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    HO | Japan

    Understand Japan.Through Time,People, and Place.

    Curated world history, all in one place.

    248People
    289Events
    163Places
    248Topics

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    History Omakase

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    Japan History for BeginnersGet your bearings, then explore warriors, culture or the making of modern Japan.
    Read a city or a placeBegin with a place and meet the people and events behind it.
    • Nara: Life After the CapitalBegin at Heijō Palace and Tōdai-ji, then follow either the people who sustained the Great Buddha or the teaching brought by Ganjin. Meet again at Kōfuku-ji to see how Nara lived on after the court left.
    • Kyoto: The Many Lives of an Old CapitalRead the Imperial Palace and Nijō Castle through the conflicts and decisions associated with them. Choose courtly culture or everyday religious life along the way, then reunite in a city of weavers, warfare and reinvention.
    • Osaka: Castles, Credit and the TheatreBegin with Shitennō-ji and its founding tradition, then read Osaka Castle through Hideyoshi’s building and career. Continue to rice markets and theatres to discover how people made a living in the city.
    • Tokyo: How Edo WorkedMove from Edo Castle to Nihonbashi to see how government, transport and everyday work sustained a vast city. Choose reconstruction after fire or Hokusai’s urban world, then return to the households that kept Edo going.
    • Kamakura: What a Warrior Capital Left BehindRead a crisis of succession at Tsurugaoka Hachimangū and the memory of war at Engaku-ji. Then choose warrior law or the open-air Great Buddha to explore institutions and religious practices that outlasted political change.
    • Nagasaki: What Came Through the PortMove from Dejima to Glover Garden through changing rules of trade and contact. Follow medical learning or Ryōma’s shipping and negotiations along the way, then consider who benefited from exchange and who bore its risks.
    • Kobe: Old Harbours, New HorizonsBegin with the coast’s changing centres, then connect Ichi-no-tani with Yoshitsune and the naval training school with Kaishū. Choose Kiyomori’s maritime world or Minatogawa’s memorial landscape on the way.
    • All city and place menus
    Follow a questionExplore a question through a connected selection of people, events and places.