Explore Japan

tv show

poster for Explore Japan

21 total episodes

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1 seasons

First Aired November 25, 2016

Overview

Japan continues to thrive as it incorporates cultural elements of music, fashion, cuisine, sports, arts and science from around the world. People’s encounters trigger the fusion of Japan’s and the world’s diverse culture, unceasingly producing a myriad of new phenomena and events. This series will feature how various culture in modern Japan and overseas blend together and influence each other.

tv poster

The World of Miniatures

Season 1 - Episode 7 - 0h 28m

Air Date

December 17, 2020

Overview

The world of miniatures is a surprisingly whimsical one, and among it Japanese miniatures have gained a worldwide reputation for being exceptionally unique. In 2020, one of the world’s largest indoor miniature theme parks opened in Tokyo. We watched the craft of a miniature artist with over 2.5 million followers on Instagram, as he uses his incredible imagination to create art with substitution, or mitate: Ordinary objects such as staples and vegetables stand in for scenery or landscape to create immense worlds. Another artist specializes in miniatures carefully recreating the images of rooms and buildings so as to immortalize the memories found within. His works portray the recollections of those who order the miniatures, and the Japanese sensibilities embodied by them. Examining the creations of 3 different miniature artists, the program explores Japan’s largely unknown history of miniatures, and what it is about them that has earned such an adoring following in Japan.