Do you know the story of the carp that leapt through the Dragon Gate (鯉躍龍門)? It is said that in ancient times there was a huge gate, called Lóngmén 龍門, ‘the Dragon Gate’, so vast that it could not be taken in at a single glance. One day, a carp swam up to it but

It’s been several days now that I’ve been seeing cherry blossoms blooming online (and in real life, too!)… So, because even the yōkai are entitled to their own o-hana-mi, here’s a little illustration of my own! But it’s also an opportunity for me to take a look back at Hanami – 花見 – and its

Voici quelques femmes qui ont choisi la voie des armes tout au long de l’histoire du Japon. Jingû Kôgô 神功皇后, l’épouse de l’empereur Chûai 仲哀天皇, et la mère de l’empereur Ôjin 応神天皇 (qui sera déifié sous le nom de Yumiya Hachiman-jin 弓矢八幡神, le kami de la guerre). Certes ce personnage, qui aurait vécu à la

Many Japanese people know him from a children’s story entitled *Kurosuke* (くろ助), written in 1968 by the author Yoshio Kurusu (来栖良夫). It turns out that this remarkable character actually existed and appears – albeit briefly – in the Shinchô-kô-ki (or Nobunaga-kô-ki 信長公記), the history of the famous general Oda Nobunaga 織田信長 (1534–1582), written in the