Minamoto no Yoshitsune

During the Edo period, a rumor spread that he had crossed the sea from Hokkaido to Mongolia and become an emperor there, and later scholars studied the claim. However, the modern consensus is that it remains in the realm of legend. Still, thinking that maybe—just maybe—makes it a little fun, doesn’t it?

Pantheon Temple

Because it is made from a building material similar to, yet distinct from, modern concrete known as “Roman concrete,” it has remained intact for a long time and has been beloved by the citizens of Rome. It is a temple called the Pantheon, which enshrines many gods.

Renaissance

The Renaissance era, when artists like Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael rose to fame, influenced not only painting but also the development of music, architecture, and philosophy. Exploring world history through the lens of art history offers a different and fascinating perspective.

Coffee

The event known as the Boston Tea Party, in which a large quantity of tea was dumped into the sea due to the high taxes Britain imposed on tea at the time. This incident triggered the full-scale start of the American Revolutionary War. In other words, opposition to Britain led to the spread of the idea, “Let’s drink coffee instead of tea,” and coffee culture took root.

Mesopotamian civilization

This is the Mesopotamian civilization that developed in the regions around present-day Iraq, along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. It is one of the “Four Great Civilizations of the World.” Actual coins from that time have not been discovered; rather, the use of coins was recorded on inscriptions unearthed during excavations.

Napoleon Bonaparte

I’m Napoleon Bonaparte, famous for the phrase “In my dictionary, there is no such word as ‘impossible.’” To solve the army’s food problems—such as “becoming malnourished” and “spoiling quickly and becoming inedible”—Napoleon solicited solutions from the public. The idea of “bottling” from confectioner Nicolas Appert was adopted, and through further trial and error, this eventually led to the invention of the “can.”

Guan Yu

I am Guan Yu, a military general of Shu who served under Liu Bei. While I’m often said to be the “inventor of the abacus,” evidence has been found that it was used elsewhere before the Three Kingdoms period, so the prevailing view is that I wasn’t its true originator. However, because of such tales that “Guan Yu excelled at arithmetic,” I has long been revered in China as a god of commerce.