Japan gave us The Great Wave. It also gave us 34 feet of fart scroll! 💨
When archivists at Waseda University unrolled a 34-foot Edo-period scroll, they expected samurai, landscapes, or elegant courtly scenes. What they got was 10 meters of pure, unhinged fart battle art, and it's one of the most fascinating windows into feudal Japanese culture you'll ever find.
In this episode:
The 34-foot Waseda hēgassen scroll and what's actually in it
How fart art dates back to 12th-century Japanese monks
Why the Edo period (1603–1868) became a golden age of gag art
How flatulence scrolls were used as political satire and anti-government commentary
The fart scroll of Toba and its surprisingly pointed critique of Japan's civil war
Why sometimes… a fart joke is just a fart joke
For the Love of History is a history podcast covering world history, women's history, and weird history hosted by TK. New episodes regularly!!
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