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Documentaries about Japan

Top 20 documentaries about Japan and its History

In this article, we'll explore the top 20 documentaries about Japan and its history

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Intro: Documentaries about Japan

Japan has always been one of my favourite countries to visit. The country has staggering mountain landscapes, an idiosyncratic and tumultuous urban environment (Tokyo), a rich history of cultures and customs, and incredible food, with good sushi available everywhere you go.

1. Empire of Japan - Documentaries about Japan

Empire of Japan, ancient Japanese empire based on January 3, 1868, while supporters of the emperor Meiji overthrew Yoshinobu, the final Tokugawa shogun. Power could remain nominally vested inside the imperial house till the defeat of Japan in World War II and the enactment of Japan's postwar constitution on May 3 1947.

The Meiji Restoration has as its focal point the coronation of the boy emperor Mutsuhito, who took as his reign called Meiji, or "Enlightened Rule."

2. Voices of the past - Documentaries about Japan

Many global history curricula examine avant-garde Japanese movements from the Meiji Restoration (1868) without delay to the beginnings of World War II. If time permits, a short overview of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars may be included as the start of Japan's trajectory closer to empire and World War II.

The "big idea" taught about Japan in the overdue 19th and early twentieth centuries is that Japan performed fast "trap up" to the West with a profound and enormous transformation and modernization. The complicated dynamics of this speedy modernization—each its advantages and costs—are regularly neglected in a crowded curriculum. Still, it's miles a critical tale, paralleling the story of the costs and benefits of modernization inside the Western nations that preceded Japan in this method.

3. Suicide Forest in Japan - Documentaries about Japan

Did you know that Japan has the world's sixth-highest suicide rate and the second-worst among the world's eight major countries? According to sources, more than 70 suicides were committed every day, with the number expected to exceed 25,000 by 2020. According to reports, men committed the vast majority of these atrocities. Suicide was prevalent and, astonishingly to me, conventional in Japan back in the day, as sad and horrible as it sounds.
Seppuku was an honourable samurai suicide rite that involved stabbing oneself in the belly with a short sword, slicing open the stomach, and then twisting the blade upwards to ensure a deadly wound. However, the act is rarely perpetrated nowadays, since the last incidence was chronicled in 1970 by the well-known Japanese author Mishima Yukio. Recently, many suicide victims have chosen to spend their final moments in what is recognized as the world's most popular suicide destination, the Aokigahara Forest.

4. Tradition and Culture - Documentaries about Japan

In many global history curricula, the take a look at modern Japanese movements from the Meiji Restoration (1868) right away to the beginnings of World War II. It covers a short evaluation of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars as the beginning of Japan's trajectory towards empire and World War II. The "large idea" taught about Japan within the overdue 19th and early 20th centuries are that Japan completed rapidly "entice up" to the West with a profound and significant transformation and modernization.

The complex dynamics of this speedy modernization—every its blessings and expenses—are often neglected in a crowded curriculum. However, it is an important story, paralleling the tale of the fees and benefits of modernization within the Western countries that preceded Japan in this method. Early Japanese culture became heavily influenced using China. During the Edo technology, Japan exercised a strict isolationist policy, ultimate its doors to all relationships with the outdoor global. This act cultivated an excellent Japanese lifestyle.

5. Dolphin in Japan - Documentaries about Japan

The picturesque Japanese fishing village of Taiji (in southwestern Honshu) has become notorious in latest years for its annual dolphin hunt, in which some 2,500 dolphins and different small cetaceans are killed in coastal waters between September and April.

Using a technique referred to as pressure fishing, hunters in a line of motorized boats create a "wall of sound" among the dolphins and the open ocean with the aid of banging on steel poles decreased into the water; the bars have bell-shaped devices at one quit to enlarge the sound. The dolphins, who depend upon sonar to navigate, are at once disoriented and terrified and swim frantically to shore to break out the noise.

6. Japanese Art - Documentaries about Japan

Once a celebrated artist in Tokyo, Taki Katei's artwork has been displayed within the Imperial courtroom, and his magnificent works also travelled to international exhibitions. After his demise, the call for delicate paintings of plants and birds fell out of style, and the world slowly forgot his paintings.

World Museum displayed the first-ever exhibition of Taki Katei's paintings outside Japan as part of the UK-Japan Season of Culture. 'Drawing on Nature: Taki Katei's Japan' showcased our rare archive of amazing preparatory drawings that Taki Katei used for teaching, for making ready a number of his essential commissions, and as an aide-mémoire.

7. Ainu - Documentaries about Japan

Ainu consists of indigenous humans of Hokkaido, Sakhalin, and the Kuril Islands. They were culturally and physically excellent from their Japanese neighbors until the second one, a part of the 20th century. The Ainu can be descendants of an indigenous population as soon as broadly unfold over northern Asia; many cutting-edge Ainu claims a few connections to Japan's prehistoric JĹŤmon way of life.

The conventional Ainu language, an isolate with some dialects, had been almost absolutely supplanted by Japanese with the aid of the early twenty-first century; a language-revitalization motion initiated formal training in Ainu within the 1980s.

8. Minamoto Vs Tiara Rivalry - Documentaries about Japan

Gempei War started from 1180 to 85; final warfare in Japan between the Taira and Minamoto clans resulted in the Minamoto's status quo of the Kamakura shogunate. This navy dictatorship dominated Japan from 1192 to 1333.

The Taira clan had dominated the Imperial authorities from 1160 to 1185. Minamoto Yoritomo, the son of the remarkable Minamoto leader Yoshitomo, was spared after his father's defeat in 1160 because of his teenage.

9. Classical Japanese Music - Documentaries about Japan

Historically, Japanese people's music became strongly motivated by using a track from China, with some of its paperwork being imported from China extra than one thousand years ago. Many famous Japanese musical gadgets originated in China and were then adapted to satisfy neighborhood wishes.

Korea served as a bridge to Japan for many Chinese musical thoughts and exerted influence through court songs. Also to be considered is the presence of northern Asian tribal traditions in the form of Ainu culture surviving on Hokkaido island.

10. Traditional Japanese Music - Documentaries about Japan

Traditional Japanese track typically refers to Japan's ancient folk song. We recognize two forms for the oldest paperwork - shĹŤmyĹŤ, Buddhist chanting, and gagaku, or dramatic court music.

Shōmyō is a ritual tune sung in a Buddhist ceremony via a set of Buddhist clergymen – actually translated, the phrase 'shōmyō' combines the characters for 'voice' and 'expertise'. Gagaku is the oldest of Japan's musical traditions and includes dances and songs in styles – Kagaku, a piece of instrumental music, and seigaku, a shape of the vocal melody.

11. Japanese Music Instruments - Documentaries about Japan

The shamisen resembles a guitar with a long, thin neck and a small rectangular frame protected with pores and skin. It has three strings, with the pitch adjusted through tuning pegs on the top, like a guitar or violin. It's performed with a massive triangular plectrum that's used to strike the strings. The shakuhachi is a flute made of bamboo that's played using blowing on one end. It is sometimes called a '5-holed bamboo flute' in English; it has four holes at the front, one at the end, and a distinctively poignant tone characterizes it.

Historians assume the koto was invented around the fifth to the one-third century BC in China, with the thirteen-stringed model coming to Japan throughout the Nara duration (710-794). This big wood device is performed with alternatives worn on the fingers and uses movable bridges placed under every string to alternate the pitch.

12. A journey between tradition and modernity - Documentaries about Japan

Embark on a journey to discover all of the wonders presented by using Japan through its architecture and culture. It starts a fantastic city which has retained a great deal of its traditional look with its several temples. The temples start from the Kiyomizu Dera Temple to the famous for its large pillars and its excellent view of the town, to the well-known Golden Pavilion of Kinkakuji, thru the peaceful surroundings of the Ginkaku-Ji temple with its lovely gardens.

The Geishas in the Gion district also are an authentic Japanese image and substantially uploaded to the environment so unique that they reign in Kyoto. Nansen-Ji is a need to-see in Kyoto; it's miles a relaxing area surrounded with the aid of dazzling bamboo in which you may admire the cherry blossoms and glimpse Koi fishes in beautiful ponds.

13. Japanese Customs: Bowing - Documentaries about Japan

Bowing is nothing less than an artwork shape in Japan. Bowing ranges from a slight head nod to a bit of waist bend. For tourists, a simple inclination of the head or a try at a bow at the waist will typically suffice.

14. Japan: Shedding Light On The Hidden Sides of Japan

Despite what true-to-life locations could have us agree with, anime series do not often portray the entirety of Japan. So for folks trying to open their eyes to a facet of Japan that's now not often seen in anime, it's time to binge via those Japanese documentaries and deepen your expertise of the Land of the Rising Sun.

Aside from mouth-watering close-up photographs of sushi, the movie also explores Jiro's courting with his son Yoshikazu, the eventual heir of the eating place. As Yoshikazu attempts to capture up with his father's legacy, troubles of the circle of relatives dynamics and how Jiro's mastery casts a long shadow over his son are brought to the floor.

15. Memoirs Of A Secret - Documentaries about Japan

In the early 16th century, Japan was a warlike society ruled by samurai and their daimyo warlords. When Portuguese merchants arrived in 1543, they were the primary Europeans to set foot in Japan. Missionaries fast set out to transform the state into Christianity. In the same year, a samurai boy named Tokugawa Ieyasu was born to a low-ranking daimyo own family.

To show his own family's loyalty to their ruling warlord, Ieyasu is given as a hostage, and he stays so for the maximum of his early life. When he's finally freed, Ieyasu reclaims his circle of relatives' area and allies himself with the maximum powerful rulers in Japan: Oda Nobunaga and his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

16. Japanese Food and Diet Requirements

The traditional Japanese food plan is an entire-ingredients-based weight loss program rich in fish, seafood, and plant-based ingredients with minimal amounts of animal protein, delivered sugars, and fat.

It's based on conventional Japanese delicacies, also called "washoku," which includes small dishes of easy, sparkling, and seasonal elements.

17. Japanese Food guide - Documentaries about Japan

The `Japanese meals guide spinning pinnacle's designed to resemble the well-known traditional Japanese toy. It is a rotating inverted cone divided from the standard into food organization layers that depict foods commonly in cooked form /dishes. The order of the food businesses is given by using the advocated each day servings.

At the top, there are grain-based totally dishes (rice, bread, noodles, and pasta), accompanied by way of vegetable-based meals (which include salads, cooked veggies, and soups), and fish, eggs, and meat dishes. At the bottom are milk and fruit. An individual going for walks on the gyrating spinning pinnacle represents the importance of doing bodily hobbies frequently to reveal inaccurate health.

18. Japanese Traditional Diet - Documentaries about Japan

The traditional Japanese food plan includes minimally processed, seasonal meals served in an expansion of small dishes. This style of eating emphasizes dishes' natural flavors rather than covering them with sauces or seasonings.

The eating regimen is rich in steamed rice, noodles, fish, tofu, natto, seaweed, and clean, cooked, or pickled fruits and vegetables, however low in introduced sugars and fat. It may include eggs, dairy, or meat, although those generally make up a small part of the diet.

19. Religion in Japan - Documentaries about Japan

Shinto and Buddhism are Japan's two major religions. Shinto is as old as the Japanese culture, even as Buddhism changed into imported from the mainland in the 6th century. Since then, the two religions have been coexisting relatively harmoniously and complemented each different to a particular diploma. Most Japanese bear in mind themselves Buddhist, Shintoist, or each.

Religion does no longer plays a significant function within the ordinary life of maximum Japanese humans today. The familiar individual commonly follows the religious rituals at ceremonies like beginning, weddings, and funerals, may also go to a shrine or temple on New Year and participate at nearby festivals (matsuri), maximum of which have a non-secular history.

20. Beautiful Japan - Documentaries about Japan

Pretty places abound in Japan. From the person-made beauty of JAPANESE TEMPLES and SHINTO SHRINES to the natural landscapes which have become icons of the united states, there are limitless lovely places in Japan to visit.

Japan is a country that cares about aesthetics. City streets are clean, gardens are perfectly manicured, and the structure is in harmony with the natural surroundings.

Documentaries about Japan: Conclusion

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Picture Credits: @blackodc on Unsplash

Images credits: Unsplash.com