Two favorite theories from Japan and the Shackles of the Past:

  1. Japan never had a true Axial Age moment – the moment where Athenian philosophy, Buddhism, and Judaic monotheism (among others!) all began to separate the material world we live in from the “spiritual world” above. All human culture to that point was animistic – where spirituality and real gods imbued every aspect of the world and to talk of a separate spirit world didn’t make much sense at all. When Buddhism arrived in Japan it never fully co-opted the native Shinto animism. And it is precisely this “spirituality in everything” approach that characterizes the Japanese reverence for small design details, ceremonial acts, etc.
  2. Feudal Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868) is widely known for the influence of the samurai warrior class and their spartan ethic of bushido. However, this was a peaceful period! In fact, the samurai were essentially useless at all for 250 years and they responded in two ways. First, they focused more than ever on an extreme version of bushido, seeking to one-up each other with asceticism and military technique. Second, though, they became decadent – noted for their patronage of everything from burlesque to prostitution — which developed customs of extravagant costume and theatrical presentation. It is precisely this dual nature that shocks one about Japan today – the ultra-serious business ethic coexisting easily with the hypersexualized otaku videogame culture, but it has a long history.

These are obviously oversimplifications and I barely know anything about Japan, certainly not enough to evaluate these two theories – but I enjoyed thinking about them.