2007
First Published
4.20
Average Rating
276
Number of Pages
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.
Avg Rating
4.20
Number of Ratings
30
5 STARS
40%
4 STARS
47%
3 STARS
7%
2 STARS
7%
1 STARS
0%
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