Japanese Culture, A Living Treasure

As years pass by and people changed throughout years, our past leaves some legacies. It left histories of what people have done in the past, and one of the valuable legacies of mankind that draws man’s desire of the aesthetic of life and things is art. While people created such amazing things, such as economy, politic, cooking and style of living through art, unconsciously they built their culture. An amazing thing that would be one of the signs of the existing of mankind is a culture. A culture will remain to live throughout years. Japanese, a country that have old culture that still live today, where everyone is creating a new culture, a global culture, is one of the world living treasures.

Japanese culture is a living treasure as it does live in every part of Japanese’s life and activity. Japanese culture is old but at the same time it is new. The old things are still living, and yet these are mixing in harmony with so many new cultures. Although they are mixing one each other, the origin of the old cultures are not vanished. Uniquely, the old cultures of Japan are strongly standing as the dominant culture. One of the most popular old cultures is a Japanese traditional clothes, Kimono and Hakama. As Kimono and Hakama are the old culture of Japan, they still have legacies from the past, the beauty and uniqueness of materials, patterns and styles. These legacies are still living and making these clothes are surprisingly very popular, expensive and admired by Japanese. Japanese is the society that is proud with their culture and keeps using these traditional clothes today. Even though the old time has changed, the admiration and the appreciation to these clothes, these legacies are not faded

A culture is an art of living that relates so many things as a spider relates its yarns into one unity. Japanese culture is also the same; it has its yarns to relate the old culture into one unity, the Japanese culture. The relation is surprisingly beautiful and sacred. One of yarns is a traditional clothes. Japanese traditional clothes are worn in dancing, ceremony and these are mixed with a new style of fashion, Lolita. In dancing, Japanese wear their traditional clothes as the sign of their legacy from the past that have high level of art’s aesthetic. While in ceremony, it can be seen in Ocha no you (tea ceremony) a ceremony that require people who is attending to wear kimono or hakama. They have to wear it because they attend an event to relax themselves while admiring the art of making tea. This is a special occasion where not every Japanese can enjoy everyday. Another yarn is fashion that now has developed into a new creative style, Lolita. Lolita is Japanese subculture that creatively remakes Japanese traditional clothes into a new cute style. Lolita style has mixed kimono, hakama and Japanese uniform to be more popular in youth style. Japanese people are creating a new way to make their culture become more popular and live. They keep the spirit of keeping and being proud to their living treasure and continue it into actions. If they have not kept and took actions and just leave it behind, their culture will not live throughout years, it will soon be extinct.

Japanese culture also has something that is also priceless to be notice, their cuisines. As it has told before, Japanese culture is old but new. Japanese cuisines are also old things but also new because these have the old techniques, old manners, but yet, Japanese cuisines have new faces and taste. They make cuisines based on the manners that have continuously been inherited by their ancestors. However, they make the cuisine with traditional manners but the taste and the appearance is not that old. They have made it tastier and shaped the cuisine to be more interesting to see. They appreciate their traditional culture and make it as a base of everything they want to make.

Finally, it is clear that Japanese culture is a living treasure. It does live in every part of Japanese’s life and activity. The big yarn of Japanese culture is the art itself that has related everything in Japanese culture into one beautiful unity as a spider has sewed its pattern and when the spider has finished its web, it will show its true shape that connects one each other, in this context is a Japanese culture web. This web not only connects and keeps the culture alive but also continues the legacies to be a part of Japanese life. Japanese culture is an old thing that still lives hidden in Japanese’s life, ceremonies, fashions, traditional clothes, dances and cuisines. These are priceless treasures to be kept alive.

The last thing to remember is that culture is an art of mankind that needs to be kept and inherited to the next generation. If people do not love and keep their legacies, they will lose their past. They will have no mirror to look back and learn form the past’s failures. Their past cannot live and yet it will die and be forgotten. Then, let’s learn from Japanese that let their culture lives and tells their histories. They are making the next generation to be better mankind who admit and proud to their culture, so that they can face the global culture with a pair of strong feet to stand.

Yosephine N.U
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