Travel Aug 18, 2017
Searching for traces of a mountain mystic in rural Aichi
by Alon Adika
Mount Horaiji was said to be home to Rishu Sennin, an ascetic from the mists of antiquity
Art / Openings Outside Tokyo Feb 14, 2017
'The Exhibition of The Sengoku Period: A Century of Dreams'
by Yukari Tanaka
Feb. 25-April 16 The Sengoku Period (1454-1573) was an era marked by civil conflict; however, it was also a time of significant cultural and economic growth. As the major warlords Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu fought to unify Japan, artworks were also being ...
Books / Reviews May 14, 2016
'Spectacular Accumulation' explains three warlords' obsession with objects
by Damian Flanagan
In "Spectacular Accumulation" Morgan Pitelka relates the thrilling interactions between three "unifiers" of Japan in the tumultuous decades of the late 16th century and early 17th century. This trio of warlords includes the bloodthirsty Oda Nobunaga, the vainglorious Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu who ...
Travel Mar 19, 2016
Battle of Sekigahara: a war set in stone
by Stephen Mansfield
The open valley basins of Gifu Prefecture at the very center of Honshu, where the town of Sekigahara lies, were easily co-opted as theaters of war. It's no coincidence, given the martial history of the region, that the town of Seki was once known ...
Language | BILINGUAL Nov 16, 2015
Same-sex marriages? Japan's been there, done that, kind of
by Kaori Shoji
Japan may come off to the outsider as a repressive society, but on homosexuality, the country has consistently been fairly liberal and permissive.
Art / Openings In Tokyo Mar 26, 2015
'Special Exhibition: The Great Battle of Sekigahara'
by Daisuke Kikuchi
March 28-May 17 In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of shogunate Ieyasu Tokugawa, the Edo Tokyo Museum is hosting a traveling exhibition on the Battle of Sekigahara. The Sekigahara campaign (1598-1603), during which Ieyasu and his allies fought Ishida Mitsunari, involved areas all ...
National | CHUBU CONNECTION Jun 13, 2014
The city of Okazaki in Aichi Prefecture this year is doubling efforts to attract visitors from its neighbors in East Asia, especially China and Taiwan. The city is famous as the birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the warlord who founded the Tokugawa shogunate in the 17th ...
Art Apr 9, 2014
Edo-Tokyo Museum maps out the history of Japan's capital
by Rhiannon Paget
The transformation of Edo from a mosquito-infested fishing village to seat of power and cultural center has endlessly fascinated lovers of history. After the imperial capital Kyoto fell to military rule in 1185, ensuing battles for power saw the capital move to Kamakura, then ...
Lifestyle Mar 29, 2014
Chishaku-in: a Kyoto garden of deep repose
by Stephen Mansfield
As a garden, Chishaku-in has many of the attributes of Japanese landscape design that should attract a good number of visitors. The fact that the temple in Kyoto's southeastern Higashikawara-cho district is rarely crowded, and that scant attention is paid to it in guidebooks, ...
Events / Events Outside Tokyo Apr 5, 2013
by Delilah Romasanta
There aren't many people as important in the history of Japan as Tokugawa Ieyasu. He was the man who, in 1603, seized power over the whole country as he launched the Tokugawa Shogunate, which lasted until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Since he is such ...
General Oct 11, 2009
Fake names were to the fore in many a rise from humblest to highest
by Michael Hoffman
Here's a beguiling irony: Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-98), architect of Tokugawa Japan's rigid class structure and the author, in 1587, of a firm ban (not firmly enforced) on surnames for commoners, was himself born without a surname. "Toyotomi," the family name under which his memory survives, ...