Today we learned about and paid tribute to the famous samurai lord and founder of Sendai, Date Masamune.

The subway got us to the International Center. What I didn’t realize is that we would have to hike up the big hill that Date-san built his castle on.

Kudos to him for great tactics for war time. But that was quite the hill to walk up for those of us who live in a flat area. It wasn’t just us tourists huffing and puffing to get to the top. Some of the local college kids were too! Mr. Fox and I went slow and made it to the top. (I included a Google map with the topography later so you can see the hill.)

Note the castle enormous castle support wall behind us. The castle isn’t standing anymore. This marvel of engineering still does.

Half way up the hill, was the Sendai City Museum.

Upon entering we were greeted with this sign. Watch out for bears, boar, snakes, and BIG hornets. We saw one dead hornet on the path. We also saw lots of crows and ravens, a few big birds of prey, and a couple of big scary spiders. (I’ll spare you the spider picture – ask Mr. Fox if you really want to see it. It was about half the size of my hand.)

There was so much more to see in the museum than I can share in a blog post today. So I’ll post a few of the highlights.

Here is a letter from Date Masamune to his son Tadamune about hunting. Seeing a letter he wrote made the whole experience of learning about him feel a little more real. (Wish I could read it.)

Recognize the armor replica? (Remember when I got to wear a movie quality replica of this armor in 2023?)

This is for my fellow textile lovers, a beautiful silk obi (belt to tie a kimono closed).

This extremely detailed map is to scale of the one Date-san had to make to report to the higher ups. 26 tatami mats big, if we remember right. Very detailed. Shipping this off, even in pieces, must have been a challenge!