The Japanese Bauhaus

Tōkyō Thrift: Japonisme and the Japanese Bauhaus

In modern vernacular, the concept of East and West can speak of a major contradiction. Ask someone to sum up this opposition (especially in the racially-charged politics of today) and they would relate a major philosophical rift between the two — that “East and West… are not merely geographical terms; they are also modes of thinking and feeling — modes so different as to be virtually irreconcilable.”(1) But as the West has pulled away from religious governance over the past four centuries and the East, in particular Japan, has done the same, whatever dichotomy that existed between the two has become, as described in The Myth of Asia, “less profound — indicative less of different orientations than of different stages of development towards similar norms.”(2)

Japan is still presented through media as an alien, even mystical, land in much the same way as it has been since the 18th Century, despite a narrowing of the technological, economic, and political divides between East and West. To many, it is the home of vending machines that dispense used underwear, Kawaii, and cosplay.

Shown in a vacuum, bereft of cultural or philosophical context, it is no wonder that many Western observers might see Japan as a bizarre and wholly different country. However, like most impressions taken…