To write about Japan again...
Japanese Pendulum Almost any westerner that wishes to write about Japan is in search of a "definition" of Japan. Most of the times, this definition cannot escape the opposition between the "authentic" Japan of untouched beauty that was and that is not exactly anymore and the Japan of rush hours, nervous music and the thousand colors of synthetic clothes. Is there a way, a dialectic, to make peace between these two Japan- s ? After all, it is the same history that includes the zen temples and the poormen's casinos named pachinkos . But, maybe, trying to do that would equal to being too philosophical about it and not enough Japanese. To desperately want a simple coherence in history is sometimes not the best choice. A Japanese potter (and a famous artist) once wrote : Swinging like a pendulum I proceed, Never lingering in one place, Let wandering be the true state of being — Raku Kichizaemon XV As Kichizaemon suggests, we ...