History

Shizoku: The Ghost Class

Meiji took them apart in pieces. A class that had carried loyalty, power, and war for seven centuries received seven years of changes that ended them. Their domains were abolished. Their topknots were cut. The old hierarchy was removed. Farmers’ sons were drafted into a new national army. …

Woodblock print of a lone figure with an umbrella standing on a temple veranda in heavy rain, with misty green mountains in the distance

A letter from Japan, worth slowing down for.

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