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August 15, 2026
 

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EDO PERIOD

Recognized as a tangible cultural property in 2003, the former residence of the Iizuka family is now a boutique hotel in Nakagawa, Tochigi Prefecture.
LIFE / Travel
Apr 13, 2026
Inside Iizukatei, a 200-year-old home turned boutique hotel in Tochigi
The dwelling stands as the first tangible cultural property in eastern Japan to be transformed into a hotel.
A portrait of Hiraga Gennai painted by the artist Nakamaru Seijuro in 1886, currently at Waseda University Library in Tokyo.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Mar 23, 2026
An island tale of myth, desire and the wisdom of laughter
A journey from Â鶹´«Ã½ oldest myths to Edo eccentric Hiraga Gennai, who discovers the absurdity and humor at life¡¯s core.
A statue of Saint Francis Xavier in Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture. Christianity spread rapidly in Kyushu before facing brutal suppression under the Tokugawa shogunate.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jan 16, 2026
How Tokugawa Japan learned to fear faith
The Shimabara Rebellion reveals how faith, fear and power converged in Tokugawa Japan, ending in martyrdom, massacre and historical memory.
A folding screen depicts a Dutch vessel allied with the Tokugawa shogunate in its efforts to quash a rebellion of local ronin and Catholic peasants led by Amakusa Shiro.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Dec 20, 2025
Edo Â鶹´«Ã½ bloody legacy of Christian revolt
By the end of the 16th century, Kyushu was more Christian than Buddhist ¡ª setting the stage for one of the most violent clashes of the Edo Period (1603-1867).
A print by Utagawa Kuniyasu (1794-1832) depicts a bustling scene at a fish market in Nihonbashi.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Oct 18, 2025
Of sound and silence in old Japan
While haiku poets like Basho extolled the virtues of tranquility, premodern Japan was likely a noisier affair than most people imagine.
A <i>shunga</i> work by Utagawa Toyokuni (1769-1825) is on display at an exhibition of erotic Japanese art in the Kabukicho red-light entertainment area in the Shinjuku district of central Tokyo.
CULTURE / Art
Sep 8, 2025
Traditional Japanese erotic art exhibition puts female pleasure in focus
An erotic form of ukiyo-e, shunga is often dismissed as mere pornography. An exhibition in Kabukicho aims to highlight its artistry.
Ashikaga Takauji was a 14th-century warrior whose shifting alliances had a profound impact on the turbulent politics of his day. More than 500 years later, imperial loyalists were moved to channel their lingering fury at Takauji's betrayal of Emperor Go-Daigo.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
May 17, 2025
The emperor and the shogun: A power struggle across the centuries
For imperial loyalists of the late Edo Period, the experiences of Emperor Go-Daigo from five centuries past were an inspiration ¡ª and a warning.
Tatsumi Onose (right), who plays the part of Commodore Matthew Perry in Shimoda's Black Ship Festival, says the historical episode the event is based on should be remembered for its positives more than its negatives.
LIFE / Travel
May 8, 2025
Celebrating Â鶹´«Ã½ defeat at Shimoda¡¯s Black Ship Festival
Held this year from May 16 to 18, an event to the south of Tokyo turns a historical episode of national humiliation into a plain old good time.
National agency Heritage Malta worked with Â鶹´«Ã½ Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure the painstaking restoration of samurai armor that spent over half a century forgotten in storage in Valletta, Malta.
JAPAN / History
May 1, 2025
Lost and found history receives glittering homecoming at Osaka Expo
Hidden away since World War II, samurai armor gifted to Malta from Japan in 1862 has been restored to its full glory and put on display at the Malta Pavilion.
UNESCO's executive board on Thursday added Buddhist scriptures kept at Tokyo's Zojoji Temple to its Memory of the World register.
JAPAN
Apr 18, 2025
Zojoji Buddhist scriptures added to UNESCO Memory of the World
The scriptures were collected by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate in Â鶹´«Ã½ Edo era, and donated to the temple.
Shunbaisai Hokuei's tetraptych from the series "108 Heroes of the Theater Suikoden"
CULTURE / Books
Mar 22, 2025
Osaka¡¯s kabuki fan culture fueled an elusive figure of the ukiyo-e scene
In his new book, John Fiorillo partly lifts the veil on Shunbaisai Hokuei, who dominated the ukiyo-e art world in the Kamigata region during the early 19th century.?
Himeji Castle in Hyogo Prefecture
JAPAN
Feb 16, 2025
Himeji Castle entrance fee to go up 2.5-fold for nonresidents
The city plans to use the resulting windfall for maintenance, online ticket sales, bag check services and guided tours for foreign visitors.
Ayumi Matsuki, a priestess at Yoshiwara Shrine, shows off some "o-mamori" charms. She says visitors to the shrine have increased since the NHK drama ¡°Unbound¡± began airing this month.
JAPAN / History / Longform
Jan 26, 2025
Tracing Tsutaya Juzaburo, Edo¡¯s media maverick
Discover the hometown of the Yoshiwara publisher who helped shape Â鶹´«Ã½ artistic legacy and inspired NHK¡¯s latest period drama.
NHK¡¯s latest taiga period drama, ¡°Unbound,¡± centers on Tsutaya Juzaburo (Ryusei Yokohama), a commoner who becomes a successful bookseller and publisher.
CULTURE / TV & Streaming
Jan 10, 2025
¡®Unbound¡¯ breaks NHK period drama tradition with a hero of the common folk
Public broadcaster NHK marks its 100th anniversary by flipping the script on its long-running period drama series.
A falconer during the Suwa Falconry Preservation Society's event in Tokyo on Friday. Falconry predates recorded history, originating, scholars believe, when nomadic herders observed birds of prey hunting and recognized their potential as partners.
MORE SPORTS
Jan 5, 2025
Tokyo falconers keep ancient traditions soaring
While a recent showcase was all about fun and education, like other sports involving animals, falconry is also serious business for competitors at the upper echelons of the sport.
"Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition" includes an installation of Katsushika Hokusai¡¯s ¡°The Great Wave off Kanagawa.¡±
CULTURE / Art
Dec 25, 2024
Step into ukiyo-e: A digital journey through Â鶹´«Ã½ traditional art form
¡°Ukiyoe Immersive Art Exhibition¡± uses 3D animation and projection mapping to reimagine Edo-era woodblock prints for modern audiences.
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda¡¯s surprise hit ¡°A Samurai in Time.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Nov 21, 2024
The slow-burn success of ¡®A Samurai in Time¡¯
Junichi Yasuda¡¯s film about a time-traveling warrior is a loving tribute to the ¡°jidaigeki¡± (period drama) genre and its practitioners.
Students from Agatsuma¡¯s butoh workshop, also part of Sumi-Yume, will be joining her and professional butoh dancer Tomoshi Shioya for this weekend¡¯s shows.
CULTURE / Stage
Nov 8, 2024
Butoh dances to the sounds of Hokusai¡¯s hometown
Performances of the avant-garde dance form are part of a program dedicated to the revered artist and celebrating the local community in Sumida Ward.
An idealistic samurai (Taiga Nakano) leads a motley gang of felons on a suicide mission to defend a fortress during the 1868-69 Boshin War.
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2024
¡®11 Rebels¡¯: Underdog antiheroes deliver a crowd pleaser
A knotty period in Japanese history gets a modern treatment in Kazuya Shiraishi¡¯s spectacle-driven samurai period drama.
Eight warriors fight to end a curse placed on a samurai clan in ¡°Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality.¡±
CULTURE / Film
Oct 31, 2024
¡®Hakkenden¡¯ has fun with Edo-era pulp fiction
The film presents both a bio of Takizawa Bakin, whose writing had a large impact on Japanese pop culture, and a snazzy live-action digest of his influential novel.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
New ¡®Katsu Curry Index¡¯ aims to show how weak the yen really is
A CoCo Ichibanya curry house in Tokyo.
Putin visits disputed Etorofu island off Hokkaido, sparking protest from Tokyo
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Yasny fish processing factory on Etorofu island, one of four islands in the contested chain known as the Kuril Islands in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan, on Thursday.
Mexican man arrested over attempt to smuggle some 200 lizards into Japan
Mexican alligator lizards seized by Tokyo Customs from a Mexican man who attempted to smuggle them into Japan on Saturday through Haneda Airport
Authorities urge continued caution after heavy rain in Chiba leaves eight dead
A local resident walks past a 7-Eleven convenience store in a flooded area after heavy rain in the city of Oamishirasato, Chiba Prefecture, on Friday.
Forty-five meters down, a diver races to record a fleeting moment of WWII history
Kingo Wakasa photographs the kamikaze plane wing section he discovered at the USS Emmons wreck site.
Ikarigata closer to emulating older brother Fujinokawa than many think
The future Fujinokawa (third from left) and Ikarigata (right) compete against each other at ages 5 and 3, respectively.
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo&#039;s Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

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