What is it about Japan? where does Japanophilia come from? Why do some people go crazy for it, whilst others only last a weekend if that, (I've heard of people get off one plane, just to take the next one back). Of course, as with anything it's a combination of factors, but in Japan's case, I put it down to a delicious paradox- the fact that it is the home to so much that is ultra-new and also the birthplace of the uber-old. What do I mean? Well, where else can you find manga and cosplay 15 minutes from a silent, serene temple garden, with carp swimming lazily around the water-lilies? What other country has given birth to such diverse social stereotypes as the salaryman, the otaku, and the freeta?
Beneath this is the realisation that underneath all the seeming diversity there lurks the same basic premise- of taking the aesthetic to the logical extreme and seeing where it goes from there- a dislike of half-measures and compromised affections and a search for the 110% of everything. Yes, the otaku is just as driven o do what he does as the salaryman is for his thing. The freeta is just as judiciously avoiding work as his father is in going to it. Cosplay may look flashy but it is really quite a silent thing, just a pose for the camera and an effort to fulfill the look, but almost none to really get in character as such. The sheer effort is not too different from a Buddhist monk's attempts to achieve satori, through the endless private rigours of silent za-zen meditations.
Japan is a pose, nothing more. The appearance of a philosophy but not it's debate. It offers endless, visual stimulation that tells of the exotic, the determined, the end. Japan is popular for the craziness and the silence and with those who can see that they amount to the same thing? Am I exaggerating? Of course I am! Am I merely having fun with words and during parallels that don't even exist? Maybe... but the fact remains that Japan has a reputation for being a land of the old and the new- and not much in between.
Friday, 2 April 2010
Older Posts
Just to give this publication a head-start, I'll be republishing some posts that were formerly featured on Perfect Futures, which will from now be more focussed on the future and perfection, as the name implies. The originals can be found under this thread, but the idea of incorporating them here would be to embellish them a bit. So yes, I do have many 'blogs', not all of them regularly updated, but any any given moment I am probably updating something (especially Flickr, where I get the most feedback, even if it is in the 'cool picture' category, though sometimes it goes beyond that and onto other people's blogs).
I also hope to network with other bloggers/writers and feature their articles here. I want it to be a resource for Japan fans all over the world, so the sky is no limit!
I also hope to network with other bloggers/writers and feature their articles here. I want it to be a resource for Japan fans all over the world, so the sky is no limit!
Welcome to Japanophilia!
Well, here it is at long last. What is, you ask? Japanophilia, my blog about the things I enjoy in Japan, taken away from all the other things I write about or photograph on my various other sites. I realised, finally, that I wanted to specialise in something that I am seen as having an unusual access to- that being Japanese culture. This seemed to be as good a way as any to express it.
So what is, or isn't, this blog? Well, it won't provide an appropriately critical examination of Japan, whatever that is. No, this is far from being a perfect country, but social critiques, necessary though they may be, are not the primary reason for this blog's existence.
No, this blog is to express that endless dream of 'the real Japan', a fantastic land on which the sun never sets, only endlessly rising. It is a land in which the rich culture and history come alive once again, being revisited amongst the hustle and bustle of modern life, with all it's seeming insanity. It is a land in which the pursuit of beautiful simplicity takes precedence over all else, yet is accompanied by the comfortable feeling that all is as it should be, anyway.
It is a fantasy to be found amongst the temples, shrines and gardens that dot this archipelago like oasis in a Saharan desert, offering cultural repose. This blog is about a Japan that perhaps no longer is, or even never was, for any but the most aesthetic samuri-monk who ever lived. It is a Japan in which all the cherry blossoms are perfect. It is a place I love to visit- and I hope, through this blog, you can, too.
So what is, or isn't, this blog? Well, it won't provide an appropriately critical examination of Japan, whatever that is. No, this is far from being a perfect country, but social critiques, necessary though they may be, are not the primary reason for this blog's existence.
No, this blog is to express that endless dream of 'the real Japan', a fantastic land on which the sun never sets, only endlessly rising. It is a land in which the rich culture and history come alive once again, being revisited amongst the hustle and bustle of modern life, with all it's seeming insanity. It is a land in which the pursuit of beautiful simplicity takes precedence over all else, yet is accompanied by the comfortable feeling that all is as it should be, anyway.
It is a fantasy to be found amongst the temples, shrines and gardens that dot this archipelago like oasis in a Saharan desert, offering cultural repose. This blog is about a Japan that perhaps no longer is, or even never was, for any but the most aesthetic samuri-monk who ever lived. It is a Japan in which all the cherry blossoms are perfect. It is a place I love to visit- and I hope, through this blog, you can, too.
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