Evanescence and Form: An Introduction to Japanese Culture

by Charles Shiro Inouye

Book Overview

If we thought that reality were changeable, fragile, and fleeting, would we take life more seriously or less seriously? This book contemplates the notion of hakanasa, the evanescence of all things, as understood by the Japanese. Their lived responses to this idea of impermanence have been various and even contradictory. Asceticism, fatalism, conformism. Hedonism, materialism, careerism. What this array of responses have in common are, first, a grounding...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1403967067
• ISBN13: 9781403967060
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.1"