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Born into a medical doctor’s family to the feudal lord of the Tsuwano domain in present Shimane Prefecture in 1862, Mori Ohgai was reputed to be a promising person even in his youth. Right after the end of the Tokugawa samurai government, he moved to Tokyo with his father at the age of ten, after that he entered present Tokyo University’s medical department. He became an army doctor after graduating from the university and was dispatched to Germany to study an advanced medical science for four years. His prominent talent for literature seemed to grow up when he returned to Japan from Germany, because he started to translate Western literary works one after another just at that time. In addition, he also taught a class on aesthetics at his old school and other major universities in Tokyo. But it is said that his turning point in his life arrived when he moved to Kokura, Fukuoka Prefecture, in 1899. Through the life in Kokura for three years, his sence of elitism faded and he became tender to the common people. This change was helpful to make him a greater novelist highly evaluated by many people in Japan than before. After Kokura, he returned to Tokyo as a Surgeon General, the highest-ranking army doctor. Most of his literary works were done after this time. The photo shows his house in Kokura when he was lonely after his divorce. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Ogasawara Tadazane, who was appointed as a lord of the Kokura domain in 1665 after Hosokawa clan, established Kojusan Fukuju-ji in Kokura soon after his inauguration. He invited Sokuhi, who was a prominent Chinese disciple of Ingen. Ingen was a famous priest from China to introduce Obaku school of Zen Buddhism into Japan and propagated based in Manpuki-ji head temple in Kyoto. Ingen ordered Sokuhi to come to Japan as his assistant in 1657. Answering Ingen’s expectation, Sokuhi worked mainly in Nagasaki as the head priest of Sofuku-ji temple, which was very important temple of Obaku school for Chinese there. Then he dared to accept Ogasawara’s invitation to Kokura and strived to build Kojusan Fukuju-ji temple and took seat of the first head priest of it. Because of this historical background, this temple has Chinese exterior as shown in the photo. In this connection, the Ogasawara clan was a faithful retainer of the Tokugawa shogun family for long time, so the clan was highly expected to oversee the powerful outside daimyos in Kyushu and western Japan. Hence, Kokura was fiercely attacked by Mouri clan in present Yamaguchi Prefecture in the last years of the Tokugawa Shogunate when Tokugawa’s power weakened. The castle and other important buildings were reduced to ashes though, the main building of the temple fortunately survived. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

This building was built in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, in 1930. The Lee family had ruled the Korean Empire as an emperor from the end of the 14th century to 1910, when the Korean Empire was annexed by Japan. The Lee family headed by then prince Lee Gin was incorporated into a member of Japan’s Imperial family and was obliged to move to Tokyo from present Seoul. This Tokyo residence was consequently built for them. After the end of the Second World War, however, the Lee family was deprived of its prestigious position following the GHQ policy. Eleven time-honored Imperial families in Japan also lost their position at the same time. The empty residence was sold to a private corporation and renovated into a 35-room hotel named Akasaka Prince Hotel in 1955. About half of the building was dismembered when it was converted into the hotel though, the interior details were well preserved in their original state. Thereafter in 2016, it was renovated again into a high-end mixed-use facility with a restaurant, wedding hall and banquet hall under the name of the Classic House at Akasaka Prince. In this connection, the last prince of the Lee family and his wife Masako, who was from the Nashimoto-no-miya family, one of the Imperial families in Japan, went back to Korea as a commoner in 1963 and died there in 1970 and 1989 respectively. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Universal Studios Japan opened in 2001. This theme park, featuring the films NBC Universal made, is the third one after in Hollywood and Orlando in the US. The approximate annual number of the visitors in 2023 was 16 million, which was the largest number among world’s five theme parks run by the same company. Osaka’s USJ and Tokyo’s TDL fiercely compete every year for the largest number of the visitors in Japan. USJ recently is promoting collaborations with other popular characters than their own films, such as “Harry Potter”, “Hello Kitty” and “Nintendo”, to bolster its drawing power. In line with a variety of measures by the Japanese Government to draw sightseers from abroad, it enjoys increasing number of the foreign visitors, particularly from Asian countries. Osaka, Japan’s second largest metropolitan area, has gradually gone into a decline though, it seems that it is regaining the former economic power thanks to this bustling theme park. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

The origin of Okazaki Castle was a small castle built in the 15th century in the Okazaki area, a transportation crossroads from a long time ago. In 1531, Matsudaira Kiyoyasu, who was the grandfather of Tokugawa Ieyasu, built a full-scale castle a little away from the old one. The new one is present Okazaki Castle. Tokugawa Ieyasu was born in this castle in 1542 as the son of Matsudaira Hirotada, the son of Matsudaira Kiyoyasu. Throughout the 250-year Edo period, Okazaki Castle was revered as the birthplace of Tokugawa Ieyasu, consequently high-ranking daimyo feudal lords with close ties to the Tokugawa family were appointed as its lords. When the Tokugawa samurai government came to an end, however, most castles in Japan were demolished based on the so-called Haijorei, the castle abolition law, issued by the new authorities. The prestigious castle was also destroyed. In 1959, thereafter, the new castle tower was reconstructed in concrete thanks to the donations from the locals. The reconstructed castle tower in the photo was faithfully following the original external appearance in that the old photos and related documents of the original tower. The Otemon main gate and other affiliated buildings were reconstructed one after another, and the entire castle form was completed as it is today. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

In Japan, an earthquake-prone country, it was believed that earthquakes were caused when big catfish thrashed deep under the ground. They thought if they could make them still, earthquakes might not occur. They believed the weight of Kaname-ishi stone held the catfish still deep under the ground, as it looked a small stone though, the entire body mainly under the ground was heavy enough to do that. The Kaname-ishi stones at Kashima-jingu Shrine in Ibaragi Prefecture and Katori-jingu Shrine in Chiba Prefecture are the most famous. Edo, present Tokyo, was the de facto capital of Japan in the 17th-19th century. As this big city was often struck by major earthquakes, the residents may have placed the Kaname-ishi stones at these historic shrines in the vicinity of Edo to quell the big earthquakes. After the Great Ansei Earthquake of 1855, the paper charms with catfish print to ward off the earthquakes, which was issued by Kashima-jingu Shrine, gained popularity in Edo. In those years, they believed that these two Kaname-ishi stones were connected each other deep under the ground to pin the catfish down in the Kanto region. The two photos show the Kaname-ishi stones at each shrine. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

This shrine is the head shrine of about 400 Katori shrines standing mainly in the Kanto region, and enshrines the deity Futsunushi, which was depicted in Japanese myth as a guardian god when the Imperial Court was suppressing other powers in the country. For the Imperial Court, which had completed the unification of Japan in 811 by subduing the Ainu, a rival force in eastern Japan, following the subjugation of rival forces in western Japan, the god Futsunushi was an absolute guardian. Even in the successive samurai governments, thereafter, this guardian god continued to be worshipped as a war god. Together with nearby Kashima-jingu Shinto Shrine in Ibaragi Prefecture, which enshrines the deity Takemikazuchi, they were believed to be the crucial guardian gods of the Imperial Court particularly for the battles against the Ainu. These events were a long time ago though, the current Emperor Naruhito still performs a religious ritual called Shihohai early in the morning, January 1st, every year. He prays to these guardian gods in every direction from the Imperial Palace for a good harvest and national security. This ritual started in the 7th century and has been kept since then gradually changing its form step by step. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Enthroned as the 47th emperor in the mid-8th century, Emperor Junnin ruled Japan for six years. But, a fierce battle between he and his predecessor Empress Koken took place in his reign in that she stuck to the political power as a former empress even after the abdication. She finally ascended the throne again, then exiled him to Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture. Awaji Island is located 130 km west of Nara, the then capital. Emperor Junnin was erased from the history book of Japan’s Imperial Family. He tried in vain to escape from the island and was killed there at the age of 33. This unprecedented event was hidden for a long time but was brought to light when Japan’s modernization started in the second half of the 19th century. His mausoleum, the so-called Kofun, has been left as it was in the island for over 1,200 years, however, the present imperial authorities put it in good condition as shown in the photo. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Nakayama Shinto Shrine enshrines the spirit of a court noble Nakayama Tadamitsu, who was the uncle of the Emperor Meiji and the member of a radical anti-foreign loyalist faction at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate. He left Kyoto for the Choshu domain, present Yamaguchi Prefecture, to share his political views with radical samurais there, and participated in Shimonoseki bombardment against the combined fleet of Western powers in 1863-1864. He became a wanted person within the Choshu domain in that the anti-foreign loyalist faction was defeated after a fierce political dispute in the country. Finaly, he was assassinated and his remains were buried at the site where Nakayama Shinto Shrine stands. Nakayama Shinto Shrine was built later having to do with this event. In this connection, his great-granddaughter, Nakayama Hiro, married Aishin-Gioro Pujie who was the younger brother of the Last Emperor of China. A small shrine was built near the place where her great-grandfather Nakayama Tadamitsu is sleeping, following her last wish. The spirits of Pujie, Hiro and their older daughter are enshrined here. A shrine generally stands toward east or south though, this small shrine faces China direction. A variety of the related goods of the family offered from their younger daughter were on display in the museum of Nakayama Shinto Shrine. The first photo shows the main gate of Nakayama Shinto Shrine, and the second one is the small shrine for Pujie’s family. http://tour-guide-japan.jp

Maneki-neko, frequently seen near the main entrance of a restaurant and store, is believed to invite good luck and good business in Japan. This cute figure is also seen in China and Taiwan recently though, the birthplace of it is thought to be Gotoku-ji Buddhist Temple in Tokyo. In the first half of the 17th century, Ii Naotaka who was the then feudal lord of the Hikone domain in present Shiga Prefecture just happened to be passing by a temple on the way back from hawking, where a cute cat of the temple beckoned him to enter the temple grounds. Right after he followed the cat, he was caught in a thunderstorm and the spot he met the cat was struck by lightning. Thanks to the cat, he was saved by the skin of his teeth. He named the temple Gotoku-ji, thereafter, and designated as his family temple in Edo, present Tokyo, in token of his gratitude to the cat. Since then, many visitors have offered a statue of a beckoning cat to the temple to share his good luck, as shown in the first photo. In this connection, Ii Naosuke, the 14th feudal lord of the Hikone domain, managed the national administration as a chief minister of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the middle of the 19th century. But he was assassinated by several samurais from other feudal domains because his way of administration was provocative as it was too much self-righteous. He is sleeping in the graveyard of the temple with other members of the Ii family. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

Inubosaki Point, where the lighthouse stands, is located at the eastern end of Choshi City, which has prospered as a hub for water transport, a fishing port and soy-producing area since it lies along the mouth of the Tone River, Japan’s largest river. However, fatal maritime accidents repeatedly happened in the nearby costal waters because of many sunken reefs. The authorities built the Inubosaki Lighthouse in 1874 to cope with this situation. The lighthouse was designed and supervised by Richard Brunton, a specialist from the UK. He adopted cavity wall structure with Japan’s first bricks to get high seismic performance. The lighthouse, 32 meters tall, is Japan’s second tallest brick building after Shiriyazaki Lighthouse in Aomori Prefecture, and was designated as an Import Cultural Asset in 2020. In this connection, there are several rocks in the shallows beside the lighthouse as shown in the second photo. The film clip that the violent waves are crashing against these rocks is used for the title background of Toei, one of the largest motion-picture companies in Japan. Everybody in Japan knows this clip like the roaring lion of MGM, the snow mountain of Paramount and the torch lady of Columbia. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/

This shrine dates from 1660, when the Marugame domain in Kagawa Prefecture built the branch of Kotohira-gu head shrine in the grounds of their Edo residence in Mita. Kotohira-gu head shrine in Kagawa Prefecture is a prestigious shrine and very well-known across the country. In accordance with the relocation of the Edo residence from Mita to Toranomon, the shrine also moved to Toranomon, present site, in 1679. Toranomon area has developed as a major business district in line with adjacent Kasumigaseki area’s growth as the central government district in Japan after the end of feudal years. Kotohira-gu built Toranomon-Kaikan Building next to its Honden main building in 1965 to make the most of its ample precincts. The demand for office buildings in the area was increasing at that time and is still on going. The present 26-story office building, Toranomon Kotohira Tower, is the result of the complete reconstruction of the previous building in 2004. The visitors to the shrine pass through the main torii gate of the shrine and proceed through the pilotis built in the lower section of the building to reach the shrine’s main building. http://tour-guide-japan.jp/