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Asahi Shimbun PHOTO: Byodoin temple’s phoenix statues implanted with colorful...
Monsho Kamii, the head priest at Byodoin temple in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, shows a phoenix replica with a five-colored crest. (Noboru Tomura) The Asahi Shimbun, July 05, 2014 By TAKU KOYAMA/ Staff...
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R&D: Japanese gold leaf artists worked on the nanoscale
Photographs of the two pairs of screens belonging to the Momoyama period a. MNAA-Naizen; b. MNAA-Domi “Even though the ancient Egyptians were probably the first to gild artwork with it, the Japanese...
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Himeji Castle dazzles and startles with new all-white roofing
Restoration of all-white tiled roofing Photo courtesy: Brian Ashcraft The visual impact of the recent renovation works of the Himeji Castle is startling – it used to be thought that the...
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The Legend of Sanai-Isoba, heroine of Yonaguni Island
Excerpted from Ryukyu Survey 1960 ~51~ By Naioichi Kokubu and Erika Kaneko Sanai-Isoba is said to have lived on top of the rocky hill top “Yonaguni history is shrouded in complete mystery. Neither...
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Cranial deformation not found anywhere in Japan except on Tanegashima island
Signs of cranial deformation in the skulls of Hirota site, Tanegashima Island One puzzling question that has persistently perplexed archaeologists and scholars is that of why no skulls with artificial...
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Ram’s horns motif on painted tomb murals of western Japan points to the...
Painted tomb mural, Mezurashiizuka tomb, Fukuoka (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) A distinctive spiral form motif appears on the painted mural walls of tombs in Western Japan of the Kofun Period. Depicted in...
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NHK World: A late 6th c. pyramid newly uncovered at Asuka, Nara, may belong...
Reconstructed scene of what the Miyako-zuka pyramid looked like A pyramid has been uncovered by archaeologists at Asuka, Nara, NHK World news announced his evening. Pyramids, though not unknown in...
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Japan’s oldest shell tools found in Sakitari Cave in Okinawa
The shell tools (from front) and beads made of shells found in the Sakitari Cave. At the Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum in Naha on February 15. February 16, 2014 Ryukyu Shimpo The...
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Bold new 2014 DNA study proposes when and where the three major populations...
The traditional view that humans fall into three major populations, Africans, East Asians, and Europeans, with the latter two diverging from the African ancestors ∼55,000 years ago, has been...
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Study Reveals DNA Links Between Ancient Peruvians, Japanese
Aug 17, 2014 Latin American Herald Tribune reports… LIMA — A study has revealed genetic links between people who inhabited northern Peru more than 1,000 years ago and Japanese, El Comercio newspaper...
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Around 500 confirmed sunken shipwreck sites in Japanese waters lack funding...
13th c. Mongol shipwreck found off Japanese waters (Photo: The Telegraph) What historical secrets lie hidden within sunken ships around japan? The Yomiuri Shimbun Aug 25, 2014 Surveying and exploring...
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Book Review of The Sacred Science of Ancient Japan: Lost Chronicles of the...
heritageofjapan:A book review of Avery Morrow’s “The Lost Science of Ancient. Japan: Lost Chronicles of the Age of Gods” by Okunomichi Originally posted on Okunomichi: Avery Morrow, The Sacred Science...
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Scholars confirm first discovery of Japanese sword from master bladesmith...
Originally posted on RocketNews24: Should you visit a history museum in Japan, and, like I do, make an immediate beeline for the collections of samurai armor and weaponry, you might be surprised to...
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Y chromosome haplogroups of Japanese population analysed in a 2013 forensic...
Fig 1 Phylogenetic tree of 22 Y chromosome binary polymorphisms analyzed in this study Yuta Harayama et al., Analysis of Y chromosome haplogroups in Japanese population using short amplicons and its...
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Criminals of Japan’s Edo Period Were Often Punished by Getting Face Tattoos
heritageofjapan:Japanese culture has had an on-off love-hate relationship with tattoos… Originally posted on RocketNews24: Japan has had a complicated relationship with tattoos over its history. Unlike...
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Travel back in time to the Sengoku Era at Sekigahara War Land
Originally posted on RocketNews24: On October 21, 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu won the famous Battle of Sekigahara which secured his way to rule the shogunate of Japan. Today, the battlefield where more than...
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Rare account of feudal warrior’s daily life.
heritageofjapan:Rare candid diary of end-Edo period samurai warrior gives fascinating and frank account of daily life, such as falling asleep on his watch… Originally posted on Rekishi Nihon (Japanese...
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Masked drama-dance traditions of Central Asia reached Japan during the Asuka...
Gigaku Mask of Konron (Gigakumen Konron) (Source: Yomiuri Shimbun) Gigaku, a form of drama-dance performance is said to arrived from China during the Asuka period (592-710). It was performed in Japan...
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Magic mushrooms may have been used in Japan since Jomon times
Ceramic mushroom “amulets”?, ritual implements of a Jomon period site, Rokaku-shi, Akita prefecture Ceramic mushrooms (see above photo) have been excavated from a Jomon archaeological site in Akita...
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Ritual tooth ablation: Why did prehistoric peoples pull out perfectly good...
The Jomon culture in the Japanese Archipelago, dating from 13,000 to 2300 years BP, practiced this ritual extensively for ceremonial purposes and during rites of passage. According to FUNAHASHI Kyoko,...
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