Journal
ジャーナル
Essays, course portraits, and gear notes — published as the work is ready.
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Epon: A Tsubame Forge, Speaking Plainly
Endo Manufacturing forges some of the world's best iron heads under other brands' logos. Epon is the line where the Tsubame forge speaks under its own name.
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Miura Giken: Forged by Hand in Himeji
Katsuhiro Miura's Himeji forge has made, for decades, the iron heads that the best club designers send their best drawings to. A note on craft, restraint, and why Miura rarely markets.
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Srixon Z-Star Diamond: Tour-White, Spin Layered
Sumitomo's premium urethane ball — the one Japanese tour pros and a quiet international following actually play. A note on what the Diamond designation changes, inside the ball.
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Honma Beres Five-Star: The Expensive End of Japanese Craft
Honma's Beres line — and at its top the Five-Star grade — is what happens when a Japanese clubmaker refuses to build down to a price. A note on what the five stars actually pay for.
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Kawana Fuji: The Cliff, The Fuji, The Pause
Alison's Fuji course at Kawana, opened in 1936 on the Izu headland — cliff, Pacific, and Mt. Fuji on a clear morning. A warmer touch than Hirono, on a more dramatic site.
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Hirono: Alison's Breathing Routing
Charles H. Alison's 1932 Hirono, in the hills north of Kobe — a routing that reads Rokko's ridgelines as composition rather than constraint, and still plays the way he drew it.
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Kasumigaseki East: Between Two Wars
Opened in 1929 on the Kanto plain and reopened after the war, the East at Kasumigaseki is the course Japanese championship golf grew up on — and the one the 2020 Olympics finally returned to.
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The Stillness Between Strokes
A note on what Japanese play holds onto that other traditions have thinned out — the pause between one stroke and the next, and what it does to a round.
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On Playing in Mist
Fog alters the most basic perceptual ingredient of a round — distance. A note on what the Japanese player has learned to do when the ridge disappears.
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Notes on Cedar and Course
Cedar plantations shape not only the look of a Japanese course but its sound, its light, and the distance a ball can actually travel through them.
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Why Mountain Greens Speak Quietly
Japan's topography forced golf onto the slopes of volcanic ridges. The game that grew there is not a louder version of the British parkland — it is a quieter one.
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An Editorial Note
A short letter on what these pieces set out to do, what they deliberately leave out, and what is being prepared next.
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Welcome to the Journal
An editorial note on why Samurai Golf exists, how we cover Japan's courses and craftsmen, and what readers should expect in the months ahead.