Honorific Suffixes
The Japanese language uses a broad array of honorific suffixes for addressing or referring to people, for example, -san, as in Davey-san. These honorifics are gender-neutral (can be used for males and...
View ArticleSumo
Sumō (相撲) is a unique form of wrestling with a 2,000-year-old history that easily qualifies as Japan's national sport. Sumō became a professional sport almost 300 years ago in the early part of the Edo...
View ArticleRomaji: the romanization of the Japanese language
Romaji (ローマ字 rōmaji) means "Roman letters" in Japanese and refers to the romanisation of the Japanese language, the application of Roman letters to write Japanese. Romaji is commonly employed in...
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Setsubun
Setsubun is a traditional ceremony to dispel demons, usually observed on 3 February. The practice of scattering beans (豆撒き mamemaki) to drive away demons is one of some magical rites performed to ward...
View ArticleHina Matsuri
Hinamatsuri (雛祭り) is a festival for girls held on March 3. Tiered platforms for hina ningyō (雛人形, hina dolls) are set up at home. Families celebrate with a meal, eating hishimochi (菱餅), sweet...
View ArticleIto Jakuchu
Itō Jakuchū (伊藤若冲, 1716-1800) was a painter known for his almost surrealist, detailed depictions of exotic birds and fowl. He painted traditional Japanese motifs, experimenting with perspectives and...
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Hitoyoshi Castle
Hitoyoshi Castle (人吉城) is located in Hitoyoshi City, Kumamoto Prefecture, on the banks of the Kuma River (球磨川). It was constructed in the late 12th century by Sagara Nagayori (相良長頼, 1177-1254), a...
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Nakasato Castle
Nakasato Castle (中里城 Nakasato-jō) is a mountain castle (山城 Yamashiro) built in Nakadomari Town in the western part of the Tsugaru Peninsula. The site seems to have already been used in the Jomon...
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Akechi Mitsuhide (1528-1582)
Akechi Mitsuhide (明智光秀, 1528-1582), also known under the title Koretō Hyūga no Kami (惟任日向守), was one of the principal captains of hegemon Oda Nobunaga and his assassin. A man of obscure origins,...
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Fukushima Castle (Aomori)
Fukushima Castle (福島城 Fukushima-jō) is a medieval castle built on a hill at an altitude of 20 to 30 meters facing the north shore of Lake Jūsan (十三湖 Jūsanko) in the western part of the Tsugaru...
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Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709)
Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (1646-1709) was the fifth shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate (ruled 1680-1709), the fourth son of Tokugawa Iemitsu, and known by the moniker "dog shogun". Born to Iemitsu, the third...
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Tokugawa Ienobu (1662-1712)
Tokugawa Ienobu (徳川 家宣, 1662-1712) was the sixth shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate and ruled for just three years, from 1709 to 1712. Ienobu was the eldest son of Tokugawa Tsunashige (徳川綱重, 1644-1678),...
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Karakawa Castle
Karakawa Castle (唐川城) was a mountain castle built about three kilometres north as a branch castle of Fukushima Castle on the north shore of Lake Jūsan (十三湖). It is thought that it served as a lookout...
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Gotokuji Temple
Gōtokuji (豪徳寺), officially Daikeizan Gōtokuji, is a Sōtō Zen Buddhist temple located in Setagaya in western Tōkyō. It is the ancestral temple of the Ii family; some 300 of their clan members, including...
View ArticleOta Dokan
The Father of Edo CastleŌta Sukenaga (太田資長, 1432-1486), better known under his Buddhist name Ōta Dōkan (太田道灌), was a daimyō in Musashi Province and the eldest son of Ōta Sukekiyo (太田資清, 1411-1493) who...
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Kawahara Keiga
Kawahara Keiga (川原慶賀, 1786-1860) was an Edo-era painter of Western-style pictures who sometimes signed his works in Roman letters "Tojosky," a Westernisation of his given name Toyosuke. Most of his...
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Tanesato Castle
Tanesato Castle (種里城 Tanesato-jō) was a mountain castle (山城 yamajiro) built in the western part of Ajigasawa, Aomori, upstream of the Akaishi River (赤石川). The site was designated a National Historic...
View ArticleSake Glossary
A Akiagari (秋あがり): sake brewed in early spring and stored during summer; around September, when the outside temperature and the temperature of the sake are about the same, the sake is released without...
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Yamato Court
The Yamato court (大和朝廷 Yamato chōtei) was the centre of the archaic Japanese polity (ca 4th-ca mid-7th centuries), situated in Yamato (modern-day Nara Prefecture). The term is used in distinction to...
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Toyooka Travel Guide
Toyooka (豊岡市) is located in northern Hyōgo Prefecture in the centre of the San'in Kaigan Geopark (山陰海岸ジオパーク). While the city stretches over 700 square kilometres after its merger with the surrounding...
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