The Last Samurai (2003) is set in Japan in 1876 but was filmed mostly in Taranaki, New Zealand, where Mount Taranaki stands in for Mount Fuji, plus Engyō-ji near Himeji, Chion-in in Kyoto and Castle Green in Pasadena.
This route follows Nathan Algren's story from the opening restaurant scene to the parade ground, the fog battle, Katsumoto's village, his temple and the emperor's palace, and shows where each one really is. Several stops are sets or stand-ins.
The Ashikaga shoguns ruled Japan from Kyoto from 1336 to 1573, and their temples survive as Tenryū-ji, Shōkoku-ji, Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavilion), Ryōan-ji and Ginkaku-ji (the Silver Pavilion).
The route follows the dynasty from Ashikaga Takauji's memorial temple for Emperor Go-Daigo, through Yoshimitsu's Flower Palace and golden villa, to the Ōnin War and Yoshimasa's unfinished silver pavilion. The Flower Palace itself is gone; only a stone marker commemorates it.
Lafcadio Hearn's Japan runs from Matsue Castle and Izumo Taisha to Kumamoto, Yaizu and Akama Shrine in Shimonoseki, home of the Kwaidan ghost tale of Hōïchi the Earless.
The route follows his years as a teacher and writer: the samurai house in Matsue, a railway station scene from Kokoro, a fishing town he wrote about, and the shrine that keeps Hōïchi's statue. Hearn does not name the Kumamoto station, so that pin is approximate.
Sakamoto Ryōma, the Tosa samurai of the last shogunate years, is remembered across Kōchi, Nagasaki and Kyoto: from his birthplace memorial to Kameyama Shachū, the Teradaya inn and the Ōmiya Inn.
The route follows him from his birth in 1836 through the founding of Kameyama Shachū in 1865, the Teradaya raid of 1866 and his death at the Ōmiya Inn in 1867, then ends at the Katsurahama museum that keeps his letters.
Date Masamune, the One-Eyed Dragon, was born at Yonezawa Castle and ended his life as lord of Sendai. This route follows him through Yonezawa, Aizu, Iwadeyama, Sendai Castle, Zuigan-ji at Matsushima and his mausoleum at Zuihoden.
It covers the castles he took, rebuilt or founded between 1584 and 1636, and the temple and tomb that survive him. Most of the original buildings are gone, so several stops are sites or rebuilds.
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.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the foot soldier's son from Nakamura in Nagoya who rose to power, left his mark on Sunomata, Nagahama, Mount Tennozan, Osaka Castle, Jurakudai in Kyoto and Fushimi Castle.
This route follows his rise in order: the birthplace, the legendary one-night fort, his first lordship on Lake Biwa, the 1582 battle that avenged Nobunaga, and the great castles and palaces of his later years. Several of the original buildings are gone, so some stops are approximate.
Natsume Sōseki's Botchan is set in Matsuyama on Shikoku: its hero lands at the harbour, rides a tiny train into town and bathes daily at Dōgo Onsen.
The route follows the young Tokyo teacher from the harbour and the toy train to the school, the bathhouse and the castle during his short, eventful stay in Matsuyama.
In 1878 Isabella Bird, then 46, travelled from Tokyo to Hokkaido and described the journey in letters to her sister, published as Unbeaten Tracks in Japan.
The route follows her dated letters from the landing at Yokohama through Nikkō and the northern river towns to an Ainu village in Hokkaido. Town pins are approximate; the inns and houses she slept in are not located.
In the autumn of 1600 two armies met at Sekigahara to decide who would hold power after Toyotomi Hideyoshi. One day in the fog gave Tokugawa Ieyasu a decisive victory and put him on the road to the shogunate.
The route follows the campaign from the siege of Fushimi to the castles of Mino, the field of Sekigahara, the fall of Mitsunari's Sawayama and his burial in Kyoto, and ends at Edo Castle in 1603. Dates inside Japan's old calendar are labelled as such.
In 1832 the printmaker Hiroshige travelled the Tōkaidō, the road from Edo to Kyoto, and made it into The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō. This route follows seven of his prints, from the bridge where the road began to the bridge where it ended.
Each stop pairs a print with what is there today: a rebuilt checkpoint, a long river bridge, a shrine, a preserved post town. Scholars debate whether Hiroshige saw every station himself, so the pins mark the places, not his exact viewpoints.
In Jujutsu Kaisen, 31 October 2018 turns Shibuya Station into a sealed trap, and the fighting that follows is the best-known arc of the series. The places in the story are real ones, from the station's lowest platform to Aoyama Cemetery.
This route follows the Shibuya Incident through the real district: the cemetery, Hikarie, the station, Meiji-jingumae, Mark City and the Scramble Crossing. Several scenes are only tied to a building or an area, so those stops are approximate.
Two Mamoru Hosoda films are built on places from his own life. Summer Wars is set in Ueda, Nagano; Wolf Children draws on Kamiichi, Hosoda's home town in Toyama, and the hills around it.
The route visits Ueda Station and the castle gate seen in Summer Wars, then Hitotsubashi University, a farmhouse in Kamiichi and a school in Namerikawa from Wolf Children. The Kamiichi pin marks the district, not the house.
The anime Hyouka is set in a fictional town, but its backdrops are real streets in Takayama, in the mountains of Gifu. The author's home town became the model, and the local tourism board publishes an official pilgrimage model course.
This route follows six places from the opening title to the final episode: the river and morning market, the school-route crossing, the Old Town, the library, the hill shrine and the festival shrine outside town. Where the story renames a place, the pin marks the real one.
It rains on Tokyo all summer, and runaway Hodaka Morishima meets Hina Amano, a girl who can pray the sky clear. Makoto Shinkai's film follows them through real corners of the city: a McDonald's in Kabukichō, a rooftop shrine on an abandoned building, a hillside flat, a fireworks festival and a jewellery shop at Shinjuku Station.
Seven stops run from Hodaka's home island to Lumine Shinjuku. Several pins mark a district rather than a spot, and Yoyogi Kaikan was demolished in 2019–20, so that stop is a memory.
The Boshin War ran from Kyoto to Hakodate in eighteen months: the battlefield at Toba, Edo Castle, the hill of Ueno, Aizu's castle and Goryōkaku. In January 1868 the young emperor was declared ruler in fact as well as name, ending more than 250 years of Tokugawa rule, and the last shogun's supporters fought on until a breakaway republic made its last stand.
The route follows that war in six places, all of them visitable: the battlefield at Toba, Edo Castle, the hill of Ueno, Aizu's castle and the hill where its teenage soldiers died, and Goryōkaku. Dates are given in the Western calendar, converted from the Japanese lunar dates used at the time.
