‘I’m the Great Wart, ahahaa!’, the frog king proclaims before the final battle in Super Mario All-Star (スーパーマリオコレクション) unfolds. In this pop-cultural article, I’m going to talk about Nintendo’s forgotten prince of darkness, speculate about his origin as well as some froggy customs from Japan. Will this mischievous warden remain only in our dreams or will Wart eventually make a return out of the state of decade-long slumber?
As darkness to set over the land and evil to take hold in mortals, one fearless man to return from depths of oblivion to safe us all…
After my first stint into Japanese history with the article about the Shimabara Rebellion, this article I like to devote to Hasegawa Nobutame (長谷川宣以・はせがわのぶため; 1745-1795), a historic figure of the same era, the Edo Period (江戸・えど; 1603-1868). The name Hasegawa Nobutame might not ring many bells because in Japan he is more commonly known by the name of Hasegawa Heizou (長谷川平蔵・はせがわへいぞう), or his alias Onihei (鬼平・おにへい).
