At the end of the 16th century, the country was pacified by Lord Nobunaga, who disciplined the samurai and put an end to the ...

DAIGO, Ibaraki Prefecture--In April 1941 and fresh out of teacher’s training college, Hiroko Kikuchi was assigned to the Kurosawa National Elementary School in a mountainous area here.

That reminded me of an episode about Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998) when he directed the 1950 film “Rashomon.” In his commitment to realism, he ordered every roof tile in one scene engraved with ...