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Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire

Commanding shoguns and fierce samurai warriors, exotic geisha and exquisite artisans – all were part of a Japanese renaissance between the 16th and 19th centuries when Japan went from chaos and violence to a land of ritual refinement and peace.

But stability came at a price: for nearly 250 years, Japan was a land closed to the Western world, ruled by the shogun under his absolute power and control. Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire brings to life the unknown story of a mysterious empire, its relationship with the West, and the forging of a nation that would emerge as one of the most important countries in the world.

The Way of the Samurai. Tokugawa Ieyasu unifies Japan and establishes a dynasty that will rule Japan for over 250 years.

The Will of the Shogun. The grandson of Ieyasu, Tokugawa Iemitsu, tightens control over Japan’s warlords and expels all foreigners.

The Return of the Barbarians. Isolated from the West, 18th century Edo flourishes culturally and economically, becoming one of the liveliest cities in the world. But foreign forces are coming.

Playlist contains the episodes mentioned above, each 55 minutes long

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  2. Lol, kinda boring sorry!!! With that awful music ughhhh!!! Gore, bloodshed, slaughter no different lol….And with all that rules and regulations, was there a space to breathe and enjoy one’s life?? Evil people, confucianism is evil!!! These twats should stop using the collective, society et cetera to rob individual human beings of their life, happiness, mind and pleasure!!! Sorry but the costumes, the clothing are soo stupid lol….so unsightly!! To an average toiling japanese farmer, does he care how many swords the samurai wears??? Geez!!! Soo silly and pointless!!! Like the samurai in his code of honor is supposed to disembowel himself and get joy from that??? What a monstrous doctrine would bring human being to immolate himself willingly and get joy from that???? I never bought japan’s polite facade lol…..i always thought it was a nasty, dark, merciless place!!

    And after over two centuries of highly ordered society which treated women like slaves and chattel basically which goes perfectly well with confucianism!! And after that, japan was defeated and humiliated by the industrial west and its people blamed the rigid rule system which stifled human creativity and development!! So Japan to its credit entered the era of the meiji restoration and heavily borrowed from the west!!! Its deputies were sent to the west to tour and witness the industrial production, the tokugawa class system was completely abolished lol…..and japan heavily borrowed from the industrial west!! Scientific development, progress, modern medicine and a Prussian style of government!! There were even talks in the government to replace japanese with the english language!!!
    So, to its credit after the meiji restoration ( inspired and borrowed from the west ), japan became the first asian country to industrialize!! And it is said that japan laid the foundation for south korea’s development after the turbulent period!! And perhaps taiwan’s since like korea, it occupied that place for a few decades and built infrastructure and post office and mills et cetera!! So japan took from the west and helped other asian countries to develop, so that is good!!
    I think japanese leaders were smart enough to realize that the wind was changing and stupid confucianism had to be abandoned so the country can develop in modern industrial era!!! If it were not, then japan would be just like china!!! Backward and undeveloped and weak and dirt poor lol…I mean, Mao’s two campaigns to industrialize and develop china on a socialist model to overtake england and america spectacularly failed!!! And caused the greatest famine in human history!!! Lol…….And china only recently caught up with japan after the economic reforms obviously!!! So all in all, developed parts of asia should thank japan for borrowing from the west and you know igniting the spark!!! First modern western doctor came to korea in 1880’s and in that time, the average life span of a korean peasant was 24 years!!! Now that is the height of human life lol….back then, pretty sad!!! South koreans have mixed feeling about the japanese, on one hand a brutal occupation, on the other hand, they brought development and modern progress!!!!

  3. Ehhh…the picture is of a Korean temple’s main gate.  It’s like making a documentary of the U.S. and having a Canadian flag as the picture. ><

  4. Country glorious history, beautiful nature and historic buildings. There are many similarities with the Croatian.

  5. Country glorious history, beautiful nature and historic buildings. There are many similarities with the Croatian.

  6. A good synopsis of amazing history of the samurai culture of japan. Ike des 😉