Michael Wert – Self intro

I’m a Ph.D candidate in the history department at UC Irvine currently doing dissertation research in Tokyo. I work on the historical memory of the Meiji Restoration, in particular how different people from 1868 to the present appropriate and create the image of Oguri Tadamasa, a Tokugawa ‘martyr’ during the Restoration. How do they appropriate him? For what reasons? How do people offer alternatives to accepted master narratives of the Restoration by using Oguri’s story? These are some of the issues I deal with in my dissertation.

I’m also interested in the spread of martial arts among commoners during the bakumatsu period. This project I started several years ago and continue to gather materials for the future.

3 Comments

  1. Hi Michael. Nice to have met you the other day at Dennis’s talk at Waseda…not to mention the karaoke! So you are joining Frog in a Well? I’m looking forward to your entries in the future. -Tak

  2. Hey Michael, and welcome! It appears as though you have met and interacted with several Asia related bloggers already. I look forward to your postings.

  3. If this blog does nothing else, it will produce a definitive historical study of Japanese martial arts. I love it.

    Tokugawa loyalists as national heroes, interesting. I’ve gotten good use, by the way, out of the Shiba Goro book: it contrasts very nicely with both Musui’s Story and Fukuzawa’s Autobio. In fact, I might use all three the next time I do 19c….

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