Nisshinkan was a school of the Aizu Domain built in 1803 to nurture future human resources. Children (boys) of the samurai clan entered the school at the age of 10 to study academics, martial arts, and etiquette and to train their minds and bodies. The approximately 6.5-acre site included a martial arts hall, an astronomical …
Oyakuen Garden is a representative Japanese garden of Aizu Wakamatsu and used to be the garden of successive lords of the Aizu Domain. The name “Oyakuen” translates literally as “Garden of Medicine.” This is derived from the villa built by Morihisa Ashina in 1432 and later in 1670 by Masatsune Hoshina, the second lord of …
Based on the residence built by Naomori Ashina in 1384, Ujisato Gamo built the first full-scale castle tower in eastern Japan in 1593 and named it “Tsurugajo” (Tsurugajo Castle). The castle features red roof tiles (“kawara”) with iron-rich glaze to withstand the low temperatures and snowfall of the snowy region and is currently the only …
Goroawase (語呂合わせ) is a type of Japanese wordplay. It is especially common for numbers to read differently from their original readings. Each number has several fixed readings, and the readings corresponding to the numbers are derived or associated with Japanese, Yamato Kotoba(old Japanese), Chinese (mahjong terms), English, etc. We, Japanese, use them in everyday life, …
In Japan, there are many proverbs (諺 [Kotowaza]) that teach life lessons and the way human beings should be, which have been handed down from generation to generation. Do you have a favorite Japanese proverb? If you don’t, pick one here. 雨だれ石を穿つ “Raindrops make holes in the stone.” 急がば回れ “If you’re in a hurry, take …
