An Illustrated Japan MCP Server

An Illustrated Japan draws 1,880 scenes from all 47 prefectures: famous views, townscapes and scenery, culture and tradition, and everyday life. This server lets an AI assistant — Muse Connect, or any other client that speaks the Model Context Protocol — search them. Ask for “hot springs in the snow” or “京都のお寺”, and it answers with the five closest illustrations, each with a short description, an image and a link to its page.

Endpoint

https://www.mizuky.com/explore-japan/mcp

Access

The server is open: everything it returns is already public in the illustrated guide, so there is nothing to sign up for.

Connect

In Muse Connect or any MCP client, add a remote server using the Streamable HTTP transport, with the endpoint above as its URL and no authentication.

Clients configured with JSON

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "explore-japan": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://www.mizuky.com/explore-japan/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http explore-japan https://www.mizuky.com/explore-japan/mcp

Tool: search_japan

Find the 5 illustrations in "An Illustrated Japan" that best match a request about Japanese views, culture or daily life -- e.g. "hot springs in the snow", "summer festivals with fireworks", "ramen", "temples in Kyoto". Short keywords work best. The query may be in English, Japanese, Simplified or Traditional Chinese; English matches most reliably. Narrow with `theme` (use "life" for food) or `prefecture` when the user names one. Each result has a title, prefecture, description, page URL and illustration URL.

Arguments

Result

Up to 5 results, best first, in structuredContent.results — and the same JSON as text in content, for clients that read only that. A query that matches nothing returns an empty list.

Example

A search for “cherry blossoms”, sent with curl:

curl https://www.mizuky.com/explore-japan/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"search_japan","arguments":{"query":"cherry blossoms"}}}'

The response, showing 2 of its 5 results:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "result": {
    "content": [
      {
        "type": "text",
        "text": "…the same JSON as structuredContent…"
      }
    ],
    "structuredContent": {
      "query": "cherry blossoms",
      "results": [
        {
          "rank": 1,
          "title": "Cherry Blossoms at Hirosaki Castle",
          "description": "Renowned as one of Japan’s premier cherry blossom spots, Hirosaki Castle Park draws many international visitors each spring to view its spectacular sakura.",
          "prefecture": "Aomori",
          "region": "Tohoku",
          "theme": "culture",
          "theme_name": "Culture & Tradition",
          "page_url": "https://www.mizuky.com/explore-japan/japan/aomori/culture/cherry-blossoms-at-hirosaki-castle",
          "image_url": "https://www.mizuky.com/explore-japan/japan/aomori/culture/cherry-blossoms-at-hirosaki-castle.webp",
          "thumbnail_url": "https://www.mizuky.com/explore-japan/japan/aomori/culture/cherry-blossoms-at-hirosaki-castle-thumb.webp",
          "score": 47.56
        },
        {
          "rank": 2,
          "title": "Meguro River Cherry Blossoms",
          "description": "In spring, rows of cherry trees along the river are illuminated by lanterns, creating a magical scene that draws visitors from around the world as a premier cherry‑blossom viewing spot.",
          "prefecture": "Tokyo",
          "region": "Kanto",
          "theme": "scenery",
          "theme_name": "Townscape & Scenery",
          "page_url": "https://www.mizuky.com/explore-japan/japan/tokyo/scenery/meguro-river-cherry-blossoms",
          "image_url": "https://www.mizuky.com/explore-japan/japan/tokyo/scenery/meguro-river-cherry-blossoms.webp",
          "thumbnail_url": "https://www.mizuky.com/explore-japan/japan/tokyo/scenery/meguro-river-cherry-blossoms-thumb.webp",
          "score": 47.56
        }
      ]
    },
    "isError": false
  }
}

A client normally sends initialize and tools/list first; both are answered as the protocol describes, and the server takes the same version the client asks for when it supports it.

Errors

Content

The illustrations and text belong to An Illustrated Japan by Mizuky Workshop; see the Terms of Service. Questions about the server go to explore.japan.game@gmail.com.