While ever-changing and modernizing, Japan stays true to its roots. It has an ancient Asian culture at the forefront of today's globalizing world.

The biwa, a pear-shaped, wooden lute, is played using a triangular plectrum. With no structured tuning, the instrument is adjusted to complement the player's voice, allowing for a highly personalized music. This program showcases the sounds of one of Japan's oldest stringed instruments through performances by Yoshiko Sakata, a noted biwa player and composer who plays both traditional songs and original compositions.

More than 80 years of unstinting devotion to his craft have made 98-year-old Yatsujiro Yamaguchi one of the best textile artists in Japan-and perhaps the world. Filmed at the Nishijin Textile Center and other locations, this program showcases the obi, the key component of traditional female garb and the epitome of Japanese elegance and refinement, as woven by Mr. Yatsujiro. Noh costumes are also spotlighted as the video addresses topics such as the...

This program examines the Japanese matsuri or "summer festival," perhaps the best elucidation of that country's ancient polytheism. Ceremony footage from Tokyo and surrounding areas illustrates various festival activities and explores the Japanese cultural emphasis on community, cooperation, and folk worship. Commentary by Japanese cultural scholar Yoshi Morikatsu, interviews with festival participants, and astonishing crowd scenes of matsuri processions...

"The untold story of how Japan became a cultural superpower through the fantastic inventions that captured--and transformed--the world's imagination. The Walkman. Karaoke. Pikachu. Pac-Man. Akira. Emoji. We've all fallen in love with one or another of Japan's pop-culture creations, from the techy to the wild to the super-kawaii. But as Japanese media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation of Tokyo's pop-fantasy complex, we don't know...

Men playing the stage roles of women is as old as the history of theater; in the tradition of Kabuki, the portrayal of female characters has become a tradition of its own. This program looks at the history of Kabuki and the role of women, and looks particularly at the dynastic development of the onnagata-the female impersonator-and the intricate techniques and details by which a thoroughly masculine male transforms himself into a man's dream of the...

This program, a study of the samurai code of honor, sheds light on the history of Japan while helping to explain how the samurai mentality left an enduring imprint on the psyche of future generations.

Kyoto's immense underground spring has nourished Japan's former capital for more than a thousand years. This program illustrates how Kyoto's incomparable spring water has been integrated into the flow of the city's culture and industry, adding its purifying touch to the tea ceremony, festivals and religious rituals, the disparate arts of kimono-making and tofu-making, and the landscaping of the city's Imperial residences, temples, and shrines. But...

This program explores the glories of summer in Kyoto. The video starts with a tour of the Kurama-dera Temple, spotlighting its history as a shrine to the Sonten trinity, its fire festival and bamboo-cutting ceremony, and the locale's natural beauty. It continues with visits to the gardens of the Tendai Buddhist Manshu-in Temple and Zen Buddhist Ryoanji Temple, as well as to the Gion festival, which dates back to the year 869, and some of the celebrations...