"They Just Happen to Be Japanese" Two expatriates' views

I met the translator By Alan Gleason in Tokyo in June when I was lecturing at the (wonderfully acronymed) Society of Writers Editors and Translators (SWET) meeting.  (And, by the way, it was great to speak to this group about the craft choices and translations decisions in the book to add that to how I presented the content.)  Alan later wrote a review on the website of "Hobbit Village" (which I mentioned in Chapter 11 on Masanori Oe--it was the first center of alternative/ environmental culture founded in Japan).  Here's his review:  (original link) 

"A rustic humility"
Masanori and Wakako working on a translation

There are plenty of books in English about people going “off the grid” to live a simpler, more natural life, and nearly as many books about the exotic aspects of life in Japan. The nice thing about this book is that it introduces some fascinating people whose courageous and innovative approaches to alternative living are worth reading about for reasons having nothing to do with nationality: they just happen to be Japanese. Still, I can’t help thinking that a common trait they share -- a realistic humility, amply laced with humor, about the ultimate impossibility of being purely self-sufficient in this day and age -- comes more readily to Japanese people than to Westerners raised in the Judaeo-Christian tradition of logical absolutes. 

"I tried reading the book at my normal pace..."

Translator George Bourdaniotis also wrote a review of A Different Kind of Luxury (original link) in May before I came to speak to the SWET group in Kobe.  It ran in the magazine Kansai Scene and I think my favorite line of George's is "the sense of time [the book] captured within its pages begged for me to slow down and absorb the wisdom it held." 

Getting caught up in the daily rush is part of life in Japan and we wonder if it is possible to slow down. Kansai Scene talked with Andy Couturier while he prepared for a promotional tour of Japan for his new book, A Different Kind of Luxury.

Many books on Japan rehash the same themes of uniqueness and eccentricity, perpetuating the stereotypes,and the life of the gaijin (foreigner) in Japan. Essayist, poet and writing teacher, Andy Couturier’s A Different Kind of Luxury looks beyond the shiny facade and deeper into the rural areas, at 11 people leading simple but luxurious, lives on Honshu and Shikoku. Fifteen years in the writing, the book is based on Couturier’s articles in The Japan Times.

Couturier first arrived in the late 80s expecting a Japan even more money oriented and status conscious than the USA. While here, he met the people who are featured in his book while working on environmental causes.

At first glance, what appears to be a book about people leading traditional lives is actually one about simple living. “I had an idea of ‘the traditional life’ as something that does not change,” Couturier says. “But each aspect of our heritage is not a thing but part of an integrated and connected life that shifts and moves with time.

"My grandparents and great grandparents used cash to meet their needs, but as recently as the 1960s in Japan, in the mountains, rural people were still making almost all of what they needed without much inter-action with the cash economy. Many of the people in this book could learn how to meet many of their own needs by walking down the road to speak with a nearby older man or woman.”

Wildflower Watercolor by Akira Ito (ch.6)

Time is a recurring theme in these chapters, not only in terms of tradition but how time controls our everyday lives.

Osamu Nakamura (Chapter 2): “Humans have a tendency to create a visual image in their minds of what they think they can accomplish in a particular period of time. I felt ill at ease and irritable all the time. I eventually learned, however, to adjust my imagination, and plans, to what was actually possible.”

The people Couturier has written about “live the way they do based on their deeply-held value system about the way they should use their time on Earth. I don’t think they consider themselves eccentric or iconoclastic, or even ‘individualistic,’ but just living from some solid core in their personality, forged out of their experience and understanding of what it means to be human.”

As Couturier writes in the Introduction, “this book is not a blueprint for achieving ‘the good life,’ nor is it a how-to book. [It is] for anybody who wants more out of their life, or who is dissatisfied with what’s happening in today’s society, and would like to make changes.”

"Understanding what it means to be human."
Koichi Yamashita (Ch.9) talking and drinking tea.

I tried reading the book at my normal pace, but the sense of time captured within its pages begged for me to slow down and absorb the wisdom it held — exactly Couturier’s intention. “The book is meant to be read slowly. I tried very hard to make it both beautiful and meaningful, and accessible to a variety of people. ... As a gift, hoping to share with others the fantastic teachings I received from these modern-day wise men and women.”

What are the stereotypes about Japan that you tried to confront ?

Journalist Anneli Rufus of the  East Bay Express asked: What were some of the main stereotypes -- justified or not -- about Japan that you felt yourself disassembling (or shattering) while researching and writing this book?


      I should first say that the people in A Different Kind of Luxury represent a tiny minority of people in Japan, so I'm not sure I'm addressing the stereotypes (or correct assessments) of Japan as a whole, but I do think that much of what they believe, and have believed for years, is becoming more and more accepted in everyday life among ordinary Japanese citizens.  However, I think there are a number of things I'm trying to bring out that many Western readers (and myself in fact before I came to Japan) don't necessarily see.

Wakako Oe: "It was really hard to
breathe in Japan at that time."

     One is that the rapid "development" of Japan in terms of increasing materialism and growth of the economy did indeed leave scars on people's hearts.  Wakako Oe, in chapter 7, put it this way:


"You see, I was born after the war. When I was little I saw
people planting rice barefoot, but by the time we went to
India, Japan was all about high-speed growth, especially
of the economy, what they called ‘modernization,’” she
says, as if in the presence of something on the verge of
frightening. “The scenery that I was used to as a child had all changed so rapidly."


Listening to Wakako now, it occurs to me that when
people lose things very quickly, especially things they feel
are beautiful, it can be bewildering.


She continues, “No matter how I tried—I’m sorry—
it was really hard to breathe in Japan at that time.
I couldn’t keep up. In Japan in the ’60s and ’70s progress 
meant getting rid of old things. But when we got to India, it was
all heading in the opposite direction—they treasured their
past. I felt a big sigh of relief coming out of me."


     Another thing I was working against is the idea that all Japanese people are focused on becoming more Westernized.  I found that the people I wrote about were more interested in looking to other parts of Asia, and to the traditions, crafted with such difficulty over the centuries, to try to find answers on how to live their lives today.

"Who am I?"
Calligraphy by Wakako Oe

     A third idea I did also want to counter is that the idea that all Japanese people were hostile to environmentalism.  In fact, I found that in these people's ways of understanding our place in the order of nature was in some ways deeper than much environmentalism I had encountered in the US. Just to choose one example, the way they understood the centrality of growing their own food: they were searching for the meaning of farming, not just the method or even a series of reasons to grow organically.  As the author Masanori Oe wrote in one of his books:


"I believe that we must take a new look at farming
and see that it can be the pillar that will support
the healing and repair of this world. It will
show us how to understand the relationship of
the human and the earth. Nature is the reflection
of our internal spirit, which is the foundation
of our culture and the world."


Here's another quote from him about his form of "Natural Farming":


“With no tractor and no outside fertilizer, this method
we use allows the farmer to learn directly from the wisdom
of the plants . . . and at the same time we reduce our
own sense of superiority. Everyone has seen the mistakes
brought about from humans trying to control nature.
What Wakako and I are trying to do here is to see what
happens, inside of us, when we let ourselves be controlled
by nature.”

Masanori Oe in his rice field

      I guess I'd like to add in conclusion that stereotypes are often basic misunderstandings based on having not enough contact with a group of people.  In the case of Americans and Japan, I think that's partly because Japan is simply very far away, with a different philosophical underpinning to so many life decisions people make, most of the unconsciously.  If there's a fault, perhaps it's through writers and media people not understanding a country well enough before writing about it.  In my case, I tried to approach the subject, the people, their culture, their life choices, all of it, with--dare I say it?--as much love and respect as I could manage, and give to the project as much time as I possibly could.  In that way, I tried to represent both the uniqueness of these people, and the specificities of their culture, highlighting what for me were the most important parts.

A Winter Color Palette and a Different Photographer

The wash basin at Atsuko and Gufu's

As a book A Different Kind of Luxury has a particular look and feel in its design layout and photos.  From a book designer’s perspective, this is good because it gives the reader a feeling of unity and solidity so that he or she can sink into the experience.  But, as we know, reality has a thousand different angles.  In this posting, I’d like to present the work of a young photographer who also got a chance to visit Atsuko and Gufu Watanabe, and Osamu Nakamura back in 1999.  I just came across these photos, taken more than ten years ago by a woman, a girl of 17 at the time, Hatsumi Yano.  You’ll see that they have a distinctly different feel than those in the book.  But to my mind, that’s a plus.  The world has a lot of different aspects, and a camera lens can pick them up.  These photos were taken in mid-winter, and have that color palette.  I was then, and am still, very impressed by Hatsumi’s work.

The spice rack at Atsuko and Gufu's

The fire pit in the middle of the floor
at Nakamura's 

Ceramic work by Gufu Watanabe

Wakako's house of botanical sculptures, puppets and calligraphy

Have you read Chapter 7 about the botanical artist and farming mentor Wakako Oe?  Here's a view of the inside of her house, full to the brim with vines, gourds, baskets, calligraphy and dried herbs and flowers.


By the way, this is a simple, peaceful "ambient" video.  Nothing dramatic happens: it's simply the feel of being in Wakako and Masanori's house.

Review: "I Don't Want to Live A Drab, Routine Life"

I just got a great review from Anjor Bhaksar on the Amazon.com website (I really appreciate reviews, and it helps people find out whether they are interested in the book.)

Anjor is an Indian man I met who was doing ecological work with children in the high desert of Himachal Pradesh.  His father is an academic, working on studying the informal economy, and Anjor really has a brilliant mind.  I think he really expressed well one of the underlying, but perhaps unstated, messages of A Different Kind of Luxury.  Here's his review:

 A Journey into some beautiful minds

A Different Kind of Luxury is about exploring a feeling that is there in everyone - "A desire to be free." It's there in nearly everyone - very strong in some, to a lesser extent in others. But surely most people, at some point of time in their lives, have said to themselves "I don't want to be part of this system. I don't want to live a drab routine life. I don't want to follow the usual pattern, go to school, go to university, get a high paying job and struggle all through life to make it big in our profession, retire and then die. There is something wrong with this system which intrinsically thrives on exploitation -- of nature and of the poor. I want to break away from this system and live an independant life." Most of us, however, dismiss this feeling as blasphemous. Some believe it may be possible but are weighed down by too many constraints in our lives.

This book is about those who not only dreamed but also fulfilled their dreams. About people who wanted to do a lot of things, and did all of them. About those who are governed only by their heart and not by the economic system. About those who, in their own little ways, make a big difference to the world by showing that there is tremendous beauty and excitement in simplicity. About people who have their own measures of success in their lives rather than measures imposed on them from society.

Anjor Bhaksar

It's beautifully written. Especially for someone like me who is constantly toying with the idea of breaking free, living a life of self sustainance and yet of adventure, excitement, love and "inner abundance." While reading the book I felt that I was going through minds, very much like my own, only much more advanced than mine. Minds of people who had not only toyed with these ideas, but also experimented with them, had some failures as well, but in the end emerged successfully. Andy has a tasteful style of writing whereby the reader can sense everything that he senses when he meets these people. The reader actually travels through the mind of both, Andy and the person at the same time. In the end, you would feel like you have 12 amazing new friends who will always be there to guide and inspire you in your journey through life.