{"id":5881,"date":"2025-11-07T18:28:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T18:28:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/?p=5881"},"modified":"2025-12-22T21:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T21:01:07","slug":"binging-shogun-can-historical-fiction-be-good-for-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/news\/binging-shogun-can-historical-fiction-be-good-for-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Binging Shogun: Can Historical Fiction Be Good for History?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Recording available at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/fljt4HdZa5Y\">TownHall Youtube<\/a>:<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Monday, Dec. 8, 2025 | 6 \u2013 8 p.m. | Town Hall Seattle<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"firstp\">When \u201cShogun\u201d was released last year, it was a commercial and critical success. So of course, academic historians fretted. Were they concerned that it painted sixteenth-century Japan as another Game of Thrones (with more ninjas and fewer dragons)? Maybe a little. But most scholars were anxious because they understood how important the show would be and how profound an impact it would have on the public\u2019s perception of Japanese culture and history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"middlep\">In this talk, David Spafford will take a closer look at the complexities of the period and unpack why this particular moment in history matters so much, and how \u201cShogun\u201d does (or does not) help us understand it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"middlep\"><strong>David Spafford<\/strong> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5885 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/Davis-Spafford.jpg\" alt=\"David Spafford\" width=\"208\" height=\"275\" \/>is an associate professor of Premodern Japanese History at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses on samurai, early modern urbanization, and premodern law and violence. He is the author of \u201cA Sense of Place: The Political Landscape in Late Medieval Japan,\u201d which explores the resilience of medieval regional identities and cultural geographies during the early Warring States period.<\/p>\n<p>This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Japanese Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, along with Washin Kai.<\/p>\n<p>Purchase tickets <a href=\"https:\/\/ticketing.townhallseattle.org\/events\/0198c967-8d59-754c-16b4-354fb35d7c5f\">on the Town Hall website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recording available at TownHall Youtube: &nbsp; Monday, Dec. 8, 2025 | 6 \u2013 8 p.m. | Town Hall Seattle When \u201cShogun\u201d was released last year, it was a commercial and critical success. So of course, academic historians fretted. Were they concerned that it painted sixteenth-century Japan as another Game of Thrones (with more ninjas and<\/p>\n<div><a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/news\/binging-shogun-can-historical-fiction-be-good-for-history\/\">Read more<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":710,"featured_media":5883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,61],"tags":[168,169],"class_list":["post-5881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-video","tag-david-spafford","tag-shogun","region-east-asia","region-japan"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Binging Shogun: Can Historical Fiction Be Good for History? - UW Center for Japanese Studies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/news\/binging-shogun-can-historical-fiction-be-good-for-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Binging Shogun: Can Historical Fiction Be Good for History? - UW Center for Japanese Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recording available at TownHall Youtube: &nbsp; Monday, Dec. 8, 2025 | 6 \u2013 8 p.m. | Town Hall Seattle When \u201cShogun\u201d was released last year, it was a commercial and critical success. 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Were they concerned that it painted sixteenth-century Japan as another Game of Thrones (with more ninjas and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/news\/binging-shogun-can-historical-fiction-be-good-for-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UW Center for Japanese Studies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-07T18:28:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-22T21:01:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/11\/Shogun-Tokugawa-Ieyasu-728x1024.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"728\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Madison Anne Morgan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Madison Anne Morgan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/news\/binging-shogun-can-historical-fiction-be-good-for-history\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jsis.washington.edu\/japan\/news\/binging-shogun-can-historical-fiction-be-good-for-history\/\",\"name\":\"Binging Shogun: Can Historical Fiction Be Good for History? 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