Ichijoji

  Kano Sanraku (his signature is there in the bottom left corner) - a votive plaque (ema) Horses were, of course, a huge part of the life of...

There are plenty of questions (and, indeed, legends) surrounding Musashi’s life – where was he born? What, if anything, did he study as a ch...

A dynamic illustration of Musashi by Noriyoshi Ohrai You read enough on a subject, and sooner or later you come to find yourself going round...

Travellers sheltering from the rain ‘This endless rain’ wrote Ki no Tsurayuki in the 10th century in a poem about the rainy season. This is ...

  Still from the movie Sekigahara (2017) – good use of a short sword. The katana is, perhaps, the sword most closely associated with the sam...

I try not to spend too much time scrolling through online feeds, but like most of us, I suspect, I often find myself doing it more than I wo...

The snow yesterday (not so common these days, and comparatively light compared to much of the rest of the country) reminded me of this cla...