For the Tsushima Fuchū domain, restoring severed relations with Chosŏn Korea after the Imjin War was a diplomatic priority. This article sheds light on the important role played by Ming China, which actively participated in the post-Imjin rapprochement between Japan and Korea. In particular, the reopening of the Pusan trade in 1604 was realized not only through bilateral Chosŏn-Tsushima negotiations but involved a more complicated multilateral relationship internal to Japan itself—the Tsushima domain and the Tokugawa shogunate as two parties of interest in Japan, as well as Chosŏn and Ming.

This article examines the illustrated scroll of events known as the Nenjū gyōji emaki and the narrative illustrated scroll Ban Dainagon emaki, which were produced during the government of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa. By analyzing the items and actions that are depicted or mentioned in these scrolls, the article will study the circumstances in which the scrolls were created and examine the relationship between scroll-making and politics. The results will show that the ultimate goal of Go-Shirakawa's government in producing the two abovementioned illustrated scrolls was to document the state of royal authority in each period since the pre-Heian era.

This article investigates Japanese cultural and political influence in the Kingdom of Siam, renamed Thailand in 1939. Early exchanges in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw the consumption of Japanese products in the Southeast Asian kingdom as status symbols. Japanese swords in particular were cherished and have become dynastic heirlooms since then. From the late nineteenth century onward, Imperial Japan was seen as a role model of successful modernization in Bangkok and Japanese advisors and instructors were hired by the court. Critics of the absolute monarchy meanwhile stressed that Imperial Japan had become a great power as a constitutional monarchy.

A defining feature of so-called Japanese Buddhism has been the persistent influence of the ideas surrounding the "Final Age of Dharma"(mappō), emphasizing the continuous decline of Buddha dharma and the capacities of Buddhist practitioners after the demise of Shakyamuni, which led to inaccessibility to enlightenment and lax discipline epitomized by the "non-precept" in this age. In this article, I will explore the pivotal roles played by the utopian and primordial vision of the "True Dharma"(shōbō) in Meiji Japan, with a focus on the Shingon monk Shaku Unshō (1827–1909), and will unveil how his fervent ideals resonated with rapidly shifting global and nation-building settings, restructuring a new temporal-spatial order in the archipelago and beyond.