Blog #10

“Kisetsu” is the Japanese sense of the seasons.  Because of the importance of the weather in a once agriculturally dependent island, focus on the seasons is deeply ingrained in Japanese consciousness.   Even though modern agriculture allows for independence from the seasons, they still affect many aspects of Japanese life, such as architecture, fashion, and writing.  There are also many annual events that are tied to the changing seasons.

Japanese houses are built above the (often wet) ground, to keep them dry and stable in the rainy season and the monsoons; they are also built to be open, with paper walls that slide open, for maximum air flow in the hot and humid summer.  Yukata, the coolest and most comfortable of kimono, are popular in summer time, not only because of its traditional roots, but because of its practicality in the summer heat.  Japanese cuisine also changes to reflect the fruits of the season, as do greetings and letter openings: “most letters in Japan start with some form of seasonal greeting – in the spring, ‘it’s the time when fresh grass sprouts’…and in winter… ‘in this time of piercing cold’” (154). 

Annual events that celebrate the seasons include hanami, or flower viewing, in the spring, tanabata festival in the summer, which is tied to a celestial occurrence, and omisoka, or New Years, in the winter.

“Otogibanashi” are Japanese folk-tales.  These stories span centuries, but focus on the same recurring themes, such as the seasons, the relationship between man and nature, and praising the “ideal human”.  The idealized human is one who is brave, wise, and generous, and it is this kind of person that normally emerges happy from Japanese tales. 

“Wabi” and “Sabi” were hard for me to understand, and I hope to understand them better after class. Basically (or at least, how I understood it), “wabi” is simplicity, in regards to aesthetics and even living, and “sabi”, its opposite, is elegance.  The two combine in a paradoxical relationship between finding beauty in both, and finding each in the other.