Animated Pictograms

Fun and easy-to-understand presentation of historical culture and traditional customs that are uniquely Japanese.

  • VISIT TO TEMPLE / SHIRINE
  • BOWING
  • POUNDING RICE CAKE
  • HAILING A CAB / TAXI
  • TAKING A BATH
  • WATER ABLUTION
  • TEA CEREMONY
  • RHYTHMIC CLAPPING AT CELEBRATIONS
  • RIDING THE TRAIN
  • WINNING MOVES IN SUMŌ
  • AWA DANCE FESTIVAL
  • Coming Soon

About The Project

EXPERIENCE JAPAN PICTOGRAMS were developed to provide visual support for tourists in Japan.
For more information about the objectives and design concept of the project, please click here.

Request

If you would like us to create new PICTOGRAMS for you or have other requests, please contact us here.

ROKYOKU

浪曲[ROKYOKU]

Rokyoku is a genre of narrative singing accompanied by the shamisen (three-stringed lute) also known as naniwa-bushi. A rokyoku artist tells a variety of stories filled with drama and emotions in distinctive fushi (verses) and tanka (story lines) in perfect sync with ever-changing shamisen melodies. Rokyoku began originally as a street performance but later developed into yose-gei (vaudeville art) and became one of the three major traditional storytelling arts of Japan along with rakugo and kodan. Have you ever heard of a contemporary rokyoku singer named Takeharu Kunimoto? He sang rock and ballad songs with the shamisen. His early death was a huge loss to his fans and the music world.