Evanescence and Form: An Introduction to Japanese Culture
Type
Book
Authors
ISBN 10
1403967067
ISBN 13
9781403967060
Category
Book
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Publication Year
2008
Publisher
Description
If we thought that reality were changeable, fragile, and fleeting, would we take life more seriously or less seriously? This book contemplates the notion of hakanasa, the evanescence of all things, as understood by the Japanese. Their lived responses to this idea of impermanence have been various and even contradictory. Asceticism, fatalism, conformism. Hedonism, materialism, careerism. What this array of responses have in common are, first, a grounding in hakanasa, and, second, an emphasis on formality. Evanescence and Etiquette attempts to illuminate for the first time the ties between an epistemology of constant change and Japan's formal emphasis on etiquette and visuality.
Number of Copies
1