Takuan Sōhō was born into a family of farmers in the town of Izushi, in Tajima Province (present-day Hyōgo Prefecture). At the age of 8 in 1581, Takuan began his religious studies; two years later he entered a Buddhist monastery of the Pure Land Sect. By the age of 14 in 1587, he started studying […]

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 1887 – 27 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier (French: [lə kɔʁbyzje]), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930. His career spanned five decades, and […]

Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri (Italian: [duˈrante deʎʎ aliˈɡjɛːri]; Latin: Dantes), commonly known by his pen name Dante Alighieri or simply as Dante (/ˈdɑːnteɪ, ˈdænteɪ, ˈdænti/,also US: /ˈdɑːnti/, Italian: [ˈdante]; c. 1265 – 1321), was an Italian poet during the Late Middle Ages. His Divine Comedy, originally called Comedìa (modern Italian: Commedia) and later christened Divina […]