Japanese culture

eating

Japan

Japanese (language)

politeness

untranslatable word

gratefulness

helping

incompetence

death

ephemerality

momento mori

pathos

sadness

samurai

transience

Doritos

form - content

identity

materiality

Ship of Theseus

is concerned with finding beauty not just in unusual natural shapes, but also in the delicate proportions of the diaphanous paper screen, the wooden lattices on the facades of traditional town houses and the clear linearity of the modular system of classic Japanese architecture.

At the same time. however, the Japanese culture also perceives and pursues beauty in the perfection of the man-made type- in the delicate proportions of the diaphanous paper screen, the wooden lattices on the facades of traditional town houses and the clear linearity of the modular system of classic Japanese architecture. The constructed artefact is viewed as a sort of building set, whose individual blocks are combined according to fixed rules with ever greater functionality and aesthetic perfection. Man's play instinct naturally prompts him to explore and expand these self-imposed systems in ever new permutations.

is concerned with perceiving and venerating beauty either as a property of natural accident or as the perfection of man-made type.

In his seminal essay on Japanese design, Walter Dodd Ramberg expresses his view that beauty is perceived and venerated in Japan either as a property of natural accident or as the perfection of man-made type.

is marked by a perception of beauty in the simultaneous cultivation and conscious superimposition of manmade perfection and the natural accident whereby the fortuitous order of nature serves to reinforce the rational order imposed by the right angle, and vice versa.

These two ways of perceiving beauty - as natural accident and as the perfection of man-made type - are not. to my mind, mutually exclusive. Quite the opposite: it is their simultaneous cultivation and conscious superimposition that best characterizes the traditional Japanese perception of beauty. The fortuitous order of nature serves to reinforce the rational order imposed by the right angle, and vice versa. In the quest for the perfect fusion physical and intellectual - of these two opposites, in the quest for a kind of aesthetic unto mystical. I see a recurrent motif of the Japanese sense of beauty. one which runs like a hidden thread through the great works of Japanese art right up to the present day. (12)

is marked by an obsession with binding, manipulating and even crippling plants for gardens or miniature landscapes has its roots in a cultural phenomenon of marking off property dating back literally thousands of years.

the Japanese fascination, indeed obsession with binding, manipulating and even crippling plants for gardens or miniature landscapes thus has its roots in a cultural phenomenon dating back literally thousands of years.The art of knotting and binding was probably one of the first manual skills mastered by the early inhabitants of East Asia. The binding of grasses, bushes and trees was used to signal a personal claim to land or otherproperty. It set a shime, a mark of occupation or possession and hence of power. I have already set out, in a number of publications, the complex set of deductions which have led me to conclude that from the archaic Japanese shime IS derived the Japanese word shima, "garden". Shime literally means a "bound artefact", which in turn signifies "occupation" (the verb shimeru possesses all three meanings). The word shima, derived from shime, means " land" or, more specifically, "land which has been taken possession of". It later acquired the meaning of "garden", or rather "a section of nature fenced off from the wilderness". It finally came to mean "island", a "piece of land floating in the untamed ocean" . In the noun shime-nawa, (literally "rope of occupation"), used to describe the ropes delimiting a sacred area or sanctifying a holy object within a Shinto shrine, we find a use of the word shime which goes beyond the politico-economic sense of possession as expressed by binding to assume a religio-magical significance. ' The Japanese fascination, indeed obsession with binding, manipulating and even crippling plants for gardens or miniature landscapes thus has its roots in a cultural phenomenon dating back literally thousands of years.

is responsible for having perfected good manners to the point that they are indistinguishable from rudeness.

The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.

is a culture that tends to rely on the influence of groups in binding and mutually obligating individuals, all in the name of group harmony.

On a continuum differentiating individualism from collectivism, no societies seem farther apart than the American and the Japanese. An American worldview centralizes the personal—attaining personal goals, establishing uniqueness, and asserting personal control and self-reliance—while deemphasizing the responsibilities or constraints the larger society might impose. The Japanese culture, however, emphasizes self-discipline and restraint of internal attributes that might interfere with the cohesion of the group. It tends to rely on the influence of groups in binding and mutually obligating individuals, all in the name of group harmony.

is ia “maternal” society, in which all children are accepted whether they are good or bad, and all are treated equally, as long as they do not renounce the family.

Based on their Judeo-Christian tradition, he told me, Western societies rely on a “paternal” ethic, in which each person is evaluated according to his or her own talents and abilities. Japan, however, more resembles a “maternal” society, in which all children are accepted whether they are good or bad, and all are treated equally, as long as they do not renounce the family.

is a 'culture of acquisition' rather than a 'culture of absorption'. It is an island nation that acquires what it likes from its larger neighbors (or what will work) and localizes it, rejecting or gradually shrugging off what it does not like.

As anthropologists have noted, Japan's is a culture of acquisition rather than of absorption. Japan is an island nation stuck in Shimizu's “in-between” world—with a major continent on either side, each with diverging views, practices, and beliefs. Japan acquires what it likes (or what will work) and localizes it, rejecting or gradually shrugging off what it does not like. So, tempura from the Portuguese, but not their chunky potatoes and onions.

japanese culture, n.Memes

Keep exploring japanese culture→

japanese culture