On the 1st June our Taste with the Toji Session 5, hosted by the lovely Sake Mistress, Simone, took us to the idyllic seaside town of Ine, in the north of Kyoto Prefecture, to a wonderful quirky brewery as unique and as lovely as the Toji who makes the sake there. Mukai Shuzo has been … Continue reading Sake By The Sea
Misunderstood Women of Japan. The mere mention of Japan will probably conjure many pervasive Japanese images in your mind. Undoubtably geisha will probably be among those images. However, for most foreign people the concept of geisha is difficult to understand, and many people are misinformed as to their cultural significance. The role they played, and … Continue reading Geisha, Oiran and Tayu
"Samurai" usually brings forth a vision of a guy in traditional Japanese feudal armour with several swords and a scary disposition. While many samurai were certainly great warriors and warlords, the term actually refers to a class of people in Japan, which, of course, includes women. The bushi class in feudal Japan were the highest … Continue reading Onna-bugeisha…female Samurai
When I think of female ninja, a picture pops into my head of a badass women, all in black, wearing tabi boots and carrying shuriken stars and swords. Sadly, this is not the reality of these women. They were definitely badass, but usually a little more understated and certainly less recognisable than their male counterparts, … Continue reading Kunoichi… female ninja
