The Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo is a premium hotel located in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi area, near Tokyo Station and the Tokyo Stock Exchange, in the Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower. Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group manages the hotel, which debuted in December 2005. There are 178 rooms and suites at the hotel, as well as ten restaurants and bars. Sense, …
The Tokyo Imperial Palace (皇居, Kōkyo, literally ‘Imperial Residence’) is the main residence of the Emperor of Japan. It is a large park-like area located in the Chiyoda district of the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo and contains several buildings including the main palace (宮殿, Kyūden), some residences of the Imperial Family, an archive, museums and …
Welcome to the Sawanoya Ryokan. This traditional Japanese inn, located in Yanaka, near Tokyo’s Ueno district, offers tourists a relaxing stay in a rustically attractive residence. Sawanoya Ryokan, which has been in the service sector for more than 70 years, offers pleasant living in a warm, welcoming environment. Sawanoya’s interior is just as welcoming as …
Nojiri Kazutoshi (1590-1680), a rônin who served two different daimyo but found himself masterless at the time of Banzan’s birth, three years after the passing of Tokugawa Ieyasu, was the father of Banzan when he was born in Kyoto (1543–1616). The daimyos Sakuma Jinkurô and Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) were served by Banzan’s grandfather (1556–1631). His …
During the Tenpô era (1830–1843), a period of famine and political upheaval that many historians believe to represent the start of the collapse of the Tokugawa shogunate, Kido Kôin, a samurai from Chôshû, was born. He was a staunch supporter of the imperial dynasty who made a significant contribution to overthrowing the Tokugawa regime. He …
The Kakizaki family, a Matsumae collateral family that functioned as house councilors (karô), adopted Kakizaki Hirotoshi, the fifth son of the Matsumae daimyo (better known by his studio name, Hakyô). At the age of nine, the Ka-kizaki house head brought him to Edo, where he spent the next ten years living in the Matsumae domain …
Itô Hirobumi (then known as Hayashi Risuke) was raised as a samurai after being adopted from a farming family in the village of Tsukari in the Chôshû domain (modern-day Yamaguchi prefecture). He studied under the late Tokugawa loyalist scholar Yoshida Shôin and was a key figure in the Meiji Restoration and the early development of …
During the Tokugawa era, samurai were expected to balance their study of martial techniques and literary (civil) subjects. This idea was known as bunbu. Early in the seventeenth century, maintaining a state of readiness for battle was essential because, under the Tokugawa shogun’s new leadership, the nation faced political instability and, in 1614–1615, conflict broke …
Fukuzawa Yûkichi was the son of a low-ranking samurai from the Nakatsu domain, a sizable fief in northern Kyushu, and his life spanned both the Tokugawa and the Meiji eras. Following the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and the U.S. naval expedition that forced open Japan in 1853, Yûkichi was hired by the Tokugawa …
In Tokugawa Japan, the majority of domains created a graveyard just for their daimyo and their spouses. Chôshû was unique in that it had two, each separated from the other but situated on the fringes of Hagi, the castle town. The first to be built was on the grounds of the Zen Temple Daishôin, which …