STORYWALK — There's a story here you don't know yet.

Insight

Places you know. Stories you don’t.

You may have been there. You probably haven’t heard what happened under your feet.

Yasaka Shrine, Kyoto — Kyoto — Yasaka Shrine

Heian → today — a festival gate born of plague

A prayer against plague, still held as a festival 1,200 years later.

Kiyomizu-dera, Kyoto — Kyoto — Kiyomizu-dera

Heian to Edo — the stage on the cliff, and the field to its south

South of the nail-less stage lay the field where Heian people sent off their dead.

What is STORYWALK

Not sightseeing info. The story that stayed here.

No fixed tour.
Walk on your own feet, listen where you arrive.
Curious? Ask the narrator.

How it feels

Walk. Find. Listen. Go deeper.

Eyes on the place, ears on the narrator.

01 — WALK

Walk

The route and distance to the next chapter.

02 — FIND

Find

Arrive, a chime sounds, the chapter opens.

03 — LISTEN

Listen

About a minute per chapter. Sometimes in their own voice.

04 — GO DEEPER

Go deeper

Check the sights, ask the narrator.

A real story

A story you can walk today, in Kamakura.

Kamakura ・ STORY

Masako and Yoritomo: A Capital Built by Two

Kamakura began with a single married couple

On foot 3km 1.5 hours 5 CHAPTERS Told by Hojo Masako herself

01
Dankazura (Ni-no-torii, Second Gate)
1182 — A path a husband gave his wife
🎧 ~1 min
02
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine
1180 — The Birth of Two Founders’ City
🎧 ~1.5 min
03
Okura Bakufu Site (Stone Monument)
1180–1225 — Where a married couple made their home
🎧 ~1 min
04
Minamoto no Yoritomo’s Tomb (Hokkedo Site)
1199 — To the husband who passed first
🎧 ~1.5 min
05
Jufuku-ji Temple
1200 — A widow’s prayer
🎧 ~1 min

PEOPLE

Hojo Masako

Minamoto no Yoritomo

Shizuka Gozen

Minamoto no Sanetomo

Eisai

NARRATION ・ How chapter one begins

01 ・ ~1 min

Hojo Masakoin her own voice

Do you feel this raised path beneath your feet? It rises just a little above the road.

The year is 1182, early in the Kamakura period, when my husband, the warrior Yoritomo, built a straight road from the sea to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, our great shrine.

They say he made it praying for me, for a safe birth of our child. Can you imagine? A road, given as a wish for his wife.

The rest is told on the spot.

Before / After

The way you see a place changes.

Tokyo — Otemon Gate

Just a street.

1868 — An empty castle, handed over

“So that’s what happened here.”

The year Edo Castle passed to the new government, there was no shogun left inside this gate.

Tokugawa YoshinobuPrincess KazuTenshoin

What you can do

Not features. What happens.

Location

Stand there, and it opens.

Once opened, listen again anywhere.

Characters

In their own voice.

Hojo Masako. Oda Nobunaga. Told in the first person.

Audio

Listen, don’t read.

You don’t need to look at the screen.

Map

A map and a route.

Any order. Start from any chapter.

Sights

What is this, in front of me?

A tree, a stone, a monument — even without reading the sign.

Deep dive

Ask the narrator.

Answers stay within the facts and official sources.

Non-fiction

We make history interesting
without changing history.

Not fiction.
It actually happened — that’s what makes it interesting.
Where the narrator imagines, she says so.

Non-fiction

Non-fiction, based on official sources such as temples, shrines and local governments.

Stories

Stories you can walk now.

三輪山、建物のない祈り

徒歩約6.5km · 遠征

Hiratsuka: Five Eras

5km walk · Shonan

金沢、禁じられた金箔

徒歩約3km · 遠征

道後、三階の新築

徒歩約0.9km · 遠征

江戸城、建て直さなかった城

徒歩約2.1km · 遠征

別府、地獄とくらす

徒歩約1.0km · 遠征

Start walking

Wherever you are standing,
there’s a story you don’t know yet.

iPhone app — coming soon

For iPhone. The first chapter is free.
To hear when it opens: support@storywalk.jp

For cities & venues

For cities and venues

We edit one story for your area, so visitors hear it standing on the spot — a way to spread footfall across a town.
support@storywalk.jp

There's a story hereyou don't know yet.