Historical Periods, Era Names, and How Japan Remembers the Past
How Japan divides, names, teaches, reconstructs, and remembers its past—and why historical labels may carry different meanings across generations and regions.
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Why is the samurai period imagined as if it were one single age?
When many Japanese people hear “the age of the samurai,” the image that comes to mind is already a mixture. Armored warriors, battles, castles, men carrying swords, and streets from an Edo-period town may all appear in the same mental pi... -
Why do Japanese people often describe dates by emperor era as well as Western year?
In Japan, the same year may be written as either 2026 in the Western calendar or Reiwa 8 in the Japanese era system. To foreigners, using two different systems may seem unnecessarily complicated. However, Japanese people do not always pr...
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