Japonisme

A long while back, I never wanted to visit Japan worrying about not being able to communicate and get around. After a conference in Japan, I have become a total convert. Not being able to communicate turned out to be much less of a problem than I first thought; people are so willing and trying their hardest to understand what you try to say. In fact, it’s quite charming in a strange yet pleasant way, not knowing what people were talking about and always learn new ways of hand gestures. Japan’s so clean, tidy and orderly. Japanese people are ever so polite and considerate. Japanese onsen brings me back to the country again and again; so liberating and relaxing. The more I visit Japan, the more I want to learn about bits and pieces of Japanese culture. I picked this book up hoping to learn more and perhaps reminiscing about my time in Japan. The book was quite light on content and also on number of pages. There were a lot of pictures. At times I felt the book was wishy-washy, hokum even, at some other point, however, it was deep and I felt the need to take time to slowly digest.

The followings are part that I like in the book.

Japan was a closed country for two and a half century, a total national seclusions. Very few were allowed in or out of the country during that period. The customs, tradition and culture of Japan developed and blossomed in that remote bubble and have made the country we know today quite different from anywhere else in the world.

Ikigai

It is that thing in our lives that provides a delicious richness – it’s what gives life its meaning what makes you happy? What is important to you? Finding the answers to these questions over time can help you to realise what your driver is.

Wabi-sabi

The original meaning of wabi referred to the feeling of remote loneliness that comes with living in nature, and the paradoxical beauty of imperfection (like a broken cup fixed with gold, through kintsugi).

Sabi, depending on the context, can mean ‘withered’, ‘lean’ or ‘cooled’, but more often refers to the beauty of ageing – like the changing hue of wood, the comeliness of rust

The wabi-sabi aesthetic and approach to beauty means accepting the natural ageing process – wrinkles will come, creases will appear – and being able to recognise,   remember and find happiness in the moments that have passed.

This particular part is quite interesting.

There is a dental-surgery trend to which many Japanese women subscribe in order to attain their version of a ‘perfect smile’. It is called yaeba, and paradoxical though it may be, it is actually a smile that is crooked, out of line. The beauty in yaeba is that it represents the vivacity of youth, and the idea that an imperfect, snaggle-toothed smile is endearing and beautiful as a result of its flaws.

As a dental student, we learnt that imperfection makes restored teeth more realistic, but perhaps we don’t take to the extreme of yaeba.

Root of wabi-sabi

It’s more about being canny and prudent and making do. And it’s about finding satisfaction, contentment and happiness by doing so. Part of this has to do with the mentality that comes with living in a place so fraught with earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters. Quite simply, you learn to let go.

Kintsugi

The art of repairing broken ceramic with gold resin. Flaws are accentuated and valued.

The hardships we face really do shape who we are as people. In the same way that you need the bitter in order to taste the sweet, the struggles we all face – loss, betrayal, heartbreak, disappointment – are a part of our histories, our identities and our stories.

Forest bathing

Shinrin-yoku is a term originally coined by the Japanese Ministry for Agriculture in the 1980s to describe the practice of healing through being immersed in nature.

Words

Language tells us a lot about the cultures and the people’s way of thinking. I heard that eskimos have over 40 words to describe snow.

Komorebi

It’s used to describe the kind of light you see in a forest – the rays of sun that are filtered through the leaves of the trees.

I was wondering if you have a specific word to describe a specific sun rays, what does that tell about the people – the owners of the language. They must be very observant and very in-tune with nature.

Ojamashimasu

When entering someone else’s home. As you enter, you offer the standard greeting of ojamashimasu, the closest translation of which would be ‘I’m going to disturb you’, or, ‘I’m going to be in your way’. The connotations are (usually) far from negative; rather, they are an acknowledgement of the imposition on the host, and a reference to the hospitality you’re about to receive. It’s a little apologetic, and more deferential, in that you are recognising that you are going to be in your host’s personal space, potentially in their way, and dependent on them within it. This greeting is telling of the wider cultural respect for the space of others, and of communal space as well.