Nambu-tekki Cast Ironware  (03:51)
Morioka is located near rich deposits of iron ore, and has been famous for its specialist ironware industry since the mid 17th century. The city became known for nambu-tekki - a style of cast iron kettles and tea pots that combine delicate beauty and robust solidity. The good looks and practicality of this ironware method led to its adoption for a range of practical cooking utensils, and the modern version of this old craft method is also widely popular for ornamentation and interior design.

Jomon Art - Ancient yet Modern  (04:05)
Some of the oldest pottery vessels in the world have been found in Japan, dating to what is called the Jomon Period, from around 16,500 to 3,000 years ago. "Jomon" means straw rope pattern - the method used to decorate these pots. As they turned from a nomadic to a semi-sedentary life, the Jomon people began producing increasingly sophisticated pottery, including human and animal figures. Jomon art has a striking and timeless beauty that continues to inspire modern Japanese artists.

Kendo - A Sport for Mind and Body  (03:37)
The popular sport of Kendo originated in sword training methods developed about 300 years ago. The samurai invented ways to safely hone their sword skills by sparring with special bamboo sticks. In today's sport, competitors wearing protective clothing try to strike specified areas of their opponent's head and body to score points. Kendo's rigorous, training of physical techniques and the calm quickness of mind needed for combat remain an excellent way to develop a strong spirit in a strong mind.

The Miniature Appeal of Netsuke  (03:51)
Most Japanese have a small ornament hanging from their cellphone strap. This modern trend is in fact an old tradition, originating in 17th century netsuke - tiny toggles used to secure pouches or boxes to kimono sashes. At first these were functional objects, necessary to carry items on a pocketless kimono, but custom designs became fashionable and antique netsuke are highly valued for their artistic beauty. Modern netsuke designers continue to find new uses for this old idea.

Nature's Beauty at Lake Akan  (03:51)
Lake Akan, in eastern Hokkaido, is a beautiful lake set among mountains and primeval forest that has become a popular year-round leisure destination. One unusual pastime is to sit in tents to fish through holes in the ice when the lake freezes in winter. This also the home of unusual green spheres of algae called marimo. Formed by the rare conditions in the lake, marimo found here are larger than anywhere else in the world. A festival at the lakeside town features songs and dances in praise of nature by the local Ainu people.

Wazuma - Japanese Traditional Magic  (03:43)
Japanese stage magic is possibly one of the oldest in the world, originating as far back as the 8th century and with manuals of techniques surviving from 300 years ago. Old woodblock prints show wazuma magicians performing the same tricks you can see on stage today - illusions using traditional Japanese items such as washi paper, folding fans and of course, gorgeous kimonos. Most spectacular is the mizugei, where performers dexterously manipulate spouting columns of water.

Unfolding the story of the kyo-sensu  (04:23)
The first folding fans were made in Kyoto (the kyo in kyo-sensu) about 1,200 years ago, much later spreading to China and then, via the Silk Road, to Europe. The Japanese, living in a country with long hot summers, quickly adopted this new design that allowed fans to be carried so conveniently when not in use. Over the centuries, craftsmen created a tradition of beauty in the making of their bamboo frames and hand-painted washi paper that lives on today in Japan, both in everyday life and in high culture.

Matsuri-zushi — festival sushi  (03:40)
Sushi is world famous, but the kind of sushi known overseas is just one of many that are eaten inside Japan. Matsuri-zushi is a term describing sushi eaten at festivals and celebrations, and even this comes in many varieties, made using different local ingredients and methods. We look at two famous regional styles — Okayama's extravagant  bara-zushi, and Chiba's futomaki-zushi, featuring intricate designs that combine several layers of seaweed-wrapped rolls.

Iriomote's Shichi Festival  (03:42)
Iriomote is a subtropical, mangrove-covered island at Japan's southernmost tip, known for its rare wildlife, beautiful scenery and distinctive local culture. The Shichi Festival, unique to a small western part of Iriomote, is a harvest festival with a history going back several centuries. It features a masked man representing Miriku, god of happiness, who leads the villagers in a parade to the seashore where they dance as boats are rowed out to greet blessings sent from over the sea by the harvest god.

Funadansu Sea Chests  (03:40)
Being an island nation where it was always easier to transport goods by water, Japan has a long and proud seafaring tradition. Back in the days of sail, no other country developed such sophisticated techniques for making beautiful, sturdy sea chests to protect valuables and documents. With secret compartments and cunning locks, precisely designed to be watertight and floatable, beautifully decorated old funadansu are sought-after collectors items and there is still a demand for new chests, hand-made using traditional techniques.

Sweet Accessories  (03:24)
Right at this moment, there's a new trend sweeping the streets of Japan. Like women everywhere, Japanese women delight in sweet desserts and in fashion accessories, and now they've found a way to combine these two passions. On rings, pendants, cell phone straps, bracelets - the trend today is to wear tiny accessories that are perfect replicas of your favorite sweets. Top brands are even sold in stores resembling upscale confectionary boutiques.

Yamaga Lantern Festival  (03:52)
In one of Japan's oldest and best-known fire festivals, a parade of blazing pine torches commemorates a legendary imperial visit to Yamaga. This venerable Kyushu merchant town has a unique 500-year old tradition of making lanterns out of washi craft paper, and the highlight of the festival is the sight of 1,000 dancers circling in the slow Sen-nin Toro  Odori, illuminated by the gentle flickering glow of the paper lanterns they wear on their heads. The procession ends with the offering of the lanterns at ancient Omiya Shrine.

Wagakki – Ancient Japanese Musical Instruments  (04:18)
When the Japanese adopted the ancient Chinese court music tradition called gagaku, they also imported a complete orchestra of musical instruments. These were the ancestors of instruments still played today, such as the 13-stringed koto harp, the shakuhachi bamboo flute and the three-stringed shamisen lute. Over many centuries, Japanese musicians not only modified the instruments, they also evolved a unique variation on the pentatonic scale used everywhere else, giving this music a sound only heard in Japan.

Dancing the Summer Nights Away  (03:51)
Gujo Hachiman is a well-preserved old castle town in the mountains of Gifu; a town of rivers, springs and waterways. It is most famous for its 400-year old dance festival, the Gujo Odori. For 32 nights each summer, the town's old streets are packed with people dancing and singing the traditional songs, and for several of these nights, the dancing goes on till dawn. A feature of this festival is that the dancing is open to anyone - visitors are encouraged to join in, and the dances themselves are quite easy to imitate.

Mottainai - Even Tiny Scraps Can Be Reused  (03:45)
Mottainai is a traditional Japanese custom of never wasting anything that can be reused, and Kaga Yubinuki are a good example. The old region of Kaga (part of today's Ishikawa) was famous for kimonos and textile dying. In the Kaga Yuzen style of kimono, many colors of thread are used for each piece, creating large amounts of cast off short lengths of silk thread. The old seamstresses recycled the threads to make thimbles (yubinuki), and over the centuries these silk thimbles evolved into delicately patterned little pieces of folk art.

Mizuhiki - The Art of Tying Paper Cords  (03:18)
A custom that's long been part of daily life in Japan is to present gifts or offerings in an envelope decorated with a complex knot of colored cords. The 1,000-year old custom of mizuhiki symbolizes the wish that the ties binding giver to receiver will never break. Today, in addition to the traditional use, people also use mizuhiki to tie many other things, such as birthday cards, companies are developing new products using mizuhiki cords and artists are adapting the old materials and techniques to create art objects.

When Mending Becomes an Art   (03:24)
Mottainai is a traditional Japanese custom of never wasting anything that can be repaired instead. Kintsugi originated 400 years ago as a method for mending broken pottery with a lacquer resin glue, repeatedly polishing many layers of lacquer for a seamless join. Artisans decorated their repairs by adding gold dust to the lacquer, and kintsugi graduallydeveloped into an art form in which the repair actually added beauty and value. Old ceramics mended in this way can be extremely valuable, and the art itself is becoming popular again.