Heian: Four Centuries of Court, Genji, and the Rise of the Samurai
One April night around the year 1010, a court lady put down her brush, looked at the page she had […]
History & Culture
The ideas, policies, and customs that shaped Japan — told as stories, not textbook entries.
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
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
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
Sakura: The 1,300-Year-Old Hanami Tradition
Eighty per cent of the cherry trees you see flowering in Japan in April are the same tree. Not the
The 5 Kyoto Districts Where Geisha Still Work
Why a geisha is a licensed traditional-arts performer rather than anything else Western writing has called her, and where to find the 250 who still work in Kyoto.
Rikyū: The Fish Merchant Who Killed the Golden Room
On the twenty-eighth day of the second month of the nineteenth year of Tenshō, 21 April 1591 by the modern
Japan’s Only Buddhist Inari: 620 Years in Toyokawa
The thing that ought to make Toyokawa Inari impossible is that it is not a shrine. It is a Sōtō
The Three Great Gardens of Japan
There are fifteen rocks in the karesansui garden at Ryōan-ji, arranged on a rectangle of raked white gravel about twenty-five