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Shodou and Seishin

Shodou is a traditional Japanese writing style using sumi and writing brush. In Shodou there is a saying called Ippitunyuukonn (一筆入魂) meaning to put their soul in every one stroke of their writing. In Japan, the idea of tamashii (soul) or seishinn (mental, will power, etc) are valued as one of the strongest sources to success.

             The word dou, in shodou means a path in Japanese. There are other studies that lead to the path such as kendou, judou, kyudou, and sadou. All those studies value the maturing of their mental or soul through experiencing the study of dou. When I used to take shodou class when I was in elementary my teacher said on concentrate on the writing because your writing is a mirror of one’s heart. My teacher also said that by looking at your heart through writing, you can elevate yourself into a mature being.

             Although many people learning such dou, especially when they are young, look forward to winning the contests or competitions but when I see the mentors of dou, they always value the maturation students’ mental and soul through the dou. This heavy emphasis on the inner part of the person is unique to Japan and instead of seeing the results in the competition, gaining the inner richness is more meaningful in Japanese society. Shodou is one of those many ways in Japan to find a path that elevates one’s self to a better being.

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Followers on Instagram Determines One’s Value

The fancy food shops attract many customers today because of Japanese people, especially young people and women wanting to post fancy pictures on Instagram. Above is a picture of a curry shop famous for a curry that to Insutabae (a newly made Japanese word meaning to look great on Instagram). Indeed, I saw many young women in this restaurant taking photos of the curry. One reason why Japanese people are attracted to Instagram is because it can visualize how much people value you by the number of “likes”.

             In Japan individuality is thought to associate with negative reciprocities like being selfish or irresponsible, while being tuned in a group is seen as a positive way of living. Therefore, Japanese people must care about what other people think of them. Being the best within a group is preferred rather than being unique but outside of the group.

             Although the Western individualism is slowly getting popular in Japan there are still many people concerned about the eyes of others and how they are being judged. For some Japanese people feel safe and secure or to feel confident by being admitted by people, the “likes” on Instagram is important. It gives the exact number of the people who admit, care and like what you do. That is why many Japanese people chase around fancy restaurants and shops for better photographs to post.

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Omotenashi and Packaging

Japan is known as a country with a high quality of service in shops. The picture above is from a bakery. My mother, a Japanese, says that it is normal for a bakery to pack each bread in a different plastic bag. While my father, a Pakistani, freaks out about how time-consuming it is to pack each bread and thinks that it is a waste of plastic bags. Not only bread but other products like snacks and souvenirs is also packed in plastic a multiple time, and it is quite unique to have this much packaging covering up the food. Many factors can contribute to why Japanese shops cover up the food so neatly, and one reason can be Japanese hospitality.

              During the presentation of the 125th IOC session, Christel Takigawa made a speech putting emphasis on the Japanese Omotenashi: translated as the selfless hospitality. (Presentation by Tokyo, Japan) It is embedded in the Japanese culture host the visitors, whether at home or in business, in such a guest-centered way that they shall not feel inconvenience at all.

             Due to the heart of Omotenashi, even at the small shops or for a cheap box of cookies, the food will be neatly packed in layers of plastic covers. To have the food as clean and safe as possible, to have it handy to carry around, and to have it in small quantities so that the customer can eat them just right the amount they want all is a part of the Japanese hospitality Omotenashi; one of the reasons why there is excess packaging of food.

 Work Cited

Olympic. “Presentation by Tokyo, Japan.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 10, Sept. 2013

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Are Japanese Parents Spoiling Their Child？

Playing equipment are disappearing from the park alongside the increase in the prohibition to play in the park. For children, the park is no longer an attractive place to play. The government is putting those restrictions to the park because of the complaints that parents make in regards to child safety. But there is an ongoing debate whether such parents’ actions have gone too far. Since the park is an important place for the child to play and socialize with other children, heavy restrictions on the park are thought to interfere with child growth. Is the Japanese parent’s excessive care spoiling their child?

             From the in-class viewing of “Preschool in Three Cultures” by Tobin et al. (1) we saw that Chinese teachers were concerned that because of the one-child policy, parents are caring too much about their child leading to spoiling their children. Perhaps due to the drop in the birth rate in Japan, the same issue is happening in Japan too. When the parents have only one child their entire focus will be on them caring for them too much. This is probably the reason for the parents giving complains to the government to stop dangerous activities in the park.

             But from the in-class viewing, we saw that Japanese preschools policies are to allow children to take challenges and have adults’ interventions minimal as possible. As for myself growing up in Japan, I am thankful how the kindergarten teachers tried to encourage us to solve fights on our own. But preschool experience is probably not enough for a child to adopt such social skills. Playing in the parks and interacting with totally new faces each time a child goes out to play is also important.

             However, today I see very few children playing in the park. Therefore, it can be true that some parents are caring too much about there children which may be ending up to spoil their kids, taking away their chances to socialize at the park.

(1) Preschool in Three Cultures Collection. Dir. Joseph Tobin, and Kanopy. Joseph Tobin; Kanopy Streaming, 2011.

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Preparing Bento Means a Lot to Wives and Mothers

Bento is a Japanese lunch that you bring from home in a lunch box called bento-bako. It is known to be very colorful, fancy, and have well-balanced nutrition. Why do Japanese wives and mothers wake up early and take time to cook such a nice lunch? It is not only to provide their husbands and kids with a meal to eat outside but it is also a part of their communication and how they will be judged from the outsiders.

             Japan is a high context culture, a culture which values non-verbal communication over the spoken words. For a typical Japanese wife, showing her respect to her husband, or showing her love towards kids, is not done through words but done through doing through chores. Especially in Japan the more time a person sacrifices and the more freedom a person gives up, it is deemed to be an act of love and respect. So many wives in Japan puts doing chores for her husbands and kids as their top priority and leaves things relating to her personal things at the bottom of the list. That is one of the reasons why Japanese mothers and wives spend a lot of time in bento making.

             Another reason is social value. In Japan to be a good mother or a wife means staying at the house and sacrificing her time to her family. The results of the two reasons may be the same but this reason is an imposed reason given by society. Especially because bento is something that the outsiders see, many mothers and wives are judged whether they are doing good by how the bento looks. This is another reason why Japanese bento is must be colorful and nutritious all the time.

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Oshiire and Habitus

The oshiire is a traditional Japanese built-in closet. Even in modern houses, you can see this in a tatami room. This oshiire is key to how Japanese people can use one room for multiple purposes.

To begin with, a question of why a room must be multifunctional arises. this is due to the limited space. Although an ideal life in Japan today is to have a detached house, from the Edo period until today, a typical Japanese live in a collective house. Most people in Edo were living in a collective house called Nagaya and people today live in Shugojutaku or Danchi. Due to these limited spaces, people had to use a single room for a dining room, bedroom, reception for guest and other purposes.

To transform a room to a different function, people needed a handy space where they could put the unnecessary materials away and grab those materials out quickly. Therefore, unlike a western closet where you just use to put away clothes and small items, oshiire is used to put futon mattress and blankets so that the bedroom can become a room to study or to eat.

Oshiire cleverly suits the Japanese houses that have limited space. Oshiire was born through the Japanese people's experience with limited space and therefore could be called a part of Japan's habitus.

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Smoking in Japan Over Time

Historically, tobacco was a luxury good in Japan. In the Edo period, it was believed that to see tobacco for a new year dream is one of the 6 luckiest dreams, called Ichi Fuji Ni Taka San Nasubi Shi Sen Go Tobacco Roku Zatou. In 1965 more than 80% of the adult’s population was smoking but since then the smoking population has declined. There are many factors that contribute to the decline of the smoking population and one of them is the change in societal norms.

             In the Showa period most men were smoking cigarettes. The picture above is a coffee shop that has a history of longer than 60 years. The walls of the coffee shop were layered with tobacco stains telling that there have been many people smoking here. But today there is no ashtray on the table for the smokers.

             People are moving away from smoking today because people do not like the smell of it and the health effects that it could cause not only to the smoker but by second-hand smoke. As society developed people’s concern for hygiene also rose. Japan today is now known to be one of the cleanest countries, but once people get used to the cleanness, people start to want more. Many people carry around sprays and sheets for sterilization and people wear masks to avoid germs even when they are not sick. The possibility of the side effects caused by the tobacco has become intolerable to the people and there are voices not only to separate smokers and non-smokers but to keep the smokers in a restricted space.

             Back in the Showa people thought that having a cigarette in their hand makes a man look mature and handsome but today smoking is seen to be done by the people addicted to a health-damaging drug. It can be said that Japanese peoples sensibility to health, hygiene and cleanliness is rising each year and people are moving away from cigarettes.

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Wayosecchu (Combining Japanese with the West)

Above is the picture of annpann a bread with annko (sweetened Azuki beans paste) inside. There are many recipes that have its origins in Western food but has been Japanized such as Japanese curry rice, Omurice (omelet on flavored rice), Nikujaga, Tenpura etc. Such ideas to combine Western ideas with Japanese ideas is called Wayosecchu allowing Japan to have unique plentiful varieties of recipes even at home. But why did this happen in Japanese food culture? Perhaps the history of food in Japan was unique.

             In the West, enjoying a meal was a luxury limited to the aristocracy or the bourgeoisie having a chef at their house ready to serve any dish they wanted. But in Japan, the advantage of enjoying the meal was always on the side of ordinary citizens. Street foods were popular in the Edo period where there were small shops specialized for one dish like sushi or Tenpura. The pedestrians could stop by and eat a dish or two without paying expensive money. This allows people to be used to having multiple choices in their meals.

             Also, by having the chefs specialized in one dish but having shops nearby each other allows them to cooperate and come up with new ideas. For example, Soba was unpopular before the Edo period because Soba noodles became short while boiling it and people didn’t enjoy short noodles. But one day a Soba shop owner asked if he could steam the Soba at the Manju shop next door which allowed the soba to be cooked in long noodles. Like this, the Japanese chefs became used to absorbing each other’s techniques in cooking.

With the citizens expect to have variety in the meals and enjoying new recipes, and chefs prepared to learn others’ technique, Japanese people were ready to adopt the Western ingredients and methods of cooking when they opened to the world in Meiji Restoration. This is one of the reasons why Japanese people are good at Japanizing or creating Wayosecchu recipes.

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Valentine’s Chocolate for Communication

Like the picture above, many companies sell varieties of beautiful chocolates in Japan for Valentine’s Day. However, the variety of chocolate does not only come the flavor or the shape of chocolate but is also differentiated by whom the person gives the chocolate too.

             Valentine’s used to be a day that women expressed their love by giving chocolate. Today this is called Honmei Choco (chocolate for the loved), but there are others like Giri Choco (chocolate for the sake of obligation), Tomo Choco (chocolate for friends) and Jibun Choco (chocolate for yourself).

             It is difficult to know when the chocolates started to be used for obligation or friendship but it in Japan, gift giving or rather exchange since the person who got the gift is likely to return some gift to you, like Ochugen (gifts you send to people in summer) and Oseibo (gifts you send in winter) is a common and a traditional way to communicate.

             In 2018 Godiva has put a commercial advertisement on the newspaper of Nihon Keizai Shinbun to stop the Giri Choco. This advertisement became popular and people started debating whether Giri Choco should be stopped since it is a burden for both men, who must give something in return, and women, who must buy chocolate for everyone.

             However, by having an event to send small gifts to each other, it makes it easier for the people to express their thankfulness to each other. Since Japan is a high context culture, people value each other’s action as much as, or even more than words. Therefore, the Giri Choco, although is a new form of presents, can be said to have roots in the Japanese traditional way of communicating “Thank You” without expressing it through words.

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Rise of women, how “Kissaten” is transforming to “Kafé”

　　　Most Japanese people image “Kissaten” as a café with dim lights, targeting male customers, and nostalgic. While “Kafé” (in the article I will use “Kafé” instead of café to differentiate it from meaning coffee shop in general to how Japanese people use it for a specific image) is imaged to be bright, targeting female customers, and modern.

             When I asked my grandfather, he said that when he was young there were no coffee shops for female and there were only “Kissaten” with only male customers and rarely a girl but always accompanied by her boyfriend. I asked my mother, she said that “Kissaten” is disappearing and “Kafé” targeting females are increasing. But why did this shift in the targeted customers happen?

             According to my mother, “Kafé” increased in the 1980s which is an economic bubble period in Japan. In Japan, a traditional ideal family is to have a single breadwinning male and a full-time housewife. But around the time of the bubble females were also strongly encouraged to work. After the burst of the bubble, female workers increased, even more, to support the husband in earning their living expenses. As women started to gain equivalent economic power to men, the café market started to target them

             The picture above is from a coffee shop in Kanda. A lady who recommended me this shop, and multiple blogs I read all referred to this shop as a “Kissaten”. Indeed, this used to be a “Kissaten” when it started more than 60 years ago. But is it still a “Kissaten” today?

　　　　From the photos displayed in the coffee shop, I noticed that in the old days there were only male customers. However, on the day I went to the shop, approximately 80% of the customers were female. This shop is famous for serving melon cream soda of 4 different colors which also indicates that they have shifted their targets to female.

　　　　Although this coffee shop is still having dim lights and nostalgic, it has shifted from targeting male to female, having traits of the “Kafé”. Not only this coffee shops but many new coffee shops target women these days which is evidence that more women have an equal or more right over spending money than men do, proving the rise of women’s status in an economic perspective.