asia – Japanese History and Culture

Silver, smugglers and the Lords of Western Japan. Part 1.

Part 1. A passage in the Yatsushiro diaries notes that in 1546, Sagara Yoshishige, (1489-1546) daimyo of Higo (modern day

Before writing systems arrived in Japan, the only references we have about ancient Japan is from the Chinese. There is

End of the year is approaching very quickly. It feels like I haven`t done a lot on this site this

Ancient Castles of Japan – Kikuchi Castle, Kumamoto, Kyushu. Setting the scene. Kikuchi Castle is an ancient mountain castle built

Pre-war Japanese society and social classes were very different to today. A distinct class of domestics that were filled predominately

A statue of Shiro Amakusa. The young Christian rebel who rose up and led a rebellion against the Tokugawa Shogunate.

During the ‘isolation period’ of Japan also known as the Edo Period a few nations were still allowed to trade

Happy Thursday! I’m going to start posting some new blogs which only focus on my photography. Articles are great but

Miyajidake sits in the northern region of Fukutsu city about 1 hour from central Fukuoka. It is famous for the

My friend William Baerg is a contributor for the Kumamoto International Facebook page and has nicely agreed for me to

I haven’t done a post for a while about one of my favourite Ukiyo-e print series. So lets have a

I visited Shiga back in 2016 in January. I was expecting it to be cold but I was pleasantly surprised

This article was originally going to be included in the ‘History of Aki (Hiroshima) Prefecture’ but as this article has

An amateur historian has unearthed compelling evidence that the first Australian maritime foray into Japanese waters was by convict pirates

The rain misted down and I had two choices: the road up the hill, or the one alongside the river.