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Japan: Historic Kishiwada Danjiri Festival Kicks Off in Osaka With Massive Floats

The annual Kishiwada Danjiri Festival began on September 13 in Kishiwada City, Osaka Prefecture, running through September 14. Thirty-four massive wooden floats, each over 4 meters tall and weighing more than 4 tons, raced through the city streets of the Kishiwada and Haruki districts to the spirited chant of “Sorya, Sorya.” Festival participants in matching happi coats pulled the floats with ropes, while “daiku-gata” performers danced atop the roofs with fans. At intersections, the floats performed the festival’s signature “yarimawashi,” a dramatic 90-degree turn executed at high speed, thrilling spectators with cheers. Drums, flutes, and bells added to the festive atmosphere. The festival, held for over 300 years since the Edo period, continues late into the evening on September 13, with a ceremonial shrine visit (“Miyairi”) scheduled on September 14.

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World Exposition in Osaka

OSAKA, Japan, May 14 Kyodo - A parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period (17th-19th century) is held at the World Exposition in Osaka on May 13, 2025, marking the event's South Korean day. (Kyodo)

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World Exposition in Osaka

A parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period (17th-19th century) is held at the World Exposition in Osaka on May 13, 2025, marking the event's South Korean day.

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World Exposition in Osaka

A parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period (17th-19th century) is held at the World Exposition in Osaka on May 13, 2025, marking the event's South Korean day.

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World Exposition in Osaka

A parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period (17th-19th century) is held at the World Exposition in Osaka on May 13, 2025, marking the event's South Korean day.

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World Exposition in Osaka

A parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period (17th-19th century) is held at the World Exposition in Osaka on May 13, 2025, marking the event's South Korean day.

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Historical ship replica arrives in Shimonoseki

A replica of a ship that carried diplomatic missions from the Joseon dynasty in the Korean Peninsula to Japan during the Edo period is pictured in Shimonoseki in the western Japan prefecture of Yamaguchi on Aug. 24, 2024, as a ceremony welcoming the ship's arrival is held the same day.

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Historical ship replica arrives in Shimonoseki

A replica of a ship that carried diplomatic missions from the Joseon dynasty in the Korean Peninsula to Japan during the Edo period is pictured in Shimonoseki in the western Japan prefecture of Yamaguchi on Aug. 24, 2024, as a ceremony welcoming the ship's arrival is held the same day.

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Historical ship replica arrives in Shimonoseki

A ceremony is held to welcome the arrival of a replica of a ship that carried diplomatic missions from the Joseon dynasty in the Korean Peninsula to Japan during the Edo period, in Shimonoseki in the western Japan prefecture of Yamaguchi on Aug. 24, 2024.

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[Breaking News]Traditional eel-eating day in Japan

NARITA, Japan, July 24 Kyodo - A chef cooks eel at a restaurant in Narita near Tokyo on July 24, 2024, a day in the calendar when people often eat eel in Japan. (Kyodo)

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Hakushu cotton picking in western Japan

Workers pick Hakushu cotton balls in Sakaiminato in Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, a major production area of the Japanese cotton variety in the Edo Period, as the season peaks on Oct. 5, 2023.

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Hakushu cotton picking in western Japan

Workers pick Hakushu cotton balls in Sakaiminato in Tottori Prefecture, western Japan, a major production area of the Japanese cotton variety in the Edo Period, as the season peaks on Oct. 5, 2023.

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Replica of Edo-period golden folding screen

Photo taken at Kasugataisha shrine in Nara in July 2023 shows a replica of a golden folding screen drawn by Edo-period artist Kano Ryusetsu, created at the request of the western Japan shrine by major Japanese printing company Toppan Inc. using a unique method combining woodblock print and color management technologies.

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Replica of Edo-period golden folding screen

Photo taken at Kasugataisha shrine in Nara in July 2023 shows a replica of a golden folding screen drawn by Edo-period artist Kano Ryusetsu, created at the request of the western Japan shrine by major Japanese printing company Toppan Inc. using a unique method combining woodblock print and color management technologies.

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Historical ship replica sails from Busan to Japan

A replica of a wooden ship that carried a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period (17-19 century) departs a port in the southern South Korean city of Busan for Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture in southwestern Japan on Aug. 1, 2023. The ship reproduced in 2018 traces the sea route the Korean emissaries took in the old days.

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Historical ship replica sails from Busan to Japan

A replica of a wooden ship that carried a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period (17-19 century) departs a port in the southern South Korean city of Busan for Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture in southwestern Japan on Aug. 1, 2023. The ship reproduced in 2018 traces the sea route the Korean emissaries took in the old days.

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Seoul-Tokyo parade to promote bilateral cultural exchange

Japanese and South Korean people participating in a parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period pose for a photo after arriving in Tokyo's Hibiya Park on May 23, 2023, after departing Seoul on April 1 for the over 1,000-kilometer journey. The biennial event that began in 2007 to deepen friendly ties between the two countries on a nongovernmental basis resumed after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Seoul-Tokyo parade to promote bilateral cultural exchange

Japanese and South Korean people participating in a parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period celebrate after arriving in Tokyo's Hibiya Park on May 23, 2023, after departing Seoul on April 1 for the over 1,000-kilometer journey. The biennial event that began in 2007 to deepen friendly ties between the two countries on a nongovernmental basis resumed after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Seoul-Tokyo parade to promote bilateral cultural exchange

Japanese and South Korean people participating in a parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period arrive in Tokyo's Hibiya Park on May 23, 2023, after departing Seoul on April 1 for the over 1,000-kilometer journey. The biennial event that began in 2007 to deepen friendly ties between the two countries on a nongovernmental basis resumed after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Seoul-Tokyo parade to promote bilateral cultural exchange

Japanese and South Korean people participating in a parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period head to its destination, Tokyo's Hibiya Park, on May 23, 2023, after departing Seoul on April 1 for the over 1,000-kilometer journey. The biennial event that began in 2007 to deepen friendly ties between the two countries on a nongovernmental basis resumed after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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"Hina" dolls float on river

Children release "hina" paper dolls in a river in Tottori, western Japan, on April 22, 2023. The traditional event dating back to Edo Period is to wish children's good health.

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CORRECTED: Seoul-Tokyo parade to promote bilateral cultural exchange

Japanese and South Korean people participating in a parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period leave Seoul's Gyeongbokgung Palace on April 1, 2023, for an over 1,000-kilometer and some 50-day journey bound for Tokyo's Hibiya Park. The biennial event that began in 2007 to deepen friendly ties between the two countries on a nongovernmental basis resumed after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Seoul-Tokyo parade to promote bilateral cultural exchange

Japanese and South Korean people participating in a parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period leave Seoul's Gyeongbokgung Palace on April 1, 2023, for an over 1,000-kilometer and some 50-day journey bound for Tokyo's Hibiya Park. The biennial event that began in 2007 to deepen friendly ties between the two countries on a nongovernmental basis resumed after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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CORRECTED: Seoul-Tokyo parade to promote bilateral cultural exchange

Japanese and South Korean people participating in a parade replicating a diplomatic mission from the Joseon dynasty on the Korean Peninsula to Japan's Tokugawa shogunate during the Edo period leave Seoul's Gyeongbokgung Palace on April 1, 2023, for an over 1,000-kilometer and some 50-day journey bound for Tokyo's Hibiya Park. The biennial event that began in 2007 to deepen friendly ties between the two countries on a nongovernmental basis resumed after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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New Year ladder-top stunts by firefighters

TOKYO, Japan - Firefighters demonstrate ladder-top stunts dating back to Japan's feudal Edo period during the annual New Year parade of fire brigades organized by the Tokyo Fire Department, in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Jan. 6, 2012.

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New Year ladder-top stunts by firefighters

TOKYO, Japan - A firefighter holds a scroll bearing a message of encouragement for the Tohoku region, which was hit by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, while seated atop a 7-meter ladder in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Jan. 6, 2012, in a demonstration of ladder-top stunts dating back to Japan's feudal Edo period during the annual New Year parade of fire brigades organized by the Tokyo Fire Department.

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Scroll shows sword-wielding skill license given to historical hero

KYOTO, Nov. 12 Kyodo - Photo taken in Kyoto, western Japan, on Nov. 7, 2015, shows a scroll certifying the skill in wielding a "naginata" long-handled sword given to historical hero Sakamoto Ryoma in the waning years of the Edo period (1603-1867). The name of his lover, Chiba Sana, is among a list of names that also includes Chiba Shusaku, founder of the Hokushin Ittoryu school of swordsmanship.

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Medieval folding-screen painting re-created with brocade

KYOTO, Japan - A "Nishijin-ori" brocade version of the "Fujin Raijin" (Wind and Thunder Gods) painting drawn on a folding screen by Tawaraya Sotatsu in the Edo period (1603-1867) is displayed in Kyoto, western Japan, on Dec. 18, 2014. Nishijin-ori craftsmen spent seven years to complete the work using traditional weaving skills.

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Craftsmen re-create folding-screen painting with brocade

KYOTO, Japan - Two pieces of "Nishijin-ori" brocade made to re-create the "Fujin Raijin" (Wind and Thunder Gods) painting drawn on a folding screen by Tawaraya Sotatsu in the Edo period (1603-1867) are displayed in Kyoto, western Japan, on Dec. 18, 2014. Using traditional Nishijin-ori weaving skills, craftsmen spent seven years to complete the work.

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Kanazawa's travel map illustrates castle town attractions

KANAZAWA, Japan - A woman holds a map of Kanazawa which was created based on a map from the late Edo period in the central Japanese city in Ishikawa Prefecture on Dec. 3, 2014. Kanazawa is expecting more visitors due to bullet train service on the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line starting in March 2015 (Nagano-Kanazawa) to link Tokyo with Kanazawa.

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Feudal-era wooden tablet depicts rare sumo technique

TONDABAYASHI, Japan - A wooden votive "ema" tablet from the Edo period (1603-1867) kept at a shrine in Kawachinagano, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, is seen in the western Japanese city on Oct. 16, 2014. The tablet depicts a sumo technique known as "kawazu-gake," or a leg-entangled throw.

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Huge signboard of Hokusai exhibition stands in Paris

PARIS, France - A huge signboard stands in front of the Grand Palais museum in Paris on Sept. 25, 2014, to promote an exhibition featuring famed Japanese "ukiyo-e" artist Katsushika Hokusai. The exhibition, opening on Oct. 1, will display more than 700 works by the Japanese artist of the Edo period (1603-1867) under the Tokugawa shogunate.

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Documents on Korean envoys to Japan eyed for UNESCO list

KITAKYUSHU, Japan - Officials of Japanese and South Korean local governments and private organizations meet in Shimonoseki, western Japan, on Aug. 25, 2014, to discuss plans to seek the listing on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register of documents on Korean dynasty envoys dispatched to Japan mainly during the Edo period (1603-1868). They agreed to apply for registration in 2016.

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Event to reenact Korean envoy procession to Japan

SHIMONOSEKI, Japan - A colorful event to reenact a procession of Korean envoys to Japan dispatched by the Joseon Dynasty during the Edo period (1603-1868) to deepen the bilateral ties takes place in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, with some 240 people, including those from South Korea's Busan, walking along the western Japanese city's waterfront on Aug. 23, 2014.

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Costume play lovers listen to guide at old residence

AOMORI, Japan - Young women listen to a guide in front of an old residence, reportedly built during the Edo period (1603-1867), in Sai village, Aomori Prefecture, on the northern tip of Japan's main island of Honshu on Aug. 15, 2014, during a village-wide event to welcome costume play lovers. The residence is the birthplace of Gotaro Mikami, a medical doctor who saved both Japanese and Russian soldiers during the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese war.

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Dancers perform at port tourism promotion event

KYOTO, Japan - Dancers perform in Miyazu, Kyoto Prefecture, on July 25, 2014, at the 15th Kitamaebune Port of Call Forum, an event aimed at promoting tourism at major Japanese port cities where "Kitamae" merchant ships stopped from the Edo period through the Meiji period.

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Monument at site of Dojima Rice Exchange

OSAKA, Japan - A monument set up at what used to be the Dojima Rice Exchange for rice brokering during the Edo period is pictured in Osaka on March 20, 2014.

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Issa museum unveils new book about poet

SHINANO, Japan - The Issa Memorial Museum in the town of Shinano in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, unveils the "Kashiwabara Gashu," a book containing nine newly discovered his "hiku" poems and other documents of Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), a Japanese poet from the Edo period, to the press on March 19, 2014.

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Issa museum unveils Issa's letter to his wife

SHINANO, Japan - The Issa Memorial Museum in the town of Shinano in Nagano Prefecture, central Japan, unveils to the press on March 19, 2014, a letter which Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), a Japanese "haiku" poet from the Edo period, sent to his wife.

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Copies of Edo-period paintings sent to Kyoto temple

KYOTO, Japan - Kongoji, a Buddhist temple in Kameoka, Kyoto, western Japan, receives on March 13, 2014, copies of two out of 12 paintings by Maruyama Okyo, a painter from the Edo period. The photo shows one of the copies (R) and its original preserved as a hanging scroll.

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Printing block, print from late Edo period

TOKYO, Japan - Part of a printing block (above), used as a board for a "sugoroku" game (a type of snakes and ladders) in the late Edo period (1603-1867), and its print are shown in this file photo taken on March 8, 2014. The block was discovered by a sugoroku researcher in Sendai, northeastern Japan.

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Nakamura Utaemon makes comeback to Kabuki

TOKYO, Japan - Nakamura Fukusuke, a Kabuki actor, speaks during a press conference on Sept. 4, 2013 in Tokyo after it was announced he will become Nakamura Utaemon VII in March 2014. He will succeed to the prestigious stage name that has been passed down over generations from the middle of the Edo period.

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Tohoku students trying to become art restorers

TOKYO, Japan - Chie Takano, a fourth-year student at the Tohoku University of Art and Design, analyzes fibers used in a "hina" doll produced during the Edo period (1603-1868) with a microscope at a university laboratory in Yamagata, Yamagata Prefecture on July 18, 2013.

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Firefighters' New Year parade

TOKYO, Japan - Firefighters demonstrate ladder-top stunts dating back to Japan's feudal Edo period during the annual New Year parade of fire brigades organized by the Tokyo Fire Department, in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Jan. 6, 2013.

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Firefighters' New Year parade

TOKYO, Japan - A firefighter holds a scroll bearing a message wishing for the reconstruction from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Jan. 6, 2013, in a demonstration of ladder-top stunts dating back to Japan's feudal Edo period during the annual New Year parade of fire brigades organized by the Tokyo Fire Department.

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Museum of 'Ogura hyakunin isshu'

KYOTO, Japan - A diorama forms part of the displays at Shigureden, a Kyoto museum devoted to ''Ogura hyakunin isshu'' (100 poems by 100 poets). The museum was shown to the media on March 14, 2012, prior to its scheduled reopening on March 17 following a yearlong renovation. Hyakunin isshu karuta (playing cards) of the Edo period (1603-1868) and dolls representing the poets are among the exhibits and visitors can try on Heian period (794-1185) costumes.

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Yamaguchi's Halloween-like event

YAMAGUCHI, Japan - Children hide themselves after placing a horse doll of straw at a house and wait for a resident (L) to replace the doll with sweets during a traditional festivity in the western Japanese city of Yamaguchi on Jan. 14, 2012. The event, called ''Toitoi,'' is said to have been performed since the Edo period (1603-1867) but its origin is unknown. Some say ''Toitoi'' derives from ''Trick or Treat,'' said by children going house to house collecting candy at Halloween, since there used to be a church in the area.

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Hokusai exhibition in Berlin

BERLIN, Germany - People look at works by Katsushika Hokusai, a renowned ''ukiyoe'' woodblock print artist from Japan's late Edo period, at the Martin-Gropius-Bau museum in Berlin on Aug. 25, 2011. An exhibition of more than 440 of Hokusai's works is scheduled to be held at the museum through Oct. 24.

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Photo exhibition on Japan in Switzerland

LUGANO, Switzerland - Visitors look at photos capturing life in Japan around the end of the Edo period (1603-1867) and the early Meiji period (1868-1912) at an exhibition in Lugano, southern Switzerland, on Feb. 1, 2011. Some 200 photos at the exhibition, which runs through Feb. 27, include those taken by well-known photographers Felice Beato, Kimbe Kusakabe and others. The photos, which were originally black and white, were later hand-colored.

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Photo exhibition on Japan in Switzerland

LUGANO, Switzerland - Photo showing life in Japan around the end of the Edo period (1603-1867) and the beginning of the Meiji period (1868-1912) is one of some 200 photos, many on public display for the first time, at an exhibition in Lugano, southern Switzerland, on Feb. 1, 2011. Photos at the exhibition, which runs through Feb. 27, include those taken by well-known photographers Felice Beato, Kimbe Kusakabe and others. The photos, which were originally black and white, were later hand-colored.