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Featured image for Key #27: Animal Islands
Article

Key #27: Animal Islands

Immanuel Kant believed that “we can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals”

Featured image for Key #26: A Floating Gate
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Key #26: A Floating Gate

A place like that must significantly enhance one's spiritual experience - in particular, considering the gate that actually flirts with water.

Featured image for Key #25: A "Red Gates Riot"
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Key #25: A "Red Gates Riot"

The shrine is among the most important and popular in Japan, and it owes its significance to its divine patron. Inari is a Shinto god of rice, a synonym of “wealth” and “prosperity” for Japan

Featured image for Key #24: The Father Figure
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Key #24: The Father Figure

They mark an entrance to a shrine, and every Japanese knows that, once through them, there will be peace, quiet and beauty of all kinds

Featured image for Key #23: Zo Of All Trades
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Key #23: Zo Of All Trades

The symbol of Edo and the symbol of Tokyo are right next to each, and they coexist in perfect harmony - even though the former wasn't even created in Edo.

Featured image for Key #22: Son of Heaven - Part 3, A Divine Tomb
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Key #22: Son of Heaven - Part 3, A Divine Tomb

However, the tomb associated with Nintoku, the legendary 16th Emperor, is by far the most famous of them - and that renown has everything to do with the tomb's size, as implied by its name.

Featured image for Key #21: Son of Heaven - Part 2, Kyoto
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Key #21: Son of Heaven - Part 2, Kyoto

Whether for sentimental reasons or for some less obvious practical ones, the Emperor ordered the palace and adjacent gardens completely renovated, refurbished and “invigorated” - and that's where the modern story of Kyoto Imperial Palace began.

Featured image for Key #20: Son of Heaven - Part 1, Nara.
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Key #20: Son of Heaven - Part 1, Nara.

Not exactly a single building, and not exactly in Nara - “Palace Town” looks like a much better name for what's officially known as “Nara Imperial Palace”

Featured image for Key #19: A Commonplace Wonder - Fukagawa Edo
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Key #19: A Commonplace Wonder - Fukagawa Edo

Arguably, one of the most stunning wonders ever experienced by humankind, isn't a place or an object but a concept known as the “butterfly effect” - namely, occurrences when small changes bring about far-reaching consequences.