The Meaning of Japan

luka

Well-known member
that this is a state a person could aspire to and organise their life around that a culture could aspire to, cultivate, organise their life around
 

luka

Well-known member
and again in the one Japanese poem everyone knows

Literal Translation

Fu-ru (old) i-ke (pond) ya,
ka-wa-zu (frog) to-bi-ko-mu (jumping into)
mi-zu (water) no o-to (sound)
 

luka

Well-known member
how the silence frames that plop and how the ripples
mark the rupture spreading circles around the point of impact
 

luka

Well-known member
when Hockney joins the Japanese on the Pacific coast he does something similar but with a deliberate LA affectlessness which isn't there in the Japanese
1613310822819.png
 

luka

Well-known member
but you have the same drama of rupture and movement against perfect stillness those flat blocks of muted colour
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
I love that Haiku and the Hockney painting. Always list that Hockney in my top 10. But I'd never made the connection to Japan before, very interesting connection there!
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
It makes sense though. I always associated the Hockney with sound, coming from the splash. It was cemented into my favourites when I made that connection on a hazy summer stoned day looking at that and listening to Deniece Williams.
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
The Hockney is Lynchian too. I have met far more Chinese people in England than Japanese but do get the occasional Japanese tenant I meet in my Lettings related job.
 

luka

Well-known member
my sense of how things stand is that this appeals (and i mean the visuals as much or more than the beats) precisely becasue this state is now no longer attainable for most of us
 

luka

Well-known member
and that we are trying to recover it. that part of the appeal of Japan is that it holds out the promise of recovering this precise state depicted in the image above
 

luka

Well-known member
the kind of still and sweet sad solitude depicted there, the soft silence and the rain falling, the space and quietude, is exactly what the internet makes impossible
 

DLaurent

Well-known member
My ex girlfriend runs the Zen shop in Birmingham. They're into all kinds of holistic medicine and treatment.
 
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