Approaching the house of 80-year-old Akiko Ishigaki, a three-legged dog rises to signal our arrival. From inside the house, Ishigaki gently scolds the dog, emerges from the doorway and invites us in. She's dressed in layers of woven purple cloth and her face maintains the ...

For much of its history Tokyo was known as city of water. Like Venice or Bangkok, canals were the arteries of commerce, and life was lived in close proximity to rivers and creeks. But that legacy was, for the most part, hidden under concrete ...

Shigeo Ota spends six days a week behind the counter of his cafe, Aroma, watching TV and waiting for customers who rarely come. The cafe is in Komagome, a town in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, close the quiet neighborhoods of Yanaka, Nezu and Sendagi (collectively ...

Craftsmen from two regional factories — one makes miso; the other, shoyu — ponder the future of their little town and its centuries-old traditions