{"id":2623,"date":"2025-11-03T12:31:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/budobooks.jp\/?p=2623"},"modified":"2025-11-03T12:31:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T03:31:02","slug":"budo-beat-41-samurai-journey-in-sakura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/budobooks.jp\/?p=2623","title":{"rendered":"Budo Beat 41: Samurai Journey in Sakura"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The \u201cBudo Beat\u201d Blog features a collection of short reflections, musings, and anecdotes on a wide range of budo topics by Professor Alex Bennett<\/a>, a seasoned budo scholar and practitioner. Dive into digestible and diverse discussions on all things budo\u2014from the philosophy and history to the practice and culture that shape the martial Way.<\/em>
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The Kitamoto Camp ended on a Friday afternoon. Everyone was running on the faint fumes of keiko, lectures, and too little sleep. The idea of setting off immediately on another kendo trip might have sounded insane, but that\u2019s exactly what we did.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Three participants piled into the car with me, and we drove two hours northwest from Katsuura toward the old castle town of Sakura. This was the start of our new program, The Samurai Journey in Sakura<\/em>, supported by Kendo World, Sakura City, and Narita Airport. The idea was to offer international kendo people a chance to experience a real slice of samurai Japan just an hour from Tokyo, and even closer to Narita Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sakura: The City of Quiet Power<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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The windmill in Sakura looks like it\u2019s been dropped in from a Dutch postcard, but it\u2019s a nod to the days when Japan learned about the outside world through the Dutch. Back then, rangaku or Dutch studies was how new ideas drifted in. Now it just spins in the breeze, a quiet reminder of that first gust of curiosity that changed everything.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Sakura, not the cherry blossom but \u4f50\u5009, meaning \u201cwarehouse of reeds\u201d, sits on the Shim\u014dsa Plateau, about 40 kilometres from Tokyo and fifteen from Narita Airport. It was once a major castle town of the Sakura Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate. During the Edo period it played a strategic role guarding the eastern approaches to Edo. Unlike other famous castles such as Himeji or Matsumoto, Sakura Castle had no stone walls. It relied instead on enormous earthen embankments and deep dry moats for defence, making it one of the more unusual fortifications in Japan, and a potential disaster for any drunken samurai who happened to stumble into those giant holes at night. The castle grounds are now a park, and the National Museum of Japanese History (Rekihaku) sits right in the centre where the keep once stood.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Hotta Masayoshi (1810\u20131864), lord of Sakura, was one of the few samurai statesmen who grasped the need for change as Japan stood on the brink of modernity. He championed reform and urged the country to open its doors to foreign trade and knowledge, setting the course for Japan\u2019s transformation.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The domain\u2019s ruling Hotta clan were among the more progressive of the Tokugawa period. They encouraged learning and diplomacy, and by the 1850s, Hotta Masayoshi was one of the most prominent reformers in Japan. He negotiated with Western envoys, supported the opening of Japan, and paid for it politically. Sakura\u2019s story is therefore not one of provincial obscurity, but of a domain trying to navigate modernity while balancing loyalty and reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That mix of history and quiet dignity, I think, defines Sakura. The town doesn\u2019t try to impress you. It invites you to listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday, October 24: The Hotta Residence and Zazen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our first stop was the Former Hotta Residence, a beautiful Meiji-era compound constructed after the Meiji Restoration, around 1890, by Hotta Masatomo, the last lord of the Sakura Domain. It reflects the period\u2019s shift, showing how the Hotta family adapted from feudal lords to modern nobles under the new state. The building and its gardens are now an Important Cultural Property, one of the finest examples of a high-ranking ex-samurai home that survived Japan\u2019s rush to modernisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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