Landslides

The mountains in Japan are very steep and the rocks unstable due to weathering. Landslides are common whenever there are heavy rains. Many rural villages have established themselves along the... Read more...
Kyoto Development Issues

Kyoto holds a unique position in Japan as the ancient, imperial capital and the cultural center of the nation. It was because of these reasons that the Japan specialists who... Read more...
The Ashita Honjin

Although only a small town, Ashita boasts the oldest surviving honjin on the Nakasendo. It has also been owned by the same family since its' original construction in the late... Read more...
Pilgrimage

The idea of making a pilgrimage to visit religious places is present in nearly every culture and religion. In Japan, it is typical of both major religions, Buddhism and Shinto... Read more...
The Shinkansen

The Shinkansen is commonly known outside Japan as the 'bullet train' but the word actually means 'new trunk line'. It is a high-speed passenger train system which now stretches from... Read more...
Castle Towns

At the time of the Meiji Restoration, in 1868, some 250 castle towns (jokamachi) formed the core of a well developed urban network in Japan. Although constructed primarily as defended... Read more...
Omote-ura - Public and Private Faces

Omote (the public face) and ura (the private face) are twin concepts that are applied to almost any aspect of Japan or life in Japan. Omote refers to the image... Read more...
Namiki

The idea of planting trees along the roadside to provide shade for travelers had occurred to the Chinese when they developed their highway system more than 2000 years ago. Almost... Read more...

Climate and Geography

Seasons and Climate

The climate of Japan is influenced by its position on the eastern edge of the Eurasian land mass (thus Japan is subject to the effects of both continental and maritime winds), by its latitudinal position (in the temperate zone), and by the annual movement, north and south, of a series of fronts separating different air… [Read more]

The Japanese Landscape

The current emperor, the Emperor Heisei, it is claimed, has an ancestry with origins in the Japanese pantheon. Tradition further proclaims that it was the father of the Gods, Izanagi, who thrust his spear into the waters of the earth and so created the Japanese isles from the droplets thus formed. Though most Japanese today… [Read more]

Samurai
In the class system of the Edo period (1603-1868), the samurai class was the highest, ruling class. ‘Samurai’ means ‘one who serves’ and refers to the military class which arose beginning around the 10th Century AD. For the most part, samurai dominated government and society from the end of the 12th Century. In the Edo period, this class of warriors turned into a bureaucratic class although they did not abandon their original military function. At this time, they composed about 7% of the population in the period and the descendants of samurai dominated Japan well into the 20th Century after the abolition of the feudal classes in the 1870s.

Landslides

Kyoto Development Issues

The Ashita Honjin

Pilgrimage

The Shinkansen

Castle Towns

Omote-ura - Public and Private Faces

Namiki

Seasons and Climate

The Japanese Landscape

Market Gardening

Craft Industry

The Japanese Economy

Bathing

Tokyo Prefecture

Climate and Geography

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