'Cool Japan' in Sri Lanka

by Kalakeerthi Edwin Ariyadasa

“At the core of cultural orientation is the Japanese people's relationship with nature – which, unlike in the west – is not regarded as something to be confronted and conquered, but to be embraced, and appreciated as truth, even when natural phenomena – such as human life and death – can be difficult to accept.”
-Dr. Ryu Murakami
Kyoto National Museum

The gleaming products of ultra-sophisticated Japanese technology, their state-of-the-art functional apparatus and machines – both mobile and immobile – exert a spellbinding hold on consumers, everywhere in the modern world.

But, the creations of the aesthetic imagination of the meticulously disciplined craftsmen and artists of Japan do not seem to command much esteem and deference as those technological manufactures.

This seeming imbalance, may perhaps be due to the fact that the artistic and creative aspects of this technological and industrial giant, do not receive an international exposure, equal to Japan's manufactured products and that nation's predominant presence in the global landscape of trade, finance and commerce.

A recent cultural event titled, “Cool Japan; Wisdom of Japan,” showcased for the benefit of Sri Lankans, a tantalising snippet of the creative and aesthetic traditions of ever-surprising Japan, making local aficionados wonder what a vast world of creative treasures of Japan, they may have missed.

Refinements

In the exquisite and endlessly fascinating cultural life of the Japanese, the techno-industrial manufactures and the aesthetic – creative refinements seamlessly synthesise with each other, making this impressive land a 'computer with a heart.’

Part of the presentation at the cultural event in Colombo, was an episode from the traditional “Kyogen” art performances. Kyogen, is one of the four representative classical theatre-arts of Japan – the other three being Noh, Bunraku and Kabuki.

“Kyogen” is a traditional mode of comedy, that possesses a marked facial streak. Those, familiar with these performances have a cultured sensitiveness, making them respond with refinement to each verbal nuance and even to the slightest theatrical gesture of the performers.

Pursuit of arts

The astonishing aesthetic refinement and elegance, associated with Japanese art and culture, have emerged from an assiduously cultivated, intimate mutuality between the practitioners of arts and crafts and those dedicated and refined lovers of art – who are equally committed and meticulous, as the creative personalities themselves are.

Over long centuries, the pursuit of arts and crafts, as well as the process of enjoying those creative products with heart and soul, reached ritualistic heights, in the Land of the Rising Sun.

They have transformed the simple routine of taking tea, into an absorbing ceremony, in which each detail has to be given an attention, bordering on the sacred.

When cinema sage Akira Kurosawa, created his “Kagemusha,” he made even the swish of the elegant dress of the warlords an integral element in his cinematic work.

Recently, NHK telecast a documentary, highlighting the discipline of the master lacquer – craftsman Moriyama. From the gathering of the free-resin, to the turning out of the finished lacquer product, each little refinement was put in, with a keen devotion. It was said, that “He hears the voice of the wood.”

All these details cumulatively add up to one inescapable conclusion: “The totality of the Japanese way of life, is a fully integrated, living and pulsating cultural entity.”

As the Ambassador for Japan in Sri Lanka has said, “Japan looks more like a cultural superpower today, than it did in the 1980s, when it was an economic one.”

“Cool Japan,” which is equated with the contemporary pop culture of Japan, has derived a good part of its stamina and vigour, from the age-old cultural traditions of this ancient land.

All these diverse and variegated elements of influence, have elevated the way of life of Japan, into an impressive uniqueness.

Throughout their panoplied history, the Japanese people acquired a pragmatic philosophy to live in understanding and harmony with nature, accepting with a stoic unperturbability, those fluctuations of life and the world.

Spiritual systems -especially such sects of Buddhism as Zen made it possible for these people to remain detached and unshaken, in the presence of challenges, threats and disasters, that would have undone most other lands. When nuclear bombs destroyed the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the unshaken Japanese people saw to it that they rose out of the ashes into new life like the proverbial phoenix. Literally too, it was just a matter of rising out of the ashes.

In more recent times, the tsunami trauma of March 11, 2011, again made the world adore, in astonished admiration, the built-in capacity of the mass culture of Japan, to face the reality even of an excruciating disaster and come to terms with it, drawing substantially upon the traditional treasures of soul-resources.

As disasters go, the 2011 tsunami is one of the worst in recorded history. The portent of the 9.0 quake was absolutely unsettling. As reported then, it shifted the earth on its axis and made it spin a wee-bit faster – shortening the day by 1.8 millionths of a second.

The massive defence mechanism that had been built into the inner being of each individual, by the well-entrenched traditional culture, equipped them to face the disaster, underrate.

The social mantram they chanted in the face of this unprecedented tsunami assault, was gaman, which could be approximately rendered as “What can we do. We will face the situation, as best as we can.” Or else, they reacted with Shagnai. (“There is nothing we can do.”)

Any other nation or group, would have been swept off their feet by a disaster of this magnitude. But, in Japan each individual - safeguarded against such eventualities, by this unprecedented inner capacity to endure – bowed down to those threat, absorbing them with the least fuss.

Total absorption in art, craft and life, is the winning formula in Japan's successes – both material and spiritual.

We in Sri Lanka, too possess, some of the elements of culture, that enrich the lives of the Japanese people.

Patience, endurance, determination towards the achievement of nothing but the best, are a few items in the Japanese formula for steady, unshaken living, with undiminishing endearment towards all living things.

The cultural display “Cool Japan,” will undoubtedly prod and propel us to spend quality moments, contemplating the aesthetic “personalities” of some natural and man-made entities. That kind of reflection, with endow upon us a creative detachment, which will eventually embrace nature, with a firm understanding of the oneness of all phenomena.

Such globally reputed works of the Japanese creative tradition as ‘Bonsai’ and ‘Ikebana’, reflect the mass philosophy of patience, endurance and unflagging deference for nature, that are at the heart of the miracle of Japanese cultural treasures.