A journey to the heart of Japan
On the fateful night of October 20, 1600, Ishida Mitsunari – commander of the ‘Army of the West’, made the decision to withdraw his forces from Ogaki castle to defend the narrow pass at Sekigahara against the advancing ‘Army of the East’. The twelve mile march took the bulk of his army directly west to… [Read more]
Among the soldiers forming ranks at the battlefield of Sekigahara as dawn broke on the morning of October 21, 1600, there were few who could doubt that a decisive battle here would mark the end of decades of civil strife and that, at the end of the day, a new shogun with power throughout all… [Read more]
Hikone castle is one of only twelve in Japan with its original keep still intact. It is perhaps better known, however, as the home of the Ii – one of the most famous samurai families in Japan. Ii Naomasa, the founder of the line, was a native of present-day Shizuoka prefecture and a close ally… [Read more]
On the map below, the blue lines are the Nakasendo highway, the Tokaido highway and the Koshu-kaido or Koshu highway. The Naksendo lies furthest to the north and runs from Kyoto in the west to Edo (modern Tokyo) in the east. The Tokaido does the same, but follows the Pacific coast most of the way…. [Read more]
Hiroshige is the given name of Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858) who was a woodblock print artist and illustrator best known for his landscapes. His work was influenced by brush painting and ukiyoe (pictures of the ‘floating world’) which depicted the joys, sorrows and beauties of the entertainment districts. Hiroshige’s father was a fireman of samurai status… [Read more]
A shogunate was a style of Japanese government which gained its name from its head, the shogun. The full title of the shogun was “Seii Taishogun” or ‘Barbarian Subduing Generalissimo’. Shogunates were fundamentally governments whose control was limited to military affairs, although the right to govern often extended into social and economic matters only remotely… [Read more]
Alternate residence duty, or sankin kotai, was a system developed in the Warring States period and perfected by the Tokugawa shogunate. In essence, the system demanded simply that daimyo reside in the Tokugawa castle at Edo for periods of time, alternating with residence at the daimyo’s own castle. When a daimyo was not residing in… [Read more]
There are five highways (“gokaido”) in Japan which were formally established during the Edo period as the official routes which the daimyo should follow on sankin kotai processions. All of them terminated at Nihonbashi in the center of Edo. They are the: * Tokaido, which runs from Kyoto to Edo following the Pacific coast and coastal… [Read more]
Tracing the path of a bygone highway across Japan, it seems easy to distinguish between the ‘old’ and the ‘modern’ routes. Along the Nakasendo, for example, there are many places where the old and new highways overlap for a while before the two routes diverge. Often this occurs on the approach to an Edo period… [Read more]
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