There were about 300 castles in Japan in the golden age of the Edo period, but most of them were destroyed at the end of the 19th century...

Many stores and warehouses with white plastered walls stand side by side in the old town of Uchiko located 40km southwest of Matsuyama...

Located in the westernmost part of Saga Prefecture and adjacent to Nagasaki Prefecture, Arita Town is mostly forested but has a narrow...

Since the beginning of the 17th century, the ceramics produced in Arita and its vicinity had been called Imari ware, because they were...

Swords are one of the most basic weapons in the world in that they have been made and used since ancient times.  The material and shape...

Takahashi Korekiyo, the 26th prime minister of Japan, was known as an expert in the economy, so he also served as the Governor of the...

Nabeshima Shigeyoshi, a chief retainer of the Nabeshima clan who was the daimyo feudal lords of the Saga domain, built this garden in...

Japan accepted reluctantly the opening of the country to the West due to gunboat diplomacy by Western countries in the second half of the...

When Japan’s modernization started in the second half of the 19th century, the long lasted prohibition order of Christianity was...

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a samurai leader who unified Japan in the second half of the 16th century, set about the attack on Odawara-jo...

His father was a wealthy merchant running a variety of businesses such as sea transport, the brewing industry, fisheries and the like. ...

This unique building, designed by Imai Kenji, was built in 1966 to commemorate the Kanreki, the 60th birthday, of the late Empress Kojun...

Tokugawa Ieyasu who was ordered to change his territory to Edo, present time Tokyo, by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1590, set about expansion...

This building was originally erected by Inoue Risuke the 4th, a wealthy merchant in Muro-machi, Kyoto, for his house and office in 1926. ...

Mongolia and Goryeo attacked the northern coast of Kyushu with 40,000 soldiers in 1274 to destroy Dazaifu, Japan’s local government...

Korin-in in Higashiyama, Kyoto, is the oldest existing sub-temple of Kodai-ji Buddhist Temple, known as the mausoleum of Toyotomi...

These six old stone Jizo statues have a small round hole on their bodies respectively.  Standing along the seacoast, they sink under the...

According to the private biographical writings of the temple, this temple was built in 1461. After being destroyed by fire during...

In April,1701, Asano Takuminokami, who was the daimyo feudal lord of the Ako domain in present-day Hyogo Prefecture, suddenly slashed...

This Japanese-style hotel opened in 1951 and has undergone several additional renovations since then.  Being built at the old site of a...

This modern-Japanese-style building, built in 1921, originally was a villa of Yamamoto Shunkyo, a leading Japanese-style painter in the...

Zeze ware isn’t well known in Japan though, it was originated by a daimyo feudal lord of Zeze domain, present Otsu City, in the...

Uochu stands in the old town of Otsu City, which was the last post town (the 53rd post town from Edo) of the old Tokaido Highway running...

Mikimoto Kokichi, known as the founder of MIKIMOTO, a manufacturer and seller of jewelry using pearls, was born in Toba City, Mie...

This garden dates back to the garden of the main Edo mansion of the Kofu Tokugawa family, a relative family of the Tokugawa shogun, which...

A beautiful coastline with large and small rocks as well as white sand, situated at the mouth of the Isuzu River, is known as...

Denzaburo Fujita was born into a wealthy family running a brewing and financial industry in the Choshu domain, present Yamaguchi...

Court nobles in Kyoto were special families serving successive emperors.  They lived in big houses around the Kyoto Imperial Palace to...

Sankei-en Garden was built by Zenzaburo Hara, a superrich businessman who made a fortune in silk trade at the beginning of the 20th...

The Mongol Empire ruled over an immense territory from present China and the Korean Peninsula to Eastern Europe longer than 100 years...

Yokohama Chinatown, with more than 600 restaurants and stores within an area of around 500 meters square, is far larger than the other...

Japan had adopted a national seclusion policy for longer than 200 years in the Edo period.  From the latter half of the 18th century,...

The movie “Poppoya”, based on the novel of the same title, was released in 1999 and was a huge hit, winning all the major Japanese film...

This resort, one of the leading ski resorts in Hokkaido, opened in 1983 under a different name from what it has today.  With many...

Furano area, which stretches out in the Furano Basin in central Hokkaido, has become known nationwide in the 1980’s due to a popular TV...

The souls of 2.5 million Japanese soldiers, who lost their lives in various wars from the civil wars in the mid-19th century to the...

Ana-hachiman in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, which is said to be founded in 1062, was worshipped by the successive Tokugawa shogun families...

This Japanese-style graceful building was built in Kyoto in 2005 as the next state guest house after the State Guest House Akasaka Palace...

This teahouse stands in the Ninomaru Japanese Garden in the Imperial Palace East Garden in Tokyo.  This is named after a simple teahouse...

The fifteen successive Tokugawa shoguns resided in Edo Castle, now the Imperial Palace, for 260 years from the early 17th century and...

The Ise Jingu Shinto Shrine is dedicated to the ancestors of the Imperial Family, hence the common people couldn’t enter the shrine...

This is thought to be the special Shinto shrine standing at the top of all Japanese Shinto shrines, and is made up of two different...

Japan’s higher education flourished at the schools established by the Tokugawa shogunate and many feudal clans across the country in the...

Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the 5th Tokugawa Shogun, strived to disseminate Confucianism to stabilize the management of the nation with the...

This market has been derived from a small fish market standing in front of the black gate of the local Buddhist temple, called Enmyo-ji,...

Foreign tourists have finally returned to Japan, with the end of Covid-19 pandemic.  Thanks to a weak yen recently in particular, they...

This park, opened in 1902, measures 16 hectares and is run by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.  After the repeated design competitions,...

Shinjuku Gyoen, known for beautiful cherry blossoms, used to be a mansion of the Naito family, a daimyo feudal lord of Takato, Nagano...

There is a basin with dippers just this side of the main building or hall of worship of a Shinto  shrine or Buddhist temple in Japan. ...

Yanagisawa Yoshiyasu, a chief retainer of the 5th Tokugawa Shogun Tsunayoshi as well as a feudal lord at that time, built his villa with...