0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some scenes of a sexual nature.
0:00:08 > 0:00:10It was a bright August morning,
0:00:10 > 0:00:14and commuters were making their way to work in a provincial city
0:00:14 > 0:00:18in western Japan. It was shaping up to be a day like any other.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24But at exactly 08:15,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27an American bombardier above them pulled a lever.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47The commuters may have seen a flash of light,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50but within seconds, they and the city of Hiroshima
0:00:50 > 0:00:54were engulfed in the largest man-made explosion in history.
0:00:59 > 0:01:0170,000 people were killed instantly,
0:01:01 > 0:01:04and the city was all but annihilated.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09It was the beginning of the nuclear age.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15But the Japanese had seen disasters before.
0:01:16 > 0:01:22The history of Japanese cities is the history of their destruction.
0:01:22 > 0:01:23For centuries, indeed millennia,
0:01:23 > 0:01:27earthquakes, fires, floods, tsunamis and wars
0:01:27 > 0:01:32have decimated the country's towns and cities over and over again.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36But this relentless cycle has had a dramatic creative impact.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42It has forced the Japanese
0:01:42 > 0:01:45to constantly rebuild and reimagine their cities,
0:01:45 > 0:01:46and today, they are some of
0:01:46 > 0:01:48the most dynamic places in the world.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53To discover why, I'm going to explore the culture
0:01:53 > 0:01:58of three great Japanese cities in three decisive eras.
0:01:59 > 0:02:04Kyoto, the country's capital for over a thousand years.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07A city of elegance and splendour that gave birth
0:02:07 > 0:02:10to a golden age of painting and poetry
0:02:10 > 0:02:12and even turned tea into an art form.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17Holding this bowl is a kind of revelation.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24Edo, a teeming metropolis with a dark underbelly.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28A floating world of actors, artists,
0:02:28 > 0:02:32and sex workers that produced a bohemian, urban culture
0:02:32 > 0:02:33centuries before the West.
0:02:37 > 0:02:42And Tokyo, today the largest urban area on the planet,
0:02:42 > 0:02:45a conveyor belt of fashion, film,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48and contemporary art that now influences the entire world.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54These three cities produce some of Japan's finest
0:02:54 > 0:02:58and most distinctive art, but they did more than that.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01They also shaped the country's attitude
0:03:01 > 0:03:02towards its past and present,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05as well as to East and West, and in doing so,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09they helped mould the very idea of Japan itself.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28In the spring of 793 AD,
0:03:28 > 0:03:33a small group of men embarked on a journey through Honshu.
0:03:33 > 0:03:35They claimed they were on a hunting trip.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37But they weren't hunting animals,
0:03:37 > 0:03:40they were searching for a piece of land.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45The men were convinced that their hometown,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48which was called Nagaoka-kyo, was cursed.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52For the best part of a decade, it had been ravaged by floods,
0:03:52 > 0:03:56disease, famine, and even a series of mysterious murders.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59They knew they had to abandon it,
0:03:59 > 0:04:01but first, they had to find a site for a new city.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09They hadn't gone far before they alighted on something promising,
0:04:09 > 0:04:11a vast, fertile basin,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14surrounded on three sides by a fortress of mountains,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18and irrigated by not one, but two rivers.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23They had found their site.
0:04:23 > 0:04:25By the autumn of the following year,
0:04:25 > 0:04:27the Emperor had founded his capital here.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32He called it Heian-kyo, capital of peace and tranquillity,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35though it later became known as Kyoto.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43Kyoto has been built and rebuilt many times since then,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46but it remains a place of unparalleled riches.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50It is home to 1,600 temples, 400 shrines,
0:04:50 > 0:04:54and 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites,
0:04:54 > 0:04:56more than any other city in the world.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03The original city of Kyoto was a work of art in its own right.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07It was inspired by Chang'an, the great capital of China,
0:05:07 > 0:05:09and every part of it was carefully planned.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15The city was organised, almost like New York,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17according to a strict grid system.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21Now, these streets were splendid thoroughfares.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26Even the narrowest of them was 78 feet wide, and the widest of them,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30Suzaku Avenue, which ran right down through the middle of the city,
0:05:30 > 0:05:32that was almost 300 feet wide.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37It was probably the widest boulevard in the world at the time.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41And Suzaku Avenue terminated right here, in the north of Kyoto,
0:05:41 > 0:05:43at the city palace.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46Now, I've got to say, looking down over this scale model,
0:05:46 > 0:05:49I really think it looks like a wonderful place to live.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54Most of the houses are one storey high, so it's light, it's airy.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58There are gardens, there are lakes, there are rivers.
0:05:58 > 0:06:02It is a world away from the dark warrens of filth
0:06:02 > 0:06:04that made up most cities at the time.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Kyoto was the blueprint for a utopia,
0:06:10 > 0:06:12a dream of a rational and beautiful society
0:06:12 > 0:06:15that the Emperor hoped would last forever.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18But it wasn't as perfect as it seemed.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20Over the following generations,
0:06:20 > 0:06:24the palace burned down no less than 14 times,
0:06:24 > 0:06:27and the whole western half of the city was repeatedly flooded.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33But this didn't prevent the fortunate members of the court
0:06:33 > 0:06:35from enjoying the finer things in life...
0:06:36 > 0:06:39..most of them borrowed from the Chinese.
0:06:43 > 0:06:48They ruminated on cherry blossoms and staged moon-watching ceremonies.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50They even collected crickets
0:06:50 > 0:06:53and made music to accompany their chirps.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57In Kyoto, style was emphatically substance.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03If any one idea governed the cultural values of the court,
0:07:03 > 0:07:05it was the word miyabi.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08Now, miyabi doesn't have a direct English translation,
0:07:08 > 0:07:12but it meant a kind of refinement or aesthetic sensibility -
0:07:12 > 0:07:16the ability to recognise and appreciate beauty
0:07:16 > 0:07:17in all of its forms.
0:07:20 > 0:07:24The culture of Kyoto was advanced in another notable way.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Many of its leading practitioners were women,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31and the greatest of them was Murasaki Shikibu.
0:07:34 > 0:07:38Born into a minor aristocratic family around 973 AD,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42Murasaki served as a lady-in-waiting at the Imperial Court.
0:07:42 > 0:07:46But in her spare time, she started writing something.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51Murasaki was writing a story of monumental proportions,
0:07:51 > 0:07:54indeed, twice as long as War And Peace.
0:07:54 > 0:07:58It spanned four generations and 75 years.
0:07:58 > 0:08:04It contained 430 different characters and 795 unique poems.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06And today, many consider it to be
0:08:06 > 0:08:09the first novel ever written anywhere in the world.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16It was called The Tale Of Genji.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19The story focuses on the life of a rakish young prince
0:08:19 > 0:08:22called Hikaru Genji.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26Intelligent, beautiful and possessed with impeccable taste,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28Genji is the paragon of miyabi.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33And though he spends much of his youth womanizing,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36he becomes one of the court's most powerful men.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38He builds a grand palace in the city
0:08:38 > 0:08:40and fills it with the women he loves.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45But then things start to go wrong.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Genji marries a woman who then bears another man's child.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52His relationships with his other lovers deteriorate,
0:08:52 > 0:08:57and when his greatest love dies, Genji loses the will to live.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00It is not long before his life also comes to an end.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07"The whole world mourned Genji.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09"It was as if a light had gone out.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12"For his ladies, for his grandchildren,
0:09:12 > 0:09:15"for others who had been close to him, the sadness was, of course,
0:09:15 > 0:09:17"more immediate and intense.
0:09:17 > 0:09:19"'It is true,' they all thought,
0:09:19 > 0:09:21"'The cherry blossoms of spring are loved
0:09:21 > 0:09:23"'because they bloom so briefly.'"
0:09:26 > 0:09:29Genji's life was indeed cut short,
0:09:29 > 0:09:31but Murasaki's remarkable novel lived on.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37Many illustrations of The Tale Of Genji
0:09:37 > 0:09:39were made in painted hand scrolls.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Here in the Tokugawa Museum in Nagoya,
0:09:43 > 0:09:46are the oldest examples from the 12th century.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51Only fragments survive,
0:09:51 > 0:09:54but they are some of the country's greatest treasures.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58They are almost a millennium old.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01The complex patterns of colour and shape
0:10:01 > 0:10:03still convey powerful emotional stories.
0:10:06 > 0:10:08And I've come to look at one of the most affecting.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15This painting captures a turning point in Genji's life.
0:10:15 > 0:10:19While he was away, his wife had an affair with his nephew.
0:10:19 > 0:10:23She became pregnant and gave birth to a boy called Kaoru.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25Now Genji didn't want to admit to being cuckolded,
0:10:25 > 0:10:29so he had to except Kaoru as his heir even though he knew he wasn't.
0:10:29 > 0:10:35And here, we can see Genji holding the baby boy in his arms,
0:10:35 > 0:10:39and though this image is small and old and tatty,
0:10:39 > 0:10:41you can still see the complex,
0:10:41 > 0:10:46powerful emotions racing across Genji's face.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50It's taut with resentment and humiliation and yet,
0:10:50 > 0:10:55as Genji looks down on that beautiful, innocent boy,
0:10:55 > 0:10:58we can see him beginning to soften.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02His eyebrows are lifting and his little pink lips
0:11:02 > 0:11:04are curling into a smile.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10The composition has been used to emphasise and dramatise
0:11:10 > 0:11:13Genji's own torn state of mind.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16So these powerful diagonals race across the surface of the picture
0:11:16 > 0:11:19and imprison Genji right into the corner.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23The fabrics tumble into this chaotic mess of lines,
0:11:23 > 0:11:25and, perhaps most powerfully of all,
0:11:25 > 0:11:28the relationship between Genji here and his wife,
0:11:28 > 0:11:34who has become a nun following her indiscretion, speaks volumes.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38They are together, but they are, of course, completely apart.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45This masterpiece of Japanese art
0:11:45 > 0:11:47reminds me that, though times may change,
0:11:47 > 0:11:49human emotions don't.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00The people of Kyoto had mastered the art of painting...
0:12:01 > 0:12:04..but aesthetics pervaded everything they did.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08Poetry, calligraphy, garden design and over the centuries,
0:12:08 > 0:12:10it even extended to tea.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15The Japanese had been enjoying tea since the ninth century,
0:12:15 > 0:12:17when it was introduced from China.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19But in the late 16th century,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22it began to take on a special significance.
0:12:26 > 0:12:28At the Buddhist temple of Daitoku-ji
0:12:28 > 0:12:30is a teahouse made in honour
0:12:30 > 0:12:35of the great Japanese tea master Sen no Rikyu.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Here, in a small, simple room,
0:12:37 > 0:12:41Rikyu and his companions turned tea drinking into an art form.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47Sen no Rikyu believed that tea was much more than a drink,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49it was a revelation.
0:12:49 > 0:12:50When drunk in the right way,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54tea helped people rise to a different plane of consciousness.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57"When you hear the water splash into the tea bowl," he once said,
0:12:57 > 0:13:01"you will feel the dust in your mind is washed away."
0:13:04 > 0:13:07Sen no Rikyu's ideas gradually crystallised
0:13:07 > 0:13:10into what we know as the Japanese tea ceremony.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18TRANSLATION:
0:14:23 > 0:14:26Sen no Rikyu wanted the tea ceremony
0:14:26 > 0:14:29to express an appreciation of modesty,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32imperfection and impermanence,
0:14:32 > 0:14:35and this even extended to his utensils.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37He thought traditional ceramics were too elaborate,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40so he set about finding an alternative.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42He asked a craftsman called Chojiro
0:14:42 > 0:14:46to fashion a simple, undecorated tea bowl.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49This was the beginning of raku pottery,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52and Chojiro's descendants are still making it today.
0:14:56 > 0:15:02Raku Kichizaemon XV is the 15th generation of potters in his family.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06He continues a tradition that was started 450 years ago,
0:15:06 > 0:15:07and he is, in my view,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10one of Japan's greatest living artists.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13So, where are we here?
0:15:13 > 0:15:17Here's many, many old clay.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24Now, I use the clay, this clay,
0:15:24 > 0:15:28my grand-grandfathers rub
0:15:28 > 0:15:31about 100 years ago.
0:15:31 > 0:15:36Wow. And are you collecting clay for your descendants?
0:15:36 > 0:15:37Yes. Yes. Yes.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44TRANSLATION:
0:17:11 > 0:17:14This is a seminal tea bowl.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18It was made by Chojiro, the founder of raku pottery.
0:17:18 > 0:17:20It's more than 400 years old.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22It might even have been used by Sen no Rikyu
0:17:22 > 0:17:24in the late 16th century.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27Now, at first, it doesn't look like much.
0:17:27 > 0:17:29It's small and misshapen,
0:17:29 > 0:17:32the walls aren't straight, the lips are wobbly,
0:17:32 > 0:17:36and it's covered in a simple, plain black glaze.
0:17:37 > 0:17:41But to really appreciate it, you need to pick it up...
0:17:42 > 0:17:46..because holding this bowl is a kind of revelation.
0:17:46 > 0:17:52The weighting, the texture, the temperature are all just perfect.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54And as I hold it, I can feel this groove
0:17:54 > 0:17:56running along the middle of it
0:17:56 > 0:17:59that fits the hands perfectly.
0:17:59 > 0:18:01It feels almost as though
0:18:01 > 0:18:05you're feeling Chojiro's fingers 400 years later.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10This is an artwork to be held, to be touched, to be felt.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12This is an artwork to be used.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17This tea bowl is the epitome of wabi-sabi,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21that Japanese reverence for the imperfect, the unfinished,
0:18:21 > 0:18:23the worn-out, because to appreciate those things
0:18:23 > 0:18:25isn't only to be humble,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28it's to understand that we, too, are imperfect.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32We, too, are as flawed as this tea bowl.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36So this object isn't simply a bowl, it's a lesson.
0:18:36 > 0:18:40A lesson to all of us to appreciate the simpler things in life.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50In the 800 years since its founding,
0:18:50 > 0:18:55Kyoto had done much to establish a classical Japanese culture,
0:18:55 > 0:18:57although much of it had been Chinese in flavour.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02Kyoto would continue to flourish after 1600,
0:19:02 > 0:19:06but a new regime was coming, and it would create a new great city.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Japan was embroiled in civil war for the entire 16th century...
0:19:22 > 0:19:24..until, in 1600,
0:19:24 > 0:19:27a warrior called Tokugawa Ieyasu took control of the country.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32He was given the title shogun
0:19:32 > 0:19:35and established the Tokugawa Shogunate
0:19:35 > 0:19:38which ruled the country for more than 260 years.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48Rejecting Kyoto, Ieyasu moved his capital
0:19:48 > 0:19:51to a down-at-heel fishing village
0:19:51 > 0:19:54300 miles north called Edo.
0:19:55 > 0:19:57It would not remain a fishing village for long.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Like most Japanese cities, Edo was prone to destruction.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15In fact, over the next few centuries,
0:20:15 > 0:20:20it was torn apart by fire pretty much every 20 to 30 years,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23but those fires did nothing to suppress Edo's growth.
0:20:23 > 0:20:27By the early 1700s, more than a million people lived there,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29twice as many as in London.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32It had become one of the largest cities - perhaps THE largest city -
0:20:32 > 0:20:34in the world.
0:20:37 > 0:20:40The Tokugawa closed the country's borders
0:20:40 > 0:20:42to all but a few Dutch traders
0:20:42 > 0:20:45and enforced a rigid social hierarchy.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51The rulers of Edo preached a gospel of discipline and austerity,
0:20:51 > 0:20:53but not everyone was listening.
0:20:53 > 0:20:57Over time, the townsfolk started to make their own culture,
0:20:57 > 0:21:01a popular culture, a counterculture of astonishing vitality.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12Their Edo was populated by actors,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16dancers, sumo wrestlers, puppet shows,
0:21:16 > 0:21:17gangsters and courtesans.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23It was a long way from the refined culture of the court.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31Japan had seen nothing like it before.
0:21:36 > 0:21:38These decadent goings-on
0:21:38 > 0:21:41were centred around Edo's pleasure district,
0:21:41 > 0:21:45a walled community that was often referred to as ukiyo,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48which in English means floating world.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52But the floating world wasn't only a physical place,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55it was also a state of mind.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59"Living only for the moment,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03"turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow,
0:22:03 > 0:22:05"the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08"singing songs, drinking wine,
0:22:08 > 0:22:11"diverting ourselves and just floating, floating,
0:22:11 > 0:22:14"caring not a whit for the pauperism staring us in the face,
0:22:14 > 0:22:16"refusing to be disheartened,
0:22:16 > 0:22:19"like a gourd floating along with the river current -
0:22:19 > 0:22:22"this is what we call the floating world."
0:22:23 > 0:22:26We tend to talk a lot about 19th-century Paris
0:22:26 > 0:22:31being the epitome of a modern, urban, decadent culture,
0:22:31 > 0:22:35but Edo was doing exactly the same thing 200 years earlier.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44And Edo's floating world produced art forms
0:22:44 > 0:22:46that were distinctly Japanese.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49One of them was kabuki.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57Legend has it that kabuki was invented in Kyoto in 1603,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00the same year as the shogunate itself.
0:23:00 > 0:23:02It's said that it started when a group of women
0:23:02 > 0:23:05staged an explicit song and dance routine
0:23:05 > 0:23:09for a group of staggered men, and, unsurprisingly,
0:23:09 > 0:23:10it proved popular.
0:23:17 > 0:23:21Kabuki developed into a striking form of theatre,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24with highly stylised movement and extravagant costumes.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28The best actors became major city celebrities.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36Kabuki theatres could be raucous places.
0:23:36 > 0:23:40The audiences hissed and booed, they leapt onstage,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43they started scuffles and riots in the stands.
0:23:43 > 0:23:44In rooms like this,
0:23:44 > 0:23:47the strict social order of the shogunate
0:23:47 > 0:23:50could be temporarily and deliriously abandoned.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56The government tried to regulate this exuberant new art form,
0:23:56 > 0:24:01but it proved popular even with the samurai, and it's still going today.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08Ichikawa Ebizo is the 11th generation
0:24:08 > 0:24:11in a single dynasty of kabuki performers
0:24:11 > 0:24:15that goes back more than 300 years to the Edo period.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18He is also one of the most famous men in Japan.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25TRANSLATION:
0:25:05 > 0:25:08MUSIC PLAYS
0:25:23 > 0:25:28Kabuki was first performed by an all-female cast, but the shogunate,
0:25:28 > 0:25:30who disliked its licentious reputation,
0:25:30 > 0:25:32banned women from the stage.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35They were soon replaced by men in both male and female roles.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58Performances could last all day and attracted every social class.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02Young and old, rich and poor rubbed shoulders.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11TRANSLATION:
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Lots of what we know today about traditional kabuki
0:27:57 > 0:28:00comes from the remarkable images that immortalized it.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06Like kabuki, they were a crucial part of Edo's floating world,
0:28:06 > 0:28:09and are now synonymous with Japanese culture in general.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15Wood block printing had been practised in Japan
0:28:15 > 0:28:16for hundreds of years,
0:28:16 > 0:28:17but in the Edo period,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20it became possible to make full-colour prints
0:28:20 > 0:28:21for the first time.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26They became hugely successful.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28They were very common and usually very cheap...
0:28:29 > 0:28:32..but they are now the best-known images in Japanese art.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Kazuo Watanabe is a woodcut artist.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47He has been making prints for 50 years
0:28:47 > 0:28:51and uses the same methods pioneered in 17th-century Edo.
0:28:52 > 0:28:58How did you start as an Ukiyo-e print maker in the first place?
0:28:58 > 0:29:01TRANSLATION:
0:30:20 > 0:30:23Woodcuts were bought and sold around Edo in their thousands,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26and many focused on the floating world.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33The Japanese even called them Ukiyo-e,
0:30:33 > 0:30:35pictures of the floating world.
0:30:38 > 0:30:42And no artist captured it better than Kitagawa Utamaro.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50Utamaro is one of the great enigmas in art.
0:30:50 > 0:30:52His pictures may be world famous,
0:30:52 > 0:30:55but we know virtually nothing about the man who made them.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59We don't know when he was born, we know nothing about his background.
0:30:59 > 0:31:01He's mentioned in no official records.
0:31:01 > 0:31:06He left behind no letters, no diaries, no personal documents.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10Like the floating world, Utamaro thrived in the half light.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15One thing, however, seems likely -
0:31:15 > 0:31:19Utamaro spent plenty of time in Edo's red light district.
0:31:21 > 0:31:25A third of all of his pictures are of the city's sex workers.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34Utamaro's fascination with the women of Edo
0:31:34 > 0:31:38is evident in a book he published in 1788,
0:31:38 > 0:31:40called The Poem Of The Pillow.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45It consisted of 12 salacious images.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47This is a rare, early copy
0:31:47 > 0:31:50containing the original Utamaro prints,
0:31:50 > 0:31:52and I've come to see my favourite.
0:31:53 > 0:31:56This picture depicts a man and a woman
0:31:56 > 0:32:00kissing upstairs in a teahouse.
0:32:00 > 0:32:02We know it's upstairs
0:32:02 > 0:32:05because the leaves of a camellia tree are peeking out,
0:32:05 > 0:32:08almost eavesdropping, over the balcony.
0:32:08 > 0:32:13There's some suggestion that the characters are already having sex.
0:32:13 > 0:32:16On the fan, there's a poem that reads,
0:32:16 > 0:32:19"Its beak caught firmly in the clam shell,
0:32:19 > 0:32:23"the snipe cannot escape of an autumn evening."
0:32:23 > 0:32:26Fortunately, perhaps unfortunately,
0:32:26 > 0:32:29we can neither see the beak nor the clam shell.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32But you know what I find so seductive about this image
0:32:32 > 0:32:34is what ISN'T shown.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41We can't, for instance, see the faces of this couple.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43We have to imagine who they are.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47It's the details that are so irresistible.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51The curve of her buttocks.
0:32:51 > 0:32:53The nape of her neck,
0:32:53 > 0:32:58which at the time was considered more sexual even than the genitals.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00Her hair standing up on end.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03His left hand touching her shoulder.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06Her left hand touching his chin.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08Phew!
0:33:08 > 0:33:10But, I tell you, if you look closer,
0:33:10 > 0:33:13there is something truly remarkable in this picture.
0:33:13 > 0:33:18Right here, half hidden by her hair, is an eye, his eye,
0:33:18 > 0:33:22looking at her, or perhaps it's looking at us.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24Now, I have no evidence for this whatsoever,
0:33:24 > 0:33:26but I wonder, I just wonder,
0:33:26 > 0:33:32whether that is Utamaro himself, staring at us across the centuries.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38Utamaro was a master of understatement.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42But not all his images showed such restraint.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50Erotic images were popular with both men and women
0:33:50 > 0:33:53at every level of society in Japan.
0:33:53 > 0:33:56We might see them as vaguely pornographic today,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59but the term wouldn't have been understood in 18th-century Edo.
0:34:04 > 0:34:06They were called shunga,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09which literally meant spring pictures,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12and they celebrated intimacy and sexual pleasure
0:34:12 > 0:34:15in imaginative and often explicit detail.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23But the floating world was not the only subject of wood block printing.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30In the 1850s, Hiroshige made 100 views
0:34:30 > 0:34:32of the great city of Edo itself.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38They capture its shop fronts, its teeming streets...
0:34:41 > 0:34:44..its waterways and its coast.
0:34:45 > 0:34:48The images themselves are breathtaking.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54The inventiveness, the dynamism, the wit
0:34:54 > 0:34:56and the irrepressible beauty.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02Hiroshige, Utamaro
0:35:02 > 0:35:05and the other printmakers of Edo had perfected
0:35:05 > 0:35:08a remarkable Japanese art form,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12but they'd also established the basis of a new visual grammar,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15bold, graphic, economical,
0:35:15 > 0:35:19and it wouldn't be long before their style caught on around the world.
0:35:24 > 0:35:25In the mid-19th century,
0:35:25 > 0:35:28Japanese trade routes began to open
0:35:28 > 0:35:31and their goods began to be sent across the seas.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34Kimonos, fans, writing paper,
0:35:34 > 0:35:38porcelain and pottery, lacquerware and,
0:35:38 > 0:35:42of course, countless ukiyo-e prints soon flooded the West,
0:35:42 > 0:35:45and the West was astonished.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52European artists were impressed by ukiyo-e prints.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56They turned up in Manet's backgrounds...
0:35:58 > 0:35:59..and Monet's foregrounds.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04Vincent van Gogh was so inspired by Hiroshige
0:36:04 > 0:36:07that he copied this image of Edo,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11and so Japanese innovations helped shape modern art as we know it.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19The people of Edo had achieved something really rather significant.
0:36:19 > 0:36:22They had invented a culture that, for the first time,
0:36:22 > 0:36:25seemed distinctly Japanese,
0:36:25 > 0:36:28and one that then went on to influence the rest of the world.
0:36:35 > 0:36:40But as Japan changed the West, so the West changed Japan.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45Previously isolated for hundreds of years,
0:36:45 > 0:36:50traditional Japanese society now seemed out of step with modern life.
0:36:50 > 0:36:54The rule of the samurai and their closed borders was coming to an end.
0:36:56 > 0:36:58From the 1860s,
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Japan would discard much of its centuries-old culture
0:37:01 > 0:37:04and aim instead to become a modern, industrial nation.
0:37:06 > 0:37:10As a statement of intent, the city of Edo would be rebranded.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33Japan's capital was both new and old.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36It was essentially still the city of Edo.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39Same site, same buildings, many of the same residents.
0:37:39 > 0:37:45But it was now reactivated with a new identity and a new name.
0:37:47 > 0:37:53From the 13th of September, 1868, we would know it as Tokyo.
0:37:53 > 0:37:56It was in Tokyo where these Western aspirations
0:37:56 > 0:37:58first took physical form,
0:37:58 > 0:38:01and most noticeably, in architecture.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10At the end of the 19th century,
0:38:10 > 0:38:13European-looking buildings began to appear on the city streets.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18The Ministry of Justice could have been transplanted from Paris.
0:38:21 > 0:38:24And the city's neo-Baroque train station
0:38:24 > 0:38:26seems to better belong in Amsterdam.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33But the most striking anomaly was the Crown Prince's residence,
0:38:33 > 0:38:35completed in 1909.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39This is Akasaka Palace.
0:38:39 > 0:38:41Its architect, Tokuma Katayama,
0:38:41 > 0:38:43spent a year travelling through Europe,
0:38:43 > 0:38:47studying the great royal residences of Germany, France and Britain.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50And with this building, I'm sure you'll agree,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53he's channelling the spirit of Buckingham Palace.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02It is, if such a thing is possible, even more regal inside.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09The grand staircase is made out of Carraran marble from Italy
0:39:09 > 0:39:11and Languedoc marble from France.
0:39:17 > 0:39:22And the vast state rooms upstairs are overflowing with decoration.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25There are paintings done in the European manner.
0:39:29 > 0:39:30And the chandeliers,
0:39:30 > 0:39:34which each contain 7,000 pieces and weigh almost a tonne,
0:39:34 > 0:39:36were specially shipped in from France.
0:39:39 > 0:39:41If I were taken into this building blindfolded,
0:39:41 > 0:39:43and not told where I was,
0:39:43 > 0:39:48I am pretty sure I would never guess that it was in Japan.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50Walking through this palace,
0:39:50 > 0:39:53if anything, it feels like I'm in Versailles.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57A strange alter ego of Versailles, but that was the point.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00This building, and many others like it in Tokyo,
0:40:00 > 0:40:07were part of an attempt to represent Japan as, well, a European power.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10It was a brazen act of cultural appropriation.
0:40:12 > 0:40:17Akasaka Palace ended up costing a huge 5.1 million yen.
0:40:17 > 0:40:21It was deemed too extravagant even for the Crown Prince,
0:40:21 > 0:40:24and it spent much of the 20th century uninhabited.
0:40:35 > 0:40:39Outside the palace, Tokyo was changing in other ways.
0:40:41 > 0:40:46A huge programme of construction and industrialization was under way.
0:40:46 > 0:40:51Railways, trams and trunk roads transformed the fabric of the city.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53And then it was transformed yet further
0:40:53 > 0:40:56by a series of very Japanese disasters.
0:40:59 > 0:41:04On the 1st of September, 1923, the Great Kanto earthquake struck Tokyo,
0:41:04 > 0:41:09killing 142,000 people and obliterating much of the city.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14Tokyo had barely recovered when it was torn apart again.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20During the Second World War, the US Air Force
0:41:20 > 0:41:24embarked on an aerial bombing campaign against Japan.
0:41:24 > 0:41:2967 cities were targeted, 500,000 people were killed,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32and more than half of Tokyo was destroyed.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39As Japan rebuilt itself once again,
0:41:39 > 0:41:43it embraced a new kind of supercharged modernity,
0:41:43 > 0:41:48where progress with a capital P was all that mattered.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Between 1945 and 1963,
0:41:51 > 0:41:56the population of Tokyo grew from 3.5 million to over 10 million,
0:41:56 > 0:41:59as increasingly people deserted the countryside
0:41:59 > 0:42:01and moved to the city.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05At the same time, the nation experienced
0:42:05 > 0:42:06unprecedented economic growth.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10And yet, in the process of remodelling Tokyo,
0:42:10 > 0:42:12many were left behind,
0:42:12 > 0:42:15stuck in the cracks between the shiny developments.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22And these cracks just about survive
0:42:22 > 0:42:26in a small part of Shinjuku called Golden Gai.
0:42:33 > 0:42:38Golden Gai was rebuilt after the war and soon became a world of its own,
0:42:38 > 0:42:40a warren of alleys and bars.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43This was the floating world of modern Tokyo,
0:42:43 > 0:42:47a place Utamaro might have felt at home.
0:42:47 > 0:42:53And in 1961, a modern-day Utamaro stepped into it - Daido Moriyama.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02The founding father of Japanese street photography.
0:43:02 > 0:43:05He was 23 when he first came to Tokyo
0:43:05 > 0:43:08and found a day job as a camera assistant,
0:43:08 > 0:43:12but at night, he was sucked into the darkness of Shinjuku.
0:43:16 > 0:43:19TRANSLATION:
0:43:41 > 0:43:43Moriyama's methods are simple.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46He wanders up and down the streets of Shinjuku,
0:43:46 > 0:43:50ducking into narrow alleys and dark corners, looking in every direction.
0:43:50 > 0:43:52And as he goes,
0:43:52 > 0:43:56he uses a small, portable camera to take snap, after snap, after snap.
0:44:02 > 0:44:03Moriyama's early photographs
0:44:03 > 0:44:06captured the rootless and hedonistic inhabitants
0:44:06 > 0:44:08of Tokyo's underbelly.
0:44:11 > 0:44:14But increasingly, he subverted his medium.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18In 1972, in his classic work Farewell Photography,
0:44:18 > 0:44:22his portraits of the city were so blurred, grainy
0:44:22 > 0:44:25and uncomposed that they were almost illegible.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31Do you find the city particularly exciting
0:44:31 > 0:44:33at certain times of the day or night?
0:44:34 > 0:44:38TRANSLATION:
0:46:59 > 0:47:04If any one photograph captures Moriyama's work, it is this one,
0:47:04 > 0:47:05made in 1971.
0:47:06 > 0:47:10An unkempt stray dog glances back at the photographer
0:47:10 > 0:47:12in the winter sunshine.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16The dog is surely a proxy for Moriyama himself,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19a loner scavenging the streets for scraps.
0:47:19 > 0:47:23But it is also perhaps a symbol of Japan,
0:47:23 > 0:47:26a country that hadn't yet found its identity
0:47:26 > 0:47:28in the turbulence of the 20th century.
0:47:36 > 0:47:38And yet, in the following years,
0:47:38 > 0:47:40Japan raced yet further into the future.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44The economic miracle that had begun in the 1960s
0:47:44 > 0:47:47reached its peak in the 1980s,
0:47:47 > 0:47:51and the country became the second largest economy in the world.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55Tokyo was the motor of these changes,
0:47:55 > 0:47:57and was rebuilt and redeveloped
0:47:57 > 0:47:58at a relentless rate.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02But though its eyes were firmly focused on the future,
0:48:02 > 0:48:06the culture of the city remained haunted by the past.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18In 1987, the classic anime film, Akira, was released.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35It begins with an all-too-familiar scene -
0:48:35 > 0:48:37Tokyo being razed to the ground.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48The story that follows has all the necessary ingredients
0:48:48 > 0:48:50of modern science fiction -
0:48:50 > 0:48:54post apocalyptic dystopia, government conspiracy,
0:48:54 > 0:48:56and children with superpowers.
0:48:58 > 0:49:04It consists of 160,000 hand-drawn images and features 327 colours,
0:49:04 > 0:49:0750 of which were specially created for the film.
0:49:10 > 0:49:14But the star of the show is neo-Tokyo itself,
0:49:14 > 0:49:17a dazzling setting for dreams and nightmares.
0:49:21 > 0:49:22In the following year,
0:49:22 > 0:49:26another film revisited the wartime destruction of Japan's cities.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37Grave Of The Fireflies is a landmark in animation history.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41It tells the tragic story of two siblings' struggle to survive
0:49:41 > 0:49:43during the final months of the Second World War.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52The film was directed by Isao Takahata,
0:49:52 > 0:49:55one of the co-founders of Studio Ghibli,
0:49:55 > 0:49:57and it drew on his own memories of the war.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04TRANSLATION:
0:51:42 > 0:51:43Now in his eighties,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46Takahata has published a book about the connection
0:51:46 > 0:51:49between the sequential art of early Japanese hand scrolls
0:51:49 > 0:51:52and anime, which he sees as belonging
0:51:52 > 0:51:54to the same narrative art tradition.
0:51:56 > 0:51:57Wow.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02So, this is a fire tearing down the city?
0:52:04 > 0:52:06TRANSLATION:
0:52:20 > 0:52:22When you look at a scroll like this,
0:52:22 > 0:52:24do you feel like you're looking at the work
0:52:24 > 0:52:26of people in the same business as you?
0:52:53 > 0:52:57The great anime films were just part of a broader blossoming
0:52:57 > 0:52:59of Japan's creative industries,
0:52:59 > 0:53:03which were born out of distinctly Japanese urban experiences,
0:53:03 > 0:53:05but spoke to the wider world.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12Since the 1980s, Japan, and Tokyo in particular,
0:53:12 > 0:53:19has become a creative hub for food, fashion, film, consumer electronics,
0:53:19 > 0:53:22computer games and many other forms of popular culture.
0:53:22 > 0:53:25Take a pick of a recent craze or fad -
0:53:25 > 0:53:27it's likely to have originated here.
0:53:33 > 0:53:36Tokyo's designers have, together, challenged Paris
0:53:36 > 0:53:38as a world leader in fashion.
0:53:43 > 0:53:46Lifestyle brands have tackled the problems of urban living
0:53:46 > 0:53:48and gone on to conquer the world.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57And its pop culture has attracted millions of fans
0:53:57 > 0:54:00and built a vast, international audience.
0:54:04 > 0:54:05In many of these areas,
0:54:05 > 0:54:09the great city of Tokyo absorbed the most modern fashions,
0:54:09 > 0:54:11remade them in thrilling ways,
0:54:11 > 0:54:13and then exported them back to the world.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19This dizzying, high-speed,
0:54:19 > 0:54:23urban aesthetic has also influenced Japan's artists.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31They have derived inspiration from the city,
0:54:31 > 0:54:33and from the popular culture it produced.
0:54:36 > 0:54:40But of all of them, none better captures the zeitgeist
0:54:40 > 0:54:44than an 87-year-old woman called Yayoi Kusama.
0:54:44 > 0:54:48TRANSLATION:
0:55:02 > 0:55:07Kusama has been creating her own brand of pop art since the 1960s,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10resulting in a psychedelic array of popular,
0:55:10 > 0:55:12but deeply personal imagery.
0:55:22 > 0:55:25But Kusama's most celebrated installations
0:55:25 > 0:55:27are her mirror rooms...
0:55:28 > 0:55:33..small, dark chambers covered on all sides in reflective surfaces...
0:55:34 > 0:55:38..illuminated only by twinkling LEDs
0:55:38 > 0:55:42and transformed into infinite indoor galaxies.
0:55:43 > 0:55:49You can understand why this art has delighted people around the world.
0:55:49 > 0:55:51It's like... I don't know,
0:55:51 > 0:55:53it's almost like falling into a kaleidoscope,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57or stepping onto a sci-fi stage set.
0:55:57 > 0:55:59But you know what, more than anything else,
0:55:59 > 0:56:01this piece reminds me of?
0:56:01 > 0:56:04It reminds me of the city.
0:56:04 > 0:56:07It reminds me of an almost infinite metropolis,
0:56:07 > 0:56:09glittering away in the night.
0:56:19 > 0:56:22Over the centuries, cities have inspired
0:56:22 > 0:56:24some of Japan's greatest art,
0:56:24 > 0:56:27but they are, themselves, creations,
0:56:27 > 0:56:30dynamic, complex and often beautiful.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35This is a story of Japan's urban imagination
0:56:35 > 0:56:39and how three great cities built its art and culture.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47In Kyoto, the Japanese mastered beauty and elegance.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52In Edo, they found their own, often mischievous, voice.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59And in Tokyo, they turned destruction into creation.
0:57:01 > 0:57:02And in the process,
0:57:02 > 0:57:06they helped define a country as it relentlessly searched for itself.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14Cities are engines of cultural change
0:57:14 > 0:57:16because they throw people together,
0:57:16 > 0:57:20to compete and collaborate and innovate.
0:57:20 > 0:57:22It's the case around the world, of course,
0:57:22 > 0:57:24but I can't think of many countries
0:57:24 > 0:57:27that are more defined by their cities than Japan.
0:57:40 > 0:57:41In the final episode,
0:57:41 > 0:57:45I'll be venturing into the most intimate spaces in Japan -
0:57:45 > 0:57:46its homes.
0:57:48 > 0:57:52I'll explore how, in Japan, the house became a work of art.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55Guided by the spirit of the craftsmen who made it,
0:57:55 > 0:57:58and the rich traditions that developed within its walls,
0:57:58 > 0:58:02the Japanese house went on to transform our lives in the West.