It is because Japan is a country of extremes. You can love it, you can hate it, but you will never be indifferent. With all his problems, it is unique, a country unlike any other. And I have been here 45 years, I should know
If its history doesn’t horrify you, you don’t know it. In Japan, dying of a violent death was not at all difficult.
Sometime ago, I was visiting the shogunal palace In Kyoto, and in a room there was a reproduction of a meeting between the shōgun and his vassals.
The statues were sitting down, with their swords carefully laid on the tatami mat, in exactly the same position with their hands on their legs, which were folded neatly under the body. The eyes were closed. I doubt this was the intent of their maker, but they were sinister to see. The face was different, everything else was the same. When you knew who they were and what they used to do (These people were ruthless Killers, glued to their sword). it was impossible not to find the whole scene extremely unsettling. Extremel violence and extreme discipline.
On the other hand, as a friend of mine said, If you were to define Japan, the word to use would be elegance.
Modern Japan is as fascinating as classic Japan, but has has somehow managed to become the opposite of what it used to be. The reluctance of the Japanese to say their opinion, whether it is positive or negative, is one of the biggest hurdles to understanding and liking this country. Simply see the Japanese members of Quora. They never intervene when we discuss to try to understand their country. They do describe their culture when no controversy is involved
Most foreigners can’t take it and leave, others, like me, stay.
Japan is the land of beauty. These
Are the Japanese equivalent of this
You see what I mean? I am surely partial, but the other day I was watching a parade in Scotland with a band playing Scotland The Brave. It looked Primitive Next to a Japanese festival.
For those who know Japanese history, it is simply unbelievable that The Japanese today are the same people that did those things. Japan must’ve been hell in the years of the Civil War
Yet the same period has produced the tea ceremony and the Kinkaku-ji.
Japanese is a language that has 20 words for suicide, yet Its beauty is always delicate.
The Taira clan fought against the Minamoto clan in a war that by definition implied the total destruction of the loser
Yet the Taira had on their flag a butterfly,
Yet this is the same clan whose leader, Taira no Kiyomori, quoting an an: “ If you’re not a Taira, You are not a human being.
The Minamoto symbol is three gentians over five bamboo leaves. Yet the first shōgun had both his brothers killed. His wife was involved in the murder of both her sons.
To me, this is the point about Japan. If classic Japan doesn’t horrify you, you haven’t understood it. If you don’t find iits delicate beauty moving, you haven’t understood it either. In any case, Japan will have impressed you and will leave on you a strong impression. There can be no middle way With Japan. Love it or hate it. But you can’t be indifferent
