1 00:00:09,060 --> 00:00:11,260 It was a bright August morning, 2 00:00:11,260 --> 00:00:14,660 and commuters were making their way to work in a provincial city 3 00:00:14,660 --> 00:00:18,420 in western Japan. It was shaping up to be a day like any other. 4 00:00:22,300 --> 00:00:24,620 But at exactly 08:15, 5 00:00:24,620 --> 00:00:27,940 an American bombardier above them pulled a lever. 6 00:00:44,580 --> 00:00:47,620 The commuters may have seen a flash of light, 7 00:00:47,620 --> 00:00:51,140 but within seconds, they and the city of Hiroshima 8 00:00:51,140 --> 00:00:54,700 were engulfed in the largest man-made explosion in history. 9 00:00:59,500 --> 00:01:02,420 70,000 people were killed instantly, 10 00:01:02,420 --> 00:01:04,540 and the city was all but annihilated. 11 00:01:07,420 --> 00:01:09,780 It was the beginning of the nuclear age. 12 00:01:12,980 --> 00:01:15,860 But the Japanese had seen disasters before. 13 00:01:17,300 --> 00:01:22,420 The history of Japanese cities is the history of their destruction. 14 00:01:22,420 --> 00:01:24,340 For centuries, indeed millennia, 15 00:01:24,340 --> 00:01:27,620 earthquakes, fires, floods, tsunamis and wars 16 00:01:27,620 --> 00:01:32,860 have decimated the country's towns and cities over and over again. 17 00:01:32,860 --> 00:01:37,180 But this relentless cycle has had a dramatic creative impact. 18 00:01:41,020 --> 00:01:42,620 It has forced the Japanese 19 00:01:42,620 --> 00:01:45,820 to constantly rebuild and reimagine their cities, 20 00:01:45,820 --> 00:01:47,300 and today, they are some of 21 00:01:47,300 --> 00:01:49,140 the most dynamic places in the world. 22 00:01:51,300 --> 00:01:54,140 To discover why, I'm going to explore the culture 23 00:01:54,140 --> 00:01:58,700 of three great Japanese cities in three decisive eras. 24 00:02:00,380 --> 00:02:04,740 Kyoto, the country's capital for over a thousand years. 25 00:02:04,740 --> 00:02:07,860 A city of elegance and splendour that gave birth 26 00:02:07,860 --> 00:02:10,500 to a golden age of painting and poetry 27 00:02:10,500 --> 00:02:12,900 and even turned tea into an art form. 28 00:02:14,220 --> 00:02:17,300 Holding this bowl is a kind of revelation. 29 00:02:21,020 --> 00:02:24,460 Edo, a teeming metropolis with a dark underbelly. 30 00:02:25,700 --> 00:02:28,900 A floating world of actors, artists, 31 00:02:28,900 --> 00:02:32,620 and sex workers that produced a bohemian, urban culture 32 00:02:32,620 --> 00:02:34,220 centuries before the West. 33 00:02:37,740 --> 00:02:42,700 And Tokyo, today the largest urban area on the planet, 34 00:02:42,700 --> 00:02:45,420 a conveyor belt of fashion, film, 35 00:02:45,420 --> 00:02:48,980 and contemporary art that now influences the entire world. 36 00:02:52,020 --> 00:02:55,300 These three cities produce some of Japan's finest 37 00:02:55,300 --> 00:02:59,260 and most distinctive art, but they did more than that. 38 00:02:59,260 --> 00:03:01,380 They also shaped the country's attitude 39 00:03:01,380 --> 00:03:03,300 towards its past and present, 40 00:03:03,300 --> 00:03:06,300 as well as to East and West, and in doing so, 41 00:03:06,300 --> 00:03:09,580 they helped mould the very idea of Japan itself. 42 00:03:26,340 --> 00:03:29,180 In the spring of 793 AD, 43 00:03:29,180 --> 00:03:33,540 a small group of men embarked on a journey through Honshu. 44 00:03:33,540 --> 00:03:35,980 They claimed they were on a hunting trip. 45 00:03:35,980 --> 00:03:38,300 But they weren't hunting animals, 46 00:03:38,300 --> 00:03:40,540 they were searching for a piece of land. 47 00:03:43,580 --> 00:03:46,340 The men were convinced that their hometown, 48 00:03:46,340 --> 00:03:48,980 which was called Nagaoka-kyo, was cursed. 49 00:03:48,980 --> 00:03:52,860 For the best part of a decade, it had been ravaged by floods, 50 00:03:52,860 --> 00:03:57,260 disease, famine, and even a series of mysterious murders. 51 00:03:57,260 --> 00:03:59,500 They knew they had to abandon it, 52 00:03:59,500 --> 00:04:02,220 but first, they had to find a site for a new city. 53 00:04:06,060 --> 00:04:09,900 They hadn't gone far before they alighted on something promising, 54 00:04:09,900 --> 00:04:11,860 a vast, fertile basin, 55 00:04:11,860 --> 00:04:15,340 surrounded on three sides by a fortress of mountains, 56 00:04:15,340 --> 00:04:18,380 and irrigated by not one, but two rivers. 57 00:04:21,500 --> 00:04:23,540 They had found their site. 58 00:04:23,540 --> 00:04:25,460 By the autumn of the following year, 59 00:04:25,460 --> 00:04:28,140 the Emperor had founded his capital here. 60 00:04:28,140 --> 00:04:33,100 He called it Heian-kyo, capital of peace and tranquillity, 61 00:04:33,100 --> 00:04:36,140 though it later became known as Kyoto. 62 00:04:40,020 --> 00:04:43,620 Kyoto has been built and rebuilt many times since then, 63 00:04:43,620 --> 00:04:47,060 but it remains a place of unparalleled riches. 64 00:04:47,060 --> 00:04:51,180 It is home to 1,600 temples, 400 shrines, 65 00:04:51,180 --> 00:04:54,580 and 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 66 00:04:54,580 --> 00:04:56,820 more than any other city in the world. 67 00:04:59,460 --> 00:05:03,460 The original city of Kyoto was a work of art in its own right. 68 00:05:03,460 --> 00:05:07,460 It was inspired by Chang'an, the great capital of China, 69 00:05:07,460 --> 00:05:10,020 and every part of it was carefully planned. 70 00:05:12,460 --> 00:05:15,420 The city was organised, almost like New York, 71 00:05:15,420 --> 00:05:18,180 according to a strict grid system. 72 00:05:18,180 --> 00:05:21,860 Now, these streets were splendid thoroughfares. 73 00:05:21,860 --> 00:05:27,020 Even the narrowest of them was 78 feet wide, and the widest of them, 74 00:05:27,020 --> 00:05:30,420 Suzaku Avenue, which ran right down through the middle of the city, 75 00:05:30,420 --> 00:05:33,180 that was almost 300 feet wide. 76 00:05:33,180 --> 00:05:37,460 It was probably the widest boulevard in the world at the time. 77 00:05:37,460 --> 00:05:41,660 And Suzaku Avenue terminated right here, in the north of Kyoto, 78 00:05:41,660 --> 00:05:43,500 at the city palace. 79 00:05:43,500 --> 00:05:46,500 Now, I've got to say, looking down over this scale model, 80 00:05:46,500 --> 00:05:50,060 I really think it looks like a wonderful place to live. 81 00:05:50,060 --> 00:05:54,940 Most of the houses are one storey high, so it's light, it's airy. 82 00:05:54,940 --> 00:05:58,500 There are gardens, there are lakes, there are rivers. 83 00:05:58,500 --> 00:06:03,100 It is a world away from the dark warrens of filth 84 00:06:03,100 --> 00:06:04,860 that made up most cities at the time. 85 00:06:07,060 --> 00:06:10,540 Kyoto was the blueprint for a utopia, 86 00:06:10,540 --> 00:06:12,820 a dream of a rational and beautiful society 87 00:06:12,820 --> 00:06:16,300 that the Emperor hoped would last forever. 88 00:06:16,300 --> 00:06:18,860 But it wasn't as perfect as it seemed. 89 00:06:18,860 --> 00:06:20,700 Over the following generations, 90 00:06:20,700 --> 00:06:24,660 the palace burned down no less than 14 times, 91 00:06:24,660 --> 00:06:27,900 and the whole western half of the city was repeatedly flooded. 92 00:06:30,540 --> 00:06:33,540 But this didn't prevent the fortunate members of the court 93 00:06:33,540 --> 00:06:35,660 from enjoying the finer things in life... 94 00:06:36,980 --> 00:06:39,380 ..most of them borrowed from the Chinese. 95 00:06:44,420 --> 00:06:49,340 They ruminated on cherry blossoms and staged moon-watching ceremonies. 96 00:06:49,340 --> 00:06:51,180 They even collected crickets 97 00:06:51,180 --> 00:06:53,420 and made music to accompany their chirps. 98 00:06:54,860 --> 00:06:58,260 In Kyoto, style was emphatically substance. 99 00:07:00,180 --> 00:07:03,820 If any one idea governed the cultural values of the court, 100 00:07:03,820 --> 00:07:06,260 it was the word miyabi. 101 00:07:06,260 --> 00:07:09,220 Now, miyabi doesn't have a direct English translation, 102 00:07:09,220 --> 00:07:13,340 but it meant a kind of refinement or aesthetic sensibility - 103 00:07:13,340 --> 00:07:16,780 the ability to recognise and appreciate beauty 104 00:07:16,780 --> 00:07:18,180 in all of its forms. 105 00:07:20,860 --> 00:07:25,100 The culture of Kyoto was advanced in another notable way. 106 00:07:25,100 --> 00:07:28,420 Many of its leading practitioners were women, 107 00:07:28,420 --> 00:07:31,420 and the greatest of them was Murasaki Shikibu. 108 00:07:34,460 --> 00:07:39,100 Born into a minor aristocratic family around 973 AD, 109 00:07:39,100 --> 00:07:43,420 Murasaki served as a lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Court. 110 00:07:43,420 --> 00:07:46,540 But in her spare time, she started writing something. 111 00:07:47,860 --> 00:07:51,940 Murasaki was writing a story of monumental proportions, 112 00:07:51,940 --> 00:07:55,220 indeed, twice as long as War And Peace. 113 00:07:55,220 --> 00:07:59,140 It spanned four generations and 75 years. 114 00:07:59,140 --> 00:08:05,260 It contained 430 different characters and 795 unique poems. 115 00:08:05,260 --> 00:08:07,300 And today, many consider it to be 116 00:08:07,300 --> 00:08:10,180 the first novel ever written anywhere in the world. 117 00:08:13,500 --> 00:08:16,940 It was called The Tale Of Genji. 118 00:08:16,940 --> 00:08:20,140 The story focuses on the life of a rakish young prince 119 00:08:20,140 --> 00:08:22,460 called Hikaru Genji. 120 00:08:22,460 --> 00:08:26,380 Intelligent, beautiful and possessed with impeccable taste, 121 00:08:26,380 --> 00:08:29,020 Genji is the paragon of miyabi. 122 00:08:30,660 --> 00:08:33,420 And though he spends much of his youth womanizing, 123 00:08:33,420 --> 00:08:36,500 he becomes one of the court's most powerful men. 124 00:08:36,500 --> 00:08:39,020 He builds a grand palace in the city 125 00:08:39,020 --> 00:08:40,780 and fills it with the women he loves. 126 00:08:43,020 --> 00:08:45,860 But then things start to go wrong. 127 00:08:45,860 --> 00:08:50,020 Genji marries a woman who then bears another man's child. 128 00:08:50,020 --> 00:08:53,260 His relationships with his other lovers deteriorate, 129 00:08:53,260 --> 00:08:57,860 and when his greatest love dies, Genji loses the will to live. 130 00:08:57,860 --> 00:09:01,220 It is not long before his life also comes to an end. 131 00:09:04,420 --> 00:09:07,460 "The whole world mourned Genji. 132 00:09:07,460 --> 00:09:09,940 "It was as if a light had gone out. 133 00:09:09,940 --> 00:09:12,540 "For his ladies, for his grandchildren, 134 00:09:12,540 --> 00:09:15,700 "for others who had been close to him, the sadness was, of course, 135 00:09:15,700 --> 00:09:18,140 "more immediate and intense. 136 00:09:18,140 --> 00:09:20,060 "'It is true,' they all thought, 137 00:09:20,060 --> 00:09:22,260 "'The cherry blossoms of spring are loved 138 00:09:22,260 --> 00:09:24,020 "'because they bloom so briefly.'" 139 00:09:26,900 --> 00:09:29,460 Genji's life was indeed cut short, 140 00:09:29,460 --> 00:09:31,780 but Murasaki's remarkable novel lived on. 141 00:09:35,420 --> 00:09:37,700 Many illustrations of The Tale Of Genji 142 00:09:37,700 --> 00:09:39,740 were made in painted hand scrolls. 143 00:09:41,020 --> 00:09:43,860 Here in the Tokugawa Museum in Nagoya, 144 00:09:43,860 --> 00:09:46,700 are the oldest examples from the 12th century. 145 00:09:50,380 --> 00:09:52,180 Only fragments survive, 146 00:09:52,180 --> 00:09:54,860 but they are some of the country's greatest treasures. 147 00:09:56,500 --> 00:09:58,860 They are almost a millennium old. 148 00:09:58,860 --> 00:10:01,460 The complex patterns of colour and shape 149 00:10:01,460 --> 00:10:04,300 still convey powerful emotional stories. 150 00:10:06,540 --> 00:10:09,060 And I've come to look at one of the most affecting. 151 00:10:10,740 --> 00:10:15,620 This painting captures a turning point in Genji's life. 152 00:10:15,620 --> 00:10:19,460 While he was away, his wife had an affair with his nephew. 153 00:10:19,460 --> 00:10:23,580 She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy called Kaoru. 154 00:10:23,580 --> 00:10:25,940 Now Genji didn't want to admit to being cuckolded, 155 00:10:25,940 --> 00:10:30,420 so he had to except Kaoru as his heir even though he knew he wasn't. 156 00:10:30,420 --> 00:10:35,860 And here, we can see Genji holding the baby boy in his arms, 157 00:10:35,860 --> 00:10:39,900 and though this image is small and old and tatty, 158 00:10:39,900 --> 00:10:42,380 you can still see the complex, 159 00:10:42,380 --> 00:10:46,580 powerful emotions racing across Genji's face. 160 00:10:46,580 --> 00:10:51,340 It's taut with resentment and humiliation and yet, 161 00:10:51,340 --> 00:10:55,780 as Genji looks down on that beautiful, innocent boy, 162 00:10:55,780 --> 00:10:59,380 we can see him beginning to soften. 163 00:10:59,380 --> 00:11:03,020 His eyebrows are lifting and his little pink lips 164 00:11:03,020 --> 00:11:04,900 are curling into a smile. 165 00:11:06,500 --> 00:11:10,420 The composition has been used to emphasise and dramatise 166 00:11:10,420 --> 00:11:13,620 Genji's own torn state of mind. 167 00:11:13,620 --> 00:11:16,940 So these powerful diagonals race across the surface of the picture 168 00:11:16,940 --> 00:11:20,060 and imprison Genji right into the corner. 169 00:11:20,060 --> 00:11:23,700 The fabrics tumble into this chaotic mess of lines, 170 00:11:23,700 --> 00:11:25,820 and, perhaps most powerfully of all, 171 00:11:25,820 --> 00:11:29,380 the relationship between Genji here and his wife, 172 00:11:29,380 --> 00:11:35,140 who has become a nun following her indiscretion, speaks volumes. 173 00:11:35,140 --> 00:11:39,340 They are together, but they are, of course, completely apart. 174 00:11:43,300 --> 00:11:45,580 This masterpiece of Japanese art 175 00:11:45,580 --> 00:11:48,340 reminds me that, though times may change, 176 00:11:48,340 --> 00:11:49,700 human emotions don't. 177 00:11:57,660 --> 00:12:00,740 The people of Kyoto had mastered the art of painting... 178 00:12:01,900 --> 00:12:04,540 ..but aesthetics pervaded everything they did. 179 00:12:04,540 --> 00:12:09,300 Poetry, calligraphy, garden design and over the centuries, 180 00:12:09,300 --> 00:12:10,980 it even extended to tea. 181 00:12:12,620 --> 00:12:16,220 The Japanese had been enjoying tea since the ninth century, 182 00:12:16,220 --> 00:12:18,100 when it was introduced from China. 183 00:12:18,100 --> 00:12:20,260 But in the late 16th century, 184 00:12:20,260 --> 00:12:22,700 it began to take on a special significance. 185 00:12:26,580 --> 00:12:28,980 At the Buddhist temple of Daitoku-ji 186 00:12:28,980 --> 00:12:30,820 is a teahouse made in honour 187 00:12:30,820 --> 00:12:35,500 of the great Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu. 188 00:12:35,500 --> 00:12:37,900 Here, in a small, simple room, 189 00:12:37,900 --> 00:12:41,580 Rikyu and his companions turned tea drinking into an art form. 190 00:12:43,940 --> 00:12:47,820 Sen no Rikyu believed that tea was much more than a drink, 191 00:12:47,820 --> 00:12:49,660 it was a revelation. 192 00:12:49,660 --> 00:12:51,180 When drunk in the right way, 193 00:12:51,180 --> 00:12:54,820 tea helped people rise to a different plane of consciousness. 194 00:12:54,820 --> 00:12:58,060 "When you hear the water splash into the tea bowl," he once said, 195 00:12:58,060 --> 00:13:01,420 "you will feel the dust in your mind is washed away." 196 00:13:04,860 --> 00:13:07,900 Sen no Rikyu's ideas gradually crystallised 197 00:13:07,900 --> 00:13:10,940 into what we know as the Japanese tea ceremony. 198 00:13:16,020 --> 00:13:18,420 TRANSLATION: 199 00:14:24,180 --> 00:14:26,700 Sen no Rikyu wanted the tea ceremony 200 00:14:26,700 --> 00:14:29,900 to express an appreciation of modesty, 201 00:14:29,900 --> 00:14:32,660 imperfection and impermanence, 202 00:14:32,660 --> 00:14:35,540 and this even extended to his utensils. 203 00:14:35,540 --> 00:14:38,380 He thought traditional ceramics were too elaborate, 204 00:14:38,380 --> 00:14:40,940 so he set about finding an alternative. 205 00:14:40,940 --> 00:14:43,260 He asked a craftsman called Chojiro 206 00:14:43,260 --> 00:14:47,060 to fashion a simple, undecorated tea bowl. 207 00:14:47,060 --> 00:14:50,020 This was the beginning of raku pottery, 208 00:14:50,020 --> 00:14:52,980 and Chojiro's descendants are still making it today. 209 00:14:57,100 --> 00:15:02,540 Raku Kichizaemon XV is the 15th generation of potters in his family. 210 00:15:02,540 --> 00:15:06,780 He continues a tradition that was started 450 years ago, 211 00:15:06,780 --> 00:15:08,460 and he is, in my view, 212 00:15:08,460 --> 00:15:10,700 one of Japan's greatest living artists. 213 00:15:12,260 --> 00:15:14,300 So, where are we here? 214 00:15:14,300 --> 00:15:18,140 Here's many, many old clay. 215 00:15:20,300 --> 00:15:24,940 Now, I use the clay, this clay, 216 00:15:24,940 --> 00:15:28,380 my grand-grandfathers rub 217 00:15:28,380 --> 00:15:32,380 about 100 years ago. 218 00:15:32,380 --> 00:15:36,620 Wow. And are you collecting clay for your descendants? 219 00:15:36,620 --> 00:15:38,260 Yes. Yes. Yes. 220 00:15:41,340 --> 00:15:44,780 TRANSLATION: 221 00:17:11,980 --> 00:17:15,260 This is a seminal tea bowl. 222 00:17:15,260 --> 00:17:18,460 It was made by Chojiro, the founder of raku pottery. 223 00:17:18,460 --> 00:17:20,700 It's more than 400 years old. 224 00:17:20,700 --> 00:17:23,260 It might even have been used by Sen no Rikyu 225 00:17:23,260 --> 00:17:25,260 in the late 16th century. 226 00:17:25,260 --> 00:17:27,580 Now, at first, it doesn't look like much. 227 00:17:27,580 --> 00:17:29,620 It's small and misshapen, 228 00:17:29,620 --> 00:17:33,100 the walls aren't straight, the lips are wobbly, 229 00:17:33,100 --> 00:17:36,740 and it's covered in a simple, plain black glaze. 230 00:17:37,940 --> 00:17:41,300 But to really appreciate it, you need to pick it up... 231 00:17:43,020 --> 00:17:46,820 ..because holding this bowl is a kind of revelation. 232 00:17:46,820 --> 00:17:53,020 The weighting, the texture, the temperature are all just perfect. 233 00:17:53,020 --> 00:17:55,300 And as I hold it, I can feel this groove 234 00:17:55,300 --> 00:17:57,300 running along the middle of it 235 00:17:57,300 --> 00:17:59,900 that fits the hands perfectly. 236 00:17:59,900 --> 00:18:01,700 It feels almost as though 237 00:18:01,700 --> 00:18:05,820 you're feeling Chojiro's fingers 400 years later. 238 00:18:05,820 --> 00:18:11,100 This is an artwork to be held, to be touched, to be felt. 239 00:18:11,100 --> 00:18:13,220 This is an artwork to be used. 240 00:18:14,340 --> 00:18:17,500 This tea bowl is the epitome of wabi-sabi, 241 00:18:17,500 --> 00:18:21,460 that Japanese reverence for the imperfect, the unfinished, 242 00:18:21,460 --> 00:18:24,300 the worn-out, because to appreciate those things 243 00:18:24,300 --> 00:18:26,340 isn't only to be humble, 244 00:18:26,340 --> 00:18:29,340 it's to understand that we, too, are imperfect. 245 00:18:29,340 --> 00:18:33,060 We, too, are as flawed as this tea bowl. 246 00:18:33,060 --> 00:18:36,460 So this object isn't simply a bowl, it's a lesson. 247 00:18:36,460 --> 00:18:40,380 A lesson to all of us to appreciate the simpler things in life. 248 00:18:48,580 --> 00:18:51,140 In the 800 years since its founding, 249 00:18:51,140 --> 00:18:55,540 Kyoto had done much to establish a classical Japanese culture, 250 00:18:55,540 --> 00:18:57,980 although much of it had been Chinese in flavour. 251 00:18:59,780 --> 00:19:03,100 Kyoto would continue to flourish after 1600, 252 00:19:03,100 --> 00:19:07,100 but a new regime was coming, and it would create a new great city. 253 00:19:17,900 --> 00:19:21,660 Japan was embroiled in civil war for the entire 16th century... 254 00:19:22,820 --> 00:19:24,620 ..until, in 1600, 255 00:19:24,620 --> 00:19:28,220 a warrior called Tokugawa Ieyasu took control of the country. 256 00:19:31,260 --> 00:19:33,180 He was given the title shogun 257 00:19:33,180 --> 00:19:35,780 and established the Tokugawa Shogunate 258 00:19:35,780 --> 00:19:39,060 which ruled the country for more than 260 years. 259 00:19:46,260 --> 00:19:49,260 Rejecting Kyoto, Ieyasu moved his capital 260 00:19:49,260 --> 00:19:51,580 to a down-at-heel fishing village 261 00:19:51,580 --> 00:19:54,460 300 miles north called Edo. 262 00:19:55,860 --> 00:19:58,100 It would not remain a fishing village for long. 263 00:20:09,900 --> 00:20:13,860 Like most Japanese cities, Edo was prone to destruction. 264 00:20:13,860 --> 00:20:15,980 In fact, over the next few centuries, 265 00:20:15,980 --> 00:20:20,660 it was torn apart by fire pretty much every 20 to 30 years, 266 00:20:20,660 --> 00:20:24,420 but those fires did nothing to suppress Edo's growth. 267 00:20:24,420 --> 00:20:27,900 By the early 1700s, more than a million people lived there, 268 00:20:27,900 --> 00:20:30,140 twice as many as in London. 269 00:20:30,140 --> 00:20:33,180 It had become one of the largest cities - perhaps THE largest city - 270 00:20:33,180 --> 00:20:34,540 in the world. 271 00:20:38,140 --> 00:20:41,180 The Tokugawa closed the country's borders 272 00:20:41,180 --> 00:20:43,100 to all but a few Dutch traders 273 00:20:43,100 --> 00:20:45,700 and enforced a rigid social hierarchy. 274 00:20:47,460 --> 00:20:51,940 The rulers of Edo preached a gospel of discipline and austerity, 275 00:20:51,940 --> 00:20:54,100 but not everyone was listening. 276 00:20:54,100 --> 00:20:57,900 Over time, the townsfolk started to make their own culture, 277 00:20:57,900 --> 00:21:01,940 a popular culture, a counterculture of astonishing vitality. 278 00:21:10,420 --> 00:21:13,060 Their Edo was populated by actors, 279 00:21:13,060 --> 00:21:16,500 dancers, sumo wrestlers, puppet shows, 280 00:21:16,500 --> 00:21:18,260 gangsters and courtesans. 281 00:21:20,580 --> 00:21:23,580 It was a long way from the refined culture of the court. 282 00:21:29,980 --> 00:21:31,940 Japan had seen nothing like it before. 283 00:21:36,780 --> 00:21:38,660 These decadent goings-on 284 00:21:38,660 --> 00:21:41,700 were centred around Edo's pleasure district, 285 00:21:41,700 --> 00:21:45,540 a walled community that was often referred to as ukiyo, 286 00:21:45,540 --> 00:21:48,380 which in English means floating world. 287 00:21:50,260 --> 00:21:53,300 But the floating world wasn't only a physical place, 288 00:21:53,300 --> 00:21:55,500 it was also a state of mind. 289 00:21:58,340 --> 00:22:00,220 "Living only for the moment, 290 00:22:00,220 --> 00:22:03,860 "turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, 291 00:22:03,860 --> 00:22:05,980 "the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves, 292 00:22:05,980 --> 00:22:08,500 "singing songs, drinking wine, 293 00:22:08,500 --> 00:22:12,020 "diverting ourselves and just floating, floating, 294 00:22:12,020 --> 00:22:15,260 "caring not a whit for the pauperism staring us in the face, 295 00:22:15,260 --> 00:22:17,180 "refusing to be disheartened, 296 00:22:17,180 --> 00:22:20,340 "like a gourd floating along with the river current - 297 00:22:20,340 --> 00:22:22,900 "this is what we call the floating world." 298 00:22:24,380 --> 00:22:27,220 We tend to talk a lot about 19th-century Paris 299 00:22:27,220 --> 00:22:31,700 being the epitome of a modern, urban, decadent culture, 300 00:22:31,700 --> 00:22:35,740 but Edo was doing exactly the same thing 200 years earlier. 301 00:22:41,940 --> 00:22:44,900 And Edo's floating world produced art forms 302 00:22:44,900 --> 00:22:46,540 that were distinctly Japanese. 303 00:22:47,820 --> 00:22:49,340 One of them was kabuki. 304 00:22:52,540 --> 00:22:57,740 Legend has it that kabuki was invented in Kyoto in 1603, 305 00:22:57,740 --> 00:23:00,580 the same year as the shogunate itself. 306 00:23:00,580 --> 00:23:03,140 It's said that it started when a group of women 307 00:23:03,140 --> 00:23:06,380 staged an explicit song and dance routine 308 00:23:06,380 --> 00:23:09,980 for a group of staggered men, and, unsurprisingly, 309 00:23:09,980 --> 00:23:11,220 it proved popular. 310 00:23:18,220 --> 00:23:21,700 Kabuki developed into a striking form of theatre, 311 00:23:21,700 --> 00:23:24,940 with highly stylised movement and extravagant costumes. 312 00:23:26,140 --> 00:23:28,900 The best actors became major city celebrities. 313 00:23:34,140 --> 00:23:37,420 Kabuki theatres could be raucous places. 314 00:23:37,420 --> 00:23:40,740 The audiences hissed and booed, they leapt onstage, 315 00:23:40,740 --> 00:23:43,620 they started scuffles and riots in the stands. 316 00:23:43,620 --> 00:23:45,140 In rooms like this, 317 00:23:45,140 --> 00:23:47,860 the strict social order of the shogunate 318 00:23:47,860 --> 00:23:51,100 could be temporarily and deliriously abandoned. 319 00:23:52,540 --> 00:23:56,620 The government tried to regulate this exuberant new art form, 320 00:23:56,620 --> 00:24:01,300 but it proved popular even with the samurai, and it's still going today. 321 00:24:06,140 --> 00:24:09,340 Ichikawa Ebizo is the 11th generation 322 00:24:09,340 --> 00:24:12,140 in a single dynasty of kabuki performers 323 00:24:12,140 --> 00:24:16,340 that goes back more than 300 years to the Edo period. 324 00:24:16,340 --> 00:24:19,180 He is also one of the most famous men in Japan. 325 00:24:23,220 --> 00:24:25,820 TRANSLATION: 326 00:25:05,540 --> 00:25:08,820 MUSIC PLAYS 327 00:25:23,940 --> 00:25:28,540 Kabuki was first performed by an all-female cast, but the shogunate, 328 00:25:28,540 --> 00:25:31,060 who disliked its licentious reputation, 329 00:25:31,060 --> 00:25:33,020 banned women from the stage. 330 00:25:33,020 --> 00:25:36,100 They were soon replaced by men in both male and female roles. 331 00:25:53,820 --> 00:25:59,340 Performances could last all day and attracted every social class. 332 00:25:59,340 --> 00:26:02,860 Young and old, rich and poor rubbed shoulders. 333 00:26:08,900 --> 00:26:12,020 TRANSLATION: 334 00:27:54,620 --> 00:27:57,700 Lots of what we know today about traditional kabuki 335 00:27:57,700 --> 00:28:00,540 comes from the remarkable images that immortalized it. 336 00:28:02,380 --> 00:28:06,860 Like kabuki, they were a crucial part of Edo's floating world, 337 00:28:06,860 --> 00:28:09,780 and are now synonymous with Japanese culture in general. 338 00:28:12,940 --> 00:28:15,660 Wood block printing had been practised in Japan 339 00:28:15,660 --> 00:28:16,900 for hundreds of years, 340 00:28:16,900 --> 00:28:18,300 but in the Edo period, 341 00:28:18,300 --> 00:28:20,860 it became possible to make full-colour prints 342 00:28:20,860 --> 00:28:21,900 for the first time. 343 00:28:23,900 --> 00:28:26,540 They became hugely successful. 344 00:28:26,540 --> 00:28:28,940 They were very common and usually very cheap... 345 00:28:30,140 --> 00:28:33,020 ..but they are now the best-known images in Japanese art. 346 00:28:41,580 --> 00:28:45,020 Kazuo Watanabe is a woodcut artist. 347 00:28:45,020 --> 00:28:47,700 He has been making prints for 50 years 348 00:28:47,700 --> 00:28:51,500 and uses the same methods pioneered in 17th-century Edo. 349 00:28:52,940 --> 00:28:58,780 How did you start as an Ukiyo-e print maker in the first place? 350 00:28:58,780 --> 00:29:01,540 TRANSLATION: 351 00:30:20,620 --> 00:30:23,940 Woodcuts were bought and sold around Edo in their thousands, 352 00:30:23,940 --> 00:30:26,460 and many focused on the floating world. 353 00:30:30,660 --> 00:30:33,420 The Japanese even called them Ukiyo-e, 354 00:30:33,420 --> 00:30:35,420 pictures of the floating world. 355 00:30:39,060 --> 00:30:43,100 And no artist captured it better than Kitagawa Utamaro. 356 00:30:47,460 --> 00:30:51,140 Utamaro is one of the great enigmas in art. 357 00:30:51,140 --> 00:30:52,980 His pictures may be world famous, 358 00:30:52,980 --> 00:30:56,300 but we know virtually nothing about the man who made them. 359 00:30:56,300 --> 00:30:59,900 We don't know when he was born, we know nothing about his background. 360 00:30:59,900 --> 00:31:02,340 He's mentioned in no official records. 361 00:31:02,340 --> 00:31:06,500 He left behind no letters, no diaries, no personal documents. 362 00:31:06,500 --> 00:31:10,660 Like the floating world, Utamaro thrived in the half light. 363 00:31:13,980 --> 00:31:16,140 One thing, however, seems likely - 364 00:31:16,140 --> 00:31:20,260 Utamaro spent plenty of time in Edo's red light district. 365 00:31:21,620 --> 00:31:25,740 A third of all of his pictures are of the city's sex workers. 366 00:31:32,460 --> 00:31:35,380 Utamaro's fascination with the women of Edo 367 00:31:35,380 --> 00:31:38,940 is evident in a book he published in 1788, 368 00:31:38,940 --> 00:31:40,860 called The Poem Of The Pillow. 369 00:31:42,060 --> 00:31:45,860 It consisted of 12 salacious images. 370 00:31:45,860 --> 00:31:47,860 This is a rare, early copy 371 00:31:47,860 --> 00:31:50,940 containing the original Utamaro prints, 372 00:31:50,940 --> 00:31:52,860 and I've come to see my favourite. 373 00:31:54,140 --> 00:31:57,180 This picture depicts a man and a woman 374 00:31:57,180 --> 00:32:01,220 kissing upstairs in a teahouse. 375 00:32:01,220 --> 00:32:02,940 We know it's upstairs 376 00:32:02,940 --> 00:32:05,660 because the leaves of a camellia tree are peeking out, 377 00:32:05,660 --> 00:32:08,900 almost eavesdropping, over the balcony. 378 00:32:08,900 --> 00:32:14,060 There's some suggestion that the characters are already having sex. 379 00:32:14,060 --> 00:32:16,780 On the fan, there's a poem that reads, 380 00:32:16,780 --> 00:32:20,020 "Its beak caught firmly in the clam shell, 381 00:32:20,020 --> 00:32:23,980 "the snipe cannot escape of an autumn evening." 382 00:32:23,980 --> 00:32:26,580 Fortunately, perhaps unfortunately, 383 00:32:26,580 --> 00:32:29,900 we can neither see the beak nor the clam shell. 384 00:32:29,900 --> 00:32:32,900 But you know what I find so seductive about this image 385 00:32:32,900 --> 00:32:34,620 is what ISN'T shown. 386 00:32:37,820 --> 00:32:41,460 We can't, for instance, see the faces of this couple. 387 00:32:41,460 --> 00:32:43,380 We have to imagine who they are. 388 00:32:45,340 --> 00:32:48,180 It's the details that are so irresistible. 389 00:32:49,780 --> 00:32:52,020 The curve of her buttocks. 390 00:32:52,020 --> 00:32:53,460 The nape of her neck, 391 00:32:53,460 --> 00:32:58,380 which at the time was considered more sexual even than the genitals. 392 00:32:58,380 --> 00:33:00,940 Her hair standing up on end. 393 00:33:00,940 --> 00:33:03,780 His left hand touching her shoulder. 394 00:33:03,780 --> 00:33:07,140 Her left hand touching his chin. 395 00:33:07,140 --> 00:33:09,020 Phew! 396 00:33:09,020 --> 00:33:11,060 But, I tell you, if you look closer, 397 00:33:11,060 --> 00:33:14,060 there is something truly remarkable in this picture. 398 00:33:14,060 --> 00:33:18,500 Right here, half hidden by her hair, is an eye, his eye, 399 00:33:18,500 --> 00:33:22,900 looking at her, or perhaps it's looking at us. 400 00:33:22,900 --> 00:33:25,340 Now, I have no evidence for this whatsoever, 401 00:33:25,340 --> 00:33:27,380 but I wonder, I just wonder, 402 00:33:27,380 --> 00:33:32,460 whether that is Utamaro himself, staring at us across the centuries. 403 00:33:36,420 --> 00:33:39,020 Utamaro was a master of understatement. 404 00:33:40,860 --> 00:33:43,140 But not all his images showed such restraint. 405 00:33:47,860 --> 00:33:51,020 Erotic images were popular with both men and women 406 00:33:51,020 --> 00:33:53,540 at every level of society in Japan. 407 00:33:53,540 --> 00:33:56,420 We might see them as vaguely pornographic today, 408 00:33:56,420 --> 00:33:59,620 but the term wouldn't have been understood in 18th-century Edo. 409 00:34:05,060 --> 00:34:07,380 They were called shunga, 410 00:34:07,380 --> 00:34:10,100 which literally meant spring pictures, 411 00:34:10,100 --> 00:34:13,060 and they celebrated intimacy and sexual pleasure 412 00:34:13,060 --> 00:34:16,060 in imaginative and often explicit detail. 413 00:34:20,780 --> 00:34:24,220 But the floating world was not the only subject of wood block printing. 414 00:34:27,540 --> 00:34:30,580 In the 1850s, Hiroshige made 100 views 415 00:34:30,580 --> 00:34:33,100 of the great city of Edo itself. 416 00:34:34,820 --> 00:34:38,420 They capture its shop fronts, its teeming streets... 417 00:34:41,940 --> 00:34:44,340 ..its waterways and its coast. 418 00:34:46,180 --> 00:34:48,380 The images themselves are breathtaking. 419 00:34:51,060 --> 00:34:54,460 The inventiveness, the dynamism, the wit 420 00:34:54,460 --> 00:34:56,980 and the irrepressible beauty. 421 00:35:01,220 --> 00:35:03,100 Hiroshige, Utamaro 422 00:35:03,100 --> 00:35:05,820 and the other printmakers of Edo had perfected 423 00:35:05,820 --> 00:35:08,860 a remarkable Japanese art form, 424 00:35:08,860 --> 00:35:13,340 but they'd also established the basis of a new visual grammar, 425 00:35:13,340 --> 00:35:16,140 bold, graphic, economical, 426 00:35:16,140 --> 00:35:19,900 and it wouldn't be long before their style caught on around the world. 427 00:35:24,500 --> 00:35:26,140 In the mid-19th century, 428 00:35:26,140 --> 00:35:28,460 Japanese trade routes began to open 429 00:35:28,460 --> 00:35:32,140 and their goods began to be sent across the seas. 430 00:35:32,140 --> 00:35:35,340 Kimonos, fans, writing paper, 431 00:35:35,340 --> 00:35:38,420 porcelain and pottery, lacquerware and, 432 00:35:38,420 --> 00:35:42,940 of course, countless ukiyo-e prints soon flooded the West, 433 00:35:42,940 --> 00:35:45,580 and the West was astonished. 434 00:35:49,460 --> 00:35:52,540 European artists were impressed by ukiyo-e prints. 435 00:35:54,060 --> 00:35:56,380 They turned up in Manet's backgrounds... 436 00:35:58,740 --> 00:36:00,300 ..and Monet's foregrounds. 437 00:36:02,260 --> 00:36:05,260 Vincent van Gogh was so inspired by Hiroshige 438 00:36:05,260 --> 00:36:07,780 that he copied this image of Edo, 439 00:36:07,780 --> 00:36:11,380 and so Japanese innovations helped shape modern art as we know it. 440 00:36:15,420 --> 00:36:19,460 The people of Edo had achieved something really rather significant. 441 00:36:19,460 --> 00:36:22,740 They had invented a culture that, for the first time, 442 00:36:22,740 --> 00:36:25,540 seemed distinctly Japanese, 443 00:36:25,540 --> 00:36:28,580 and one that then went on to influence the rest of the world. 444 00:36:36,380 --> 00:36:40,820 But as Japan changed the West, so the West changed Japan. 445 00:36:43,580 --> 00:36:46,380 Previously isolated for hundreds of years, 446 00:36:46,380 --> 00:36:51,140 traditional Japanese society now seemed out of step with modern life. 447 00:36:51,140 --> 00:36:55,260 The rule of the samurai and their closed borders was coming to an end. 448 00:36:57,100 --> 00:36:58,820 From the 1860s, 449 00:36:58,820 --> 00:37:02,140 Japan would discard much of its centuries-old culture 450 00:37:02,140 --> 00:37:05,260 and aim instead to become a modern, industrial nation. 451 00:37:07,020 --> 00:37:11,140 As a statement of intent, the city of Edo would be rebranded. 452 00:37:30,700 --> 00:37:33,860 Japan's capital was both new and old. 453 00:37:33,860 --> 00:37:36,660 It was essentially still the city of Edo. 454 00:37:36,660 --> 00:37:40,300 Same site, same buildings, many of the same residents. 455 00:37:40,300 --> 00:37:45,420 But it was now reactivated with a new identity and a new name. 456 00:37:48,340 --> 00:37:54,260 From the 13th of September, 1868, we would know it as Tokyo. 457 00:37:54,260 --> 00:37:56,940 It was in Tokyo where these Western aspirations 458 00:37:56,940 --> 00:37:59,140 first took physical form, 459 00:37:59,140 --> 00:38:01,860 and most noticeably, in architecture. 460 00:38:08,500 --> 00:38:10,540 At the end of the 19th century, 461 00:38:10,540 --> 00:38:14,260 European-looking buildings began to appear on the city streets. 462 00:38:15,820 --> 00:38:19,060 The Ministry of Justice could have been transplanted from Paris. 463 00:38:22,180 --> 00:38:24,980 And the city's neo-Baroque train station 464 00:38:24,980 --> 00:38:27,220 seems to better belong in Amsterdam. 465 00:38:29,620 --> 00:38:33,500 But the most striking anomaly was the Crown Prince's residence, 466 00:38:33,500 --> 00:38:35,500 completed in 1909. 467 00:38:37,500 --> 00:38:39,700 This is Akasaka Palace. 468 00:38:39,700 --> 00:38:41,580 Its architect, Tokuma Katayama, 469 00:38:41,580 --> 00:38:43,980 spent a year travelling through Europe, 470 00:38:43,980 --> 00:38:47,740 studying the great royal residences of Germany, France and Britain. 471 00:38:47,740 --> 00:38:50,700 And with this building, I'm sure you'll agree, 472 00:38:50,700 --> 00:38:53,580 he's channelling the spirit of Buckingham Palace. 473 00:38:59,060 --> 00:39:03,340 It is, if such a thing is possible, even more regal inside. 474 00:39:05,940 --> 00:39:09,820 The grand staircase is made out of Carraran marble from Italy 475 00:39:09,820 --> 00:39:11,860 and Languedoc marble from France. 476 00:39:17,740 --> 00:39:23,140 And the vast state rooms upstairs are overflowing with decoration. 477 00:39:23,140 --> 00:39:25,540 There are paintings done in the European manner. 478 00:39:29,460 --> 00:39:31,020 And the chandeliers, 479 00:39:31,020 --> 00:39:35,260 which each contain 7,000 pieces and weigh almost a tonne, 480 00:39:35,260 --> 00:39:37,260 were specially shipped in from France. 481 00:39:39,500 --> 00:39:42,100 If I were taken into this building blindfolded, 482 00:39:42,100 --> 00:39:44,300 and not told where I was, 483 00:39:44,300 --> 00:39:48,940 I am pretty sure I would never guess that it was in Japan. 484 00:39:48,940 --> 00:39:50,540 Walking through this palace, 485 00:39:50,540 --> 00:39:53,460 if anything, it feels like I'm in Versailles. 486 00:39:53,460 --> 00:39:57,620 A strange alter ego of Versailles, but that was the point. 487 00:39:57,620 --> 00:40:00,740 This building, and many others like it in Tokyo, 488 00:40:00,740 --> 00:40:07,580 were part of an attempt to represent Japan as, well, a European power. 489 00:40:07,580 --> 00:40:11,060 It was a brazen act of cultural appropriation. 490 00:40:13,260 --> 00:40:18,380 Akasaka Palace ended up costing a huge 5.1 million yen. 491 00:40:18,380 --> 00:40:21,580 It was deemed too extravagant even for the Crown Prince, 492 00:40:21,580 --> 00:40:24,620 and it spent much of the 20th century uninhabited. 493 00:40:36,060 --> 00:40:39,620 Outside the palace, Tokyo was changing in other ways. 494 00:40:42,100 --> 00:40:46,940 A huge programme of construction and industrialization was under way. 495 00:40:46,940 --> 00:40:51,900 Railways, trams and trunk roads transformed the fabric of the city. 496 00:40:51,900 --> 00:40:54,460 And then it was transformed yet further 497 00:40:54,460 --> 00:40:57,060 by a series of very Japanese disasters. 498 00:40:59,580 --> 00:41:05,220 On the 1st of September, 1923, the Great Kanto earthquake struck Tokyo, 499 00:41:05,220 --> 00:41:10,100 killing 142,000 people and obliterating much of the city. 500 00:41:11,740 --> 00:41:15,060 Tokyo had barely recovered when it was torn apart again. 501 00:41:18,420 --> 00:41:21,340 During the Second World War, the US Air Force 502 00:41:21,340 --> 00:41:24,820 embarked on an aerial bombing campaign against Japan. 503 00:41:24,820 --> 00:41:29,780 67 cities were targeted, 500,000 people were killed, 504 00:41:29,780 --> 00:41:32,620 and more than half of Tokyo was destroyed. 505 00:41:37,780 --> 00:41:40,340 As Japan rebuilt itself once again, 506 00:41:40,340 --> 00:41:44,420 it embraced a new kind of supercharged modernity, 507 00:41:44,420 --> 00:41:48,620 where progress with a capital P was all that mattered. 508 00:41:48,620 --> 00:41:51,700 Between 1945 and 1963, 509 00:41:51,700 --> 00:41:56,940 the population of Tokyo grew from 3.5 million to over 10 million, 510 00:41:56,940 --> 00:42:00,020 as increasingly people deserted the countryside 511 00:42:00,020 --> 00:42:01,300 and moved to the city. 512 00:42:03,180 --> 00:42:05,540 At the same time, the nation experienced 513 00:42:05,540 --> 00:42:07,180 unprecedented economic growth. 514 00:42:08,460 --> 00:42:11,020 And yet, in the process of remodelling Tokyo, 515 00:42:11,020 --> 00:42:12,980 many were left behind, 516 00:42:12,980 --> 00:42:15,500 stuck in the cracks between the shiny developments. 517 00:42:20,380 --> 00:42:23,060 And these cracks just about survive 518 00:42:23,060 --> 00:42:26,460 in a small part of Shinjuku called Golden Gai. 519 00:42:33,580 --> 00:42:38,460 Golden Gai was rebuilt after the war and soon became a world of its own, 520 00:42:38,460 --> 00:42:41,300 a warren of alleys and bars. 521 00:42:41,300 --> 00:42:44,380 This was the floating world of modern Tokyo, 522 00:42:44,380 --> 00:42:47,700 a place Utamaro might have felt at home. 523 00:42:47,700 --> 00:42:54,140 And in 1961, a modern-day Utamaro stepped into it - Daido Moriyama. 524 00:42:59,220 --> 00:43:03,420 The founding father of Japanese street photography. 525 00:43:03,420 --> 00:43:06,380 He was 23 when he first came to Tokyo 526 00:43:06,380 --> 00:43:08,980 and found a day job as a camera assistant, 527 00:43:08,980 --> 00:43:12,420 but at night, he was sucked into the darkness of Shinjuku. 528 00:43:16,460 --> 00:43:19,340 TRANSLATION: 529 00:43:41,620 --> 00:43:43,820 Moriyama's methods are simple. 530 00:43:43,820 --> 00:43:46,940 He wanders up and down the streets of Shinjuku, 531 00:43:46,940 --> 00:43:51,180 ducking into narrow alleys and dark corners, looking in every direction. 532 00:43:51,180 --> 00:43:52,780 And as he goes, 533 00:43:52,780 --> 00:43:57,260 he uses a small, portable camera to take snap, after snap, after snap. 534 00:44:02,340 --> 00:44:04,380 Moriyama's early photographs 535 00:44:04,380 --> 00:44:07,140 captured the rootless and hedonistic inhabitants 536 00:44:07,140 --> 00:44:08,460 of Tokyo's underbelly. 537 00:44:11,700 --> 00:44:14,940 But increasingly, he subverted his medium. 538 00:44:14,940 --> 00:44:19,220 In 1972, in his classic work Farewell Photography, 539 00:44:19,220 --> 00:44:22,900 his portraits of the city were so blurred, grainy 540 00:44:22,900 --> 00:44:25,380 and uncomposed that they were almost illegible. 541 00:44:28,380 --> 00:44:31,540 Do you find the city particularly exciting 542 00:44:31,540 --> 00:44:33,700 at certain times of the day or night? 543 00:44:35,020 --> 00:44:38,300 TRANSLATION: 544 00:47:00,140 --> 00:47:04,620 If any one photograph captures Moriyama's work, it is this one, 545 00:47:04,620 --> 00:47:06,180 made in 1971. 546 00:47:07,300 --> 00:47:10,860 An unkempt stray dog glances back at the photographer 547 00:47:10,860 --> 00:47:12,900 in the winter sunshine. 548 00:47:12,900 --> 00:47:16,540 The dog is surely a proxy for Moriyama himself, 549 00:47:16,540 --> 00:47:20,220 a loner scavenging the streets for scraps. 550 00:47:20,220 --> 00:47:23,740 But it is also perhaps a symbol of Japan, 551 00:47:23,740 --> 00:47:26,540 a country that hadn't yet found its identity 552 00:47:26,540 --> 00:47:29,220 in the turbulence of the 20th century. 553 00:47:37,020 --> 00:47:38,620 And yet, in the following years, 554 00:47:38,620 --> 00:47:40,900 Japan raced yet further into the future. 555 00:47:42,140 --> 00:47:45,300 The economic miracle that had begun in the 1960s 556 00:47:45,300 --> 00:47:47,980 reached its peak in the 1980s, 557 00:47:47,980 --> 00:47:51,420 and the country became the second largest economy in the world. 558 00:47:53,660 --> 00:47:55,940 Tokyo was the motor of these changes, 559 00:47:55,940 --> 00:47:57,860 and was rebuilt and redeveloped 560 00:47:57,860 --> 00:47:59,100 at a relentless rate. 561 00:48:00,420 --> 00:48:03,260 But though its eyes were firmly focused on the future, 562 00:48:03,260 --> 00:48:06,460 the culture of the city remained haunted by the past. 563 00:48:15,020 --> 00:48:19,180 In 1987, the classic anime film, Akira, was released. 564 00:48:32,940 --> 00:48:35,940 It begins with an all-too-familiar scene - 565 00:48:35,940 --> 00:48:37,900 Tokyo being razed to the ground. 566 00:48:46,100 --> 00:48:48,900 The story that follows has all the necessary ingredients 567 00:48:48,900 --> 00:48:50,860 of modern science fiction - 568 00:48:50,860 --> 00:48:54,660 post apocalyptic dystopia, government conspiracy, 569 00:48:54,660 --> 00:48:56,700 and children with superpowers. 570 00:48:58,700 --> 00:49:05,100 It consists of 160,000 hand-drawn images and features 327 colours, 571 00:49:05,100 --> 00:49:07,460 50 of which were specially created for the film. 572 00:49:11,060 --> 00:49:15,140 But the star of the show is neo-Tokyo itself, 573 00:49:15,140 --> 00:49:18,220 a dazzling setting for dreams and nightmares. 574 00:49:21,900 --> 00:49:23,380 In the following year, 575 00:49:23,380 --> 00:49:26,980 another film revisited the wartime destruction of Japan's cities. 576 00:49:33,740 --> 00:49:37,940 Grave Of The Fireflies is a landmark in animation history. 577 00:49:37,940 --> 00:49:41,780 It tells the tragic story of two siblings' struggle to survive 578 00:49:41,780 --> 00:49:44,140 during the final months of the Second World War. 579 00:49:49,940 --> 00:49:52,820 The film was directed by Isao Takahata, 580 00:49:52,820 --> 00:49:55,420 one of the co-founders of Studio Ghibli, 581 00:49:55,420 --> 00:49:57,420 and it drew on his own memories of the war. 582 00:50:01,660 --> 00:50:04,740 TRANSLATION: 583 00:51:42,540 --> 00:51:44,100 Now in his eighties, 584 00:51:44,100 --> 00:51:46,500 Takahata has published a book about the connection 585 00:51:46,500 --> 00:51:49,940 between the sequential art of early Japanese hand scrolls 586 00:51:49,940 --> 00:51:52,540 and anime, which he sees as belonging 587 00:51:52,540 --> 00:51:54,460 to the same narrative art tradition. 588 00:51:56,660 --> 00:51:57,820 Wow. 589 00:51:59,500 --> 00:52:02,500 So, this is a fire tearing down the city? 590 00:52:04,500 --> 00:52:06,860 TRANSLATION: 591 00:52:20,420 --> 00:52:22,540 When you look at a scroll like this, 592 00:52:22,540 --> 00:52:24,500 do you feel like you're looking at the work 593 00:52:24,500 --> 00:52:26,700 of people in the same business as you? 594 00:52:54,060 --> 00:52:57,780 The great anime films were just part of a broader blossoming 595 00:52:57,780 --> 00:52:59,980 of Japan's creative industries, 596 00:52:59,980 --> 00:53:03,860 which were born out of distinctly Japanese urban experiences, 597 00:53:03,860 --> 00:53:05,700 but spoke to the wider world. 598 00:53:09,500 --> 00:53:13,380 Since the 1980s, Japan, and Tokyo in particular, 599 00:53:13,380 --> 00:53:19,500 has become a creative hub for food, fashion, film, consumer electronics, 600 00:53:19,500 --> 00:53:22,980 computer games and many other forms of popular culture. 601 00:53:22,980 --> 00:53:25,820 Take a pick of a recent craze or fad - 602 00:53:25,820 --> 00:53:28,140 it's likely to have originated here. 603 00:53:33,820 --> 00:53:36,780 Tokyo's designers have, together, challenged Paris 604 00:53:36,780 --> 00:53:38,580 as a world leader in fashion. 605 00:53:43,700 --> 00:53:46,940 Lifestyle brands have tackled the problems of urban living 606 00:53:46,940 --> 00:53:48,700 and gone on to conquer the world. 607 00:53:54,500 --> 00:53:58,020 And its pop culture has attracted millions of fans 608 00:53:58,020 --> 00:54:00,540 and built a vast, international audience. 609 00:54:04,500 --> 00:54:06,060 In many of these areas, 610 00:54:06,060 --> 00:54:09,900 the great city of Tokyo absorbed the most modern fashions, 611 00:54:09,900 --> 00:54:11,780 remade them in thrilling ways, 612 00:54:11,780 --> 00:54:14,180 and then exported them back to the world. 613 00:54:18,220 --> 00:54:20,260 This dizzying, high-speed, 614 00:54:20,260 --> 00:54:23,740 urban aesthetic has also influenced Japan's artists. 615 00:54:29,300 --> 00:54:31,900 They have derived inspiration from the city, 616 00:54:31,900 --> 00:54:33,980 and from the popular culture it produced. 617 00:54:37,340 --> 00:54:40,620 But of all of them, none better captures the zeitgeist 618 00:54:40,620 --> 00:54:45,020 than an 87-year-old woman called Yayoi Kusama. 619 00:54:45,020 --> 00:54:48,700 TRANSLATION: 620 00:55:03,100 --> 00:55:07,980 Kusama has been creating her own brand of pop art since the 1960s, 621 00:55:07,980 --> 00:55:10,980 resulting in a psychedelic array of popular, 622 00:55:10,980 --> 00:55:13,180 but deeply personal imagery. 623 00:55:22,980 --> 00:55:25,860 But Kusama's most celebrated installations 624 00:55:25,860 --> 00:55:27,380 are her mirror rooms... 625 00:55:29,140 --> 00:55:34,100 ..small, dark chambers covered on all sides in reflective surfaces... 626 00:55:35,100 --> 00:55:38,980 ..illuminated only by twinkling LEDs 627 00:55:38,980 --> 00:55:42,540 and transformed into infinite indoor galaxies. 628 00:55:44,180 --> 00:55:49,420 You can understand why this art has delighted people around the world. 629 00:55:49,420 --> 00:55:51,460 It's like... I don't know, 630 00:55:51,460 --> 00:55:54,220 it's almost like falling into a kaleidoscope, 631 00:55:54,220 --> 00:55:57,740 or stepping onto a sci-fi stage set. 632 00:55:57,740 --> 00:56:00,180 But you know what, more than anything else, 633 00:56:00,180 --> 00:56:01,820 this piece reminds me of? 634 00:56:01,820 --> 00:56:04,500 It reminds me of the city. 635 00:56:04,500 --> 00:56:07,740 It reminds me of an almost infinite metropolis, 636 00:56:07,740 --> 00:56:09,540 glittering away in the night. 637 00:56:20,300 --> 00:56:22,740 Over the centuries, cities have inspired 638 00:56:22,740 --> 00:56:25,220 some of Japan's greatest art, 639 00:56:25,220 --> 00:56:27,860 but they are, themselves, creations, 640 00:56:27,860 --> 00:56:30,820 dynamic, complex and often beautiful. 641 00:56:32,500 --> 00:56:36,340 This is a story of Japan's urban imagination 642 00:56:36,340 --> 00:56:39,460 and how three great cities built its art and culture. 643 00:56:43,460 --> 00:56:47,540 In Kyoto, the Japanese mastered beauty and elegance. 644 00:56:49,620 --> 00:56:52,780 In Edo, they found their own, often mischievous, voice. 645 00:56:56,860 --> 00:57:00,300 And in Tokyo, they turned destruction into creation. 646 00:57:01,500 --> 00:57:02,980 And in the process, 647 00:57:02,980 --> 00:57:06,820 they helped define a country as it relentlessly searched for itself. 648 00:57:11,300 --> 00:57:14,620 Cities are engines of cultural change 649 00:57:14,620 --> 00:57:16,900 because they throw people together, 650 00:57:16,900 --> 00:57:20,580 to compete and collaborate and innovate. 651 00:57:20,580 --> 00:57:22,660 It's the case around the world, of course, 652 00:57:22,660 --> 00:57:24,700 but I can't think of many countries 653 00:57:24,700 --> 00:57:28,260 that are more defined by their cities than Japan. 654 00:57:40,740 --> 00:57:42,220 In the final episode, 655 00:57:42,220 --> 00:57:45,620 I'll be venturing into the most intimate spaces in Japan - 656 00:57:45,620 --> 00:57:46,660 its homes. 657 00:57:48,980 --> 00:57:53,060 I'll explore how, in Japan, the house became a work of art. 658 00:57:53,060 --> 00:57:56,060 Guided by the spirit of the craftsmen who made it, 659 00:57:56,060 --> 00:57:59,300 and the rich traditions that developed within its walls, 660 00:57:59,300 --> 00:58:02,980 the Japanese house went on to transform our lives in the West.