October 10, 2010
Space in Shinto again
In Japan one does not say that a room in a house measures "10 by 12" but rather one counts room area in spaces, that is to say the number of tatami mats that would be needed on the floor of the room. In the West we seem to be thinking of the boundaries of space, in Japan the Japanese seem to be thinking of the space itself. Typical Japanese house floor plan (scroll down to see numbers that show numbers of mats)
http://goodhouse.homepage.jp/1newly/003shimosakamoto3b.htm
Typical Western floor plan
http://www.virtualtours360.net/images/floorplan%20sample2.gif
Japanese roads are not given names. Japanese addresses are given by area name. Japanese houses are given numbers according to where they are in an area not where they are on the street(spatial boundary). Again this seems to suggest that space (or areas) in Japan is named, and thus emphasised, rather than the roads, lines or limits of space. This can make Japanese towns difficult to navigate
http://www.m-net.ne.jp/~kikuchiy/chimei1-1.htm
compared to even London towns where one can give a street name (the link below to where I grew up)
In Japanese houses there are a lot
of named spaces such as the "tokonoma" where wall hangings are put up and ornaments are placed, or the holes at the top of walls, or the gaps in partition walls. Here are some diagrams showing the various "spaces" created in traditional Japanese architecture
http://www.toyoshima-g.co.jp/yougo/0505.htm
Japanese traditional architects seem to enjoy making houses that are akin to 'rectangular Swiss cheese', with all sorts of spaces to enjoy by virtue of the interplay and presentation of spaces. http://tinyurl.com/22pdxa
Western interior design seems to emphasise boundaries such as walls and their coverings, and *content not space*, particularly a in traditional English interior
Corridors and hallways are given prominence as spaces over and above their practical uses as passage-ways. Japanese pottery is often sparsely or "naturally" decorated and rather than using geometric shapes, its is the "foot print-like" (kutsugata-chawan, kutsu-chawan) shape of bowls, their deformation and texture and individuality that is prized. This at least demonstrates a lack of interest in geometrical lines, and a greater interest in texture and perhaps encapsulation of space. Again this may suggest the importance of space itself in Japanese aesthetics.
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~toushou8/otyawann.htm
http://syoindo.noblog.net/blog/g/10220755.html
http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/syuuzou/toji.index.html
http://www.nezu-muse.or.jp/syuuzou/toji/40271.html
In Japan spaces themselves are related to power more so than in the West, I think. Such as there is a lot of emphasis placed upon where people sit in a room, at a table, in a car, or in a lift. Space or spacing is perhaps inscribed with more meaning. Some pages describing the relative importance of the positions in a room.
http://www2.kid.ne.jp/teien/kannaiannai/yo_suwaru1.html
http://www.yuinou.com/manual/page2.htm
http://www.jobclick.jp/static/mg/050530_06.html
(bottom)
Behaviour in Japan is especially 'spatially contingent', with some behaviours allowed in some spaces but not in others. Rules concerning the appropriateness of behaviours depending on the place in which they are carried out, are applied in the West too, but in Japan to an even greater degree. Such as in the almost anything goes 'red-light-district', Kabukicho, Tokyo
http://flickr.com/photos/yeungkeefu/141311940/
Or the fact that the (spatial) addresses of Yakuza, are publically listed (in Japanese):
http://www.cji.jp/Link/coffebreak/story32.htm
Indeed in Japan it is rare that one should hold a dinner party at home, or allow non family members to enter the home, since the family in Japan is defined spacially (as "ie"). Entering a home in Japan, almost defines one as family member. [Sad aside: The tragic and brutal murder of 22yr old British, English teacher, Ms. Lindsay Anne Hawker, by a twisted 28 year old Japanese man may have been precipitated in part by different conceptions of the importance of space. As is often pointed out, there is less violent crime in Japan. One article claims that there is a kind of lurking violence in the "honne" as opposed to "tatemae" of Japanese culture.
Be that as it may, I think that one of the problems arose from different interpretations of the fact that Ms. Hawker entered the murderer's appartment. As far as I am aware, entering a man's room is a vastly more value-laden in Japan than it is in the UK. While I believe the rape statistics that show that one is far less likely to be raped in Japan, as far as I know it is almost impossible to convict someone of rape in Japan if the victim enters a private space. Japanese women are aware of this and thus are far more reticent to enter a private space with a man. Unknowingly, Ms. Hawker may have sent a message to her murderer that she had no intention of sending. This does not of course excuse the murderer. I hope they catch him soon.] In the Japanese Garden
1) The relationship or spacing of the elements in the garden is very important, perhaps more important than the things themselves. Thus the Japanese garden contains a plants that might not be all that much to look at on their own (unlike a rose bush perhaps) but gain their beauty by the interspacing of elements.
2) The relationship between the garden and the surrounding environment, as far away as mountains in the distance, is also and important part of the garden design.
3) Geometrical patterns - that emphasise lines - are rarely used but but rather it is spatial relationships between elements that are prized.
4) The parts of the garden may represent much larger spaces, such as a whole inland sea, Japan as a whole or a whole cosmos.
5) Rather than will natural look of the English country garden, or the trimmed artificial look of the stately home garden, the Japanese garden aims for controlled nature, a nature more natural than nature. I don't know if or how this last point connects to conceptions of space but it relates to Japanese conceptions of nature.
http://flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/24886024/
Rerturning to Shinto Shinto is all about sacred spaces. Shinto shrines like Japanese culture are "wrapped"
their spacing is emphasised by gates,
http://flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/203820159/in/set-61935/
boundary markers such as rice straw with zigzag strips of paper "shimenawa"
http://flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/2461668/in/set-61935/
boundary guardians such as "koma" dogs
http://flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/3032136/in/set-61935/
boundary rituals (such as washing ones hands)
http://flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/15058311/in/set-61935/
http://flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/2461665/in/set-61935/ the
nested structure of the shrine building
http://www.city.okayama.okayama.jp/museum/kokenchiku1/01.html
and the layers of wrapping around the spirit-body (goshintai). There are no pictures of the spirit body (goshintai) of a Shinto shrine, because they are wrapped in far more layers, but omamori talismans are wrapped in a similar way (and it is equally important not to remove the wrapping apparently)
http://flickr.com/photos/nihonbunka/84987815/in/set-61935/
"Res Extensio" is, as Descartes doubted it, not 'mere' (Aristotle) space but it is in the dimension in which the sacred is revealed. Finally [few would agree] John Brenkman("Narcissus in the Text.?h Georgia Review. 30.2 (1976): 293-332) argues that Westerners culture appreciates voice and voice as consciousness, above "body" and "image" - and that is to say space I believe. I think that he also argues in a more recent paper, http://tinyurl.com/3dtkjw that even aesthetics, what is beautiful, becomes a sort of discussion about aesthetics. "[Kants] key assertion restates and extends his central tenet that the experience of the beautiful "gives pleasure *with a claim for the agreement of everyone else*." So perhaps Western gardens, with their geometry and their guided tours ("This is a grandiflora: Queen Elizabeth") are designed to be explained, discoursed upon whereas, Japanese gardens are appreciated in the immediacy of the visual/spatial experience. If so then all the pontification in this artivle shows that I do not understand Japanese gardens at all well:-) And, if so, it may be essentially difficult to explain the beauty of a Japanese garden. This is a machine translation of the Japanese Garden wikipedia page.
http://tinyurl.com/yqkmye Top ranking gardens
http://www.rothteien.com/magnet/shiosai2005.htm
Posted by timtak at October 10, 2010 05:57 PM