The Essence of Japanese Culture: An Intense Obsession with Form?

<p><a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/smith-japan.html#:~:text=%22In%20fact%20the%20whole%20of,before%20Wilde%20made%20this%20observation." rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Oscar Wilde wrote in 1889</a>, &ldquo;In fact the whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.&rdquo;</p> <p>Japanese culture has been Orientalized, romanticized, and exoticized for over a hundred years. The result? Much of the (Western?) world has come to think that there is something inherently profound, unique, and intrinsic about Japanese culture.</p> <p>Just look at the output from ChatGPT &mdash; which basically spits out existing data that it has been trained on:</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*b2wYyzVu-ucsvbIrBNQSwQ.png" style="height:621px; width:700px" /></p> <p>Screenshot from OpenAI ChatGPT, prompt by author.</p> <p>Even I have been accused of committing cultural essentialism in the piece &ldquo;<a href="https://medium.com/japonica-publication/five-things-about-japan-i-didnt-fully-appreciate-until-i-lived-there-ef372d0d369f" rel="noopener"><em>Five Things about Japan I Didn&rsquo;t Fully Appreciate until I Lived There</em></a><em>.</em>&rdquo;</p> <p>Cultural essentialism refers to the now-outdated belief that there is something intrinsic, primordial, and unchanging to a culture.</p> <p>That there is an &ldquo;essence&rdquo; to a culture.</p> <p>But this critique misses the mark.&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/@alvintwrites/i-was-a-social-science-grad-student-who-sold-my-soul-to-capitalism-905953366c61" rel="noopener">As someone with a background in the study of society and culture</a>, I have never subscribed to this philosophy.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/japonica-publication/the-essence-of-japanese-culture-an-intense-obsession-with-form-d92062255178"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>