The legend of Benkei, Japan's warrior monk, runs from Gojō Bridge and Kiyomizu-dera in Kyoto to the Ataka Barrier in Ishikawa and the Koromogawa battle site at Hiraizumi.
Benkei is said to have lost a duel to the young Minamoto no Yoshitsune on a Kyoto bridge, then served him to the end. The route follows that story through five places, from the duel to the famous "Standing Death of Benkei". Most tales come from later writings, and no records from Benkei's own time survive.
The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 began in Kagoshima, besieged Kumamoto Castle, was fought out at Tabaruzaka and ended on Shiroyama, where Saigō Takamori died. This route follows the samurai army from its first march to its last stand.
Six stops run from Kagoshima Castle through Kumamoto, Hitoyoshi and Mount Enodake and back to Kagoshima. Three are exact landmarks you can visit; the battlefield and retreat stops are approximate.
Sōseki's novel Kokoro is set between Kamakura, Zōshigaya Cemetery, Ueno Park, Nogi Shrine and Koishikawa in Tokyo. This route follows the student narrator and his mysterious teacher, "Sensei", through places the book names.
Starting at a summer beach in Kamakura, the route visits the cemetery where Sensei brings flowers each month, the cherry trees of Ueno, the Akasaka house of General Nogi, whose death in 1912 changes everything, and Koishikawa, where Sensei's story of K unfolds. Some stops are approximate, since the novel names districts, not addresses.
The Siege of Odawara of 1590 was fought at Odawara Castle in Kanagawa, with Toyotomi Hideyoshi's one-night castle at Ishigakiyama and Hōjō outposts at Hachigata, Hachiōji and Oshi.
Hideyoshi's army surrounded the Hōjō capital while other forces took its castles across the region one by one. This route follows the campaign through five castle sites, from the siege to the last holdouts, and most can still be visited as parks or ruins.
Francis Xavier, the missionary, came ashore at Kagoshima in 1549 and spent more than two years in Japan, preaching in Hirado and Yamaguchi before a failed trip to Kyoto.
The route follows his path through Kagoshima, Hirado, Yamaguchi and Kyoto, with dates from his life. Pins mark towns and areas, since the exact spots are not recorded.
Tomoe Gozen, the woman warrior of The Tale of the Heike, rode with Kiso Yoshinaka from the Kiso Valley through Kurikara Pass and the Uji River to the battle of Awazu, near Gichū-ji temple in Ōtsu.
The route follows her legend from Shinano to Yoshinaka's last stand in 1184, then to the places that claim her afterlife as a nun. Her later life is uncertain, so the last stops rest on temple and local tradition.
The Shimabara Rebellion of 1637–38 was fought at Tomioka and Shimabara Castle and ended at Hara Castle, with roots in the martyrdoms of Nagasaki and a legacy of hidden Christians.
The route starts on Nishizaka Hill in Nagasaki, follows the revolt through Amakusa, Shimabara and Hara Castle, and ends at Dejima, where seclusion pushed Christianity underground.
The film Battle Royale (2000) was filmed on Hachijō-kojima, at a school location in Oni-ishi, Gunma, at Tsurugisaki Lighthouse in Miura and at Toei Tokyo Studio, and it ends in Shibuya, Tokyo.
The story is set on a fictional island, so these five stops follow the film from the class waking on the island to the last run toward Shibuya Station. Each pin marks where a scene was shot.
Points and Lines is set between Tokyo Station and the beach at Kashii in Fukuoka, while Castle of Sand follows a detective from the Kamata rail yard in Tokyo to Akita and Shimane. Seichō Matsumoto's two best-known crime novels turn Japan's railways into the clues.
This route follows both stories: the four-minute gap on Tokyo Station's platforms, the Kashii shore, and the stations named Kameda that lead the detective to Kamedake. Pins at Kashii and Kamata are approximate.
The Nakasendō is the old "Central Mountain Route" between Edo and Kyoto, and its best-known stretch runs through the Kiso Valley, from Narai-juku to Tsumago and Magome in Nagano and Gifu.
This route follows six stops west along the Kisoji, the valley road that became part of the Nakasendō: the highest post town, a checkpoint, a town rebuilt after a flood, and two villages restored so well that you can still walk the road between them. Station numbers are counted from Edo.
Tōno Monogatari, Kunio Yanagita's 1910 book of folk legends, is set in Tōno, Iwate: Kappabuchi, Denshoen, Mount Hayachine and Yamaguchi village carry its kappa, zashiki-warashi and Oshira-sama stories.
The route follows five places in the order of the tales, from the mountain goddess of Hayachine to the Oshira-sama gods and the kappa pool. Two stops are only approximate, and one is a traditional identification.
Minamoto no Yoshitsune's life runs from Kurama temple in Kyoto through the Genpei War battles of Ichi-no-Tani in Kobe, Yashima in Takamatsu and Dan-no-ura near Shimonoseki, to his last stand at Takadachi in Hiraizumi.
The route follows the famous general from a boy among the monks to a hero turned out by his own brother at Koshigoe. Battle sites are approximate; the temple, the Koshigoe temple and the Hiraizumi chapel can be visited.
Tokyo Xtreme Racer (Shutokō Battle in Japan) is set on the Shuto Expressway: the C1 loop and the Bayshore Route in Tokyo, then Nagoya, Osaka and the Irohazaka mountain road at Nikko.
The route follows the series from its Tokyo expressway roots through the Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3 city expansion to the Kaido Battle mountain spin-offs. The games recreate long roads, so pins mark one point on each.
Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is set along real places from Mannen Bridge and Nihonbashi in Tokyo to Hodogaya, Edo Bay off Kanagawa, Lake Suwa and the Fuji River at Kajikazawa.
The series was produced c. 1830 to 1832, and each plate names its place. The route follows seven of them, from the capital out toward the mountain. Several spots are only approximate, and the pins mark the nearest modern place.
Mishima's The Temple of the Golden Pavilion is set in Kyoto at Kinkaku-ji, with earlier scenes near Maizuru and Cape Nariu, at Nanzen-ji and on the Sea of Japan coast at Yura.
The novel is loosely based on the burning of the Golden Pavilion by a young Buddhist acolyte in 1950. This route follows the narrator Mizoguchi from his childhood on the north coast to the night he sets the temple alight. Three stops are approximate and two are unpinned.
John Manjirō, the Japanese fisherman rescued in 1841, travelled from Tosashimizu in Japan to Honolulu, Fairhaven and New Bedford in Massachusetts, then home via Okinawa and Nagasaki.
This route follows the castaway from his fishing village to the wreck on Torishima, his school years in Fairhaven, whaling in the South Seas, the California gold fields, and his return to a closed Japan. Several stops are approximate: the sources name the places but not exact spots.
The Yamata no Orochi myth is set along the Hii River in Izumo, Shimane, with Mount Sentsu named as the battlefield and Yaegaki Shrine and Susa Shrine honouring Susanoo afterwards. The serpent's sword ends up at Atsuta Shrine in Nagoya.
The route follows the Kojiki story: the god Susanoo sees a chopstick floating down the river, meets a family upstream, and defeats an eight-headed serpent with sake. Every location is a traditional identification of a mythical event, not a proven site.
The Battles of Kawanakajima pitted Takeda Shingen of Kai against Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo on a plain near Nagano, with Zenkō-ji, Kaizu (Matsushiro) Castle and Kasugayama Castle as key sites.
The two warlords fought repeatedly over the plain. This route follows the fourth battle of 1561: Kenshin's march from Kasugayama, the signal fires from Kaizu Castle to Shingen's seat at Kōfu, and the legendary duel at Hachimanbara. The exact battlefield is traditional, and the duel itself is a tale from the chronicles.
Kawabata's The Dancing Girl of Izu (The Izu Dancer) is set on the Izu Peninsula, from Shuzenji and Yugashima over the Amagi Tunnel to Yugano and the harbour at Shimoda.
A student on the last days of his summer holidays follows a troupe of travelling musicians south, drawn to its youngest dancer. The route walks the same road, from the hot-spring towns of the north to the quay where he boards the boat home. Most pins mark a town or area rather than a single building.
Philipp Franz von Siebold's Japan story starts on Dejima, the Dutch trading island at Nagasaki, where the physician arrived in 1823. From there it runs to his Narutaki school, his 1826 court journey to Edo and his museum home in Leiden.
The route follows Siebold from Nagasaki to Edo, then to the SieboldHuis in Leiden and his grave in Munich. Nagasaki's Siebold Memorial Museum and Leiden's SieboldHuis can still be visited. The Edo stop is a general marker, not a single building.
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (Kaguya-hime) never names its setting, but Japanese towns from Kōryō and Takatori in Nara to Fuji City and Lake Yogo claim a link, and the tale ends on Mount Fuji.
The route follows the story from the shining bamboo stalk, through the Moon princess's farewell, to the Emperor burning her letter on the summit. Four of the five stops are rival local claims, not proven sites.
Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, was born at Okazaki Castle and buried at Nikkō Tōshō-gū. His route also crosses the Sekigahara battlefield, Edo Castle in Tokyo and Sunpu Castle in Shizuoka.
Follow five places from his birth in 1543 through the 1600 battle, his rise to shogun in 1603, his retirement and his death in 1616. Sekigahara is pinned approximately to the town.
Golden Kamuy is set in Hokkaido after the Russo-Japanese War, and its gold hunt runs through Otaru, Yūbari, Kushiro Marsh, Abashiri Prison and Sapporo. Veteran Saichi Sugimoto and the Ainu girl Asirpa chase convicts tattooed with a map to hidden gold.
This route follows the manga's trail across real Hokkaido places, from the port of Otaru to the prison at Abashiri. The manga names towns and landmarks, not exact spots, so most pins are approximate.
Engelbert Kaempfer travelled from Dejima in Nagasaki to the shogun's court in Edo in 1691, via Shimonoseki, Osaka and the Tokaido road near Lake Ashi. He was a German physician with the Dutch trading post.
The route follows his 1691 trip in five stops, from the island of Dejima to his audience with the shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. The exact spots in Shimonoseki, Osaka and Hakone are not known, so those pins are approximate.
