History | THE LIVING PAST Nov 16, 2020
A charm offensive in the Yoshiwara pleasure district
by Michael Hoffman
Life in the pleasure district was fun, if you were capable of mustering up the right amount of charm.
National / History | THE LIVING PAST Apr 18, 2020
The dogs have their day in old Edo
by Michael Hoffman
The Laws of Compassion that Tokugawa Tsunayoshi issued trickled down to the lowest rungs of Edo Period (1603-1868) Japan, which included the capital's many feral dogs.
National / History | THE LIVING PAST Mar 14, 2020
The Edo Period: An era of utter weirdness
by Michael Hoffman
The Edo Period (1603-1868) was a bizarre time that visitors to Japan could not help but comment on — the countless laws, the brutal punishments ... and the dogs.
National / Media | BIG IN JAPAN Mar 7, 2020
Paradise lost: Japan longs for simpler times in trying days
by Michael Hoffman
The Japanese weren't always workaholics. Once upon a time, work had its place and knew its place. It didn't swallow life whole. Other pursuits were given their due. People worked without being consumed by work. Author Jiro Asada, writing in PHP magazine (April), refers us ...
National / History | THE LIVING PAST Feb 8, 2020
Engelbert Kaempfer on the old roads of Japan
by Michael Hoffman
"Japanese travel more often than other people," wrote Engelbert Kaempfer, the 17th-century physician, scholar, naturalist and explorer whose "History of Japan" (1712) was the first full-length foreign-language portrait of the nation.
Books / Reviews | ESSENTIAL READING FOR JAPANOPHILES Oct 6, 2018
by Don O'Keefe
In "Studies in Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan," leading postwar political scientist Masao Maruyama chronicles the ideas and debates of scholars throughout the Edo Period (1603-1868). Studies in Intellectual History of Tokugawa Japan, by Masao Maruyama, Translated by Mikiso Hane.383 pages PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, Nonfiction. The central ...
Language | BILINGUAL Jan 22, 2018
Learning Japanese from TV samurai tales of the wild East
by Mark Schreiber
Portraying legendary heroes in colorful costumes of yore, jidaigeki (period dramas) date back to the earliest years of silent films, and the genre has been frequently compared with America's TV Westerns.
Style & Design Nov 26, 2017
Throwback time for fashion leads to innovation
by Samuel Thomas
As regular followers of Japanese fashion can attest, the industry can be seen as somewhat flirtatious, dallying with new debutantes, another sister brand, another collaboration, another short-term "limited shop" or another retail concept that makes the news but doesn't really change the game. It is ...
Our Lives | JAPAN LITE Nov 26, 2017
Edo Period 'post town' in Okayama re-imagines its past and reaps tourism dividends
by Amy Chavez
Yakage is the only preserved town along the Sanyo Road that survives in it's near-original form, and tourists are flocking there.
Lifestyle Jun 18, 2017
Japan’s 'kanban' are still hanging in there
by Martin Laflamme
Little information remains about the personal life of the artisan Kojiro Shimizu. His personality and interests, his passions and motivations — all are shrouded in mystery. What we know is that he worked in Kyoto in the late 19th and early 20th century and ...
Art May 9, 2017
Keeping up with the Joneses, Edo style
by Yoko Haruhara
The Edo Period (1603-1868) is renowned for the flourishing of material culture — a time when major advances and innovations in Japanese folk crafts and design were prized by the burgeoning commoner class of Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Osaka. "The Golden Age of Mingei: Life ...
Entertainment News Dec 30, 2016
British envoy, Japan Times turn tide in NHK history drama
by Daisuke Kikuchi
Japanese love watching historical dramas, and one of the most popular times portrayed is the final years of the Edo Period (1603-1868), when the nation went through dramatic change politically, diplomatically and socially with the fall of the shogunate. In many cases, such TV shows, ...