Minamoto no Yoritomo founded Japan's first shogunate in Kamakura. This route follows him from his exile in Izu and Mishima Taisha to Ōkura, Hiraizumi and Tsurugaoka Hachimangū.
The stops trace his rise from exile in 1160, his first residence in Kamakura, the fall of Hiraizumi in 1189, the shogunate of 1192, his grave and the Hōjō regents who followed. Some sites, including the exile and the grave, are traditional identifications.
Team Ninja's open-world samurai game drops a masterless Blade Twin into the last years of the shogunate. Between 1858 and 1868 the story runs from Yokohama's foreign quarter through the killing of a Chief Minister to Kyoto's Shinsengumi and a plot to burn Edo.
This route follows the game's main story through seven places, from the port to the capital, pairing each scene with the real site that history ties to it. Where the game names only a district, the pin marks the nearest well-known landmark.
Emperor Go-Daigo overthrew the Kamakura shogunate in 1333 after holding out at Kasagi Temple, being exiled to the Oki Islands and escaping to Mount Funanoue, and he ended his life at Yoshino. This route follows him from Kasagi to Kyoto and the Southern Court.
The six stops trace 1331 to 1339: the failed stand at Kasagi, exile on Oki, the escape to Mount Funanoue, the short Kenmu Restoration in Kyoto, the temporary palace at Yoshimizu Shrine and the emperor's tomb at Nyoirin-ji. Several pins are approximate because the sources describe regions or traditions, not exact spots.
Kusunoki Masashige, Japan's famous loyal samurai, fought from Akasaka and Chihaya Castle in Osaka Prefecture and died at Minatogawa in Kobe in 1336. Five stops follow his life from a temple school to his statue in Tokyo.
The route runs from Kanshin-ji in Kawachinagano, where he studied, through the two mountain fortresses that made his name, to the shrine at Minatogawa and the bronze monument beside the Imperial Palace. Where the exact spot is not known, the pin marks the area.
Shakushain's War (1669) was the Ainu uprising against the Matsumae clan of Japan, fought between Shinhidaka, Matsumae Castle and Kunnui in Hokkaido.
The route follows the revolt from the feud on the Shibechari River to the mediation at Matsumae, the fighting at Kunnui and the leader's death at Piypok. It ends with the Shakushain statue in Shinhidaka. Several sites are approximate and are marked as such.
NHK's 2008 drama Atsuhime follows Tenshō-in from Kagoshima and Sakurajima in Satsuma to Edo Castle in Tokyo, where she became wife of the 13th shōgun.
Born Okatsu in the Imaizumi branch of the Shimazu clan, she is adopted by Shimazu Nariakira, moves into Tsurumaru Castle and leaves for the shōgun's court in 1853, the year of Perry's Black Ships. The route follows five places from the drama's first half in Satsuma to the Ōoku. The Imaizumi pin and the Kurihama stop are approximate.
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.
The Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281 were fought at Tsushima, Iki Island and Hakata Bay in Fukuoka, and ended off Takashima, where a typhoon struck the fleet.
This route follows the two attempts in order: the 1274 landings on Tsushima and Iki, the Battle of Bun'ei at Hakata Bay and Hakozaki Shrine, then the stone wall built afterwards, the fleet anchored off Shikanoshima and the storm of 15 August 1281. Several spots are approximate, and the exact site of the Takashima episode is only the island's general area.
The Shinsengumi, the squad of Kondō Isami and Hijikata Toshizō, began in Hino in the Tama region and ended in Hakodate. Their story runs through Mibu-dera and the Ikedaya Inn in Kyoto, the battle of Fushimi, and Kondō's execution in Itabashi.
The route follows Kondō Isami and Hijikata Toshizō from a dojo in Hino to the Boshin War. Several stops can still be visited, though some pins mark an area rather than the exact spot.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Inō Tadataka measured Japan on foot, from his brewer's house in Sawara and the Tomioka Hachiman shrine in Fukagawa to Mount Hakodate and Nihonbashi. In ten surveys from 1800 he and his team paced the country's coasts, and maps based on his work were still in use in 1924.
The route follows his life in places: the brewer's house at Sawara, the shrine where he prayed before the first survey, Mount Hakodate and the far end of that journey in Hokkaido, Nihonbashi, his grave and the shrine that honours him. The surveys were separate expeditions, so the stops are not one connected walk.
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 July 1853 four black warships anchored off Uraga and ended more than two centuries of Japanese seclusion. Within a year, Commodore Matthew Perry had delivered a president's letter, signed a treaty and opened two ports.
The route follows his two voyages: from the Ryukyu court at Shuri to Uraga, Kurihama, the treaty at Yokohama and the temples of Shimoda. Perry also visited Hakodate in 1854, but that stop is not included.
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 April 1701 a lord drew a blade inside Edo Castle, and two years later forty-seven of his leaderless samurai stormed the mansion of the man he had attacked. The documented story runs from a corridor in Edo, through a surrendered castle and a quiet retreat near Kyoto, to a night raid and a temple cemetery in Tokyo.
The route sticks to dated events and places. The legend of Chūshingura, the later play, is kept to the final stop, where it is set apart from what happened.
In Ishin!, Sakamoto Ryōma flees Tosa as a murder suspect, hides in Kyoto under the name Saitō Hajime and joins the Shinsengumi to find the masked killer of his adoptive father. The game is fiction built on real history: its Ryōma, its plot and its twists belong to the game, while the Teradaya attack and the Ōmiya killing really happened.
The route follows the story from Kōchi Castle through the Shinsengumi's Mibu, Gion and Fushimi to the Ōmiya Inn, and each stop says what is the game and what is the record.
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.
