Ancestors of the Yase Doji, from a village near Mount Hiei, served as pallbearers...
John Carroll
John J. Carroll is a Kyoto-based freelance writer and translator who has lived in Japan for three decades. He is author of several books, including Trails of Two Cities: A Walker’s Guide to Yokohama and Kamakura and Japan: Soul of a Nation, as well as numerous newspaper and magazine articles. He received his M.A. degree in Asian Studies from the University of Hawaii-Manoa, where he was concurrently a fellow at the East-West Center. He served with the U.S. State Department in China for three years through the spring of 2018 as vice-consul in Beijing and Guangzhou.
Warfare is no longer a purely military concept. In cognitive warfare, the human mind...
Japan's spirit world teems with supernatural beings, but the closest equivalent to vampires might...
Spring in modern Japan is about new beginnings, but ancient festivals reveal that sakura...
From a good luck charm for children to a talisman for sexual potency and...
Who doesn't enjoy watching the sumotori performing their high-stomping warmup before a match? But...
Did the actions of one Japanese swordsman set in motion Tsar Nicholas' revenge, leading...
The position of women in the Gion Matsuri tradition has changed over the centuries,...
It takes time and much effort to pull the heavy floats the length of...
"Think of the Yamaboko Junko as a giant, serpentine magnet circulating through the festival...
From ancient times, horses, especially white horses, were highly revered in Japan, and it...
The parade of floats are famous, but decidedly secondary to the evening processions that...