Yeah, back in around 2003 WotC released a trio of Magic sets:
Champions of Kamigawa
Betrayers of Kamigawa
Saviors of Kamigawa
It was a world inspired by samurai tales and Shinto mythology, with kami and kirin and kappa and more. The sets had great flavor, but the mechanics weren't the best and the power level wasn't particularly competitive.
Also, a thing your average player wouldn't have known, but the Kamigawa sets occurred a thousand years before the current time period of the rest of the sets. So the speculation is that Neon Dynasty is the current version of the world, with a thousand years of technology development.