Catalog
Tokyo Story (1953) follows an elderly couple from Onomichi to Tokyo and the hot spring town of Atami, with filming at Jōdo-ji temple, Ueno Park, Tokyo Station and Osaka Castle. The route follows the film in order: the Onomichi temple of its famous dawn scene, the Adachi suburbs, the Atami seawall, Ueno Park, Tokyo Station and Osaka Castle. Several original film spots, such as the Atami seawall, are gone.
Seven Samurai was filmed at Toho Studios in Tokyo and in Shizuoka and Hakone, because no single location could cover the whole area. Kurosawa's 1954 film has one mountain village, but it was stitched together from different places: studio rice fields in Setagaya, a valley above the Tanna Tunnel, a mill site in Izu, a waterfall in Shizuoka and a mountain pass in Hakone. The stops are approximate because the screen village never existed as one place.
The Great Buddha of Nara at Tōdai-ji was the work of Emperor Shōmu, who also ordered a temple in every province and moved his capital from Heijō Palace to Kuni-kyō and Shigaraki. After smallpox, rebellion and poor harvests, Shōmu turned to Buddhism for protection. This route follows him from Nara through two short-lived capitals and a provincial temple in today's Tokyo, back to the Eye-opening Ceremony of 752. Some sites are only ruins or remain approximate.
Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who kept fighting on Lubang Island in the Philippines until 1974, is traced here from the Nakano School in Tokyo to Lubang's mountains and Manila's Malacañang Palace. Sent to Lubang on 26 December 1944 with orders never to surrender, Onoda stayed in hiding for 28 years, 6 months and 8 days after Japan's surrender. The route follows his training, his years in the hills, his surrender in March 1974 and a disputed return visit in 1996. Several locations are approximate, and accounts of the violence on the island are contested.
Amachan, the 2013 NHK morning drama, is set in Kitasanriku, a fictional town modelled on Kuji, Iwate; this route visits Kuji Station, Kosode Coast and railway stations along the Sanriku Coast. Aki, a shy Tokyo girl, becomes a sea-urchin diver and a local idol in a small seaside town. This route follows the hometown chapter through five real places: Kuji Station, Kosode Coast, Horinai Station, Tanohata Station and Taneichi High School. Several stand in for places the drama names differently.
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.
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.
Departures (Okuribito), the 2008 film, was shot around Sakata, Kaminoyama and Tsuruoka in Yamagata, Japan. The story follows a cellist who becomes an encoffinment mortician in his hometown. The route visits the Concerto café in Kaminoyama, the NK Agent office and Minato-za cinema in Sakata, the Tsuru-no-yu bathhouse in Tsuruoka and Amarume Station. Several buildings have moved or closed since filming.
The true story behind Hachi: A Dog's Tale and Hachikō Monogatari runs from Ōdate, Akita, where the dog was born, to the Hachikō statue at Shibuya Station in Tokyo, Aoyama Cemetery, and a Rhode Island depot that played "Bedridge" in the 2009 film. The route follows Hachikō, the Akita who kept waiting for his owner Hidesaburō Ueno, a Tokyo Imperial University professor, long after Ueno failed to return on 21 May 1925. It covers the birthplace, the station, the final morning, the grave and the 2009 film's location. Film details differ from the real history in places.
The Wolverine (2013) is set in Tokyo and Nagasaki, but it was filmed at Zojo-ji Temple, Nakagin Capsule Tower, Fukuyama Station and the port of Tomonoura, plus a reserve near Sydney standing in for 1945. The route follows Logan from a prisoner-of-war camp in August 1945 to Yashida's funeral in Tokyo, a bullet-train fight and a hideout in a love hotel, ending in the fishing port of Tomonoura. Several scenes were shot in Australia, and the Nakagin tower no longer stands.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is set in Tokyo, but most of it was shot in Los Angeles; Shibuya Crossing is the best-known real Tokyo spot. This route follows Sean Boswell from his Arizona school to the car meets, garages and mountain pass of the film, and shows the Los Angeles locations that stood in for Tokyo, from Hawthorne Plaza to San Gabriel Dam. Several scenes are pinned to the stand-in, not the story setting.
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.
Yotsuya Kaidan, the story of the ghost Oiwa, is set in Yotsuya in old Edo and first played at the Nakamura-za theatre in 1825; Banchō Sarayashiki, the tale of Okiku and the missing plate, is set in Banchō, Edo, and claimed by Himeji Castle. This route follows both kabuki ghost stories through Tokyo and Himeji: the premiere theatre's replica, the Oiwa Inari Tamiya Shrine in Yotsuya, Oiwa's reputed grave at Myōgyō-ji in Sugamo, the Banchō district and Okiku's Well. Several identifications are traditional or disputed, and each stop says so.
Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase is set in Tokyo and Hokkaido in 1978, from an advertising agency in the capital to Sapporo, Asahikawa and a lonely farm house in the north. The route follows the narrator's hunt for a star-marked sheep in five stops. Only Tokyo and Sapporo are named in the book, so the later stops follow readers' inferences about the real setting, and the Dolphin Hotel and the Rat's villa are fictional.
Taira no Masakado, the rebel who declared himself New Emperor, is remembered at Masakado's Mound in Ōtemachi and at Kanda Shrine in Tokyo, with battle sites in Ibaraki and a head legend in Gifu. The route follows his feud and rebellion, his death in 940, the story of his flying head and the Tokyo mound that is said to punish neglect. Some places are traditional identifications, marked as such.
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.
Lycoris Recoil is set in Tokyo, and its café LycoReco sits in Sumida, near Kinshichō Station, with Kinshi Park, the Sumida River water bus, Sumida Aquarium and Tokyo Skytree nearby. This route follows the series from the café and the real streets around it to the river, Ryōgoku and the aquarium, ending at the tower of the finale. LycoReco is fictional, and the link between the story's tower and Tokyo Skytree is a guess.
Mishima's novel The Sound of Waves (Shiosai) is set on Utajima, a fishing island based on Kamishima in Mie Prefecture, with a lighthouse, a shrine and a ruined observation post that fans still visit. The route follows young fisherman Shinji and the pearl diver Hatsue from the island to a typhoon in Okinawa's Unten Port and back to the lighthouse. Kamishima is the model for the island; the novel renames it, so the island stops share one approximate pin.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.