Kintaro Walks Japan
film
Kintaro Walks Japan is a documentary film produced and directed by Tyler MacNiven. It is an account of MacNiven's journey walking and backpacking the entire length of Japan from Kyūshū to Hokkaidō, more than 2000 miles in 145 days.
MacNiven cited three reasons for the journey. On his first trip to Japan in 2002, he fell in love with the country. It was on this trip that a friend nicknamed him "Kintaro," which means "Golden Boy," because of his blond hair. Occasionally accompanying him on the trip was his girlfriend, Ayumi, whose father, George Meegan, completed the longest unbroken walk in recorded history - a nearly 7-year sojourn from the southern tip of Argentina to the northern tip of Alaska. Inspired by their story, MacNiven conceived of the task after learning that his father, whose parents were foreign missionaries, was born in an unknown location in Hokkaidō. Armed with a desire to impress Ayumi and find his father's birthplace, as well as an interest in Japanese culture, MacNiven set sail to Japan.
With only a drawing of the birthplace to aid him, MacNiven walked the length of Japan with hope of finding his father's birthplace. Along the way, he befriended many Japanese people and learned much about their culture and himself.
“Kintaro Walks Japan” enters the record as film. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kintaro, Walks and Japan can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Kintaro Walks Japan” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kintaro, Walks and Japan provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6414338. The first chronological checks are 2000 and 2002.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
- Tracing reception history
- Finding collection records
The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kintaro Walks Japan”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kintaro Walks Japan primary sources, Kintaro Walks Japan archive and Kintaro research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kintaro Walks Japan”?
- Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
- How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Kintaro Walks Japan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.