History is so riddled with events that not all of them get the attention they deserve. The Ōtsu Incident is a prime example. At a glance, an attack on the heir to the Russian throne may look like something that would have at least a page dedicated to it in school textbooks. Its poor timing, however, would earn it nothing more than a footnote. Having…
We reach the final part of our story. Bakumatsu is drawing to an end. Don’t be dismayed though; the final act proves to be far more shocking and bloody than anything we’ve seen so far. A power great enough to rival the shōgunate is beginning to form, and there may be little the shōgunate can do to stop it. Part three of our story begins…
We’ve made it to the modern world! The age of the samurai is over. Japan has entered the Meiji era. No longer is it a closed-off, self-sufficient island that wants nothing to do with the outside world; it is now a fledgling nation ready to embrace the Western world and all its ideals. Slowly but surely, over the course of the Edo era, Dutch texts…
