FIELD REPORTS
FIELD REPORTS
-- 194 REPORTS ON FILE
The Honnō-ji Incident: Why Did Akechi Mitsuhide Betray Nobunaga?
On a single dawn in June 1582, Akechi Mitsuhide turned his army around and burned his lord alive. Four centuries of historians still cannot agree why.
Honnō-jiOda clanSengokuSekigahara: How Tokugawa Won Japan in a Single Afternoon
On October 21, 1600, two armies of roughly 80,000 men each met in fog on a Mino plain. By sunset, the battle that decided 250 years of Japanese history was over.
SekigaharaTokugawaSengokuThe Five Rings: Inside Miyamoto Musashi's Philosophy of the Sword
Written in a cave in 1645 by an undefeated swordsman dying at sixty-one, Go Rin no Sho is half manual, half meditation, and entirely strange.
MusashiFive RingsBushidōThe Last Charge at Osaka: Sanada Yukimura's Final Stand
On a single afternoon in May 1615, three thousand red-armored riders charged the largest army in Japan and nearly toppled it. The man who led them was already a legend; what he did next made him the model for every Japanese hero of doomed battle that followed.
Osaka CampaignSanadaSengokuHattori Hanzō and the Truth About the Ninja
The most famous ninja in history was almost certainly not a ninja at all. He was a regular samurai officer who happened to lead specialists from a village called Iga — and that fact changes everything about how we should read the legend.
NinjaIgaTokugawaThe Betrayers of Sekigahara: What Happened to the Men Who Switched Sides
Four Western Army commanders defected during the battle that decided 250 years of Japanese history. Three of them died ruined men within ten years. The fourth lived to be a punchline.
SekigaharaBetrayalTokugawaBushidō in Three Texts: Hagakure, Five Rings, and Shoshinshū
There is no single book of bushidō. There are three books, written in three eras, by three very different men — and they disagree with each other on almost everything.
BushidōHagakureFive RingsKamakura vs Edo: Why Two Samurai Governments Failed and Lasted Differently
Japan had three shogunates. Two of them are important. They look superficially similar — warriors ruling in a hereditary military government — but the way they were structured determined how each one ended, and how their differences explain everything from the daimyō system to the Meiji Restoration.
ShogunateKamakuraEdoKawanakajima: The Greatest Personal Rivalry of the Sengoku
Five battles, twelve years, no decisive winner. The story of Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin's repeated meetings on a single Shinano river plain became, for the Japanese, the archetype of a rivalry between equals.
KawanakajimaTakedaUesugiSalt for an Enemy: The Single Gesture That Defined Samurai Honor
In the winter of 1567, Uesugi Kenshin sent salt to Takeda Shingen — the man he had fought five battles against. Four hundred years later, the gesture is still taught in Japanese ethics classes as the highest example of just war.
BushidōUesugiTakedaSenchū Hassaku: The Eight Points That Quietly Wrote the Meiji Constitution
In 1867, Sakamoto Ryōma drafted an eight-point memo on a steamship between Nagasaki and Hyōgo. He was thirty-one, on the run, and three months from assassination. The memo became the blueprint for modern Japan.
BakumatsuMeijiSakamoto RyōmaStrategy as Theater: Why Hideyoshi Kept His Best Strategist Far from the Capital
Kuroda Kanbei could read battles before they happened. Hideyoshi was so afraid of him that he reduced him to a small Kyūshū domain, well below his merit. The decision shaped the career of one of the strangest figures of the Sengoku.
StrategyToyotomiKurodaUeda Castle: How Three Thousand Stopped Thirty-Eight Thousand
Twice — in 1585 and again in 1600 — Sanada Masayuki defended a small Shinano castle against Tokugawa armies many times his size. The second defense changed Japanese history. The first showed how he did it.
SanadaUedaMountain warfareThe Twelve-Year Walk Back: The Only Daimyō to Recover His Lands After Sekigahara
Tachibana Muneshige lost everything at Sekigahara — the entire 132,000-koku domain his family had held for generations. Twelve years later, the Tokugawa quietly gave it back. He is the only Western Army commander to whom this happened.
TachibanaSekigaharaYanagawaBenkei's Standing Death: The Origin of Japan's Loyalty Mythos
On a small bridge in northern Honshū in 1189, a warrior monk fought to defend his lord's last retreat. He died on his feet — and the image of his death became, for the next eight centuries, the template for every Japanese story of devotion.
BenkeiGenpei WarLoyaltyChihaya Castle: How Three Hundred Held a Hundred Thousand
In the spring of 1333, Kusunoki Masashige defended a small mountain fortress against a Kamakura army that outnumbered him three hundred to one. He held them for over three months, broke the bakufu's economy, and started the chain of revolts that ended a hundred and forty-eight years of Hōjō rule.
KusunokiGenkō WarMountain warfareThe Sword Through the Door: Hosokawa Gracia and the Last Day Before Sekigahara
On July 17th, 1600, three months before Sekigahara, a Christian noblewoman who had been forbidden by her faith from suicide ordered her chief retainer to kill her with a long sword through a closed shōji. Her death changed the course of the battle she did not live to see.
HosokawaChristianitySengoku womenKumamoto Castle: The Castle That Outlived the Last War
Built between 1601 and 1607 by Katō Kiyomasa, Kumamoto Castle was so well engineered that 270 years later, when Saigō Takamori besieged it for fifty-five days during the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, he could not take it. Its architecture is one of the few practical samurai legacies still readable in stone.
KumamotoCastle architectureKatō KiyomasaNaseba Naru: How a Seventeen-Year-Old Lord Saved a Bankrupt Domain
When Uesugi Yōzan inherited the Yonezawa domain in 1767, the books were so bad that contemporaries advised him to surrender it to the bakufu. Thirty years later he had restored it. The methods are still taught in Japanese leadership courses today.
YōzanYonezawaEdo reformThe Brother Who Outlived the Legend: Why Sanada Nobuyuki Lived to Ninety-Two
Sanada Yukimura died at Osaka in 1615, a hero. His older brother Nobuyuki — who had sided with the Tokugawa at Sekigahara — outlived him by forty-three years and built a domain that lasted to the Meiji Restoration. The contrast tells you what samurai loyalty actually required.
SanadaSekigaharaLoyaltyShiroyama: The End of the Samurai Class
On September 24th, 1877, the man who had built the Meiji government died fighting against it. Saigō Takamori's last stand at Shiroyama is conventionally dated as the end of the samurai class — and the conventional dating is correct.
SaigōSatsuma RebellionMeijiWhy the Last Shogun Surrendered: Tokugawa Yoshinobu and the Taisei Hōkan
On November 9th, 1867, the fifteenth Tokugawa shogun voluntarily returned political authority to the Emperor. He believed it would preserve the Tokugawa as senior partners in a new constitutional order. He was wrong about that. He was right about everything else.
YoshinobuTaisei HōkanBakumatsuWhy Kamakura: How Yoritomo Invented Permanent Warrior Government
When Minamoto no Yoritomo took the title of shogun in 1192, he was not the first samurai to hold national power. He was the first to make the office permanent. The choices he made between 1180 and 1199 set the operating system of Japanese government for the next 676 years.
KamakuraYoritomoFounding shogunThe Nun Shogun: How Hōjō Masako Ran a Country She Was Never Allowed to Officially Rule
Between 1199 and 1225, Hōjō Masako effectively governed the Kamakura Bakufu — first through her sons, then in her own name as the Ama Shōgun. She is the founding figure of behind-the-throne female political power in Japanese samurai history.
MasakoHōjōKamakuraTwo Emperors at Once: How Ashikaga Takauji Split Japan for Sixty Years
In 1336, in his attempt to legitimize his own shogunate, Ashikaga Takauji installed a rival emperor in Kyoto while the original emperor fled to Yoshino. Japan had two parallel imperial lines for the next fifty-six years. The political architecture of that split shaped the country into the Sengoku.
AshikagaNanboku-chōImperial successionThe Architect Who Crushed His Best Friend: Ōkubo Toshimichi and the Building of Modern Japan
Between 1868 and 1878, Ōkubo Toshimichi imposed the institutional design that became the modern Japanese state. The political price was the destruction of his lifelong friend Saigō Takamori. Nine months after Saigō's death, Ōkubo himself was killed by men who blamed him for everything the new state had taken from them.
ŌkuboMeiji RestorationState-buildingSnow at Sakuradamon: The Assassination That Ended the Bakufu
On the morning of March 24th, 1860, eighteen ronin from Mito and Satsuma killed the Tairō Ii Naosuke outside the main gate of Edo Castle. The killing was personal revenge for his Ansei Purge. The political consequence was that the Tokugawa Bakufu became unrecoverable.
SakuradamonIiBakumatsuThe Woman Who May Not Have Existed: Tomoe Gozen and the Onna-musha Tradition
Tomoe Gozen appears in the Heike Monogatari as the most famous female warrior of the Genpei War. She does not appear in any contemporary record. Whether she existed at all is a question Japanese medieval historians cannot definitively answer — but the tradition she founded is undeniably real.
Tomoe GozenOnna-mushaHeike MonogatariThe Divine Wind: Why Hōjō Tokimune Could Not Pay His Soldiers After Defeating the Mongols
In 1274 and again in 1281, Hōjō Tokimune defended Japan against the largest seaborne invasion forces of the pre-modern world. The defenses worked. The typhoons came. Japan survived. The bakufu was broken anyway, because there were no spoils to give the warriors who had won.
Mongol invasionsTokimuneKamakuraYamazaki: The Thirteen-Day Empire That Hideyoshi Stole Back
Eleven days after burning Nobunaga at Honnō-ji, Akechi Mitsuhide stood at the Yamazaki ridges facing an army that should not have arrived for weeks. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had marched 230 kilometres in nine days. By sunset Mitsuhide was finished.
YamazakiAkechiHideyoshiTanba: The Ten-Year Pacification That Forged Nobunaga's Most Dangerous General
Seven years before Honnō-ji, Akechi Mitsuhide was bogged down in the mountain valleys of Tanba. The 1575–1579 pacification was the Oda army's hardest provincial campaign, and by the end of it Mitsuhide had become Nobunaga's most powerful corps commander.
TanbaAkechimountain warfareThe Bamboo Grove at Ogurusu: How a Three-Day Emperor Died at Peasants' Hands
After defeat at Yamazaki, Mitsuhide rode the twenty kilometres back toward Sakamoto Castle in the dark. He was killed in a bamboo grove south of Kyoto by armed villagers — or so the sources say. They are oddly silent on the details.
OgurusuAkechiochi-mushaGoryōkaku: Where the Last Samurai Republic Died
On May 11, 1869, in the star-shaped fortress at Hakodate in northern Japan, Hijikata Toshizō and the seven thousand troops of the Republic of Ezo lost their final battle. The first and last republic in Japanese history had survived seven months.
GoryōkakuHakodate WarEzo RepublicThe Ikedaya Incident: One Night That Set Back the Bakumatsu by a Year
On a hot July night in 1864, a tiny police unit called the Shinsengumi surrounded a Kyoto inn at Sanjō and fought its way into a meeting of Chōshū, Tosa, and Higo loyalists. The Bakumatsu opposition lost a year of momentum in two hours.
IkedayaShinsengumiChōshūKyokuchū Hatto: The Five-Article Code That Made the Shinsengumi Feared
Do not violate the way of the warrior. Do not desert the unit. Do not engage in private financial dealings. Do not pursue private litigation. Do not engage in private quarrels. Five rules. The penalty for any of them was seppuku — and Hijikata Toshizō meant it.
Kyokuchū HattoShinsengumidisciplineTwenty-Three Months of Silence: Why Ōishi Waited So Long Before the Akō Raid
Six hundred days passed between the death of Asano Naganori and the raid on Kira's mansion. While Ōishi Yoshio drank in Yamashina and was dismissed as a 'daytime lantern,' what was he actually doing?
Akō IncidentŌishiChūshinguraThe Pine Corridor: Why Asano Drew His Sword
On April 21, 1701, in the Pine Corridor of the inner keep of Edo Castle, the lord of Akō domain attacked the senior court official Kira Yoshinaka from behind. The motive remains a mystery to this day.
Pine CorridorAsanoBakufu justiceFrom Revenge to Loyalty: How the Akō Incident Became a National Myth
The Akō Incident of 1703 was, in fact, a private revenge by forty-seven masterless samurai. Two hundred and fifty years of staging turned it into the foundational story of loyalty in Japanese culture.
Chūshingurakabukicultural memoryNagashino: The Day the Cavalry Died
On the morning of May 21, 1575, Takeda Katsuyori's elite cavalry charged into a three-tier line of three thousand Oda matchlocks. By sunset half of the Takeda's senior generals were dead and the army once called the fiercest of the Sengoku was finished.
Nagashinomatchlock volleyTakedaTenmokuzan: How the Takeda Vanished
Seven years after Nagashino, with Nobunaga's invasion army closing in, Takeda Katsuyori was cornered at the foot of Mount Tenmoku. On March 11, 1582, nine years after Shingen's death, the Takeda clan was finished.
Tenmokuzanfall of the TakedaKatsuyoriWhy Katsuyori Lost What Shingen Had Won
Compare the Takeda of Shingen with the Takeda of Katsuyori, and the largest difference is neither manpower nor talent but the diplomatic environment. Katsuyori inherited none of the alliance structure his father had built, and had to fight inside Nobunaga's encirclement.
TakedaShingenKatsuyoriThe Naoe Letter: How One Letter Called Sekigahara Into Being
In April 1600, Uesugi Kagekatsu's chief retainer Naoe Kanetsugu sent Tokugawa Ieyasu a sixteen-article letter of defiance. Within months the response had brought a 720,000-koku coalition to the field at Sekigahara, the largest battle in Japanese history.
NaoejōSekigaharaUesugiFrom 1,200,000 to 300,000 Koku: How Naoe Kanetsugu Kept the Uesugi Alive
After Sekigahara the Uesugi were reduced from 1,200,000-koku Aizu to 300,000-koku Yonezawa — to one-fourth of their previous holdings. The standard early-Edo solution was to discharge half the retainer band. Kanetsugu refused.
YonezawaUesugireductionThe Helmet of Love: Why a Samurai Wore the Character for 'Love' on His Brow
Naoe Kanetsugu's helmet bears a single Chinese character at its brow — ai, love. What it meant for a Sengoku samurai to wear 'love' above his eyes is not what a modern reader hears.
aiforecrestarmorThe Coughing at Ikedaya: When Did Okita Sōji Find Out He Was Dying?
On the night of July 8, 1864, Shinsengumi first-captain Okita Sōji was sword-fighting Chōshū loyalists on the second floor of the Ikedaya inn. Suddenly blood spilled from his mouth. The end of Okita the swordsman had begun.
IkedayaOkitatuberculosisThe Black Cat at Sendagaya: What Okita Sōji Could Not Cut
In the spring of 1868, Okita Sōji was convalescing in the Edo neighborhood of Sendagaya, in the house of a gardener. The story that he tried, and failed, to strike a black cat in the garden is the standard symbolic image of the prodigy of the sword brought low by disease.
OkitaSendagayatuberculosisFirst Captain's Sword: What Okita Sōji Actually Did
Okita Sōji's documented combat participation amounts to a handful of engagements — Ikedaya, the Kinmon Incident, the Itō Kashitarō assassination, Toba-Fushimi. In each of them he was the man the unit trusted most.
Okitacombat recordShinsengumiRyūkonroku: The Letter Yoshida Shōin Wrote Five Days Before His Execution
On October 27, 1859, Yoshida Shōin was beheaded at Edo's Tenmachō prison. The five days before that, in his cell, he had completed a five-thousand-character letter to his students. The Ryūkonroku compressed the core of his thought and the direction of the coming Meiji Restoration into a single short text.
RyūkonrokuShōinprisonThe Failed Stowaway: Why Shōin Tried to Board Perry's Ship
On the night of March 27, 1854, with Perry's returning fleet anchored at Shimoda, Yoshida Shōin and a disciple rowed a small boat out to the American flagship and asked to be taken to the United States. They were refused, turned themselves in, and went to prison. What had they been risking their lives for?
PerryShimodaBlack ShipsShōka Sonjuku: The Two-and-a-Half-Year School That Made the Meiji Restoration
Yoshida Shōin ran the Shōka Sonjuku for only two and a half years, from 1857 to 1858. In that time the school produced almost the entire operational leadership of the Meiji Restoration — Takasugi, Kusaka, Itō Hirobumi, Yamagata. A small private academy that bent the course of Japanese history.
Shōka SonjukueducationBakumatsuThe Kiheitai: How a Mixed-Class Militia Beat the Tokugawa Army
The Kiheitai that Takasugi Shinsaku founded at Shimonoseki in 1863 was the direct prototype of a modern conscript army in Japan — a militia open to peasants and townsmen as well as samurai. Three years later, in the Four-Border War, this class-blind force repulsed the regular army of the bakufu.
KiheitaiTakasugiFour-Border WarThe Kōzanji Coup: How Eighty Men Turned a Domain to Rebellion in One Night
In December 1864 the Chōshū domain had submitted to the First Chōshū Expedition and was on the road to surrender. At Kōzanji Temple in Shimonoseki, Takasugi Shinsaku raised arms with eighty-odd men and, within three months, recaptured the domain government and put Chōshū back at the head of the anti-bakufu coalition. The night that fixed the direction of the Meiji Restoration.
KōzanjiTakasugiinternal coupTwenty-Seven Years: What the Restoration Owed Takasugi, Even After His Early Death
On April 14, 1867, Takasugi Shinsaku died at Shimonoseki. He was twenty-seven. He missed the arrival of the Meiji Restoration by about ten months. The legacy of a revolutionary who died early — and what the history that followed his death made of it.
Takasugiearly deathdeath poemFrom the Practice Hall to the Cabinet: The Two Lives of Katsura Kogorō
Katsura Kogorō (later Kido Takayoshi) was a swordsman skilled enough to be made head student of Edo's Renpeikan dōjō. The same man, in his thirties, concluded the Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance; in his forties, he designed the institutions of the new Meiji state. Two lives in one career, an unusual arc among the Restoration leadership.
KidoRenpeikanswordsmanInside the Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance: What Kido Saw From the Chōshū Side
In January 1866, Satsuma and Chōshū concluded an alliance in Kyoto. The compact made the toppling of the bakufu possible. The Chōshū-side principal was Katsura Kogorō — the future Kido Takayoshi. Behind the celebrated role of Ryōma the broker lies the reality of the negotiation as the principal himself experienced it.
Satchō AllianceKidoRyōmaThe Five Charter Oath: The Night Kido Drafted the Constitutional Spine of Modern Japan
On April 6, 1868, in the Shishinden of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, the Meiji Emperor promulgated the Five Charter Oath. The five articles — beginning with 'Deliberative assemblies shall be widely established and all matters decided by public discussion' — became the institutional starting point of modern Japan. The original drafters were Kido Takayoshi and Yuri Kimimasa.
Five Charter OathKidoMeiji RestorationThe Friendship That Doomed a Daimyō: Why Ōtani Joined Mitsunari Knowing They Would Lose
In August 1600, Ōtani Yoshitsugu was preparing to follow Tokugawa Ieyasu. When his close friend Ishida Mitsunari told him about the planned Western Army uprising, Ōtani coldly pointed out the unfavorable odds — and then joined the Western Army anyway. A rare case of a strategic decision made for friendship rather than against it.
Ōtani YoshitsuguMitsunariSekigaharaThe White Veil: The Ten Years Ōtani Fought His Own Body
From around 1598, Ōtani Yoshitsugu was struck by a severe skin disease — modern scholarship from the contemporary symptom records identifies it as leprosy. He kept conducting his official business with his face covered by a white veil. The decade in which an incurable disease and a battlefield career proceeded in parallel.
Ōtani Yoshitsuguleprosywhite veilThe White-Veiled General's Last Stand: How Ōtani Died at Sekigahara
On the afternoon of September 15, 1600, in the third hour of the main battle, Kobayakawa Hideaki's force descended from Matsuo Mountain and struck Ōtani's flank. The simultaneous defection of four more allied commanders broke the line. Ōtani committed suicide with his retainer Yuasa Gosuke as second.
Ōtani YoshitsuguSekigaharaYuasa GosukeThe Adoption Chain: How a Boy Born Kinoshita Almost Became a Hashiba
Born to the Kinoshita house in Ōmi in 1582, one boy in ten years changed names and clans twice — first adopted as Toyotomi Hideyoshi's heir at three, then re-adopted into the Kobayakawa house at twelve. The remote cause of the Sekigahara defection lay in that chain of adoptions.
Kobayakawa HideakiadoptionHideyoshiThe Two Hours at Matsuo Mountain: Why Hideaki Moved Only After Noon
On the morning of September 15, 1600, Kobayakawa Hideaki's fifteen-thousand-strong force on Matsuo Mountain south of Sekigahara did not move. Tokugawa Ieyasu fired musket volleys at the foot of the mountain to prompt a decision, and just past noon Hideaki defected and descended. The two hours of silence that decided the end of the Sengoku era.
Kobayakawa HideakiMatsuo MountainSekigaharaTwenty-One: Why the Early Death of Kobayakawa Hideaki Became a Legend
In October 1602, Kobayakawa Hideaki died abruptly at Okayama. He was twenty-one — two years after Sekigahara. Later generations told the story as 'the remorse of the betrayal manifested as illness,' but recent medical-historical work points to a different cause.
Kobayakawa Hideakiearly deathOkayamaFrom the Kuroda to Ōsaka: Why Matabei Became a Rōnin
In 1611, Gotō Matabei left the Kuroda clan of Chikuzen-Fukuoka and became a rōnin. The proximate cause was a long-deteriorating relationship with the lord Kuroda Nagamasa, but the cost of breaking with the conventions of the warrior society was the hōkō-gamae blocking notice — and nearly a decade of wandering across Japan.
Gotō MatabeiKuroda clanrōninThe Battle of Dōmyōji: Matabei Died One Day Before Yukimura
On May 6, 1615, in the Battle of Dōmyōji during the Summer Siege of Osaka, Gotō Matabei was killed. Against thirty thousand Tokugawa troops, his two-thousand-strong force held the line for half a day. One day before Sanada Yukimura died at Tennōji.
Gotō MatabeiDōmyōjiSummer Siege of OsakaThe Five Senior Rōnin of Osaka Castle: Why Hideyori Recruited Veterans
On the eve of the 1614 Winter Siege, Toyotomi Hideyori issued a general call and assembled a large body of rōnin produced after Sekigahara into Osaka Castle. The five at the center — Gotō Matabei, Sanada Yukimura, Mōri Katsunaga, Akashi Takenori, and Chōsokabe Morichika — became the operational core of the castle's defense.
Five Senior RōninOsakaHideyoriA Hundred Duels Without a Loss: Why Bokuden Never Lost in His Lifetime
Across sixty-six years from seventeen to eighty-three, the Sengoku sword saint Tsukahara Bokuden is said to have fought nineteen serious duels and several hundred school matches without a single loss. Is the unbeaten legend history, exaggeration, or both?
Tsukahara Bokudensword saintunbeatenMutekatsu-ryū: The Day Bokuden Won Without Drawing His Sword
In old age Tsukahara Bokuden was challenged on a lakeboat by a young swordsman of another school. He proposed they fight on a sandbar. The young man jumped from the boat — and Bokuden ordered the boatman to push off from the shore. 'This is my Mutekatsu-ryū,' he called back. What was the famous anecdote actually saying?
Tsukahara BokudenMutekatsu-ryūsword thoughtFrom Kashima to Everywhere: How Bokuden Created the Itinerant-Training Tradition
Tsukahara Bokuden spent most of his life at Kashima Shrine, but in his later years he traveled the provinces training students. The itinerant-training tradition he established laid down the route the later swordsmen — Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, Miyamoto Musashi — would all follow, and became the standard form of Japanese martial-arts training.
Tsukahara BokudenKashima Shrineitinerant trainingTeacher to the Sword-Saint Shogun: How Kamiizumi Trained Ashikaga Yoshiteru
The thirteenth Ashikaga shogun, Yoshiteru, is the figure known as the 'sword-saint shogun.' His sword talent is said to have been transmitted from both Tsukahara Bokuden and Kamiizumi Nobutsuna. When Yoshiteru was killed in the 1565 Matsunaga Hisahide raid, his sword resistance to the end was the embodiment of what Kamiizumi had taught him.
Kamiizumi NobutsunaAshikaga Yoshiterusword-saint shogunThe Shinkage-ryū: How Kamiizumi Developed the Kage-ryū
Around 1560, Kamiizumi Nobutsuna developed the Kage-ryū he had learned from his teacher Aisu Ikōsai into the new Shinkage-ryū. The transformation from Kage to Shinkage is regarded as the largest theoretical leap in Sengoku sword theory. What changed?
Shinkage-ryūKamiizumi Nobutsunasword theoryMutōdori: The Day Kamiizumi Took a Sword With Empty Hands
When Kamiizumi Nobutsuna fought Yagyū Munetoshi in Yamato Yagyū, in their third and final match Kamiizumi is said to have taken Munetoshi's blade away with his bare hand. The mutōdori technique is one of the inner teachings of the Shinkage-ryū, transmitted from Kamiizumi forward.
Kamiizumi NobutsunamutōdoriYagyū MunetoshiSword Instructor to the Shogun: How the Yagyū Shinkage-ryū Became State Doctrine
In 1605, Yagyū Munenori became sword instructor to the second Tokugawa shogun Hidetada. The Yagyū Shinkage-ryū inherited from his father Munetoshi became the official sword of the Tokugawa government. The reading of a rare case in which a single school became the official way of a state.
Yagyū MunenoriTokugawa shogunatesword instructorThe Heihō Kadensho: How 'The Sword That Gives Life' Was Written
In 1632, Yagyū Munenori completed the family treatise on the sword, the Heihō Kadensho. He distinguished the technique of the sword into 'killing sword' and 'life-giving sword,' and argued that the ultimate sword is the one that gives life. The thought was deepened through exchanges with the Zen monk Takuan Sōhō.
Heihō KadenshokatsujinkenMunenoriYagyū Domain and the Spy Network: What the Sword Instructor Was Watching
In 1632, Yagyū Munenori was promoted to ōmetsuke of the Tokugawa shogunate. Behind the official face of sword instructor, he also took on oversight of the bakufu intelligence organization. How does recent scholarship read the actual operation of the spy network anchored at Yagyū-no-shō?
Yagyū MunenoriōmetsukeintelligenceThe Bloodless Surrender of Edo: The Day Saigō and Katsu Saved a City of a Million
On March 14, 1868, Katsu Kaishū and Saigō Takamori met at the Satsuma estate. The direct negotiation that averted the planned total assault on Edo Castle the following day. A single day's meeting that saved the lives and property of a million Edo residents from war.
Katsu KaishūSaigō Takamoribloodless surrenderThe Kanrin-maru: How Katsu Kaishū Built Modern Japan's Navy
In 1860, Katsu Kaishū commanded the Kanrin-maru across the Pacific with a Japanese crew. From naval training at Nagasaki, to the Kanrin-maru voyage to America, to the Kobe Naval Training Center — Katsu Kaishū's life was itself the founding history of Japan's modern navy.
Katsu KaishūKanrin-marumodern navyRyōma's Master: How Katsu Kaishū Trained Sakamoto Ryōma
In 1862, the Tosa-domain rōnin Sakamoto Ryōma came to assassinate the shogunal retainer Katsu Kaishū. The two talked through the night, and Ryōma sheathed his sword and became Katsu's student. The single night's meeting became the origin of the Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance and the restoration of imperial rule four years later.
Katsu KaishūSakamoto Ryōmamaster-studentThe Sunpu Meeting: The Day Yamaoka Tesshū Walked Alone Into Saigō's Camp
On March 9, 1868, Yamaoka Tesshū walked alone into the new government army's occupied Sunpu and met Saigō Takamori. The framework of the bloodless surrender of Edo was set on that single day at Sunpu, leading to the Katsu-Saigō meeting five days later. The day a no-rank shogunal retainer moved history.
Yamaoka TesshūSunpu meetingSaigō TakamoriMutō-ryū: The Day Yamaoka Tesshū Integrated the Sword and Zen
In 1880, Yamaoka Tesshū founded the Ittō Shōden Mutō-ryū, a school integrating sword, Zen, and calligraphy. On the lineage of Tsukahara Bokuden's Mutekatsu-ryū and Kamiizumi Nobutsuna's Shinkage-ryū, it was an attempt to reconstruct the thought of swordsmanship for the Meiji era.
Yamaoka TesshūMutō-ryūthe unity of sword and ZenChamberlain to Emperor Meiji: How Yamaoka Tesshū Supported the Young Emperor
From 1872 to 1882, Yamaoka Tesshū served as chamberlain to Emperor Meiji for ten years. He bore the role of transmitting the spiritual culture of modern Japan to the young emperor — then in his late teens — and exerted a deep influence on the formation of Emperor Meiji's character. A rare ten years in which a master of sword and Zen served as the emperor's close attendant.
Yamaoka TesshūEmperor MeijichamberlainFirst Prime Minister: The Day Itō Hirobumi Took the Top of Japan at Forty-Four
On December 22, 1885, Itō Hirobumi became Japan's first prime minister. At forty-four, he was one of the youngest heads of government in the world at the time. What lay behind the extraordinary career in which a son of a poor farming family, student of Shōin, reached the top of modern Japan in twenty-eight years?
Itō Hirobumifirst prime ministercabinet systemDrafting the Meiji Constitution: How Itō Hirobumi Wrote the Blueprint of a State
On February 11, 1889, the Constitution of the Empire of Japan was promulgated. The center of the drafting was Itō Hirobumi. From the European constitutional research from 1882, through discussions with the Austro-German legal scholars Gneist, Stein, and Mosse, to the joint work with the drafting team of Inoue Kowashi, Itō Miyoji, and Kaneko Kentarō — the seven years in which one statesman wrote the blueprint of a state.
Itō HirobumiMeiji ConstitutionconstitutionalismHarbin Station: The Day Itō Hirobumi Was Shot by a Korean Independence Activist
On October 26, 1909, the first Resident-General of Korea, Itō Hirobumi, was shot by the Korean independence activist An Jung-geun at Harbin station and died at sixty-eight. The assassination on the eve of the Japan-Korea annexation has continued as the deepest historical point of contention in Japan-Korea relations to the present.
Itō HirobumiHarbin assassinationJapan-Korea relationsMiyamoto Musashi in Modern Manga and Anime: From Yoshikawa to Baki Dou
From Yoshikawa Eiji's 1935 novel through Inoue Takehiko's Vagabond to Itagaki Keisuke's Baki Dou — how has the image of Musashi shifted across nine decades of Japanese fiction? A walk through the lineage in which a single historical figure has worn a different face in every generation.
Miyamoto Musashimangapop cultureThe Real Musashi vs. The Manga Musashi: Five Points of Difference
Two-sword style, height, personality, the Kojirō duel, the Yoshioka clan battles. What are the differences between the Musashi depicted in manga and anime and the Musashi remembered in the historical record? Five points of comparison for readers who came to Musashi through Baki Dou or other modern works.
Miyamoto MusashihistorycomparisonAfter Baki Dou: A History Reader's Guide to Miyamoto Musashi
An introduction to the historical Musashi for readers who came to him through Baki Dou. The highlights of his life, what the Niten Ichi-ryū actually is, the structure of the Book of Five Rings, the historical record on the Kojirō duel, and the current state of Musashi scholarship — a guide to understanding Musashi by the shortest route.
Miyamoto MusashiintroductionBook of Five RingsFifty-Seven Battles Unwounded: How Much of the Honda Tadakatsu Legend Is Fact?
The career of Honda Tadakatsu, said to span 'fifty-seven battles without a wound.' The specific figure rests on Edo-period compiled sources, but the absence of a record of serious wounding in contemporary materials is itself broadly recognized among scholars. Tracing the relation between legend and source, reading the historical reality of the warrior who served Tokugawa Ieyasu for half a century.
Honda TadakatsuTokugawa Four Heavenly Kingsmilitary careerThe Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings: Why Sakai, Honda, Sakakibara, and Ii Were Named Together
Sakai Tadatsugu, Honda Tadakatsu, Sakakibara Yasumasa, Ii Naomasa. The four warriors who bore the military core of Tokugawa Ieyasu are called the 'Tokugawa Four Heavenly Kings,' but when did the term form and what was the basis for the selection? Sorting out the outline of the Four Heavenly Kings from Edo-period house-tradition compilation and modern scholarship.
Tokugawa Four Heavenly KingsHonda TadakatsuTokugawa retainersTonbogiri: Honda Tadakatsu's Prized Spear and the Lineage of the Three Great Spears
Honda Tadakatsu's prized spear 'Tonbogiri' (Dragonfly-Cutter) was praised, alongside Otegine and Nihongō, as one of the 'Three Great Spears of the Realm' — famous-name long-shafted spears. Reading the transmission of this spear, named from a tradition that a dragonfly alighting on the blade was cut in two, and Tadakatsu's wielding of it on the field, from the sources.
Honda TadakatsuTonbogiriThree Great SpearsThree Arrows: The Origin of the Tradition and the 1557 Letter to Three Sons
The 'three arrows' story in which Mōri Motonari taught his three sons that 'a single arrow can be broken but three bound together cannot.' But his eldest son Takamoto died eight years before Motonari, so the scene of the tradition cannot stand as historical fact. Reading Motonari's real words from the 1557 Sanshi Kyōkunjō, the original of which still survives.
Mōri MotonariThree ArrowsLetter to Three SonsThe Battle of Itsukushima: How Motonari Broke Sue Harukata's Great Army
On September 30, 1555, Mōri Motonari mounted a surprise attack on Sue Harukata's great army at Itsukushima (the modern Miyajima) and drove him to take his own life. The come-from-behind victory from overwhelming inferiority became the largest turning point of Motonari's life and laid the foundation for the subsequent Mōri conquest of the Chūgoku region. The tradition and reality of the troop numbers, the cleverness of the tactic, and the elements of victory, organized on the basis of sources.
Mōri MotonariBattle of ItsukushimatacticsThe Two-River Structure: How Motonari Came to Rule Ten Provinces
Mōri Motonari's true achievement is the construction of the 'Two-River structure,' sending his second son Motoharu in adoption to the Kikkawa house and his third son Takakage to the Kobayakawa house, and absorbing both houses. Reading the core of the political strategy by which a single kokujin lord of Aki rose, in one generation, to mastery of ten provinces of the Chūgoku region.
Mōri MotonariTwo-River structureChūgoku regionThe Ii Red Devils: How the Takeda Elite Became the Tokugawa's Strongest Unit
In 1582, after the destruction of the Takeda house, Ieyasu gave the Takeda elite 'Red Devils' to the twenty-two-year-old Ii Naomasa. Inheriting the vermilion equipment of Yamagata Masakage, the Ii Red Devils became the symbolic elite force of the Tokugawa army, combining visibility and combat power across every engagement up to Sekigahara. From the inheritance of equipment to the transmission of tactics, traced from the sources.
Ii NaomasaRed DevilsTakeda retainersThe Wound from Pursuing Shimazu: The Sekigahara Wound That Delayed Naomasa's Death by Two Years
On September 15, 1600, in the closing phase of Sekigahara, Ii Naomasa pursued the retreat of Shimazu Yoshihiro's force, which had attempted to break through the eastern center. The thigh gunshot wound he took in the pursuit was not seen as fatal, but brought his death about a year and a half later in February 1602. A single bullet on the battlefield that closed the life of a forty-two-year-old warrior.
Ii NaomasaSekigaharaShimazuFrom Sawayama to Hikone: How the Foundation for the Ii Family's 250 Years Was Built
After Ii Naomasa died in 1602, in the generations of his sons Naokatsu and Naotaka the base was moved from Sawayama to a new castle at Hikone, and the Hikone domain of 300,000 koku was established. The course by which the foundation Naomasa built became the starting point of the Ii family — continuing through the Edo period as the foremost of the fudai daimyō and producing great elders.
Ii NaomasaHikone domainfudai daimyōFrom Kurama to Ōshū: How Ushiwaka-maru Became Yoshitsune
Twenty years after his father Yoshitomo's defeat and death. Placed at a Kyoto temple, Ushiwaka-maru left Kurama at sixteen to seek Fujiwara no Hidehira in Ōshū. Tracing the boyhood — thin in record — up to the moment Yoritomo's uprising drew him onto the stage of history.
Minamoto no YoshitsuneKuramaŌshū FujiwaraThe Descent at Hiyodorigoe: What Did Yoshitsune Do at Ichi-no-Tani That Morning?
March 1184, Ichi-no-Tani in Settsu Province. The 'descent at Hiyodorigoe' — said to have Yoshitsune ride down the sheer face of Mount Tekkai behind the Taira camp with seventy horsemen — is one of the most famous battle scenes in Japanese war literature. But the contemporary sources record it only briefly. Between tradition and source, an inquiry into what happened.
Minamoto no YoshitsuneIchi-no-TaniHiyodorigoeThe Morning at Koromogawa: Why Was Yoshitsune Killed by His Brother Yoritomo?
In 1185, Yoshitsune destroyed the Taira at Dannoura; four years later, he was taking his own life at an Ōshū palace. What happened in those four years from Dannoura to Koromogawa? The political structure of the brothers' conflict, and Yoshitsune's end, traced.
Minamoto no YoshitsuneKoromogawaYoritomoThe Return from the Kumano Pilgrimage: The Heiji Rebellion and Kiyomori's Night
In the first month of 1160, when Fujiwara no Nobuyori and Minamoto no Yoshitomo rose in Kyoto, Taira no Kiyomori was on his way back from the Kumano pilgrimage. Forty-two-year-old Kiyomori, with his base left in the capital, and thirty-seven-year-old Yoshitomo. This one contest fixed Japan's political history.
Taira no KiyomoriHeiji RebellionMinamoto no YoshitomoThe Warrior Chancellor: What Kiyomori Accomplished in 1167
In 1167, Taira no Kiyomori was appointed Chancellor of the Realm. Warrior appointment to the highest office — an office limited to the Sekkanke and the imperial house — was an unprecedented turn in Japan's political structure. Reading the meaning of the appointment and the reality of the Taira glory.
Taira no KiyomoriChancellor of the RealmTaira housePrince Mochihito's Call to Arms: Why Did the Taira Glory Collapse in 1180?
In the fifth month of 1180, the call to arms issued by Prince Mochihito, son of the retired emperor Go-Shirakawa, ordered the Genji of the various provinces to hunt down the Taira. Nationwide anti-Taira uprisings, the burning of the southern capital, the failed transfer of the capital to Fukuhara, and Kiyomori's death by fever — a world changed in a year and a half.
Taira no KiyomoriPrince MochihitoJishō-Juei WarFrom the Mountains of Kiso: Whose Child Did Yoshinaka Grow Up As?
In 1155, the two-year-old Komaōmaru lost his father. The boy raised in Kiso Valley in Shinano Province rose in response to Prince Mochihito's call to arms at twenty-six. Tracing the prehistory of the man who became the first true battlefield victor over the Taira.
Kiso YoshinakaShinanoPrince Mochihito's callKurikara Pass: Why Did Taira no Koremori Collapse in May 1183?
On the night of the eleventh day of the fifth month of 1183, at Kurikara Pass on the border of Etchū and Kaga. The Taira pursuit army of seventy thousand under Taira no Koremori was annihilated in a night attack by Yoshinaka. The tradition of the 'Fire Ox' stratagem and the record. Tracing the decisive moment of the Taira decline.
Kiso YoshinakaKurikara PassTaira no KoremoriThe Uji River, and Awazu: Why Was Yoshinaka Cast as Court Enemy Half a Year After Entering the Capital?
In the seventh month of 1183, Yoshinaka entered Kyoto and was appointed Barbarian-Subduing Shogun. But half a year later he was killed as a court enemy by the Kamakura army. What happened in the capital? A record of the half-year of mismanagement from the entry to Kyoto to the death at Awazu.
Kiso YoshinakaUji RiverAwazuDid Naotora Exist? The Name Jirō-hōshi and Recent Source Research
The 'female castellan Naotora' transmitted by the Ii Family Records has come under reexamination since around 2016. A document discovered in Kyoto suggested that the 'Jirō-hōshi' who ruled Ii-no-ya may have been a man. Tracing the tension between the traditional image and the primary sources.
Ii Naotorasource criticismJirō-hōshiLosing Father and Cousin: The Crisis of the Ii House and the Succession
Okehazama 1560; the killing of Naochika by the Imagawa in 1562. The Ii house lost two heads in three years. Tracing the course, transmitted by the Ii Family Records, in which the Jirō-hōshi (Naotora), called back from the temple, succeeded to the house.
Ii NaotoraIi houseTōtōmiFrom Toramatsu to Naomasa: The Ii-House Future That Naotora Protected
Ii Toramatsu, born in 1561, was orphaned by his father Naochika's death. Tracing the growth of Toramatsu under Naotora's protection, and up to his 1575 service with Tokugawa Ieyasu, as transmitted by the Ii Family Records.
Ii NaotoraIi NaomasaTokugawa IeyasuThe Headship at Seven: The Day Tachibana Dōsetsu Passed the House to His Daughter
In 1575, the Bungo senior retainer Tachibana Dōsetsu passed the headship of the Tachibana house to his seven-year-old daughter Ginchiyo. Tracing the background to this extraordinary decision — a female inheritance in the Sengoku period.
Tachibana GinchiyoTachibana Dōsetsufemale inheritanceSeparate Households: Why Ginchiyo and Muneshige Did Not Live Together
The couple Tachibana Ginchiyo and Tachibana Muneshige, even after marriage, did not live together; each held a separate residence. Tracing the reality of the 'separate-households marriage' transmitted by Tachibana tradition, and its political meaning.
Tachibana GinchiyoTachibana Muneshigeseparate householdsPost-Sekigahara Withdrawal: Ginchiyo's Last Three Years
Sekigahara 1600: Tachibana Muneshige sides with the Western Army and is stripped of holdings. Ginchiyo took a course separate from Muneshige, withdrew to Haraka in Higo, and died there in 1602 at thirty-four. Tracing the end of the spouses' separation.
Tachibana GinchiyoSekigaharawithdrawalThe Battle of Oshi Castle: The Day a Twenty-Year-Old Female Warrior Held Out Against the Water Attack
In 1590, the Hideyoshi force of over 20,000 under Ishida Mitsunari besieged Oshi Castle and attempted a water attack. The castellan Narita Ujinaga was shut up in Odawara; among the defenders was the twenty-year-old Kaihime.
KaihimeOshi CastleOdawara CampaignAs Hideyoshi's Consort: Kaihime Exchanged for the Preservation of the Narita House
In 1590, after the fall of Oshi Castle, Kaihime was taken by Hideyoshi as consort. Tracing the course of her entry as consort, in exchange for the sparing of her father Ujinaga and the Narita house.
KaihimeToyotomi HideyoshiconsortAttendant to Hideyori: Kaihime's Later Life and the Ōsaka Campaigns
In 1593, Toyotomi Hideyori was born. The Taikōki transmits that Kaihime served as his attendant guardian. After the destruction of the Toyotomi at the Ōsaka Summer Campaign of 1615, Kaihime's whereabouts pass out of record.
KaihimeToyotomi HideyoriŌsaka CampaignsThe Meitoku Reconciliation: How Yoshimitsu Ended a Fifty-Year Division
On the fifth of the leap tenth month of 1392, in Kyoto. Emperor Go-Kameyama of the Southern Court handed the Three Sacred Treasures to Emperor Go-Komatsu, and the division of the Northern and Southern Courts that had lasted more than fifty years ended. Tracing the diplomatic settlement by the thirty-five-year-old Yoshimitsu at the peak of his power.
Ashikaga YoshimitsuNanboku-chō unificationMeitoku ReconciliationThe Golden Pavilion: The Peak of Warrior Power That Yoshimitsu Built at Kitayama
In 1397, Yoshimitsu began construction of a massive estate called the Kitayama estate in the Kitayama district of Kyoto. The core three-story pavilion (later the Golden Pavilion) was a building that stacked three layers — kuge, warrior, Zen — atop one another. The architecture speaks the political conception of Yoshimitsu.
Ashikaga YoshimitsuGolden PavilionKitayama culture'King of Japan Minamoto no Dōgi': Why Yoshimitsu Accepted Ming Investiture
In 1402, the Yongle Emperor of Ming conferred on Ashikaga Yoshimitsu the title 'King of Japan Minamoto no Dōgi.' Tracing the background and controversy of the unprecedented event in which a warrior shōgun in Japan — a country under an emperor — was recognized as king by the Chinese emperor.
Ashikaga YoshimitsuJapan-Ming tradeKing of JapanThe Hōji Battle: How Tokiyori Destroyed the Miura Clan
On June 5, 1247, at Kamakura. The clan of the powerful gokenin Miura Yasumura was surprised by Tokiyori, holed up in the Hōkke-dō, and five hundred took their own lives. Tracing the single day in which the twenty-one-year-old shikken completed the concentration of Hōjō power.
Hōjō TokiyoriHōji BattleMiura clanThe Founding of Kenchō-ji: The Zen Tokiyori Planted in Kamakura
In 1253, Tokiyori opened Japan's first full-fledged Zen temple, Kenchō-ji, in Kamakura. Tracing the beginning of a temple with Rankei Dōryū of Song China as founding abbot, which would become the center of Japanese Zen from then on.
Hōjō TokiyoriKenchō-jiZenHachi-no-ki: How the Tokiyori Provincial Circuit Legend Was Born
The Muromachi nō play 'Hachi-no-ki' transmits that Tokiyori in the guise of a traveling monk sought a night's lodging at Sano Tsuneyo's house in Sano in Kōzuke, and that Tsuneyo burned his prized potted trees as firewood. Tracing the relation between historical fact and legend, and why the ideal of 'a ruler who sees the people' was projected onto Tokiyori.
Hōjō TokiyoriHachi-no-kiprovincial circuit legend'Nobunaga Is an Enemy of the Buddha': Why Kennyo Started a Ten-Year War
In September 1570, the twenty-seven-year-old Hongan-ji head Kennyo issued a call to the adherents of the provinces to overthrow Nobunaga. Tracing the opening of the longest war in Japanese history in which religion and force were interwoven — the Ishiyama War of the late Sengoku.
Hongan-ji KennyoIshiyama WarOda NobunagaA Ten-Year Siege: How Ishiyama Hongan-ji Held Out Against Nobunaga
From 1570 to 1580, Ishiyama Hongan-ji withstood Nobunaga's siege for ten years. The water-castle terrain, supply from the Inland Sea navy, coordination with adherents of the provinces. Tracing the reality of the siege defense in which a religious force troubled a secular daimyō longest.
Hongan-ji KennyoIshiyama Hongan-jisiege defenseWest and East: After Kennyo's Death, Why Did Hongan-ji Split in Two?
After Kennyo's death in 1592, Hongan-ji divided between the line of the eldest son Kyōnyo and the third son Junnyo. In 1602, with the support of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Kyōnyo established Higashi (East) Hongan-ji separately, and two Hongan-ji — West and East — came to stand in parallel in Kyoto.
Hongan-ji KennyoNishi Hongan-jiHigashi Hongan-jiThe 'New Emperor' Declaration: Why Did Masakado Style Himself Emperor in 940?
In the first month of 940, Masakado of Shimōsa Province had subdued the eight Kantō provinces and styled himself 'New Emperor.' The declaration of an independent Kantō regime separate from the Kyoto court was the first attempt in Japanese history at state-establishment under a title other than 'emperor.'
Taira no MasakadoNew EmperorJōhei-Tengyō rebellionThe Kubizuka at Ōtemachi: Why Has the Head Mound of Masakado Remained in Front of Tokyo Station for a Thousand Years?
In the Ōtemachi high-rise office district in front of Tokyo Station, the head mound of a Heian-period rebel is preserved. Tracing the millennium of a story of historical fact and tradition, and of 'the cursing Head Mound' that kept halting urban development.
Taira no MasakadoKubizukaTokyoThe Origin of the Samurai: Can Masakado Be Called the Founder of the Warrior Class?
In modern historical research, the birth of the class of 'samurai' in Japan is said to go back to the 10th-11th centuries. As the first large-scale case in that process, Masakado's name is often cited. Examining Masakado's position as the origin of the samurai.
Taira no Masakadobirth of the samuraimid-HeianThe Landing of de Liefde: An English Navigator Washed Ashore at Usuki, Bungo, in 1600
On April 19, 1600, a strange foreign ship drifted ashore at Usuki Bay in Bungo Province. The crew had been reduced by illness and starvation from over a hundred to some twenty-odd. The navigator of this ship was the Englishman William Adams — the man who would later become Tokugawa Ieyasu's adviser.
Miura Anjinde LiefdeUsuki landingA Foreign Hatamoto: How Adams Became 'Miura Anjin'
In 1605, Tokugawa Ieyasu granted the Englishman William Adams a 250-koku fief at Hemi in the Miura District of Sagami Province and treated him as hatamoto. Tracing the birth of the first foreign samurai in Japanese history and his distinctive role in Tokugawa foreign policy.
Miura Anjinhatamotoforeign samuraiWho Is John Blackthorne of 'SHOGUN'? The Contemporary Revival of Adams
In 2024, Disney+'s 'SHOGUN' (starring Sanada Hiroyuki) took 18 Emmy Awards. The story's English navigator John Blackthorne is modeled on Miura Anjin. Tracing why a four-hundred-year-ago English navigator became a global topic of the twenty-first century.
Miura AnjinSHOGUNcontemporary cultureDid He Exist? Verifying Goemon's Historical Reality from the Sources
There is no doubt that contemporary Japanese share the image of 'Ishikawa Goemon.' But how far can the historical Goemon be confirmed? Distinguishing between fragments of contemporary sources and Edo-period narrative-making.
Ishikawa Goemonsource criticismtradition'What a Splendid View, What a Splendid View': The Sanmon of Nanzen-ji and Goemon's Famous Line
A thief stands atop the Sanmon of Nanzen-ji in Kyoto and declaims 'What a splendid view, what a splendid view. The view of spring is worth a thousand pieces of gold.' The famous scene of the 1778 kabuki 'Sanmon Gosan no Kiri' is still used today as the standard tourist explanation of Nanzen-ji.
Ishikawa GoemonSanmon Gosan no KiriNanzen-jiIshikawa Goemon XIII and Lupin: How Goemon Was Revived in the Twentieth Century
In 1967, Monkey Punch's manga 'Lupin III' began serialization. The character 'Ishikawa Goemon XIII' was set up as a descendant of Goemon. Tracing how the Goemon image was reconstructed in twentieth-century Japanese popular culture.
Ishikawa GoemonLupin IIIcontemporary popular cultureAnegawa: The Day Oichi's Brother and Husband Became Enemies
On June 28, 1570, at the Ane River in Ōmi Province. Oda Nobunaga and Azai Nagamasa met head-on. To Nobunaga, Nagamasa was his sister's husband; to Nagamasa, Nobunaga was his brother-in-law. Tracing the collapse of Sengoku-period political marriage from Oichi's position.
OichiAnegawaAzai NagamasaThe Fall of Odani: In 1573, Oichi Left the Castle with Three Daughters
In August 1573, Odani Castle was surrounded by Nobunaga's army. Her husband Azai Nagamasa took his own life, the eldest son Manpukumaru was killed, Oichi left the castle with three daughters and returned to her brother Nobunaga. Tracing the fork in the fate of a Sengoku-period woman.
OichiOdani Castlethree sistersKitanoshō: The Night Shizugatake Was Decided as a Loss, Oichi Chose Suicide
On the night of April 24, 1583, at Kitanoshō Castle in Echizen Province. Shibata Katsuie, defeated by Hashiba Hideyoshi at the Battle of Shizugatake, and his wife Oichi took their own lives together as the castle burned. The three sisters were spared by Hideyoshi. The end of Oichi at around thirty-seven.
OichiKitanoshōShizugatakeThe Seven Spears of Shizugatake: In 1583, the Twenty-Two-Year-Old Masanori Made His Name
On April 21, 1583, at Shizugatake. The young Fukushima Masanori, together with Katō Kiyomasa, Wakisaka Yasuharu, and five others, achieved the feat of first-spear and established his position as a Hideyoshi-raised warrior. Tracing the birth of the 'Seven Spears.'
Fukushima MasanoriShizugatakeSeven SpearsThe Eastern Army Vanguard at Sekigahara: Why Masanori, a Toyotomi-Loyal Warrior, Sided with Ieyasu
On October 21, 1600, at Sekigahara. The Toyotomi-loyal warrior Fukushima Masanori, as the vanguard of the Eastern Army under Tokugawa Ieyasu, attacked the Toyotomi's senior retainer Ishida Mitsunari first of all. Within this structure, the end of the Toyotomi regime was already embedded.
Fukushima MasanoriSekigaharaIshida MitsunariThe Hiroshima Castle Forfeit: In 1619, Why Was the Greatest Toyotomi-Loyal Daimyō Struck Down?
In June 1619, the bakufu forfeited Fukushima Masanori from Hiroshima at 490,000 koku to Shinano Takaino at 45,000 koku. The reason was the unauthorized repair of Hiroshima Castle. But the essence was the culling of Toyotomi-loyal daimyō in the peacetime after the Ōsaka Campaigns.
Fukushima MasanoriHiroshima forfeitBuke ShohattoThe Shimabara-Amakusa Uprising: In 1637, Why Did a Sixteen-Year-Old Boy Become Commander-in-Chief?
In October 1637, a large-scale uprising of 37,000 peasants, rōnin, and Kirishitan broke out across the Shimabara Peninsula and the Amakusa Islands. Raised up as commander-in-chief was Masuda Shirō Tokisada, around sixteen. Two pressures — harsh land tax and Kirishitan suppression — sought a young 'Savior.'
Amakusa ShirōShimabara RebellionKirishitanThe Hara Castle Siege: An Uprising of 37,000 That Endured a Bakufu Army of 120,000 for Three Months
In December 1637, the Shimabara-Amakusa uprising force shut themselves up in the abandoned Hara Castle. Against a total of 37,000, the bakufu mobilized 120,000. The siege war of over three months became the largest-scale confrontation in the history of Japanese religious war.
Amakusa ShirōHara Castlesiege1639 National Seclusion: The Death of Shirō and How Japan Was Closed for the Next 230 Years
One year after the fall of Hara Castle in 1638, in July 1639, the bakufu banned the arrival of Portuguese ships. The direct trigger for the 'national seclusion' system that would continue for 230 years thereafter was the Shimabara Rebellion and the death of Amakusa Shirō.
Amakusa Shirōnational seclusion1639The Battle of Sacheon: In 1598, 7,000 Satsuma Troops Repelled a Ming Army of Tens of Thousands
On October 1, 1598, at Sacheon in southern Korea. Shimazu Yoshihiro's roughly 7,000 Satsuma troops received the attack of a Ming-Korean allied army of tens of thousands. After half a day of combat, the allied army withdrew with thousands of dead. Tracing one of the greatest victories in the whole Korean campaign.
Shimazu YoshihiroSacheonKorean campaign'Sutegamari': At Sekigahara 1600, How Did Yoshihiro Break Through the Enemy Center?
On the afternoon of October 21, 1600, at Sekigahara. When the defeat of the Western Army became decisive, Shimazu Yoshihiro chose a break-through of the enemy center with a small force. Tracing the rare retreat combat that achieved return to Satsuma by the 'Sutegamari' tactic — the rear-guard sacrifices itself to buy time.
Shimazu YoshihiroSekigaharaSutegamariAfter Sekigahara, Why Did Only the Shimazu House Escape Reduction of Fief?
After Sekigahara in 1600, Western-side daimyō were forfeited or reduced one after another. But only the Shimazu house's 770,000 koku escaped reduction. Verifying the role Yoshihiro's break-through of the center played in the two-and-a-half-year negotiation with Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Shimazu YoshihiroSatsuma domainTokugawa negotiationFounding the Tosa Loyalist Party: In 1861, Hanpeita Gathered Two Hundred Comrades
In August 1861, Takechi Hanpeita, having finished his training in Edo and returned to Tosa, founded the Tosa Loyalist Party centered on his sword school. An organization of nearly two hundred rural warriors, rōnin, and lower-ranking retainers would become one of the cores of the Bakumatsu upheaval for the next three years.
Takechi HanpeitaTosa Loyalist Partyimperial loyalistTwo Men from the Same Home: Why Did Takechi Hanpeita and Sakamoto Ryōma Choose Different Roads?
Takechi Hanpeita and Sakamoto Ryōma were both from the Tosa domain gōshi class and had been close from youth. The way the roads of the two — Hanpeita choosing intra-domain politics and Ryōma choosing to leave the domain — divided symbolizes two different types of Bakumatsu shishi.
Takechi HanpeitaSakamoto RyōmaTosaThe Purge of Yamauchi Yōdō: In 1865, the Thirty-Seven-Year-Old Hanpeita Committed Seppuku
In the coup of August 18, 1863, the Loyalist faction fell from the court, and in Tosa too, the suppression of the Loyalist Party by former lord Yamauchi Yōdō began. After about two years in prison, on May 11, 1865, Hanpeita was ordered to commit seppuku. The end of the Tosa Loyalist Party.
Takechi HanpeitaYamauchi YōdōseppukuThe Women's Martial Arts of Aizu: Where Did Takeko Learn the Naginata?
The Aizu domain was a rare domain that gave full-fledged martial-arts education to women retainers as well. Trained by Takahashi Shūtarō at the Edo residence, Nakano Takeko grew within this tradition into a top-level naginata practitioner.
Nakano TakekoAizunaginata educationNamida-bashi: On August 25, 1868, Takeko Led the Jōshigun and Fell to Gunfire
On August 25, 1868, at Yanagibashi (later Namida-bashi, Bridge of Tears) near Aizu-Bange, the roughly twenty members of the Jōshigun led by Nakano Takeko engaged the New Government army. In half an hour of combat, Takeko cut down several enemies with her naginata and then fell to gunfire. She was twenty-one.
Nakano TakekoJōshigunNamida-bashiThe Modern Nakano Takeko: How the Memory of the Defeated Was Venerated
The Boshin War ended in the victory of the New Government army, and for half a century thereafter, the memory of Aizu was suppressed as that of the defeated. But from the Taishō period onward, the story of Nakano Takeko and the Jōshigun revived in the popular memory of Aizu, and today has become an icon of the woman samurai known even overseas.
Nakano TakekoAizu Warmodern venerationAfter Shijōnawate: In 1348, His Brother's Death Turned the Headship to Masanori
In the first month of 1348, at Shijōnawate in Kawachi. Kusunoki Masatsura clashed head-on with the great army of the Northern Court's Kō Moronao and fell in battle. Following his father Masashige, his elder brother also fell, and the headship of the Kusunoki turned to the third son, Masanori. The start of a forty-year life ahead.
Kusunoki MasanoriBattle of ShijōnawatesuccessionThe Defection of 1369: Why the Head of the Kusunoki Surrendered to the Northern Court
In 1369, Kusunoki Masanori, the core Southern Court warrior, surrendered to the Northern Court and the Muromachi shogunate. Behind the choice fiercely denounced by the Southern Court interior as 'traitor' was the ideal of ending the war through peace.
Kusunoki MasanoriNorthern Court surrenderpeace negotiationThe 1381 Return to the Southern Court: Masanori Staked His Last Ten Years on His Father's Will
Kusunoki Masanori, who had surrendered to the Northern Court in 1369, returned again to the Southern Court in 1381. The second change of allegiance came when the road of direct negotiation between the Northern and Southern Courts opened. Eleven years' foreshadowing of the Nanboku-chō reconciliation of 1392.
Kusunoki MasanoriSouthern Court returnNanboku-chō reconciliationFrom Monitor to Father-in-Law: The Twenty Years of Tokimasa and Yoritomo
Hōjō Tokimasa, who took the role of monitor to Minamoto no Yoritomo exiled to Izu in 1160, was, twenty years later, Yoritomo's father-in-law and at the center of the founding of the Kamakura shogunate. Tracing the family fate that his daughter Masako's secret marriage moved.
Hōjō TokimasaMinamoto no YoritomoHōjō MasakoIn 1203, How Tokimasa Made Shikken Politics
In 1203, Tokimasa removed the second shōgun Yoriie (his own grandson), raised up the third shōgun Sanetomo, and took the office of Mandokoro Bettō. The origin of the 'shikken politics' that would continue for eight hundred years — the double structure of the shikken holding real power while formally serving under the shōgun.
Hōjō Tokimasashikken politicsYoriieThe Maki-shi Incident: In 1205, Tokimasa Fell From the Peak of Power
In the leap seventh month of 1205, Tokimasa, together with his second wife Maki-no-kata, plotted to raise Hiraga Tomomasa as shōgun. But by the counter-attack of his daughter Masako and son Yoshitoki, he failed, fell from power, and retired to Izu. A sudden fall from the peak of power.
Hōjō TokimasaMaki-shi Incidentfall from powerIn 1838, Tekijuku Opened in Ōsaka: A Learning Community That One Rangaku Scholar Started
In 1838, Ogata Kōan opened the rangaku school 'Tekijuku' at Semba in Ōsaka. The small private school started by a twenty-nine-year-old young rangaku scholar would, over the next twenty-five years, produce three thousand disciples who would carry Japan's modernization from the Bakumatsu through early Meiji.
Ogata KōanTekijukurangakuThe Seed-Pox of 1849: The Day Kōan Started Japanese Public Health
In 1849, Ogata Kōan began cowpox inoculation (seed-pox) in earnest in Ōsaka. The organized introduction into Japan of vaccination against smallpox — humanity's greatest epidemic — became a watershed enterprise in the history of Japanese public health.
Ogata Kōanseed-poxpublic healthTekijuku's Three Thousand Disciples: The Place Where Fukuzawa Yukichi and Ōmura Masujirō Were Born
Tekijuku sent out more than three thousand disciples across Kōan's lifetime. Fukuzawa Yukichi, Ōmura Masujirō, Hashimoto Sanai, Sano Tsunetami, Nagayo Sensai. Nearly all the human group that carried Japan's modernization from the Bakumatsu through early Meiji had passed through this small private school in Ōsaka.
Ogata KōanTekijukudisciplesThe Hanakura Rebellion: The 1536 Succession That Turned a Monk into a Sengoku Daimyō
In 1536, the sudden death of Imagawa Ujiteru brought a succession dispute to the Imagawa house. Sengaku Shōhō, who was in Buddhist orders, defeated his half-brother Genkō Etan, returned to lay life, and took the name Imagawa Yoshimoto. It was a transformation from Zen monk to daimyō of the Tōkai.
Imagawa YoshimotoHanakura RebellionsuccessionThe Kō-Sō-Sun Three-Province Alliance: The 1554 Balance of Power Yoshimoto Built in the Tōkai
In 1554, Imagawa Yoshimoto concluded the Kō-Sō-Sun three-province alliance with Takeda Shingen and Hōjō Ujiyasu. The mutual non-aggression through marriage among the three houses gave Yoshimoto the margin to advance west into Mikawa and Owari without worry to his rear. It was the completion of hegemony over the Tōkai.
Imagawa Yoshimotothree-province allianceTaigen SessaiOkehazama: The Day the Tōkai Overlord Fell in the Fields of Owari, 1560
On the nineteenth day of the fifth month of 1560, Imagawa Yoshimoto, who had invaded Owari at the head of a great army, was struck down by Oda Nobunaga's surprise attack at Okehazama. He was forty-two. The sudden death of the Tōkai overlord brought about Nobunaga's rise and Ieyasu's independence, and transformed the power map of the Sengoku period.
Imagawa YoshimotoOkehazamaOda NobunagaSuccession as Shikken: How Hōjō Yoshitoki Took the Power of Kamakura by Banishing His Father, 1205
In 1205, having brought down his father Tokimasa in the Maki-shi Incident, Hōjō Yoshitoki succeeded, together with his sister Masako, to the substantive power of the Kamakura shogunate. The severe choice of seizing power by banishing his father opened the second stage of Hōjō regency politics.
Hōjō YoshitokishikkenMaki-shi IncidentThe Battle of Wada: The 1213 War in Which Yoshitoki Concentrated Power in Kamakura
In 1213, Hōjō Yoshitoki provoked the powerful gokenin Wada Yoshimori into raising troops and destroyed him. Seizing the office of Samurai-dokoro Bettō and grasping both powers of the Mandokoro and the Samurai-dokoro, Yoshitoki concentrated the substantive power of the Kamakura shogunate in the Hōjō.
Hōjō YoshitokiBattle of Wadapower concentrationThe Jōkyū War: The Day Yoshitoki Subdued the Imperial Court by Force, 1221
In 1221, the Retired Emperor Go-Toba issued an edict to hunt down Hōjō Yoshitoki. Under his sister Masako's exhortation, Yoshitoki sent a great army to Kyoto and defeated the court's forces. This war, in which the warrior houses subdued the imperial court by force, transformed the power structure of Japan at its root.
Hōjō YoshitokiJōkyū Warimperial courtSei-i Taishōgun: The First Hero Born of a Martial House, 797
In 797, Sakanoue no Tamuramaro was appointed Sei-i Taishōgun by Emperor Kanmu. Born into a family of warriors of immigrant descent, Tamuramaro became the first hero to embody the title 'Sei-i Taishōgun' that later warrior governments took as their model.
Sakanoue no TamuramaroSei-i TaishōgunKiyomizu-deraThe Pacification of Isawa: Tamuramaro and Aterui Face to Face, 802
In 802, Sakanoue no Tamuramaro pacified the land of Isawa and brought the Emishi leader Aterui into surrender. Tamuramaro pleaded with the court to spare Aterui's life, but was not heeded, and the brave enemy general was executed. It was a tragedy for both the one who subdues and the one who is subdued.
Sakanoue no TamuramaroIsawaAteruiThe Kusuko Incident: The Order of Heian an Old General Protected, 810
In 810, the Kusuko Incident arose, in which the Retired Emperor Heizei and Emperor Saga were in conflict. The aged Sakanoue no Tamuramaro led the army of Emperor Saga's side, blocked the Retired Emperor Heizei's move to the eastern provinces, and quelled the coup. It was his last great task as a warrior.
Sakanoue no TamuramaroKusuko IncidentHeianInamuragasaki: The Day Yoshisada Cast His Sword into the Sea and Took Kamakura, 1333
In the fifth month of 1333, Nitta Yoshisada cast a golden sword into the sea at Inamuragasaki on the edge of Kamakura, raced across the ebbed tidal flat, and attacked into Kamakura. The Kamakura shogunate, which had lasted 140 years, perished in little more than half a month from the uprising of one neglected gokenin.
Nitta YoshisadaInamuragasakiFall of KamakuraThe Retreat at Minatogawa: In 1336, Yoshisada Could Not Save His Sworn Friend Masashige
In the fifth month of 1336, at Minatogawa in Settsu. Before the great army of Ashikaga Takauji, who had rallied from Kyushu, Nitta Yoshisada and Kusunoki Masashige were defeated. Masashige died in battle; Yoshisada retreated and survived. It was a day that divided the fortunes of the two men who had together supported the Kenmu government.
Nitta YoshisadaBattle of MinatogawaAshikaga TakaujiFujishima: In 1338, a Stray Arrow in a Muddy Field Broke the Pillar of the Southern Court
In the intercalary seventh month of 1338, at Fujishima in Echizen. Nitta Yoshisada, going to the aid of his allies with only a small force, met a great Ashikaga army, and as his horse was trapped in a muddy field he was pierced by a stray arrow and died in battle. He was thirty-eight. On this day the Southern Court lost its greatest military pillar.
Nitta YoshisadaBattle of FujishimaSouthern CourtMataza of the Spear: The Day a Kabukimono Was Pardoned by Nobunaga
The young Maeda Toshiie was a kabukimono called 'Mataza of the spear.' He cut down a favorite of Nobunaga and fled, joined the battles of Okehazama and Moribe without leave, took heads, and was at last pardoned back into service. It was a second term of service, won by a feat of arms staked on his life.
Maeda ToshiieMataza of the spearOda NobunagaThe Withdrawal at Shizugatake: In 1583, Toshiie Chose Between Old Lord and Sworn Friend
In 1583, at Shizugatake. Deployed as part of Shibata Katsuie's force, Maeda Toshiie withdrew his soldiers in the midst of battle. This withdrawal decided Katsuie's defeat. Katsuie, whom he had long served, or Hideyoshi, his old acquaintance. Toshiie made the heaviest choice of his life in the very midst of the battlefield.
Maeda ToshiieBattle of ShizugatakeToyotomi HideyoshiThe Counterweight of Million-Koku Kaga: In 1599, Toshiie's Death Broke the Balance
In 1599, on his sickbed, Maeda Toshiie was entrusted with the guardianship of Toyotomi Hideyori and departed the world. He was sixty-two. The death of Toshiie, the one great figure who could restrain Ieyasu's arrogation, broke that balance. The day after his death, the gears toward a great war began to turn.
Maeda ToshiieCouncil of Five EldersToyotomi HideyoriThe Snow of Yoshino: In 1186, Shizuka Was Parted from Yoshitsune in Life
In 1185, Shizuka Gozen, the finest shirabyōshi of the capital, followed the hunted Minamoto no Yoshitsune out of the capital. In the first month of the next year, the two parted on Mt. Yoshino, forbidden to women. Shizuka could only see off Yoshitsune's back as it vanished into the snowy peaks. This became their parting for life.
Shizuka GozenMt. YoshinoMinamoto no YoshitsuneThe Dance at Tsurugaoka: In 1186, Shizuka Danced Her Longing for Yoshitsune Before Yoritomo
In 1186, in Kamakura. The captive Shizuka Gozen offered a dance at Tsurugaoka Hachimangū at the request of Yoritomo and Masako. But what Shizuka danced and sang was a song of longing for Yoshitsune, whom Yoritomo hunted. Yoritomo was enraged. Masako defended her, as one woman who understood the longing for Yoshitsune.
Shizuka GozenTsurugaoka HachimangūMinamoto no YoritomoYuigahama: In 1186, Shizuka Had Her Newborn Child Taken from Her
In Kamakura, Shizuka Gozen bore Yoshitsune's child. It had already been decreed that if the child were a boy, it would be killed. The infant was sunk in the waves of Yuigahama. The death of a child torn from its mother. Shizuka thereafter left Kamakura heartbroken, and her later fate vanished into legend.
Shizuka GozenYuigahamaMinamoto no YoshitsuneThe Seizure of Mino: By Gekokujō, a Schemer Became Master of a Province
In the age of the Sengoku, Saitō Dōsan overcame his lord's house one step at a time and seized the whole province of Mino, feared as 'the Viper of Mino.' No one embodied more vividly than Dōsan the age of gekokujō, in which strength overturned birth.
Saitō DōsangekokujōMinoThe Meeting at Shōtoku-ji: In 1553, Dōsan Saw Through the Greatness of 'the Fool'
In 1553, Saitō Dōsan came face to face for the first time with his son-in-law Oda Nobunaga. The youth whom the world mocked as 'the fool of Owari,' Dōsan saw at a glance to be a vessel for the realm. The father-in-law's discernment pushed the future ruler of the realm onto the front stage of history.
Saitō DōsanOda NobunagaShōtoku-jiThe Nagara River: In 1556, the Schemer Was Killed by His Own Son
In 1556, Saitō Dōsan fought his own son Yoshitatsu, to whom he had ceded the headship, at the Nagara River, and died in battle. The gekokujō schemer who had seized a province fell to his son's gekokujō. The blood of father-and-son strife closed Dōsan's life.
Saitō DōsanBattle of the Nagara Riverfather-and-son strifeThe Princess-Boy's First Battle: In 1560, a Mocked Youth Bared His Fangs
Fair-skinned and quiet, Chōsokabe Motochika was mocked as 'the little princess-boy.' But in 1560, at his first battle at the age of twenty-two, he wielded a spear himself and showed valor, overturning the mockery of those around him in a single day. It was the too-late flowering of a youth stepping toward the overlordship of Shikoku.
Chōsokabe Motochikafirst battleichiryō-gusokuThe Unification of Shikoku: In 1585, the Dream the Ichiryō-Gusoku Built, and Its End
Leading the half-farmer, half-soldier ichiryō-gusoku, Chōsokabe Motochika took most of Shikoku from Tosa. But on the eve of unification, the great army of the realm's ruler Hideyoshi crossed the sea. The Shikoku dream built in a single generation was shrunk, before the power of the center, to the single province of Tosa.
Chōsokabe Motochikaunification of ShikokuToyotomi HideyoshiThe Hetsugi River: In 1586, Motochika Lost His Beloved Son and Was Changed Beyond Recognition
In 1586, at the Hetsugi River in Kyushu, Chōsokabe Motochika lost his eldest son Nobuchika in the fighting against the Shimazu army. The death of his beloved son at twenty-two changed the hero of Shikoku into a man of suspicion. The disorder over the succession within his house became a remote cause of the fall of the Chōsokabe house.
Chōsokabe MotochikaBattle of the Hetsugi RiverChōsokabe NobuchikaThe Ōnin War: In 1467, a Mother's Obsession to Make Her Son Shōgun Burned Kyoto
Hino Tomiko, who wished to make her natural son Yoshihisa shōgun, and Yoshimi, already set as heir. This succession dispute of the Ashikaga shogunal house set fire to the power struggle of the daimyō. In the Ōnin War lasting eleven years, Kyoto was reduced to scorched earth.
Hino TomikoŌnin WarAshikaga YoshimasaWicked Woman, or Savior? The Reality of the Wealth Tomiko Amassed
Hino Tomiko amassed enormous wealth through barriers, rice, and lending, and was cursed in later ages as a 'miserly wicked woman.' But that wealth was also the revenue that supported a shogunate and court bankrupted by war. The other face behind the disgrace of the wicked woman.
Hino Tomikoshogunal financesMuromachiThe Death of Yoshihisa: In 1489, the Child the Mother Made Shōgun Perished on Campaign
Ashikaga Yoshihisa, whom his mother Tomiko had placed in the shōgun's seat by her obsession, died of illness at twenty-five while on campaign to Ōmi. To Tomiko, who had not shrunk even from the disgrace of a wicked woman for her child's sake, what was left was only the grief of a mother outliving her son.
Hino TomikoAshikaga YoshihisaMuromachiA Foot Soldier's Son Rises: In 1772, Tanuma Okitsugu Stood at the Summit of Shogunal Government
Born the son of a foot soldier of the Kii domain, Tanuma Okitsugu piled up an exceptional rise from a shōgun's attendant and took the seat of rōjū in 1772. In a shogunate where birth spoke loudest, it was a rare ascent by sheer ability.
Tanuma Okitsugurōjūmid-EdoCommerce into National Wealth: The Mercantilist Reform of Tanuma Okitsugu
Tanuma Okitsugu sought to rebuild the rice-dependent shogunal finances with the power of commerce. Official recognition of merchant guilds, monopolies, expansion of Nagasaki trade, development of Ezo. His policies, in an age of agrarianism, held a quality that ran ahead to the modern.
Tanuma Okitsugumercantilismshogunal financesThe Fall: In 1788, the Reformer Was Buried Under Disgrace
His heir cut down within the castle, saddled with the confusion of the Tenmei famine, Tanuma Okitsugu fell from power with the death of the shōgun. His successor Matsudaira Sadanobu denied all his policies. The reformer ahead of his time was buried by the values of the old order.
Tanuma Okitsugufall from powerKansei ReformsThree Castle-Falls: Yodo-dono Had Her Father and Mother Torn Away by the Flames of War
Chacha, daughter of Azai Nagamasa and Oichi, lost her father's Odani Castle at four and her mother's Kita-no-shō Castle at fifteen, in the flames of war. The girl who lost her kin in two castle-falls would in time perish herself in a third. It was the beginning of a life run through by loss.
Yodo-donoOdani CastleKita-no-shō CastleHideyori's Mother: In 1593, Yodo-dono Bore the Heir of the Toyotomi
Chacha, who had become the concubine of Hideyoshi, the enemy of her father and mother, bore Hideyori in 1593. As the mother of the heir the ruler of the realm had longed for, Yodo-dono gained a position without peer at Ōsaka Castle. But that very child was fated to bear the destiny of the Toyotomi.
Yodo-donoToyotomi HideyoriToyotomi HideyoshiThe Fall of Ōsaka: In 1615, Yodo-dono Vanished into the Flames with Her Son
In the summer of 1615, the great Tokugawa army besieged Ōsaka Castle. Yodo-dono, who had once lost her father and mother to castle-falls, was this time in the flames together with her child Hideyori. The fall of the Toyotomi house, and a third castle-fall. A life begun in loss closed in loss.
Yodo-donoSiege of ŌsakaToyotomiSon of a Jige-Rōnin: The Man Who Rose from the Lowest Stratum
Iwasaki Yatarō was born into a jige-rōnin house that had even lost warrior status. The youth, who tasted poverty, humiliation, and even imprisonment, turned that frustration into an obsession to rise. It was the beginning of a scathing counterattack against a world where status decided everything.
Iwasaki Yatarōjige-rōninTosaThe Founding of Mitsubishi: In 1873, He Turned the Chaos of Abolished Domains into Opportunity
When the abolition of the domains left the domain-run enterprises with nowhere to go, Iwasaki Yatarō took over their ships and set out into shipping. The Mitsubishi Shōkai he founded in 1873 began from the gamble of one man who saw an age of upheaval as opportunity.
Iwasaki YatarōMitsubishishippingThe Shipping War: In 1885, the Overlord Fell in the Midst of Competition
Having gained enormous profit from the military transport of the Satsuma Rebellion, Iwasaki Yatarō became the overlord of the shipping world. But a fierce freight-rate competition with the government-affiliated Kyōdō Un'yu tormented him. The man who built Japan's greatest wealth departed the world with his aim unfinished, in the midst of that death-struggle.
Iwasaki YatarōshippingMitsubishi