Hello, I’ve recently I was inspired by Japanese I heard from a Japanese video game. The story of the game and the music supplemented the Japanese so well that it turned very dramatic and artful what I was listening.
I want replicate that feeling and am looking for suggestions of your recommendations for beautiful Japanese whether it be from a tv show, a visual novel, or a drama. The key thing is that it’s artful in some capacity. There is a tone to it or undertone. I need all your recommendations.
This is for language learning purposes, but that does not mean that the recommended material was made for foreigners to learn it. The goal is to listen to godly Japanese.
3 comments
Edit: I misunderstood your question. My recommendations don’t matter at all in regards to spoken Japanese. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Art:
Ukiyo-e /Shin Hanga – Japanese woodblock printing.
While Ukyio-e had it’s hight in the Edo period (see Hiroshige, Hokusai, etc.) , Shin Hanga are mostly 20th century with western perspective influence, yet depicting landscapes and street scenes mostly of Japan. (See Hasui Kawase, Hiroshi/Toshi Yoshida)
(Had strong influence on manga/anime).
Media:
Some Classics of Japanese Manga/Anime
Pompoko comes to mind. Studio Gibli is known for the best most artistic one’s. Be warned many Japanese anime that play in Japan, are not considered kids stuff (grave of the fireflies etc.).
YouTube:
For short but interesting documentaries on everything japanese in English I recomend Japanology with Peter Barakan.
for a more Vlog type, Abroad in Japan.
Games:
If you’re interested in feudal Japan, a great game is Ghost of Tsushima (could be the game you mentioned).
Old but gold: Shogun total war.
There is a whole Wikipedia aritcle on Japanese arts.
Hope that helps.
I mean, honestly, just watch any Taiga drama. They are spectacles of beautiful words spoken in beautiful costumes on beautiful sets.
Also, the Chihayafuru anime might be a good way to hear some classic Japanese poetry, that’s some of the most beautiful Japanese ever created, at least in the estimation of the Japanese themselves.
If you can watch 線は、僕を描く I think you can catch multiple aspects – it is a beautiful manga adaptation, with nice acting, great visuals and at the center of the story is art itself (sumi-e and the four gentlemen). As some paintings also are poetically inscripted, I think you can dive from there easily into more artsy nuances of your liking.
This movie is a recent example, but there is plenty of stories around art topics (example, I think I have seen one in which Ninomiya from Arashi learnt wood craft, another in which the main character learnt to make the specific fuji paintings as they are used as background in sento/public baths), there is also plenty of documentation-like material on youtube regarding various crafts, usually the best thing is to enter the search bar with your interest key word in Japanese.
浮世絵 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej6HRzYarEU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej6HRzYarEU)
和太鼓 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGpkBA9VPSo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGpkBA9VPSo)
歌舞伎 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p1i7ezQAXQ
and I stole this from another post discussing the kind of traditional singing, where many people agreed this version is beautiful (the original is by a man and many versions exist):
Rimi Natsukawa 花 〜すべての人の心に花を〜 Hana Subete no Hito no Kokoro ni Hana O
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdZOssGRavI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdZOssGRavI)
Okinawa music, Minyou music, naga-uta, enka, go wherever you prefer.