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 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.
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.
The Ryukyu Kingdom ruled Okinawa from Shuri Castle in Naha, and its story can still be walked at Nakijin, Zakimi and Katsuren castles and the Tamaudun royal tombs.
The route follows the kingdom from the three-principality era and Shō Hashi's unification in 1429, through a rival lord's fall in 1458, to the royal tombs of 1501. Most of these castle sites are ruins or reconstructions.
Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (Hakkenden) opens in Awa, today southern Chiba, with Takida Castle, Tateyama Castle and Mount Tomi in Chiba, then Koga Castle and Gyōtoku.
A lord's careless joke to his dog brings down a curse, and eight dog warriors are born from a princess's scattered prayer beads. The route follows the opening tale from the old castles of Awa to Princess Fuse's mountain, then the first dog warriors' duel at Koga and rescue at Gyōtoku.
The novel's Tateyama and Hōryūkaku are not the same as the real sites, so most pins 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.
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.
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.
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.
Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, a series of 119 ukiyo-e prints, shows Edo, as Tokyo was then called: Nihonbashi, Kanda Shrine, Shinobazu Pond, Kameido Tenjin, Zōjō-ji and Sensō-ji in Asakusa.
This route follows seven of its views in print order, from Nihonbashi in snow to the gates of Sensō-ji, each tied to a place you can still visit. The Sumida River bridge of the famous sudden shower, and the Nihonbashi stop, have approximate pins.
The Iwakura Mission was a Japanese embassy that sailed from Yokohama in 1871 and travelled through San Francisco, Liverpool, Sheffield and Windsor Castle on a two-year tour of the West.
From 1871 to 1873, about 50 government officials of the newly established Meiji government studied the political, military, economic and educational institutions of the United States and Europe. This route follows the British leg in detail: a textile mill near Bradford, a country house in Sheffield, Chatsworth, and an audience with Queen Victoria. The Yokohama, San Francisco and Liverpool pins mark the port or station area, not an exact landing spot.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
York has been defended by walls since Roman times, and this walk strings together six places around them: the Multangular Tower, York Minster, Clifford's Tower, Micklegate Bar, the Shambles and Walmgate Bar.
Each stop is a moment in the city's story, from a Roman fort built around 71 AD to a siege in 1644.
Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, grew up at Possenhofen Castle in Bavaria, married in Vienna's Augustinerkirche and died in Geneva in 1898. Her life runs from a lakeside summer home to a hotel on Lake Geneva.
The route follows her through Bad Ischl, Gödöllő, the Achilleion on Corfu and the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. The Gödöllő stop has no verified pin.
The Cathar story runs through Béziers, Carcassonne and Montségur: six places in southern France where the Albigensian Crusade of 1209 to 1255 left its mark.
The route starts with the fall of Béziers and Carcassonne in 1209, continues through the castles of Lastours and the well of Minerve, and ends at Montségur and Quéribus, the last strongholds. Several stops are ruins or later rebuilds, so what you see is not always the medieval Cathar castle.
Richard III's story runs from Middleham Castle in Yorkshire to Bosworth Field, where he died in 1485, and on to Leicester, where his grave was found under a car park in 2012.
The route follows his childhood at Middleham, the battle of Tewkesbury, the princes at the Tower of London, his last charge at Bosworth, and the Greyfriars dig and cathedral tomb in Leicester. The exact Bosworth battlefield is still debated.
Mary, Queen of Scots was born at Linlithgow Palace in 1542 and beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587, with Holyroodhouse, Loch Leven and Carlisle along the way. Her life runs from a royal cradle to a prison and a scaffold.
The route follows seven places: her birthplace, the Edinburgh palace where Rizzio was murdered, the island prison she escaped, the battlefield at Langside, two English prisons and the site of her execution. Fotheringhay Castle was demolished, so only earthworks remain.
Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's most famous swordsman, moves through this route from the Sekigahara campaign of 1600 to the duel on Ganryū Island, Osaka Castle, Kumamoto Castle and the cave of Reigandō, where he wrote The Book of Five Rings.
The route follows the biography stop by stop, from a village birthplace that sources place in two provinces to the cave where he spent his last years. Several details, including his role at Sekigahara and Osaka, are debated or rest on later accounts.
