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Japan Times
31-03-2025
- Japan Times
Traveling the Three-Star Road, the tourist route made from thin air
Routes, trails and predetermined circuits — Japan can't seem to get enough of them. Only have a week to spend on vacation? It's zipping from metropolis to metropolis on the Golden Route of Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka for you. Want to stretch your legs through the countryside? A few days hoofing it along the Nakasendo Trail will scratch that itch. Feeling lost in mind, body and soul? Several weeks, months or, in some cases, years visiting each of the 88 temples that make up the Shikoku Henro pilgrimage may deliver the spiritual clarity you seek. Perhaps that's why the so-called Three-Star Road linking the central Honshu prefectures of Nagano, Gifu, Toyama and Ishikawa stands out from the pack of Japan's other prescribed tourist routes: There's really no road here at all. That's hardly the fault of the Three-Star Road itself (so named for being part of the larger Shoryudo route thus rated by Michelin's travel-focused Green guide). The landscape it cuts across transitions so dramatically from soaring mountains to valleys to mountains again that it's hard to imagine a traveler in premodern Japan finding the route — starting from deep in the cradle of the Japanese Alps, up and down mountain roads and through sweeping valleys due west for the Sea of Japan coast — desirable for necessary travel, let alone leisure. The rugged landscape of central Japan makes it difficult to recognize the Three-Star Road as a defined route. | OWEN ZIEGLER And yet, when I begin my journey over several days in late February from the mountain-locked city of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, to seaside Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, the artifice of this route quickly fades in the shine of the gems it links together. Keeps and peaks First in the itinerary is Matsumoto Castle, one of just 12 such fortifications with their original tenshu (tower keep) in Japan. Built on flat land, the views of the black-walled castle are particularly spectacular from across the defensive moat with a backdrop of the snow-capped Japanese Alps. In fact, Matsumoto Castle is so stereotypically beautiful that it's surprising to find the second floor of the tenshu occupied not by a collection of katana but a comprehensive exhibition of teppō (medieval matchlock firearms) that ranges from gargantuan muskets to hidden pistols fashioned to look like sheathed daggers. A folding byobū screen delivers context: In the 1575 Battle of Nagashino, the Takeda clan that then held Matsumoto Castle was defeated by rival daimyo Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu's first large-scale use of firearms in Japanese warfare. Matsumoto Castle is one of just a handful of surviving examples of original Japanese castle architecture. | OWEN ZIEGLER Matsumoto is known for much more than its feudal past — wooden mingei (folk art) and groundwater pristine enough to feed drinkable fountains on the city sidewalks — but the distance covered by the Three-Star Road quickly brings me west into the mountains. Snow falls in blankets on the trip up the Shin-Hotaka Ropeway and atop its 2,156-meter-high observation deck. The panorama of the Okuhida region I'm told is out there is obscured, but as if in recompense, the trees around the ropeway station are so caked in powder that they could pass for Miyagi Prefecture's famous hoarfrost-covered sentinels colloquially known as 'snow monsters.' Snow, it turns out, would become a defining feature of the rest of my journey, at times falling at historic paces of nearly 30 centimeters over six hours. After a stop in Takayama City and a superb dinner at Muku (whose local potatoes are aged to bring out enough umami to perhaps warrant adding another star attraction to the route), the next morning brings me to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Shirakawa-go. As early-riser tourists slip along the ice-slick streets, residents and shopkeepers wield poles several meters long to clear what little snow they can off the iconic gasshō-zukuri farmhouses and their sloped thatch roofs. A visit to Shirakawa-go is surely lovely any time of year, but heavy snowfall in winter makes it a special experience. | OWEN ZIEGLER To see this bucolic neighborhood practically buried in snow is sublime, but such inclement weather comes with caveats: Snow removal has its limits, and walkways can be treacherous. The pedestrian path to the Ogimachi Observatory overlooking the valley below was snowed in, leaving only a shuttle bus running every 20 minutes (plus the time waiting in the ever-growing line of tourists) as the only way up. To the coast By the time I descend from the mountains into the Tochi Plain to the north, the Sea of Japan makes the snowfall a little wetter and a bit denser but no less present. At Zuisenji temple, famous for the Inami style of woodworking that adorns what feels like every nook and cranny of its prayer halls, pillar-like icicles hang from the eaves alongside intricate carvings. Just before I depart, a massive snowdrift slides off the roof of the main hall — thunder from the gods. Even when other parts of Japan can be breaking into spring, the Sea of Japan coast brings at times unpredictable weather. | OWEN ZIEGLER When I arrive in Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture and last stop on the Three-Star Road (or first, depending on your direction), I see the city has been spared the worst of the region's snowfall. Part of this, however, is how Kanazawa adapts to its surroundings. Whether it's on a tree in the Higashichaya teahouse district or a row of roadside shrubbery outside the Omicho Market in the city center, there hangs yukitsuri — a system of bamboo and rope providing extra support to greenery during the snow-filled winter months. Though gardens in Tokyo sometimes install yukitsuri as a holdover of the capital's snowier past, the pale gold harnesses are synonymous with Kanazawa. The city was once the center of Kaga Domain, the richest region in feudal Japan not directly administered by the shogunate, and its hyakkuman-goku culture — a reference to the luxurious income its daimyo commanded and the pursuit of arts and crafts they fostered among their subjects in lieu of military might. Decked out in "yukitsuri" (supportive bamboo and rope), the Karasaki pine in Kanazawa's Kenrokuen garden is a majestic sight. | OWEN ZIEGLER There may be no greater representation of this than Kenrokuen, one of the three great landscape gardens of Japan. As I arrive, the snow seems to abate, and when I reach the towering Karasaki pine, done up in conical yukitsuri and cultivated and coaxed over the centuries to reach its branches over the adjacent pond, the clouds break for what feels like the first time in days. It's a fitting end to several days spent trekking through some of the most inclement weather Japan's most rugged regions can deliver. Does that tie these disparate cities, villages and rural sites together into a cohesive route a name like the Three-Star Road seems to imply? Perhaps not, but as far as the claim to quality is concerned, it earns those stars going away. Travel and accommodation for this story were provided by the Three-Star Road . No portion of this story was shared with any third party prior to publication.
The Guardian
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Assassin's Creed: Shadows – a historic frolic through feudal Japan
Japan, 1581: Iga province is burning down around you. You watch on, injured and helpless as the Oda Nobunaga - the warlord responsible for numerous civil wars and the eventual unification of the country - smirks from a nearby hill. You draw your katana, the blade shining in the flickering light of the flames. This is Assassin's Creed: Shadows – part exciting ninja game, part history lesson. It's an odd combination but it comes together in a sprawling historical-fiction adventure full of discovery and deception. The tumultuous period that saw the unification of Japan and the fall of Nobunaga in the late 1500s is an ideal setting in which to play around as a sneaky shinobi and a brave samurai. The series' science-fictiony framing device is that you, the player, are diving into your ancestor's memories to hunt down a mysterious artefact by taking down a group of menacing masked samurai, one at a time. But mostly the game leaves you alone to enjoy feudal Japan. In this fraught time period, there is a sense of constant danger, each conversation like careful steps on a knife's edge. The story is complete fiction of course, but it does weave around actual historical events and figures, and the developers at Ubisoft have clearly gone to great pains to make the settings feel authentic, both landscapes and the people who inhabit them. You'll automatically remove your shoes when entering a building, and famous temples appear as they would have looked then, rather than as the tourist destinations they are now. The world truly is gorgeous, with several provinces to explore in all seasons and weathers, and period-accurate cities including Kyoto and Osaka. Giant temples rise up over busy towns full of stalls and workshops, while mossy shrines are scattered along winding paths through the countryside. You'll see Japan in all colours, too, from the gentle pinks of spring's sakura blooms, to the fiery-coloured leaves blanketing the hills in autumn, to the inky darkness of a winter's night. It's easy to be distracted by the view mid-mission when you're surrounded by ancient red torii gates, or notice a random puppet performance in the street. Ubisoft's Japan feels alive. It also feels totally overwhelming, at times. As much fun as it is to roam the countryside on horseback, scouting out new villages and historic sites, there's just so much of it that it's easy to feel lost. There are plenty of missions and side quests that will guide you around the map, but there's a lot of repetition in those tasks. To kill a high-level samurai you will need some help; the person who can help you wants a favour, which involves finding another person who wants you to kill a different samurai, and so on. Over the game's long run time, this starts to grate. The dual protagonists do help to alleviate the feeling that you're stuck in a repetitive loop. For the first 10 to 15 hours of the game, you'll step into the sandals of shinobi Fujibayashi Naoe, a young woman seeking revenge after her home was destroyed, and help her to rebuild her life and set up a network of spies and rebels from a secret mountain base. Then there's Yasuke, a principled black samurai based on the real historical figure of the same name, who appears briefly in the game's introduction, then disappears until Naoe gets close to Nobunaga. Naoe is light on her feet, capable of scaling walls and temples with ease, while also melting into shadows to creep around enemies. Her stealthy approach makes for some fun sneaky moments, such as stabbing through paper shoji screen-doors for a surprise attack. That tip-toe approach comes at a cost, though, when she's faced with a brawl. Enemy strikes hit her hard and she'll quickly get overpowered in a fight. Yasuke, on the other hand, is brutally strong, and capable of running straight through those screen doors and shrugging off sword strikes like they're a tickly irritant. He can still assassinate foes like Naoe can, but he does it head-on rather than in the shadows. In a series that has traditionally prioritised stealth, it feels extremely liberating when you bust through a castle's gate and face everyone head on. Both characters are viable options to play through most of the game and you can swap between them (mostly) at will. Unfortunately, no matter whom you play as, you'll have to put up with a few niggles in a fight. While dodges and parries feel amazing when you can pull them off in one-on-one scraps, you'll often find yourself surrounded as more opponents are alerted to your presence, which makes it really tricky to see where hits are coming from. When you're creeping around castle rooftops and taking your time picking enemies off, springing backwards into the shadows afterwards before scoping out your next kill, everything feels as it should. But the instant you get into a fight on the ground it starts to feel messy and frustrating. While I did find myself getting annoyed running back and forth between quest givers, I still can't stop thinking about Shadows. Excellent performances and emotionally resonant moments, such as Naoe's painful recovery after she loses everything she holds dear, mean you'll feel every bit of sorrow and anger alongside the game's heroes. Events are often troubling, as power struggles between lords often come at a huge cost to locals, and you see the unwelcome effects of your actions on your allies. Few other games have done such a good job with this setting, as you run through lush bamboo forests before scaling ancient castle walls and sneaking inside to steal treasures. These moments of brilliance more than compensate for its weaker points. Assassin's Creed: Shadows is released on 20 March; £59.99
The Guardian
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘It's been a challenge': Assassin's Creed Shadows and the quest to bring feudal Japan to life
More than four years after its announcement and after two last-minute delays, the latest title in Ubisoft's historical fiction series Assassin's Creed will finally be released on Thursday. Set in Japan in 1579, a time of intense civil war dominated by the feudal lord Oda Nobunaga, it follows two characters navigating their way through the bloody chaos: a female shinobi named Fujibayashi Naoe, and Yasuke, an African slave turned samurai. Japan has been the series' most-requested setting for years, Ubisoft says. "I've been on [this] franchise for 16 years and I think every time we start a new game, Japan comes up and we ask, is this the time?' says executive producer Marc-Alexis Coté. 'We've never pushed beyond the conception phase with Japan until this one." The game comes at a crucial time for Ubisoft after the disappointing performance of last year's titles Star Wars Outlaws, Skull and Bones and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and the expensive closure of live service shooter XDefiant. There has also been a furore over the game's Black and female protagonists, with the usual rightwing YouTubers criticising them as 'woke' and historically inaccurate, despite the fact that female warriors fought throughout the feudal period, and that Yasuke, the game's Black samurai, is a historical figure. It is something the team is keen to address. 'In-house historians were some of the first people to get staffed on the production team,' says creative director Jonathan Dumont. 'A huge data bank is continually fed. As we get a sense of the era, the research effort then requires the help of specialists from around the world, including Japan, to narrow down details or understand finer cultural points.' There were also field trips to the game's key locations of Kyoto and Osaka, which revealed elements the team hadn't thought of. Coté recalls travelling to Japan to show local colleagues some technological breakthroughs the development team had made with lighting on landscapes. But they all shook their heads and said it wasn't working. 'I was like, 'Why?!'' he says. 'And they just replied: 'That's not how light falls on the mountains in Japan.' So when our art director was there I asked him specifically to go look at the mountains. He went, took reference photos, and now we've captured it.' The team also had to render individual characters' socks, because they are always depicted removing their footwear when entering a building. 'The expectations have been this high throughout. It's been a challenge.' Like all the previous Assassin's Creed titles before it, Shadows uses authentic locations and historical figures to seat the game's time-hopping narrative. Takeda, Fukuchiyama and Himeji castles are all replicated along with the villages, ports and rural landscapes of Central Japan. But as ever, this is first and foremost a game about sneaking over rooftops and skilfully taking down enemies. In a demo we played just before release, the lead characters are assaulting Himeji castle, and you can choose to play either as Naoe, skulking in the shadows using smoke bombs and silent attacks to escape detection, or Yasuke, running in with his sword and lopping off limbs. While Ubisoft has put immense effort into capturing the Azuchi-Momoyama period and the nature of the Iga peasant class (the possible origin of the modern ninja archetype), what matters equally is how good it feels to leap off a rooftop and decapitate a passing enemy. In many ways, it seems the game draws as much from modern cultural depictions of the period and its warriors as from history. 'Japanese storytelling has been very influential to the development of the game and to all occidental arts in general,' says Dumont. 'Kagemusha from Kurosawa, 13 Assassins, Zatoichi, Sekigahara, The Tale of Genji or Musashi from Eiji Yoshikawa, to name the more obvious, have [all] helped shape our vision for the game. Even Studio Ghibli movies such as My Neighbour Totoro have helped us understand the countryside and vegetation.' It's certainly an interesting time for Shadows to release. Multiple high-profile failures of recent live service games have left players yearning for the era of big single-player adventures, with decent sales reported for Obsidian's recent RPG Avowed. Meanwhile, the huge success of FX/Hulu's Shōgun series has brought feudal Japan back into the cultural spotlight, and its story of stranded English navigator John Blackthorne becoming a high ranking samurai somewhat reflects that of Yasuke. The game does look beautiful, with intricate environments, a dramatic weather system and incredibly bloody combat. Ubisoft has survived a difficult period; a lot now rests on its most treasured possession. Assassin's Creed Shadows is released on 20 March for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox. Keith Stuart attended a press trip to Kyoto with other journalists. Accommodation and travel expenses were met by Ubisoft
South China Morning Post
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Assassin's Creed Shadows sparks backlash in Japan over historical inaccuracies
Just weeks before the release of one of the most highly anticipated video games of the year, French developer Ubisoft is facing a barrage of complaints in Japan for what critics claim are historical inaccuracies and the desecration of an ancient Shinto shrine. Advertisement Assassin's Creed Shadows, set for release on March 20, is the latest in a hugely successful historical action game series from Ubisoft. The first Assassin's Creed was released in 2007 and its 13 sequels and spin-offs have sold well over 200 million copies. The first game in the series set in Japan, the coming instalment takes place during the turbulent Sengoku period of the 15th and 16th centuries and allows players to control Yasuke , a real-life historical figure who has become known in pop culture as the first black samurai. However, there is little surviving historical documentation of Yasuke's life, including whether he was considered a samurai. He is believed to have arrived in Japan from Mozambique with Portuguese priests around 1580 and later served Oda Nobunaga, a 'daimyo' feudal lord known as the unifier of Japan. It's clear that some cultural toes have been trodden on with the game Mathew Thompson, university professor In the game, Yasuke is depicted as a powerful samurai warrior. Critics have argued there is no historical evidence for that assertion and that it is wrong to make a foreigner one of the protagonists in a game about Japanese history.
South China Morning Post
05-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Assassin's Creed Shadows sparks backlash in Japan over historical accuracy
Just weeks before the release of one of the most highly anticipated video games of the year, French developer Ubisoft is facing a barrage of complaints in Japan for what critics claim are historical inaccuracies and the desecration of an ancient Shinto shrine. Advertisement Assassin's Creed Shadows, set for release on March 20, is the latest in a hugely successful historical action game series from Ubisoft. The first Assassin's Creed was released in 2007 and its 13 sequels and spin-offs have sold well over 200 million copies. The first game in the series set in Japan, the coming instalment takes place during the turbulent Sengoku period of the 15th and 16th centuries and allows players to control Yasuke , a real-life historical figure who has become known in pop culture as the first black samurai. However, there is little surviving historical documentation of Yasuke's life, including whether he was considered a samurai. He is believed to have arrived in Japan from Mozambique with Portuguese priests around 1580 and later served Oda Nobunaga, a 'daimyo' feudal lord known as the unifier of Japan. It's clear that some cultural toes have been trodden on with the game Mathew Thompson, university professor In the game, Yasuke is depicted as a powerful samurai warrior. Critics have argued there is no historical evidence for that assertion and that it is wrong to make a foreigner one of the protagonists in a game about Japanese history.
