Author, Researcher and Lecturer with a Passion for History, Music and Japan
Yoshida Shôin, having taken over the family school Shôka Sonjuku, taught like no other. Soon more and more young men came to study with him. He let them choose freely what they wanted to study and treated them as equals, giving each one individual attention. Although a scholar himself, Shôin…
On 8 July 1853 a frightening sight met the eyes of the people of Shimoda village, at the entrance into the bays of Sagami and Tokyo. Far out at sea, several ships seemed to be on fire. Moreover, they were coming closer. The fire, it turned out, was just smoke…
Last year marked the 150th anniversary of the Meiji Restoration (明治維新 or Meiji Renewal in Japanese), dated from the proclamation of the restoration of political power to the emperor on 3 January 1868. So, for my blogs in 2018, I decided to introduce some of the Japanese men and women…