Cultural Concepts

Early March in a Japanese household with a young daughter. In the formal room of the house, an elaborate display has appeared: a tiered platform covered in red cloth, with rows of small dolls arranged precisely.…

You’re walking through the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, looking at a wall of Japanese woodblock prints. A wave curves dramatically over fishermen in tiny boats; Mount Fuji sits small and serene behind it. A few…

An anime character is introduced. She’s sharp-tongued, prickly, dismissive of the male protagonist, prone to physical violence (small comedic punches), constantly insulting him. By episode six, she’s blushing while denying she cares about him. By episode…

On a snowy December morning in 1703, in Edo (modern Tokyo), forty-seven men in samurai armor attacked the residence of a high-ranking official named Kira Yoshinaka. The attack had been planned for nearly two years. The…

You sit on the wooden veranda at Ryoan-ji in northwest Kyoto. In front of you: a rectangular field of white gravel, raked into careful parallel lines, with fifteen stones arranged in five small clusters. The field…

You’re at Tokyo Station at 7:45 a.m., heading north to Sendai on the shinkansen. The train leaves in fifteen minutes. Inside the station’s concourse, you stop at a small shop crowded with travelers buying small wrapped…

A Japanese mother opens her four-year-old daughter’s bento box at the kitchen counter, late at night, preparing tomorrow’s lunch. Inside, she will arrange: rice shaped into a panda’s head, eyes made from two halves of a…

Walking through Kyoto’s Gion district in the early evening, you see two women hurrying down a narrow alley toward an appointment. Both wear elaborate kimono, hair styled with ornaments, white-painted faces and red lips, traditional wooden…

You walk through the entry of Ryoan-ji temple in northwest Kyoto. The walkway leads to a simple wooden veranda overlooking a rectangular space. Inside that space: white gravel, raked into careful parallel lines, with fifteen stones…

You attend a Japanese wedding. Across the room, the bride’s mother is wearing a kimono — formal, dark, with elaborate embroidery only along the hem and lower body. A few seats over, an aunt of the…