00:00Crueler than death itself, the unbearable despair of Japan's island exile.
00:04Japan's oldest recorded exile begins with a heartbreaking tale,
00:08a princess of the imperial court banished from Nara all the way to Shikoku
00:12for no other reason than her devotion to her brother.
00:14In the Nara and Heian periods, exile actually carried a more humane purpose,
00:19something closer to a rehabilitation program where offenders could serve their time
00:22and eventually return to society.
00:24In the Kamakura period, exile became a political weapon to silence rivals.
00:28Then came the Edo period, under Shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune.
00:31A new and far more brutal form of exile was introduced a life sentence of banishment,
00:35where the condemned were erased from society alive, never to return.
00:39And in one truly bizarre episode under Tokugawa Tsunayoshi,
00:42a crow that had the misfortune of dropping its droppings on the Shogun's head
00:46was officially sentenced to exile.
00:47In the Muramachi period, even a god was exiled for failing to stop a plague.
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