The court is in turmoil. The child Emperor has died, leaving no heirs. The two most powerful noble families each have their favorite successor. The head of one family serves has served as chancellor for the last twenty years after…
An Adventure in the Retelling.
I read or heard a quote a while back. I don’t recall where I saw it or where it originally came from, but it has been knocking around my head a lot lately. The saying, as I recall it,…
Finding History – Ishibashiyama
A party of samurai camped on a mountainside south of modern day Odawara, answering the call to rise up against the Taira clan who had seized power and replaced the reigning emperor with a puppet of their own bloodline.…
Nagoya Castle: History Lost and Regained
This week, in between Mr. Krigbaum’s articles on WWII in The Philippines, I will go back to talking about castles here in Japan. Nagoya Castle is a grand reconstructed castle a couple of hours south of Tokyo by shinkansen with…
Discovering Local History – Chigasaki’s Oldest Place
I took a long walk down Route 1 back when I lived in Chigasaki, Japan, and on my walk I found a large torii gate standing along the highway, seemingly by itself. At the time, I thought this was…
Himeji – Japan’s Premier Castle
If you have ever spent any time reading about Japan, or even just looked at a tourism guide about the country, you have likely seen the beautiful bright white Japanese castle that often adorns Japan’s promotional literature. That…
Hikone Castle – One of Japan’s Finest Castles
If you’ve ever traveled around Japan you know that they love their castles. Almost every old castle town has either rebuilt their castles, preserved the grounds as a park, or, in rare cases, preserved their castle through the centuries. …
The Zen Retreat of Saijoji Temple.
As I was going through my pictures deciding on this week’s article, I stumbled across some older pictures from shortly after I had gotten my first DSLR camera. As I got more into photography, I started taking my camera…
Kawasaki’s Premier Folk Museum – Nihon Minkaen
A couple months ago I wrote about the number of folk museums in Japan and old buildings that the Japanese have preserved from their history. The best of these folk museums that I have found so far is a…
Lost in Time – Forgotten Relics of War
We are traveling again for the New Year, so this week’s article is a brief look at something a friend of mine and I found hiking near Zushi, Kanagawa. An acquaintance who lives in the area told me there…