Explorer’s Collection JAPAN

This is a story of a young French traveler who, on a journey around the countryside, discovers little by little how the distinctive culture and history of Japan have formed.

Harvesting in the countryside in the morning.

The traveler experiences a traditional Japanese way of living in which abundant local resources circulate for daily use. The activities range from the making of a New Year straw festoon with rice straws prepared over a yearlong period; flower arrangement using plants gathered in the mountains with a host who grew up in a mountainous area; Yokono Washi papermaking, a type of traditional Japanese paper that is very thin and translucent; to the cooking of local dishes with local beef and vegetables harvested in the morning.

Tsuyama, which thrived in the Edo period as a castle town, preserves castles and an old historical townscape. It is a town that gives travelers and viewers of the video an opportunity to “encounter an original landscape of Japan.”