Lost Japan (29 page)

Today, just at the moment when Japan has lost much of its appeal in both natural landscape and culture, it is artists such as Tamasaburo and Kawase and the ferment of creativity surrounding them which draws me back. The present time, it turns out, is the best of all times to be in Japan. The changes taking place in the cultural world, the rumblings of revolution in the bureaucracy and in business – all of this is exciting in a way in which Japan has not been exciting for decades.

‘If you think it's not there, it is. If you think it's there, it isn't.' At the very moment of its disappearance, Japanese traditional culture is having its greatest flowering.

I remember that I must have first met Alex in 1978. It was at Shinbashi Enbujo Theatre, the first time that I danced ‘Sagi Musume' (
The Heron Girl
). Alex arrived with an introduction from Kabuki
onnagata
Kawarazaki Kunitaro and a bouquet of roses, and right from the beginning he was someone I could talk to with complete ease.

Around this time I had just traveled to Europe and was suffering from culture shock. At university Alex had studied not only Japanese Studies and Chinese Studies, but he had also traveled widely around America and Europe, and so he taught my culture-shocked self much about foreign countries. In particular, we both loved Italy and that was a true meeting of minds. After this I brought Alex as interpreter with me on trips such as my American tour. His wide-ranging knowledge of unique foreign sayings and culture was very educational and useful to me when I came to do work abroad, and I still feel grateful to him for it.

Unusually for an American, Alex is the type of person who judges things more by intuition than by logic. This has allowed him to ably come to terms with the quality that flows at the base of Japanese culture – an embrace of vagueness and uncertainty. We're people who value things that can't be explained just with clever words. No matter how well the reasons for something are explained to us we're not able to pay much attention to what's being talked about. Both of us have a tendency to respect only what feels right to our intuition about things. I think that's the reason we got on so well together.

Tamasaburo and Alex, at a performance of The Heron Girl, 1980

Alex once said, ‘The two of us, let's not end up as
cognoscenti
.' The word originally came from Italian and suggests someone who knows a lot but doesn't accomplish anything. But that very same Alex, who had such a rich store of knowledge – beginning with Greek sculpture and expanding via the Silk Road to a fascination with the Far East – was rather an unworldly innocent when it came to making his own living. He lived in the general belief that money would just spring up from somewhere. What changed him completely was working for the American real estate company Trammell Crow for a period of about six years. Through his experience in business he acquired knowledge of the world and gained the techniques of a well-managed life.

That said, Alex's basic qualities – love of humour, preferring intuition over logic, and free-spirited living – have never changed up to this day. He once told me: ‘Leonardo da Vinci said, “Beauty lies in the mystery of balance”.' In this respect, I'd say Alex has achieved a first-class state of ‘balance'. While never losing his original qualities, he gained a mature perspective as a member of society, and this was the first book written by that mature Alex.

Looking at Japan with mature eyes as a person knowledgeable of the outside world, what is the landscape that he sees? This is the selfless Alex who sought only beauty, and that's why he's been able to capture Japan as it is now in such a feat of writing. I hope as many people as possible can read this book, which arose from Alex's passion to preserve Japan's beauty and his love for Japan.

bonkei
–
art form involving the creation of a miniature landscape on a tray

danmari
–
‘pantomime' scene in Kabuki during which the actors move in slow motion as if in darkness, oblivious to each other's presence

fukusa
–
silk cloth used by tea masters to wipe utensils during tea ceremony

fusuma
–
sliding paper doors used to divide the open space of a house into rooms and corridors; both sides of the framework are covered with several layers of strong paper, making them heavier than
shoji

geisha
–
(lit. ‘person of the arts') professional female entertainer or companion

genkan
–
(lit. ‘hidden barrier') entranceway or foyer; shoes are left here on entering a house

geta
–
traditional wooden clogs

giri-ninjo
–
conflict between love and duty, the subject of many Kabuki plays

goma
–
symbolic geometrical arrangement of ritual utensils placed on a table before the altar in Esoteric Buddhist temples

haboku
–
ink-painting style, known as ‘splashed ink', which features the sparse use of ink and highly abstract compositions

haiku
–
seventeen-syllable poem

hakama
–
loose trousers worn by men with kimono

hanamichi
–
(lit. ‘flower path') walkway which is separated from the main stage in Kabuki and used as a dramatic device

hibutsu
–
(lit. ‘hidden Buddha') important Buddha figures which are hidden from view and only rarely displayed

hiragana
–
cursive script used to transcribe syllabic Japanese

hogai
–
scholar or artist who works outside official systems

hossu
–
fly whisk, an ancient symbol of
seidan
, used to ‘brush away the flies of care'

ikebana
–
traditional art of flower arrangement

Kabuki
–
form of traditional Japanese theater characterized by elaborate costumes, stylized acting and the use of male actors for all roles

kai
–
special gathering for cultural (e.g. an ikebana display) or commercial (e.g. an auction) reasons

kang
–
large Chinese sofa

kanji
–
Chinese calligraphic characters used in Japanese script

kaomise
–
(lit. ‘face showing') performance of Kabuki held in Kyoto in December, featuring leading Kabuki actors

karayo
–
‘Chinese-style' calligraphy; see also
wayo

kaso
–
phenomenon of depopulation of rural areas

kata
–
characteristic ‘forms' of movement in Kabuki; distinctive patterns in the traditional arts

katakana
–
script used primarily to transcribe foreign words into syllabic Japanese

katsu
–
meaningless shout, used in Zen to shock or surprise and thereby lead to enlightenment

kaya
–
see
susuki

keaki
–
(zelkova) a precious wood

keren
–
crowd-pleasing acrobatic tricks in Kabuki

kiseru
–
long, silver tobacco pipe, often used in Kabuki

koan
–
illogical Zen Buddhist riddle, used as a meditational tool to achieve enlightenment

koto
–
thirteen-stringed musical instrument

kuge
–
Kyoto's highly cultured court nobles of old, descended from the Heian-period's Fujiwara family and having semi-Imperial status

kura
–
storehouse, traditionally used to store furniture and decorations

kuroko
–
Kabuki's black-clad stage attendants who are supposedly invisible to the audience

kuruwa
–
enclosures or walled areas within a city, which were inhabited by courtesans

ma
–
distinctive, spatial rhythm featured in traditional Japanese music; rests between notes

machiya
–
town house

matcha
–
Japanese-style tea ceremony

men
–
(lit. ‘face') front of an object

mu
–
concept of ‘nothingness' which lies at the core of Zen

nageire
–
style of ikebana known as ‘thrown flowers', in which flowers are dropped into a basket or vase

natsume
–
lacquered tea caddy used in tea ceremony

oku no in
–
inner sanctuary of a temple complex

onnagata
–
male actors who play women's roles in Kabuki

pachinko
–
gambling game played on a vertical pinball machines

pai-lou
–
multi-tiered decorative gates of China; in Japan, found only in Chinese-influenced temples such as Manpuku-ji Temple in Kyoto

samisen
–
three-stringed musical instrument

saniwa
–
cleared area of raked sand, used in ancient times to stage divinations and the judgment of criminals, from which the Zen raked-sand gardens originated

seidan
–
term originating in fourth-century Taoist gatherings: the art of ‘pure conversation'

seiza
–
the position of sitting on one's knees required on formal occasions and in many traditional arts, such as tea ceremony and sometimes calligraphy

sencha
–
Chinese-style tea ceremony

shikishi
–
square calligraphic plaque

shino
–
type of thatch, cut in spring after the leaves have fallen from the stalk

Shinto
–
polytheistic indigenous religion of Japan

shoji
–
sliding paper doors constructed from a wooden framework, covered on one side with a sheet of paper; see
fusuma

sudare
–
bamboo blinds

suki
–
playful architectural style which focuses on details, strongly influenced by tea ceremony

susuki
–
long grass with blade-like leaves which, when cut and bound, is known as
kaya
and is used as roofing thatch; the grass appears in scrolls and poems as ‘autumn grass'

tanzaku
–
rectangular calligraphic plaque

tatami
–
woven floor matting, used as a unit of room measurement

tatebana
–
formal style of ikebana known as ‘standing flowers'

tokonoma
–
decorative alcove found in most Japanese homes in which flowers, a scroll or other artworks may be displayed

torii
–
entrance gate to a shrine

tsubo
–
traditional unit of land measurement in Japan, defined as one square bay or two tatami mats (3.3 m
²
)

tsuka
–
mound; at Fushimi-inari Grand Shrine in Kyoto, the word is used to denote collections of small altars or mounds bearing symbolic artifacts

tsutsumi
–
shoulder drum

ubu
–
(lit. ‘infant') objects which appear at auction for the first time after having been stored in the
kura
for decades

wabi
–
(lit. ‘worn' or ‘humble') emphasis on simplicity and humble, natural materials; first incorporated into tea ceremony,
wabi
has come to symbolize all that is unostentatious in the traditional arts

waka
–
thirty-one-syllable poem

wayo
–
‘Japanese-style' calligraphy originating in the Heian period, which the
kuge
developed into a range of delicate and flowing styles; the term is used in contrast to
karayo
– ‘Chinese-style' calligraphy – the more rigorous and individualistic form favored by monks and the literati

yago
–
actor's ‘house name', which is shouted by members of the audience at dramatic moments during a Kabuki play

yobai
–
(lit. ‘night crawling') pattern of courtship in rural areas, now rare, where the male enters his chosen partner's house at night to sleep with her; if all goes well, the process results in a marriage

yukata
–
summer-weight cotton kimono

Zen
–
Japanese school of Buddhism, introduced in the twelfth century from China, which teaches the achievement of enlightenment through inner contemplation