#006: The elusive mix of beauty and function, and the universality of kodawari and wabi-sabi
Read time: 6m 40s
I’m drafting this from an incredibly hard metal chair in Shanghai airport, in the middle of an 8 hour layover from Tokyo to London. I feel wistful, inspired, and in awe. Everything in Japan just…works. But it doesn’t just work. It works artfully. It’s as though engineers, designers, mechanics, architects, governors and everyday citizens are drinking daily from a fountain that assures them that no problem is too small to fix and no opportunity too trivial to grasp. From the somewhat alarming yet delightfully thoughtful number of settings found on every smart toilet, to the train seats that swivel around between journeys so that every passenger is always facing the direction of travel, you can tell that someone in Japan has just…thought about everything. In this week’s newsletter, I reflect on what we can learn from two Japanese philosophies: kodawari and wabi-sabi.
🪟 A window into my brain
Everything my gaze fell upon in Japan seemed to be a true expression of craft. Halfway through our travels, my partner and I had experienced so many tiny yet meaningful delights that our mantra for the trip became: “Someone has just thought about this”. So, worshipping at the altar of Japanese attentiveness, innovation and ingenuity, we started to make a list of all the things we noticed the Japanese have just thought about. Here, I’m sharing some of the highlights (in no particular order):
Sensors on conveyor belts at the airport to stop bags falling on each other and damaging people’s belongings
Unique jingles for each subway stop so visually impaired people know which station they’re at
Train seats that swivel around after each journey so that every passenger is always facing the direction of travel
A combination of zoning, urban planning, ingenious engineering and cultural norms means that Tokyo is bewilderingly quiet for a metropolitan city
You can order your food from a vending machine at a restaurant to increase efficiency of orders and payment
Restaurants designed for solo dining normalise the experience and elevate the importance of solitude
Most pieces of clothing are multi-functional or reversible (some shirts even turn into bags?!)
The handles that people hold onto on the subway are all different heights to accommodate people of all sizes
Cooking pots with detachable handles (which naturally stack seamlessly)
90% of hand soap comes out as foam (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it)
Every toilet is built to be a place of solitude
Every restaurant table has baskets for you to store your bags and coats while dining
Fridges in corner shops that store cold drinks have a hot shelf at the top so you can buy hot coffee in a can (this has to be one of my favourites)
Cheap and secure lockers in public spaces to leave your belongings whenever you like so you don’t have to trek halfway across the city back home
You’ll notice that most things on my list are somewhat negligible, by which I mean, you wouldn’t notice if they weren’t there. The fact that someone took the trouble to breathe love and care into this object’s very existence enriches your experience ever so slightly, but ever so noticeably, every time you come into contact with it. The bottom line is this: I’ve never been to a country which takes such pride in maximising both beauty and ease. This devotion to the elusive combination of beauty and ease speaks to what Japanese culture holds most dear: attention to detail.
In Japan, it’s as though designers, engineers and architects try to optimise for two starkly dissonant things at once, and continually, by some miracle, succeed. Yet the true miracle lies in the fact that their success is not a miracle, not a fluke. Their success feels consistent, expected, unquestioned. Almost matter of fact. A trained linguist and a long-time admirer of untranslatable words, I didn’t need much more motivation to kickstart a linguistic investigation. I soon found out that there are two Japanese cultural philosophies that beautifully embody this unique flavour of attention to detail I’d identified: kodawari and wabi-sabi.
Kodawari is a Japanese philosophy of uncompromising dedication to quality, craftsmanship, and continuous self-improvement. What strikes me most about kodawari is the importance of maintaining extremely high standards regardless of whether others notice or appreciate it. I saw this in the poised elegance of a street sweeper who took the time to pause from his duties and slowly bow to us as we passed. I saw this on the world-famous Shibuya Crossing, as queues of impeccably dressed Tokyoites weaved across each other’s paths as they went about their daily business. I saw this in the “itty-bitty” sushi offered to us at one restaurant, where a tiny slice of fish was precisely placed upon a single grain of rice. It’s clear to see that the collective consciousness holds little desire to simply impress others (although that may sometimes be a welcome by-product). Instead, it’s about appreciating craftsmanship, beauty and quality through the universal vehicles of food, culture and fashion.
Wabi-sabi is a complementary philosophy that is about finding value and beauty in imperfection, impermanence and simplicity. The ancient Japanese handicraft of kintsugi, which repairs broken ceramics by highlighting the cracks with gold or silver, is one of the greatest embodiments of the wabi-sabi spirit. I couldn’t help but notice that the qualities of wabi-sabi are diametrically opposed to certain values that are held dear in the West: permanence, grandeur, and symmetry. The appreciation of the transient and imperfect quality of nature feels a great deal more human and humbling. Most importantly, in embracing wabi-sabi, we accept that the pinnacle of perfection pursued by kodwari will always be just out of reach.
🖋️ Sentences I wish I’d written
Isn’t it interesting how an element, which might not be appreciated by itself, turns out to contribute to the overall quality when blended with elements of different characters? It is like the essence of life itself. The complex interaction between various elements in an organic system makes life robust and sustainable.
Ken Mogi, Awakening Your Ikigai: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy and Purpose Every Day
In modern psychological terms, a child is said to become ego-centric when he has learned to distinguish himself from the world he perceives. It is just this learned idea that we are separate from our environment that Zen says we need to unlearn.
Andrew Juniper, Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence
What is the point of worrying oneself too much about what one could or could not have done to control the course one's life took? Surely it is enough that the likes of you and I at least try to make our small contribution count for something true and worthy. And if some of us are prepared to sacrifice much in life in order to pursue such aspirations, surely that in itself, whatever the outcome, is cause for pride and contentment.
Kazuo Ishiguro, Remains of the Day
🚀 From idea to reality
I am a chronic over-thinker. Within many over-thinkers lies a tiny “under-feeler” curled up in a foetal position, struggling to protect itself from the pain and confusion of just feeling. If you are a relatively cerebral person who tends to solve problems by just thinking a little bit harder, you are likely suppressing vital emotional experiences and signals. It’s always seemed odd to me that overthinking could actually be a defence mechanism to not deal with underlying emotions (spoken like a true over-thinker), but as I’ve become more attuned to my body and its connection with my mind, I’ve realised just how true this is. Discovering the wabi-sabi philosophy has made me realise that it’s not useful to beat myself up about this. For all its overthinking, I love my brain and wouldn’t choose to change it. Accepting its natural imperfection feels freeing in a way that constantly trying to change myself does not. This week, I encourage you to consider what imperfection in you or your life wabi-sabi may help you to embrace.
💭 A question for you
What is the craft to which you wish to dedicate yourself with a kodawari spirit?
Three guesses for what mine is ;)
Nikita 💃🏽