1564. Satomi Yoshihiro looked out across the Edo River at the Hojo forces arraying against him, just as his father had 26 years prior. The elder Satomi, Yoshitaka, was defeated by Hojo Ujitsuna in the first battle of Konodai and…

If you’ve been following our Facebook, you’ve seen that Mr. Krigbaum and I met up in Inuyama, a small city on the border with Aichi and Gifu Prefectures for several days of museum goodness. David wanted to hit Meiji-Mura, the…
It’s 1854. Commodore Matthew Perry has just sailed his black ships into Tokyo bay and forced the Tokugawa Shogunate to open Japan to foreign trade for the first time in more than 200 years. The sudden appearance of…
Dave Hansche here. It is my week to post an article, but I am really busy. Recently started a new job, photo sessions all weekend, and more upcoming this week. But I also know I’ve not been great about…
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of being hired for a photo shoot in Narita in Chiba Prefecture, in an amazing park and temple complex not far from Narita Airport that I will have to write about sometime…
Kanazawa Castle. These shots have been sitting in the archives since early last year, waiting for me to get around to writing it up here at Wayfarer Daves. Finally, it’s time to revisit the New Years 2017 grand adventure…
It is 1583. Oda Nobunaga has been assassinated, and Nobunga’s right hand man, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, has avenged his death and is in the process of consolidating his own power. Of course, the aspiring ruler needed a palace worthy of…
As I’ve traveled around Japan, I have found a number of places referred to as “ruins”. Castle ruins, temple ruins and palace ruins are scattered all across Japan. The idea of ruins here though, are a bit different than…
Over New Years this last year, the other Dave and I spent the holidays, as we often do, traveling around Japan together. This year’s main target was the stunningly beautiful village of Shirakawa-go in northern Gifu. Along the way,…
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…