Japanese history

Essays and research on Japanese history, old books, and historical manuscripts.

Old books, difficult handwriting, and the pleasure of reaching across time through Japanese historical manuscripts.

Osaka at New Year, a block of stone-hard mochi, and the task a father left for an American hand to cut.

Nagasawa Kanae (1852-1934) was born a samurai but spent nearly his entire adult life in Santa Rosa

I wrote a meditation on studying the kuzushiji text of 牛屋雑談. These are the citations that support the historical facts in that essay.

Edo commoners practicing writing in a terako

The year Tokyo discovered beef, in a bestseller almost no one can read now. Two friends decode it across an ocean.

Sharing my process of learning to read old Japanese

How to Find, Prepare, and Print a Ukiyo-e at FedEx