TM MAGAZINE Vol.27 October 27, 2026Ogetsuhime and Otsuki in Hata｜A Goddess Whose Origins Lie in the KuroshioIn Kamiyama Town, Awa Province, the goddess Ogetsuhime is enshrined at Kamiichinomiya Oawa Shrine. Judging from the name, this deity is "a princess of some tribe called Ogetsu." In Hata District in southwest Shikoku lies Otsuki Town, and the goddess of Awa may, unexpectedly, have had her origins in the Kuroshio.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.26 October 20, 2026Oyamazumi Shrine on Omishima｜Were the Mountain God and the Sea God Not Separate?Oyamazumi Shrine on Omishima, an island in the Seto Inland Sea, is the head shrine of the Oyamazumi and Mishima shrines enshrined across the country. Why is a god of mountains enshrined on an island? In ancient times, before the Seto Inland Sea existed, Omishima was a mountain. Were the mountain god and the sea god not separate?
TM MAGAZINE Vol.25 October 13, 2026The Inishi of the Doigahama Yayoi｜The Path of the Ancestors and the Trade Networks of the SeaThe Yayoi of Doigahama laid their remains facing "the path their ancestors came by." Iha Fuyu said that the Ryukyuan word "inishi" means "the way the ancestors came." The direction the Doigahama Yayoi faced after burial was not simply "west (northwest)" but their "inishi."
TM MAGAZINE Vol.24 October 6, 2026Was Shandong the Homeland of the Doigahama Yayoi? Skulls Gazing Toward the Northwestern SeaMost skeletons buried at Doigahama were laid with their heads to the "southeast," gazing toward the sea far to the "northwest." Their gaze extends exactly toward the Shandong Peninsula. A joint Japan-China survey concluded that the ancestors of the Yayoi at the Doigahama site were probably ancient people of Shandong.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.23 September 29, 2026The Yayoi of the Doigahama Site Were Mostly Immigrants｜A Genome That Overturned the Northeast Asian Origin TheoryAbout 300 skeletons of Yayoi people more than 2,300 years old have been excavated from the Doigahama site in Yamaguchi Prefecture. A 2024 whole-genome analysis showed that the Doigahama individuals carry very little Jomon ancestry and are overwhelmingly immigrant-dominant. The view that the Yayoi originated in Northeast Asia was overturned.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.22 September 22, 2026The Gateway into Izumo Province｜The Town of Isotake and the Karakami Shiragi Shrine in IwamiIn Isotake Town, Oda City, Shimane Prefecture, stands Karakami Shiragi Shrine, which enshrines the deity Karakami. Climb the cape and the Shimane Peninsula, where Izumo Taisha rests, spreads out, and it is clear that this was the gateway into Izumo Province. The gateway from Silla to the Japanese archipelago may have been the Izumo to Iwami region, not northern Kyushu.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.21 September 15, 2026The Ancient Stratum of "Tojin" Revealed by the Tojin-ishi Megaliths of the Ashizuri Peninsula｜The Kuroshio and SarutahikoOn the summit of the Ashizuri Peninsula lie the Tojin-ishi Megaliths, countless huge iwakura. On the Ashizuri Peninsula it is said that the sound "tojin" meant a shining place, a place where gods sit. The origin of Sarutahiko, the guiding god, may unexpectedly have been the "tide," the Kuroshio.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.20 September 8, 2026Divine Names Shift Along the Kuroshio｜Yakurahime and Toyotamahime of AwaIn the mountains bordering the sea in Tokushima City, Toyotamahime is enshrined together with Yakurahime, a deity peculiar to Awa who appears in neither the Kojiki nor the Nihon Shoki. Along the Kuroshio, divine names shift. When the place changes, the name changes, and at that moment the act shifts.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.19 September 1, 2026The COMT Gene of the Japanese Is Val-Dominant｜Warrior and Worrier as a Western YardstickThe COMT type differs by population: in Japan about 46% are Val/Val and about 10% Met/Met. The ancestral type shared with chimpanzees is Val. The Western yardstick that calls Val the "warrior gene" and Met the "worrier gene" is looking in the wrong place somehow.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.18 August 25, 2026The Kojiki Compilers' Struggle Between Sound and Script Returns in the Reading of Genes｜COMTGenes are a chronicle older than the Kojiki, with no compiler. Take the meaning and the sound vanishes; take the sound and the meaning vanishes. This dilemma that the compilers of the Kojiki ran into recurs in the form of translating and compiling genes. First, from a single gene called COMT.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.17 August 18, 2026Autosomes Are Roots as a Surface, Mitochondrial DNA and the Y Chromosome Are Roots as a LineAutosomes are a "surface" spanning every paternal and maternal line, but can be traced back only about 150 to 200 years. Mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome are "lines" whose information does not thin out however many generations pass. Yet of the 1,024 ancestors ten generations back, only two can be traced.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.16 August 11, 2026For the Inbe, Hemp and Kozo Were One and the Same Act｜The Nigite of the Kogo Shui and the Place Name AwaHemp and kozo are different things as plants. Yet in the Kogo Shui, the hemp of the blue nigite and the kozo of the white nigite are carried by the hands of one clan, the Inbe. Stripping, bleaching, beating, spinning. The materials did not differ; the concept of material did not exist. What existed was the very act of handling fiber.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.15 August 4, 2026Okuninushi Has No True Name｜Susanoo in the Izumo Fudoki and the Divine Names of PlacesOkuninushi, the chief deity of the great shrine at Izumo, has no true name. The name Okuninushi never appears in the Izumo Fudoki. Names existed in countless numbers from the start, and the footprints of how the deity Okuninushi was generated lie in the process of their being bundled into one deity.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.14 July 28, 2026The Year 660 BC for Emperor Jimmu's Accession Was an Ideal Designed by the Suiko Court through DunjiaNowhere in the Nihon Shoki is the year 660 BC written. Subtract 1260 from 601, and 660 BC results. Tadao Iijima concluded that the Suiko court, using the art of Dunjia, reflected its own new government back onto high antiquity, and that the date is not historical fact.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.13 July 21, 2026The Japanese, an Endangered Species Carrying Archaic Humans｜Neanderthals and DenisovansThe genomes of modern Japanese carry the legacy of two extinct archaic humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans, woven in like a mosaic. That archaic "evolutionary shortcut" is now a seed of depression, type 2 diabetes, and allergies. The Japanese may be an endangered species.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.12 July 14, 2026How Atsutane Hirata's Fukko Shinto Broke the Yoshida and Shirakawa Houses' Licensing of Shinto PriestsIn the Edo period, only two houses could issue licenses to Shinto priests: the Yoshida and the Shirakawa. Edo "Shinto" was a system of control by license before it was a doctrine. Atsutane Hirata expanded Shinto into a single cosmology and broke the hegemony of both houses with the single word "restoration."
TM MAGAZINE Vol.11 July 7, 2026Katsuragi Hitokotonushi Shrine and Kamotsuba Shrine｜Two Koto Deities, One of Word and One of DeedThe sensibility that "koto" is both word and deed gave birth in myth to Hitokotonushi, god of the word, and Kotoshironushi, god of the deed. At the foot of Mount Katsuragi stands Katsuragi Hitokotonushi Shrine, and on the plain below it, Kamotsuba Shrine. The sight of two Koto deities side by side shows the sensibility of the ancient Japanese.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.10 June 30, 2026Concrete Suffocated the Kunitsukami｜From Keichu to Atsutane Hirata's RestorationWhat suppressed, beneath the ground, the human works and cultures that differ from place to place is concrete. Kokugaku, begun with Keichu, sought the true Japan by stripping away the foreign membrane, and with Atsutane Hirata the cry for "restoration" arose. Restoration is the state seen at the end of probing the membrane at the cost of one's life.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.9 June 23, 2026The Japanese Never Used to Climb Mountains｜Mount Miwa as Kannabi, and Walter WestonOriginally, the Japanese did not climb mountains. At Omiwa Shrine, ascending Mount Miwa is called "worship by ascent," not "mountain climbing." Mountain climbing began in 1888 with Walter Weston, a Church of England missionary who came to Japan. He redefined Japan's mountains as a playground.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.8 June 16, 2026The Gods Dwell Not in Words but in the Primal Experience of Awe｜Norinaga Motoori and the Open Sea off SanrikuA god moves further away the more it is explained. It is not something to think through with the head but rests on primal experience. Norinaga Motoori argued that "kami" means everything extraordinarily superior in virtue and awesome. The god dwells in the primal experience of awe that a friend felt in the open sea off Sanriku.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.7 June 9, 2026Yamatai Is a Copying Error for Yamato｜Printed Editions of the Gishi Wajinden and Yamato District in ChikugoErrors and misprints arose in each era in the Gishi Wajinden, the only historical source to describe Yamatai. "Yamatai" is a new written form and sound born of a misprint, and the original is "Yamato." In Chikugo Province in Kyushu, the place name Yamato remains in Yamato District.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.6 June 2, 2026The Origins of the Yayoi People in the Xinglongwa Culture of the Xiliao River｜The Liao Civilization and the Sannai-Maruyama SiteThe "original place" that formed the genetic base of the Yayoi people is thought to be the Xinglongwa culture, which appeared in the Xiliao River basin around 6200 BC. The Sannai-Maruyama site in Aomori closely resembles the prosperous to final phases of the Liao civilization. The largest settlement of the Jomon period vanishes suddenly at a certain point.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.5 May 26, 2026Emperor Ojin as the Symbol of an Alliance of Clans｜Ancient Kawachi and the Mystery of Usa JinguUsa Jingu is the head shrine of about 4,800 Hachiman shrines, the most of any in Japan. Emperor Ojin, the fifteenth emperor, identified with the great deity Hachiman, was the symbol of a new group born from an alliance of different clans. His existence holds a step toward one community formed from immigrant, naturalized, and native clans.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.4 May 19, 2026The Serpentine Sword and Shield-Shaped Mirror of the Tomio Maruyama Kofun Mark the Shift from Ritual to ArmsFrom the Tomio Maruyama Kofun, built in the fourth century, came a serpentine sword about 285 cm long and the world's only shield-shaped bronze mirror. Neither sword nor shield was made for combat. Both were made for the rituals that accompanied politics. The fourth century marks the turning point at which the real power of chieftains began shifting from ritual to arms.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.3 May 12, 2026The Aratae of the Daijosai｜Awa Inbe Cloth Traced to the Kogo Shui and Revived in the Taisho EraThe Aratae worn in the supreme rite of the Daijosai was, according to the Kogo Shui, a cloth of kozo and hemp woven by the descendants of Ame no Hiwashi, ancestral god of the Awa Inbe. The Daijosai was broken off after 1466. The custom of the Awa Inbe descendants presenting the Aratae was revived at the accession of the Taisho Emperor.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.2 May 5, 2026Hemp Named an Act, Not a Plant｜Mashiho Chiri and the Cords of the Torihama Shell MoundA cord regarded as the world's oldest use of hemp has been found at the Torihama shell mound. Mashiho Chiri established that the Ainu language once had no term for "the plant itself." The ancients did not give names in order to identify objects. An act was always there.
TM MAGAZINE Vol.1 April 28, 2026The Limits of Views of Japan That Lack the Sea｜The Five Spheres of Jomon Pottery and the Origins of the Visiting GodsNearly every account of Japan and the Japanese has been built, without exception, from a view of the land. The styles of Jomon pottery reveal five spheres that changed over time. Contact between different peoples across the sea may have formed the prototype of the visiting gods who come from the sea.

Project 2049, a weekly essay by the philosopher Takahiro Mitsui

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