"Samurai silk" helped people of former Shonai domain regain pride

Tsuruoka city in Yamagata Prefecture was on the losing side in the civil war that led to the birth of modern Japan, but one of the legacies of that defeat is "samurai silk," now listed as a Japan Heritage by the Cultural Affairs Agency.Tsuruoka Castle in the Shonai feudal domain was destroyed in the Boshin War which paved the way for ending the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), leaving the domain's samurai warriors jobless.But the "karo," or chief retainer, worked out a large-scale land reclamation plan in cooperation with Saigo Takamori, who had led the forces of the Imperial Court in the wa…READ FULL ARTICLE