5 ms·
I thought of bonsai as a fun hobby and chic, slightly exotic decor element. When I went to Japan I was dissappointed that bonsai and ornamental horticulture in
by porknubbins 5y ago
I thought of bonsai as a fun hobby and chic, slightly exotic decor element. When I went to Japan I was dissappointed that bonsai and ornamental horticulture in general is super serious and regarded as a boring, stuffy hobby by anyone under 60. In retrospect it makes total sense that bonsai is not as special there and the casual import version is actually more fun than the real thing. I think a lot of things are like this cross culturally.
- Cthulhu_ 5y agoI think it ties in with the "Cool Japan" strategy / perception (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Japan); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Japan); the Japanese tourism industry and the western Japanese fetishists really want to push and believe in a certain aspect of Japan, involving meticulous craftsmanship, ancient traditions, etc. And I respect that. But the 'real' Japan is a lot less idyllic; from what I've heard, people are overworked, single, depressed, addicted, etc. But that too is probably lacking in nuance, because it's all second / third hand knowledge.
- porknubbins 5y agoI would say all the messages about meticulous craftsmanship etc are not wrong and that is the difficulty in some sense. When you encounter a foreign culture in its real full scale version its very from the safe toy imaginary version and not friendly to casual hobbyists.