Stories of Japan
Samurai, sun goddesses, sushi and karaoke: Japan through its history, myths and inventions.
- japan
- japanese history
Some of the stories included
Daisuke Inoue and the First Karaoke MachineIn 1971, a Kobe drummer built the first commercially successful karaoke machines but never patented them, missing a fortune.
Susanoo and the Eight-Headed SerpentThe exiled storm god Susanoo battles an eight-headed serpent, finding a divine sword in its tail that became one of Japan's Imperial Regalia.
Amaterasu and the CaveHow Japan's sun goddess plunged the world into darkness and founded a divine imperial line leading to the first emperor, Jimmu.
Hideyoshi Unifies JapanFrom a peasant's son to Japan's supreme ruler, this is the story of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who ended more than a century of civil war.
The First Sino-Japanese WarIn 1894, the First Sino-Japanese War began over Korea, a conflict that would invert Asia's traditional order of power.
The SamuraiThe famous samurai code of Bushido was invented not in feudal Japan, but in Pennsylvania in 1899 by a Japanese scholar.
The Kamakura ShogunateThe rise and fall of Japan's first shogunate, from Minamoto no Yoritomo's victory in 1185 through the Mongol invasions to the Hōjō clan's end at Kamakura in 1333.
The Imjin WarIn 1592 Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea on the way to Ming China, starting a seven-year war decided by Admiral Yi Sun-sin's navy and Ming intervention.
Hokusai's Great WaveThe story of Hokusai's 1831 woodblock print, made with a new Prussian blue pigment and sold for the price of a bowl of noodles.
Hiroo Onoda's 29-Year WarHiroo Onoda kept fighting on Lubang Island for 29 years, until his old commander read him a formal order in 1974.- Hanaya Yohei and the Invention of Nigiri SushiHow Edo street vendor Hanaya Yohei came to be credited with hand-pressing fish onto vinegared rice in the 1820s, creating nigiri sushi, and how the style spread across Japan.
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