Politics of the Sword: Ideology and the Martial in Early Modern Japan

Name: Politics of the Sword: Ideology and the Martial in Early Modern Japan
Start: 2025-10-08T16:00:00-05:00
Location: UW-Madison Department of History

Schedule

Wed, 08 Oct, 2025 at 04:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

UW-Madison Department of History | Madison, WI

Location: Curti Lounge (Room 5233), Department of History, Mosse Humanities Building 455 N. Park Street Madison.
Marquette University History Professor Michael Wert will present this talk in the Department of History's "War in Society & Culture" fall speaker series.
Dr. Wert, an associate professor of East Asian history with a focus on early modern and modern Japan, will explore how the notion of embodied martiality became central to the ideological underpinnings of Japan's Tokugawa rule.
Being "never quite warrior enough" defined warrior status and, by appealing to desire, opened up opportunities for commoners and marginal warriors to become activists during the final years of the Tokugawa Shogunate.