The Idea Of A Japanese National Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

The Idea Of A Japanese National Culture - Essay Example This notion or set of beliefs finds Okakura in an inappropriate position of agreeing with the sentiments and instead Okakura in his opinion believes that the unity embraced by the Asian community is associated with the foreigner’s colonization and not the Asian beliefs. He finds it hard to accept that the Asian unity is of purpose and not circumstantial. The Japanese idea of unity attributed to the religion and art is relative to the whole Asian community, however, Okakura believes that at no single moment the Asian community practiced the natural relative to the fundamental values. They only came together because they needed to protect interests. Whereas the Japanese National culture is immensely attributed to the sense of self and collective creativity in all sectors which has made it grow to its present state, Okakura believes that Japan and its people depend on the products of imitation. In term of language, the people of Japan have imitated the western languages and adopted them in their daily lives. In addition, the Japanese and Asian art are slowly losing meaning since the western attributes such as design; texture and sense of communication among others have been integrated into the original Japanese culture and this has neutralized the originality of Japanese and Asian culture at large. This integration makes Okakura thinks and perceives the relationship between the national culture of Japan and Asia at large as imitated and not original as the people of Japan claim. In his opinion, Okakura believes that the Confucianism in China and the Toyotomi and early Tokugawa period in Japan formed the originality of the Nationa l Japanese and Asian culture and not religion. On the other hand, the aspect of the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere which was perceived by the majority of the Asian community as a weapon of trouncing modernity which was attributed to the modern state and industrialization (Kakuzō, 34).