In this video, Nick Kemp dives into the world of Japanese concepts that are often misused or misunderstood in the West. From ikigai being wrongly tied to a Venn diagram and longevity myths, to wabi-sabi being reduced to "imperfect beauty" for marketing, Nick unpacks the deeper cultural meanings behind these words.
Japanese concepts are frequently misappropriated
Nick: I guess we can flip this now and say there are Japanese words or concepts that are often misused or appropriated. And obviously, something I care about, and I'm trying to undo is ikigai being now associated with the Venn diagram.
It's also associated to longevity, and some people believe it's a word from Okinawa, and some people believe it's your one life purpose. So it's completely misunderstood. But people, coaches, use it to sell programs to sell books.
And then there are words like wabi-sabi, which is completely misunderstood, but used to sell products for interior design. And what's interesting is I have been able to interview the man responsible for the Venn diagram, who merged that with ikigai. For him, it was just an idea, it took him no more than 40 minutes, it was just a cool idea, and nothing more; and he hasn't sought to take advantage of it, he's just the kind of mischief-maker, a fun-loving guy.
And the word wabi-sabi was the only word my father-in-law taught me, and he makes pottery, he makes Shino-yaki pottery. So when he told me that word, it was a sort of a significant event. He told me when he was packaging up pottery.
And you're right, these nouns become adjectives. They seem to become adjectives in the West, and people relate wabi-sabi to imperfect beauty or Zen as many nouns now, ‘Oh, that's very Zen’ or ‘This is very zen.’ Thinking it's an adjective.