Monday, July 27, 2015

(859) The way of the sword


A sign for a used car business; besides the necessary information, a small history lesson about how the flow of traffic on the left in Japan comes from the days of the samurai. The samurai used to wear their swords on the left so they wanted to have any potential opponents on their right -furthermore a clash of the scabbards could be taken as a challenge to a duel. (In fact, there is a secondary, more modern reason having to do with the involvement of the British in the creation of Japan's first railroad system during the Meiji period.)

(For a bigger version of this picture both in color and black and white, check my "Japan Arekore" set on Flickr)

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