” in particular.We’ll continue with a discussion of horror in traditional Japanese storytelling, especially the kaid ...  عرض المزيد

This episode is rated mature.For decades, writing by women was treated as its own separate genre in Japan, joryu bungaku. In today's episode, we’ll start with an explanation of why joryu bungaku became its own separate genre. We’ll move on to the story of women’s writing between ...  عرض المزيد

This is the Japanese Shinto tale of the god Izanagi and the goddess Izanami: two young deities tasked with marrying each other and creating the world. Their idyllic existence is threatened when Izanami rebels against the subservient role she’s expected to play—and Izanagi must ch ...  عرض المزيد

<div>Two stories from Japan about samurai (and wannabe samurai) following their dreams. Too bad it takes fights with giant creatures and a little bit of murder to do so.

The creature this time is ao nyōbō, and she doesn't want you to stop by her beautiful, horribly dilap ...  عرض المزيد

In the vibrant but vicious golden age of Imperial Japan, how did women use writing as a way to secure their status, and express their deepest desires? Who was Sei Shōnagon, the witty courtier whose account of life around the Japanese Empress during the iconic Heian period, provid ...  عرض المزيد