Catalog
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.
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.
Haikyu!! is set in Miyagi Prefecture, but its creator Haruichi Furudate grew up in Karumai, a small town in Iwate, and much of the manga's school and streetscape is drawn from it. Fans turned the town into a pilgrimage stop, and a town-made walking map marks the spots that "look just like" the story. This route follows the real places behind Karasuno in story order: the electronics shop where Hinata first sees volleyball on television, the gymnasium where he loses to Kageyama and vows revenge, the school that became Karasuno High, the shop where coach Ukai minds the counter, the running-course slope, the supermarket behind Shimada Mart, the Sendai arena that hosts the Miyagi qualifiers, the junior high whose staircase became Shinzen High, and the diner behind the Karasuno canteen.