A Lady's Life in Tokugawa Japan

In this four-part series, we're time traveling back to Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868) to find out what life was like there for the ladies. If you've been binging Shogun lately, then this one's for you!

To access a full transcript of this episode, become a patron.

selected sources

Books & Academic Journals

  • Charles J. Dunn, Everyday Life in Imperial Japan, New York: Dorset Press, 1969.

  • Constantine Nomikos Vaporis, Voices of Early Modern Japan: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life During the Age of the Shoguns, Westport: Greenwood Press, 2012.

  • Heather H. Kobayashi, “The Miko and the Itako: The Role of Women in Contemporary Shinto Ritual,” Senior Capstone, Vassar College, 2013. https://core.ac.uk/download/10673319.pdf

  • Gerald Groemer, “Female Shamans in Eastern Japan during the Edo Period,” Asian Folklore Studies 66, no ½ (2007): 27-53. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30030449

  • Kunimitsu Kawamura, “A Female Shaman’s Mind and Body, and Possession,” Asian Folklore Studies 62, no. 2 (2003): 257-289. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30030289

Online Sources

Kate J. ArmstrongJapan, everyday lives of women