Japan Navigator

It is difficult to imagine: on the place where now the metropolis of Tokyo stands, once was nothing but a bay with swampy inlets and marshes covered with reeds. The straw roofs of a small fisher’s village were the only signs of life in the wide distance. Here lived two brothers, Hinokuma Hamanari and Takenari, [...]

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Basho was born in the castle town of Iga-Ueno, in the Kansai area, but at a young age settled in Edo. He made several trips back to western Japan and then also often visited the Nara area or Yamatoji as it is called in Japanese. In 1684 he visited Yoshino and the next year he [...]

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Fujiidera Temple sits right in the middle of a downtown shopping street, in a town in southern Osaka that is named after it. It reminds us of another Kannon temple, Gumyoji, that stands in similar circumstances in a Yokohama locality. Here, too, the courtyard is filled by old women from the neighborhood, bending down under [...]

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Seen from the city, Higashi-Mukojima, the site of the Hyakkaen Garden, lies on the opposite bank of the Sumida River, something which is also expressed in the name ‘Mukojima,’ which means ‘Yonder Isle,’ or ‘Island on the Other Side of the Sumida.’ The garden was laid out on fertile land along the river’s bank. It [...]

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Nov., Kyoto: Special Temple Openings
Many temples which are usually not open show their treasures or gardens. See here for a list.
Nov., Tokyo: Tori-no-Ichi, Otori Shrine (Taito Ward)
Sale of kumade or bamboo rakes, to rake in good fortune.
November 2-4, Karatsu (Saga Pref.): Karatsu Kunchi
Interesting hikiyama floats with models of sea bream, dragons, samurai helmets and other [...]

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We are with Basho on (almost) the last leg of his Narrow Road and enter Toyama from Niigata.

[Fresh rice plants. Photo © Ad Blankestijn]
fragrance of rice
wading into it
on my right the Rough Sea
wase no ka ya | wakeiru migi wa | Ariso Umi

This is the only haiku Basho wrote in Toyama. Ariso no Umi, the [...]

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It is a dry wintry day when we come to Higashi-Murayama for our visit to Anrakuji. We have found a walking route to the temple from the station, that passes the famous Yoshimi tunnel tombs on the way. We come as much to see these almost prehistoric caves as the temple.
Of course, caves and temple [...]

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passing through this world
is like taking shelter
for a winter drizzle
yo ni furu wa | sara ni shigure no | yadori ka na
Sogi (1421-1502)
Hakone Yumoto is the oldest part of Hakone. Already in the Kamakura period it had developed into a spa town and that is still its major characteristic. Conveniently, it is also a traffic [...]

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Until December 3, the Tokyo National Museum is hosting an exhibition of Buddhist statues in the so-called ichiboku style under the title Shaping Faith. Sculptures in the ichiboku style have been carved from one piece of wood instead of being made by fitting a number of wooden blocks together (and pasting over the lines between [...]

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One of the first Japanese novels that I read in the original language (painstakingly slow!) was Zero no Shoten (Zero Focus) by popular mystery author Matsumoto Seicho – it is more than twenty years ago when I found a copy in a secondhand bookstore in Kyoto. I especially enjoyed the atmosphere of the [...]

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