The article is devoted to the analysis of illustrative reference material in popular publications on the history of Japan. Only Japanese publications with a historical or cultural context were considered, where the text was supplemented with diagrams, drawings and photographs of objects and events from different periods of Japanese cultural history. The images in such publications represent changes in everyday life; illuminate the appearance and evolution of various cultural objects over the centuries. Usually such images include pointers and footnotes (for example, for helmet elements, armor, horse equipment, explanations of the types of clay figurines of the Tumulus period, etc.). The depictions provide an adequate perception of the presented artifacts, allowing easier understanding for many tiny details in the traditional objects that remained from the time passed, i.e. details that often hardly perceived by the contemporary Japanese. Such publications are quite popular in modern Japan because of the habit of Japanese people to travel a lot around their country. The article offers a brief overview of fascinating illustrated publications on the history of Japan, presented by a number of Japanese publishers for modern readers. In addition to the Japanese reader, such publications can be of great benefit to a wide range of Western readers interested in Japan and to some extent proficient in Japanese (i.e. students,
researchers, etc.).