Samurai rose to be global emblems of honour and courage, but their story doesn’t always match the myths they told about themselves, as a British Museum exhibition shows

Discover Kobe city’s famous Wagyu beef, visit one of Japan’s few ‘original’ castles and meet the small-town brewers and potters that make this region so special

The Nagato area flies under the radar of everyone but Japanese travellers, who have long seen the appeal of its onsen towns, craggy isles and fishing heritage

Explore a little-visited region where Shinto gods congregate and masked dancers tell ancient legends

Exhibition of the week Samurai British Museum, London ...

From George Stubbs’s golden vision of the labourer’s place in society to Ford Madox Brown’s heroically monumental celebration of manual labour, artists gave individual interpretations of work, as Michael Hall reveals