Mitate culture

Since ancient times, Japan has had a culture of "mise-en-scene.

Mise-en-scene" is a technique of expressing something by replacing or imitating it with something else, rather than expressing it as it is.

For example, a rakugo storyteller might use a fan to express the action of chopsticks or a kisser in a rakugo story.

(If you have never experienced Rakugo, please check out this channel for Rakugo storytellers performing small stories in English.)

【英語で笑って英語が身につく!】英語落語チャンネル - YouTube

Now, I mentioned that this culture of looking up has existed since ancient times, and indeed, there are many examples of looking up in the Kokin Wakashu, a collection of waka poems dating back 1,000 years. The petals of cherry blossoms falling and wandering in the sky are replaced by waves on the sea.

In Japanese gardens, karesansui, or dry landscape, uses stones and sand to express the grandeur of nature without the use of water.

In the West, seasonal fruits are used to make sweets, but in Japan, new types of wagashi, called neo-wagashi, are now available that use seasonal fruits, but in the past, there was not much change in taste because they were based on anko (red bean paste). In the past, however, the taste of wagashi did not change much because they were based on anko (red bean paste). Therefore, in spring, wagashi were made to look like seasonal flowers, such as plum blossoms, to show the season at tea ceremonies.

In the field of contemporary art, there are people who create miniature photographs of everyday objects as if they were something else, people who use the wake of a ship as a fastener, and others who expand the way we see the world by looking at familiar objects and phenomena from a unique perspective. Why don't you try to see the world differently with something familiar to you?

See you again in the next blog.