Nature • 2017 • episode "S1E1" • The Art of Japanese Life

Category: Travel

James journeys through Japan's mountainous forests, marvels at its zen gardens and admires centuries-old bonsai, to explore the connections between Japanese culture and the natural environment. Travelling around Japan's stunning island geography, he examines how the country's two great religions, Shinto and Buddhism, helped shape a creative response to nature often very different to the West. But he also considers modern Japan's changing relationship to the natural world and travels to Naoshima Art Island to see how contemporary artists are finding new ways to engage with nature.

Make a donation

Buy a brother a hot coffee? Or a cold beer?

Hope you're finding these documentaries fascinating and eye-opening. It's just me, working hard behind the scenes to bring you this enriching content.

Running and maintaining a website like this takes time and resources. That's why I'm reaching out to you. If you appreciate what I do and would like to support my efforts, would you consider "buying me a coffee"?

Donation addresses

BTC: bc1q8ldskxh4x9qnddhcrgcun8rtvddeldm2a07r2v

ETH: 0x5CCAAA1afc5c5D814129d99277dDb5A979672116

With your donation through , you can show your appreciation and help me keep this project going. Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a significant impact. It goes directly towards covering server costs.

The Art of Japanese Life • 2017 • 3 episodes •

Nature

James journeys through Japan's mountainous forests, marvels at its zen gardens and admires centuries-old bonsai, to explore the connections between Japanese culture and the natural environment. Travelling around Japan's stunning island geography, he examines how the country's two great religions, Shinto and Buddhism, helped shape a creative response to nature often very different to the West. But he also considers modern Japan's changing relationship to the natural world and travels to Naoshima Art Island to see how contemporary artists are finding new ways to engage with nature.

2017 • Travel

Cities

He explores how the artistic life of three Japanese cities shaped the country's attitudes to past and present, east and west, and helped forge the very idea of Japan itself. In Kyoto, James reveals how the flowering of classical culture produced many treasures of Japanese art, including The Tale of Genji, considered to be the first novel ever written. In Edo, where Tokyo now stands, a very different art form emerged, in the wood block prints of artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige. James meets the artisans still creating these prints today, and discovers original works by a great master, Utamaro, who documented the so-called 'floating world'. In contemporary Tokyo, James discovers the darker side of Japan's urbanisation through the photographs of Daido Moriyama, and meets a founder of the Studio Ghibli, Isao Takahata, whose film Grave of the Fireflies helped establish anime as a powerful and serious art form.

2017 • Travel

Home

The clean minimalism of the Japanese home has been exported around the world, from modernist architecture to lifestyle stores like Muji. But the origins of this ubiquitous aesthetic evolved from a system of spiritual and philosophical values dating back centuries. James visits one of Japan's last surviving traditional wooden villages, and the 17th-century villa of Rinshunkaku, and reveals how the unique spirit of Japanese craftsmen turned joinery into an artform - creating houses without the need for nails, screws or glue. Exploring some of the traditional arts of the Japanese home, James also investigates attitudes to domestic culture in modern Japan, meeting photographer Kyoichi Tsuzuki, chronicler of Japan's crowded cities and tiny apartments. Other highlights include a performance by calligrapher and artist Tomoko Kawao and a visit to the hometown of architect Terunobu Fujimori.

2017 • Travel

You might also like

Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island

His first stop is Lord Howe Island, where the pace of life is slow and the population is a steady 350. He also visits Norfolk Island, Australia's most easterly territory and the remotest island on Martin's journey.

S1E1 • Islands of Australia • 2017 • Travel

Scotland

Explore Scotland, a land of soaring peaks, rugged glens, fantastic creatures, and fierce passions. Here, the mysteries of the ancient past exist alongside modern-day wonders of innovation, invention, and creativity. From the home of the boy who never grew up to the land where William Wallace battled a powerful enemy to the lake that may hide a monster, enjoy this one-of-a-kind journey over northern Britain's highlands

S1E4 • Aerial Britain • 2019 • Travel

Deodorant

The cherry blossoms are out, and James hits the streets of Tokyo with his new guide Yujiro. As James discovers, this unique city is home to some of Japan’s greatest eccentrics and ideas. From obsessive trainspotters, musicians and baffling hi-tech gadgetry to cat superfans, penis festivals and mind-blowing computerised art shows, James tries to understand what makes Japan tick.

S1E3 • James May: Our Man in Japan • 2019 • Travel

Transilvania - Part II

Transilvania - Part II

The second leg of the journey through Transilvania. We pick up our journey in the fields just outside the scenic village of Crit.

S1E6 • Flavours of Romania • 2018 • Travel

From Texas to southern Mexico

From Texas to southern Mexico

Simon travels from Texas to southern Mexico, meeting a woman who risks her life to take supplies to migrants stranded on the Mexican side of the border in Reynosa, one of the country's most violent cities, which is dominated by a powerful criminal organisation. He also ventures into the rainforest to explore the Maya city of Yaxchilan, and meets the modern-day descendants of this civilisation, who are increasingly marginalised and treated as second-class citizens.

S1E4 • The Americas with Simon Reeve • 2019 • Travel

Mysuru to Chennai

Mysuru to Chennai

Michael Portillo's Bradshaw's 1913 Handbook of Indian, Foreign and Colonial Travel leads him on railway journey through the modern south Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, from the former princely state of Mysore to the first stronghold of the East India Company in Chennai, formerly Madras. At sunset Michael joins selfie-stick wielding crowds back at the palace as they wait to capture it being illuminated by thousands of bulbs. An early morning yoga class is the perfect way to stretch out before boarding a train to Bengalaru. After a sticky encounter with a mango, he meets the entrepreneurs whose innovations are driving India's hi-tech boom with inventions from mobile heart scanners to cooking apps.

S1E3 • Great Indian Railway Journeys • 2018 • Travel