Thursday, June 4, 2009

The SA interview with historian Constantine Vaporis

The SA just finished an interview with historian Constantine Vaporis who specialises in Edo history. Read the interview carefully since there are two key points.

  • Oda Nobunaga. He recognizes Nobunaga's genius and knows that if he stayed alive long enough, history would have been different. That was the answer I hoped for and he was right on the mark.
  • On the academic side, the importance of being able to read brush-written documents. When I was living and studying in Gifu, I was starting to learn how to read those types of documents. However, it was short and now I am on my own.
Here is the link to the interview.

http://www.shogun-yashiki.blogspot.com


Professor Vaporis also has a book out as well.

Tour of Duty: Samurai, Military Service in Edo and Culture in Early Modern Japan.

You can buy his book at the SA bookstore.

Nobunaga no tame!

2 comments:

Rekishi no Tabi said...

Thanks for posting here about the interview with Dr. Constantine Vaporis. However, I don't recall Dr. Vaporis using the word "genius" when discussing Nobunaga. Dr. Vaporis, while expressing an interest in Nobunaga, merely ponders how the course of Japanese history may have been different if Nobunaga had completed his goal of unification.

otsuke said...

Yes, you are right Obenjo. However, I was trying to make the point that Dr. Vaporis knew Japanese history would have been much different if Nobunaga lived long enough. All due to God given talent.

The reason why I like the interview so much is the Dr. Vaporis gave examples and the tools to improve learning. Others are real jerks. The Dr. is doing his job and I like that.