Japan: Art or Science?

Opinion about Japan
When you hear about Japan, what comes to your mind? Many people say that Japan is a country of art. Many kinds of art are there. We can see manga and anime, the Japanese songs, and many more. Most people admire Japan as an artistic place. They say that they can feel a new atmosphere of Japan’s art, and also culture.
However, many people also say that Japan is a modern country, with many kinds of technology applications in almost every aspect of their life. People visiting Japan will see the monorail, the robots, computer-based machine, etc. So, which one is the True Japan? Is it an artistic country, or a scientific one?

Japan as An Artistic Country: Art of Japan
First of all, let’s talk about Japanese art. One very famous art of Japan is its music. Even in Indonesia, many musicians of Indonesia now show a part of Japan in their music. See Duo Maia. Meichan, one member of Duo Maia, mostly appears in her shows in Harajuku style, one famous fashion style from Japan. There is also “J-Rocks” which fully adopts Japanese music style. It is a sign that Japanese music has been well known in most part of the world.
Before talking about the modern music, let’s see the root first, i.e. the traditional music of Japan. Traditional music of Japan covers Gagaku and Nohgaku. Both of them are a part of a drama. Gagaku was performed in the court, to entertain the royal family. Gagaku also used in Buddhist service. Meanwhile Nohgaku is music specially performed in a drama.
From drama, Japan music then developed into a modern one. With the influence of other countries, like China, Korea, and of course western countries, Japan now has its own unique music, called J-Pop (also J-Rock, for some rock music). This music is a little bit different, as it has more variety of instruments, including the computerized ones, and has a different sense of melody. Many Japanese composers and musicians combine the sense of foreign music with Japanese music’s own characteristic, creating a unique sense of melody that only exists in Japanese music.
There is also another part of Japanese art that even becomes the pop culture of Japan. To make it more chronological, it is better to start with manga. Manga is a Japanese comic, which also has its own unique characteristics. Characters appear in manga usually have larger eyes and spiky hair (in modern manga). Also, story in manga mostly has the character as the center of attention. The story grows out as the characters experience more things in their life.
From manga, the anime then appeared. Most of animes are manga which are brought up into animation version. This makes the characters seem more alive. From this point, the culture of cosplay appears. This is a parade where fans of anime wear costumes made as similar as possible to the characters in the anime. This cosplay then developed into a culture of Harajuku (the place where this culture developed has the same name). It becomes a fashion style that reflects the characters’ appearances in manga and anime, emphasizing the details on forms and colors.
The cosplay, the anime, and the manga are the forms of Japanese art. There is still one more side of Japan that needs discussing, i.e. the scientific part of Japan.

Japan as A Scientific Country: Science of Japan
Many people visiting Japan will admire the facilities provided there in the society directly when they see it. They will praise the monorail built so harmonically with the structure of the city. They may also smile admiring the industrial place of the city that shows the advanced application of technology. These clearly show that Japan is a modern, scientific country with so many of technology application applied there.
One clearer example, and also the most famous, of Japan’s technology is the gaming industry. All people throughout the world know Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii, and XBox. These three are the latest game consoles that become very famous. So many titles of video games have been made to be played in those three consoles. Mario Bros series, Final Fantasy series, and Grand Theft Auto series are the most legendary games gamers have ever played in the world. As an effect, the cosplayers then also take the models from the video games characters. That and the gaming industry itself have been making Japan more and more famous throughout the world.
When we talk about scientific things, it doesn’t necessarily talks about technology, is it? Japan also has another part of science, i.e. its language. People who want to go to Japan usually learn Japanese before they go. Well, they will not have any problems in learning it. However, if they go to Japan, they will find a new feature of Japanese: The Japlish. Japlish is English words that enter the Japanese language and become Japanese. So, when one hear “ basukettoboru”, actually it means basketball. When Japanese says “Makudonarudo”, he actually means “McDonalds”. Foreigners who only learn Japanese will get confused hearing this kind of words. This doesn’t mean that foreigners speaking English will not, but they are less likely to get confused.
Actually there is no specific regulation about this Japlish. It purely derives from the influence of western things, like the McDonald, that then develops in the society. The most significant reason is because Japanese people are not able to pronounce sound cluster with two adjacent consonant in it. They tend to add a vowel to such sound. Moreover, Japanese people also cannot pronounce /l/ sound. That’s why Japlish is born, and used among the people.

Japan’s Overall: Final Remark
After you read the explanation, what comes to your mind now when you hear something about Japan? I’m sure now that you will think both sides of Japan: the scientific and the artistic side. Yes, Japan is both an artistic and a scientific country. All the mangas, the animes, and the cosplay culture are the signs of art in Japan. Meanwhile, the Japlish case, and the robotic, computerized wares are the signs of science in Japan.
What about gaming? If you think further about it, actually, gaming and anime are representatives of both sides. Video games consoles are clearly products of technology. And you cannot make an animation without a computer and its program. Meanwhile, gaming and anime produce a new kind of art, a kind of visual computerized Japanese art, and bring some impacts in the culture, i.e. the cosplay culture and the harajuku fashion style.
Japan is really amazing, isn’t it?
So now it is our turn to think about it. How will we behave towards it? Will we be ignorant? As a student, we should see this from cultural understanding point of view. Even though we are not interested in Japanese stuff, we should respect other’s culture. If we are interested, it is a good thing to learn the culture, or anything about it, at least for our own knowledge. We should never act imprudently, because it may hurt other’s feeling.

So why don’t you start to explore the world? You might find a treasure that will be useful in your life.

Angga Benedikto
081214116

References
Japanese Music. Retrieved May 19, 2010, from UT Asian Studies network Information Center web site: http://asnic.utexas.edu/countries/japan/japmusic.html

Rei. What are Manga and Anime? Rei’s Home Page. Retrieved May 19, 2010, from http://www.mit.edu/~rei/Expl.html

What is Cosplay? Cosplay-FTW: Your Home for Anime Cosplay Inspiration! Retrieved May 19, 2010, from http://www.cosplay-ftw.com/what-is-cosplay.html

Shaw, Corey. (2007). History and Culture of Video Games in Japan. Retrieved May 19, 2010, from Rice Universities web site: http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~cds3824/ japa102 JapaneseCultureProjectFinal.rtf

Wagman, Joel. Joel’s Guide to Japlish. ジョエル　スワグマン. Retrieved May 19, 2010, from http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2006/02/joels-guide-to-japlish.html