Japan’s Appeal to Visitors Exotic and Sensual

TOKYO – There are two Japans -- the modern or Western, and the traditional. It is often said that it is the Western amenities of Japan that make it a comfortable place to visit. But it is the traditional elements that make it fascinating to the foreign visitor, and one of the world’s best travel destinations.

The fascination that Japan holds for foreigners derives not only from the charm of the unfamiliar, but also from the fact that so many facets of traditional Japan are strikingly unusual and beautiful, and the very essence of exotic to foreign eyes.

What makes Japan even more interesting to the foreign visitor is that one can move freely and effortlessly back and forth between the modern and traditional, as easily and as quickly as passing through a door. In fact, a door is often the only dividing line between the two worlds.

And not surprising to those who are familiar with Oriental cultures, there is a strong sensual element in the exotic side of Japan -- from its traditional architecture, arts, crafts and wearing apparel to the extraordinary number and variety of festivals and other customs that make up the essence and flavor of Japanese culture.

What makes the impact of the traditional side of Japan so powerful is that the exotic and the sensual are combined. Both are integral elements of virtually everything that is culturally Japanese.

One might say that the Kanamara Festival of the Wakamiya Hachiman Shrine in Kawasaki City, between Tokyo and Yokohama, and the Honen Festival of the Tagata Shrine in Komaki City, are two of the extremes of the sensual side of Japanese culture.

These annual events, sometimes referred to as “fertility festivals,” are built around activities involving replicas of the male phallus that range from small to eight feet or more in length. Young women ride phallus-shaped seesaws and eat phallus-shaped candies. Men, women and children get their pictures taken embracing huge phallic reproductions.

The sensual element in the kimono, the yukata, the paper doors and partitions in traditional homes and inns, the kitchen utensils, the wall decorations, the gardens -- again in virtually everything that is Japanese -- is far more subtle than the phallic festivals, but equally powerful over a period of time.

To Western eyes, few things are more exotic than Japan’s kabuki and noh theatrical forms. And while not as overtly conspicuous, virtually everything else that is traditional in Japanese life also qualifies as exotic, from the ideograms used to write the language to the vast array of items one sees in department store food malls.

Another facet in the combination of the exotic and sensual in Japanese culture that attracts foreign visitors, especially Westerners, is the element of mystery. No matter how long foreigners stay in Japan, or how familiar they become with the people and the culture, the mystery remains.

This mystery persists because there are so many facets of Japanese culture that do not lend themselves to ready explanation, that remain beguiling and intriguing. Part of this perception may be attributed to the overblown “mystery of the Orient” image that has prevailed in the West for centuries, but most of it derives from elements of Japan’s traditional culture that are demonstrated in the arts and crafts as well as in household furnishings and utensils…in the essence of things that make them Japanese.

In other words, a certain “Japanese sense” that is both conscious and unconscious is responsible for the exotic and erotic aspects of Japanese culture that foreigners find so appealing and so satisfying. This “sense” is automatically applied to virtually everything the Japanese do, from such mundane actions as preparing and arranging food on a plate to landscaping a Zen garden or conducting a tea ceremony.

The visitor who wants to get the most out of Japan should be prepared to look, and go, beyond the Western facade that obscures the essence and heart of the traditional culture, for that is where the pleasure -- and benefit -- lies. [See my travel oriented language and cultural insight books on Japan.]

Copyright © 2007 by Boye Lafayette De Mente
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Boye Lafayette De Mente has been involved with Japan, Korea, China and Mexico since the late 1940s as a member of a U.S. intelligence agency, student, journalist, and editor. He is the author of more than 50 books on these countries, including the first books ever on the Japanese way of doing business: Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business published in 1959, and How to Do Business in Japan, published in 1961.

To see a complete list of his titles [each one linked to Amazon.com’s buy page], go to his personal website: http://www.phoenixbookspublishers.com/.