BOOKS

Flowers, Birds, Wind, and Moon

Flowers, Birds, Wind, and Moon

The Phenomenology of Nature in Japanese Culture

Matsuoka Seigo
Translated by David Noble

Japan Library series
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Culture

¥3,400 + tax

ISBN 9784866581392
220 mm x 148 mm / 320 pp. / March 2020

Japanese culture is deeply rooted in nature—from literature to the visual arts, and from religious practice to daily life. How, when, and why this close association with nature developed is explored in this book by bestselling author Matsuoka Seigow. Using ten key motifs—mountains, paths, deities, wind, birds, flowers, buddhas, time, dreams, and moon—each of which serves as a lens on different aspects of Japanese culture, Matsuoka ranges from history and ethnology to the arts.

He also explores the insights that emerge when traditional sensibilities are examined from the perspective of modern science. Japanese concepts of time, interval, and otherness, though arrived at intuitively, overlap with how contemporary fields such as quantum physics and relativity theory grapple with issues of uncertainty, indeterminacy, and ambiguity.

Matsuoka proposes that throughout history, the phenomena of nature and the kaleidoscope of seasonal change have functioned as a system of recombinant codes for the expression of the Japanese sensibility. This unique multimedia system for the cultural construction of nature has generated the essential creative motifs of Japanese literature, fine arts, and craft, which in turn have shaped every aspect of Japanese life and thought.

MATSUOKA Seigo
Matsuoka Seigo (b. 1944) is executive director of the Editorial Engineering Laboratory (EEL), known for research and development in information culture and technology. He is also president of ISIS (Interactive System of Inter Scores) Editorial School, in Tokyo. In his twenties, he founded the popular arts magazine , which published until 1982. He developed a unique methodological worldview, which he calls “editorial engineering.” His ideas are published in innovative forms spanning the written word, film and video, multimedia, and the internet.

Major published works include Kokka to “watakushi” no yukue (My Future and the Future of the Nation, Shunjūsha, 2015); Nihon to Nippon: Yomitobashi Nihon bunkafu (Nihon and Nippon: A Quick Guide to Japanese Culture, Kōsakusha, 2014); Nihon ryū (The Japanese Way, Chikuma Shobō, 2009); Nihon suki (Japanese Taste, Chikuma Shobō, 2007); Nihon to iu hōhō: Omokage, usturoi no bunka (Japan as Method: A Culture of Fleeting Images, NHK Shuppan, 2006); Furajairu: Yowasa kara no shuppatsu (Fragile: Starting from Weakness, Chikuma Shobō, 2005); Kūkai no yume (Dreams of Kūkai, rev. ed., Shunjūsha, 2005); Runatikkusu: Tsuki o yūgaku suru (Lunatics: Voyages of Discovery about the Moon, Chūōkōron Shinsha, 2005); and Chi no henshūkōgaku (Editorial Engineering for Intelligence, Asahi Shimbunsha, 2001). Sen’ya sensatsu (A Thousand Books for a Thousand Nights; https://1000ya.isis.ne.jp) is a popular book navigation website launched by Matsuoka in 2000. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo (1994–97) and a professor at Tezukayama Gakuin University (1998–2004), in Osaka.

*information as of time of publication

Japan Library series
Culture

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥3,400 + tax
ISBN 9784866581392
220 mm x 148 mm / 320 pp. / March 2020

eBook
ISBN 9784866581569 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866581675 (PDF)

Preface to the English Edition / Introduction / 1. Mountains / 2. Paths / 3. Deities / 4. Wind / 5. Birds / 6. Flowers / 7. Buddhas / 8. Time / 9. Dreams / 10. Moon / Notes / About the Author and About the Translator

「花鳥風月」に代表される日本文化の重要な10のキーワードを取り上げ、歴史・文学・科学などさまざまな角度から分析する。その底流に潜む「日本的なるもの」の姿を抉出する日本文化論。

松岡正剛
1944年、京都市生まれ。編集工学研究所所長、帝塚山学院大学教授。二十代で創刊した雑誌『遊』によって、日本のアート・思想・メディア・デザインに大きな影響を与える。その後、独自の方法的世界観を編集工学として確立、その研究成果を著作・映像・マルチメディア・インターネットなど斬新な手法で発表した。

*著者略歴は書籍刊行時のものを表示しています。

Original Japanese Edition

花鳥風月の科学

松岡正剛 著

中央公論新社 刊

2004/06/23