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It was a bright August morning,

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and commuters were making their way
to work in a provincial city

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in western Japan. It was shaping up
to be a day like any other.

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But at exactly 08:15,

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an American bombardier above them
pulled a lever.

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The commuters may have seen
a flash of light,

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but within seconds,
they and the city of Hiroshima

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were engulfed in the largest
man-made explosion in history.

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70,000 people were killed instantly,

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and the city was all but
annihilated.

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It was the beginning
of the nuclear age.

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But the Japanese had seen disasters
before.

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The history of Japanese cities is
the history of their destruction.

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For centuries, indeed millennia,

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earthquakes, fires, floods,
tsunamis and wars

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have decimated the country's towns
and cities over and over again.

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But this relentless cycle has
had a dramatic creative impact.

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It has forced the Japanese

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to constantly rebuild and reimagine
their cities,

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and today, they are some of

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the most dynamic places
in the world.

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To discover why,
I'm going to explore the culture

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of three great Japanese cities
in three decisive eras.

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Kyoto, the country's capital
for over a thousand years.

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A city of elegance and splendour
that gave birth

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to a golden age of painting
and poetry

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and even turned tea
into an art form.

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Holding this bowl is a kind of
revelation.

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Edo, a teeming metropolis
with a dark underbelly.

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A floating world of actors, artists,

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and sex workers that produced
a bohemian, urban culture

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centuries before the West.

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And Tokyo, today the largest urban
area on the planet,

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a conveyor belt of fashion, film,

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and contemporary art that now
influences the entire world.

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These three cities produce
some of Japan's finest

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and most distinctive art,
but they did more than that.

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They also shaped the country's
attitude

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towards its past and present,

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as well as to East and West,
and in doing so,

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they helped mould the very idea
of Japan itself.

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In the spring of 793 AD,

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a small group of men embarked
on a journey through Honshu.

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They claimed they were
on a hunting trip.

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But they weren't hunting animals,

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they were searching
for a piece of land.

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The men were convinced
that their hometown,

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which was called Nagaoka-kyo,
was cursed.

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For the best part of a decade,
it had been ravaged by floods,

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disease, famine, and even a series
of mysterious murders.

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They knew they had to abandon it,

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but first, they had to find
a site for a new city.

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They hadn't gone far before they
alighted on something promising,

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a vast, fertile basin,

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surrounded on three sides by
a fortress of mountains,

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and irrigated by not one,
but two rivers.

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They had found their site.

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By the autumn of the following year,

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the Emperor had founded
his capital here.

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He called it Heian-kyo,
capital of peace and tranquillity,

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though it later became known
as Kyoto.

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Kyoto has been built and rebuilt
many times since then,

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but it remains a place
of unparalleled riches.

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It is home to 1,600 temples,
400 shrines,

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and 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites,

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more than any other city
in the world.

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The original city of Kyoto was
a work of art in its own right.

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It was inspired by Chang'an,
the great capital of China,

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and every part of it
was carefully planned.

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The city was organised,
almost like New York,

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according to a strict grid system.

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Now, these streets were splendid
thoroughfares.

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Even the narrowest of them was 78
feet wide, and the widest of them,

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Suzaku Avenue, which ran right down
through the middle of the city,

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that was almost 300 feet wide.

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It was probably the widest boulevard
in the world at the time.

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And Suzaku Avenue terminated
right here, in the north of Kyoto,

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at the city palace.

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Now, I've got to say, looking down
over this scale model,

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I really think it looks like
a wonderful place to live.

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Most of the houses are one storey
high, so it's light, it's airy.

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There are gardens, there are lakes,
there are rivers.

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It is a world away from
the dark warrens of filth

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that made up most cities
at the time.

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Kyoto was the blueprint
for a utopia,

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a dream of a rational
and beautiful society

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that the Emperor hoped
would last forever.

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But it wasn't as perfect
as it seemed.

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Over the following generations,

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the palace burned down
no less than 14 times,

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and the whole western half of
the city was repeatedly flooded.

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But this didn't prevent the
fortunate members of the court

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from enjoying the finer things
in life...

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..most of them borrowed
from the Chinese.

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They ruminated on cherry blossoms
and staged moon-watching ceremonies.

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They even collected crickets

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and made music to accompany
their chirps.

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In Kyoto, style was emphatically
substance.

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If any one idea governed the
cultural values of the court,

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it was the word miyabi.

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Now, miyabi doesn't have a direct
English translation,

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but it meant a kind of refinement
or aesthetic sensibility -

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the ability to recognise
and appreciate beauty

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in all of its forms.

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The culture of Kyoto was advanced
in another notable way.

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Many of its leading practitioners
were women,

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and the greatest of them was
Murasaki Shikibu.

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Born into a minor aristocratic
family around 973 AD,

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Murasaki served as a lady-in-waiting
at the Imperial Court.

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But in her spare time,
she started writing something.

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Murasaki was writing a story
of monumental proportions,

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indeed, twice as long
as War And Peace.

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It spanned four generations
and 75 years.

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It contained 430 different
characters and 795 unique poems.

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And today, many consider it to be

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the first novel ever written
anywhere in the world.

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It was called The Tale Of Genji.

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The story focuses on the life
of a rakish young prince

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called Hikaru Genji.

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Intelligent, beautiful and
possessed with impeccable taste,

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Genji is the paragon of miyabi.

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And though he spends much of his
youth womanizing,

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he becomes one of the court's
most powerful men.

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He builds a grand palace in the city

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and fills it
with the women he loves.

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But then things start to go wrong.

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Genji marries a woman who then
bears another man's child.

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His relationships with his other
lovers deteriorate,

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and when his greatest love dies,
Genji loses the will to live.

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It is not long before his life
also comes to an end.

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"The whole world mourned Genji.

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"It was as if a light had gone out.

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"For his ladies, for his
grandchildren,

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"for others who had been close
to him, the sadness was, of course,

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"more immediate and intense.

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"'It is true,' they all thought,

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"'The cherry blossoms of spring
are loved

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"'because they bloom so briefly.'"

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Genji's life was indeed cut short,

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00:09:29,460 --> 00:09:31,780
but Murasaki's remarkable novel
lived on.

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Many illustrations of
The Tale Of Genji

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were made in painted hand scrolls.

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Here in the Tokugawa Museum
in Nagoya,

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are the oldest examples
from the 12th century.

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Only fragments survive,

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but they are some of the country's
greatest treasures.

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They are almost a millennium old.

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The complex patterns
of colour and shape

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still convey powerful
emotional stories.

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And I've come to look at
one of the most affecting.

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This painting captures a turning
point in Genji's life.

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While he was away, his wife had
an affair with his nephew.

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She became pregnant and gave birth
to a boy called Kaoru.

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Now Genji didn't want to admit
to being cuckolded,

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so he had to except Kaoru as his
heir even though he knew he wasn't.

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And here, we can see Genji holding
the baby boy in his arms,

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and though this image is small
and old and tatty,

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you can still see the complex,

159
00:10:42,380 --> 00:10:46,580
powerful emotions racing across
Genji's face.

160
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It's taut with resentment
and humiliation and yet,

161
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as Genji looks down on that
beautiful, innocent boy,

162
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we can see him beginning to soften.

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His eyebrows are lifting
and his little pink lips

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are curling into a smile.

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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.

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00:11:13,620 --> 00:11:16,940
So these powerful diagonals race
across the surface of the picture

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00:11:16,940 --> 00:11:20,060
and imprison Genji
right into the corner.

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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,

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00:11:29,380 --> 00:11:35,140
who has become a nun following her
indiscretion, speaks volumes.

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00:11:35,140 --> 00:11:39,340
They are together, but they are,
of course, completely apart.

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This masterpiece of Japanese art

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reminds me that,
though times may change,

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human emotions don't.

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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.

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00:12:04,540 --> 00:12:09,300
Poetry, calligraphy, garden design
and over the centuries,

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00:12:09,300 --> 00:12:10,980
it even extended to tea.

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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,

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00:12:20,260 --> 00:12:22,700
it began to take on
a special significance.

185
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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.

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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.