The family of Matsuo Bashō, the most famous poet of the Edo era, were samurai. But he had a simple peasant lifestyle growing up in the domain of the Todo clan, owners of Iga castle, between the ...

What can world cinema — watching movies made outside of Hollywood — teach us about film as an art form and about life?

Born into a samurai family and smuggled out of Shogunate Japan, only to become a founding member of a utopian cult and eventually known as the "Wine King of California", Nagasawa led a life that ...

Tokyo Station, November 4th 1921. Hara Takashi is a symbol of the new Japan. He was born into a minor Samurai family and opted to be classed as a commoner. He worked to become the first commoner ...