Lineage & Ancestors

The stories in surnames, family trees and ancestral rites: ways to trace your bond with those who came before.

Oct 16, 2026Lineage & Ancestors

Love Is the Single Step Where You Turn and Look Back

We tend to think of love as the force that pushes us forward. Yet after conducting a shinzenshiki, a Shinto wedding rite, I felt the opposite: love appears at the moment we stop walking. This article reads the Japanese words ji and ai to ask why the thread of a family does not break.

Love Is the Single Step Where You Turn and Look Back

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