Aomori Nebuta Matsuri: The Warrior Floats That Light Up Tohoku Every August
The first thing nobody tells you about Aomori Nebuta Matsuri is that the chant means almost nothing. For six August […]
Sapporo Snow Festival: How Six High School Sculptures Became Two Million Visitors
On the morning of 6 February 1950, six high school students from Sapporo’s Tōhō school finished six small snow figures
Japan’s Three Sacred Treasures: The Sword, Mirror, and Jewel No One Has Seen
The Three Sacred Treasures of Japan have not been seen in public since 1928, and the sword among them, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi,
Senmaida: A Thousand Rice Paddies on the Edge of the Sea of Japan
On a 50-metre slope above the Sea of Japan, on the western edge of the Noto Peninsula, there is a
Karate Before It Was Karate: From Okinawan Te to Olympic Sport
The first time karate appeared in a Japanese magazine the size of Vogue, the story wasn’t a quiet biography. It
Walking the Kumano Kodō: Where Buddhas and Kami Both Live
In the eleventh century, Emperor Shirakawa walked the Kumano Kodō nine times. His son Toba walked it twenty-three times. His
Aikido: The Art Ueshiba Built From Forty Other Arts
Morihei Ueshiba was officially rejected from the Imperial Japanese Army in 1903 for being half an inch under regulation height.
Japan’s Greatest Gardens: A Complete Visitor’s Guide
The Adachi Museum of Art in rural Shimane has been ranked the number-one Japanese garden in the country every single
Japan’s 12 Original Castles: The Complete Guide to the Surviving Keeps
There are twelve original castle keeps left in Japan. Every other Japanese castle you have ever seen in a photograph
Marugame Castle: The Smallest Keep on the Tallest Stone Walls
The first time you spot Marugame Castle from the Sanuki plain, you are probably not looking at the keep. You