“The life-changing magic of Japanese clutter” – Aeon°
The world still turns to Japan for things; it also turns to Japan to rid itself of them. There’s only one problem: Japan isn’t anywhere near as tidy as outside observers give it credit for.
[…] While treatises abound on Japanese simplicity, minimalist design and culture, precious little is written about the nation’s masterfully messy side.
A long read on how Japan isn’t the minimalist paradise Westerners often think it is.
To be fair, as a Westerner, I do associate minimalist interiors with Japan. But I also associate incredibly maximalist spaces with it too. It’s either one or the other, in my mind.
Why can maximalist spaces be worthwhile?:
Cosily curated Japanese clutter-spaces are different [to modern minimalism. There is a meticulousness to the best of them that is on a par with the mental effort poured into simplifying something: a deliberate aesthetic decision to add, rather than subtract – sometimes mindfully, sometimes unconsciously, but always, always individually. Clutter offers an antidote to the stupefying standardisation of so much of modern life.
The article mentions the photobook “Tokyo Style” by Kyoichi Tsuzuki that showed a Tokyo “startlingly unlike the rarefied minimalism that the world had come to expect from Japan. Tsuzuki’s photos were a joyous declaration to the contrary, celebrating the vitality of living spaces filled with wall-to-wall clutter.”
Many of the photos in the book do show anti-minimalist spaces. But some don’t. Including the cover, which I’d say has many minimalist cliches like a bed on the floor, just a couple of plain t-shirts, and just one form of entertainment – music in this intance.
The article mentioned ōhsōji, “an annual year-end tidying-up emerged as a popular ritual among the masses, a ‘big cleaning’ to ring in the New Year.”
I like the sound of that and adopt it as a tradition. Post-Christmas is when a home is at its most messy and cluttered. Apparently ōhsōji is done between Christmas and New Years day.
I think I’d prefer to do mine in January. I like that those days between Christmas and New Years where the house is strewn with wrapping, presents and half-eaten food. I wouldn’t want my ōhsōji to be too early. January 1st is the best time, for me.
If you go to Studio Ghibli’s offices in the leafy western suburbs of Tokyo you’ll stumble upon the “immaculately designed and managed facility replica of the director Hayao Miyazaki’s workspace. It is a glorious mess. Heirloom-grade wooden shelves, overflowing with bric-a-brac and thick tomes, line the walls.”
In searching around for the highest quality copies of the images above 👆 I stumbled upon this random which. I like it and it does give off a somewhat similar vibe to Miyazaki’s workspace.
