http://www.heritage.scotsman.com/audio/001_A_021_2005_05_31.mp3

http://www.heritage.scotsman.com/audio/001_A_021_2005_05_31.mp3

Nice song, very wabi sabi! Unfortunately, although my own land has wooden huts aplenty and lots of Slow Life traditions just waiting to be revived, its industrial masses are not yet quite as post-industrial as the Japanese public. Partly it's just numbers and wealth: Scotland's population is 5 million, Japan's is 125 million.

But it's also the fact that there just isn't as much life in which to slow down and take your time in Scotland. A Glaswegian male lives only 68.7 years, compared to a Japanese male's 78.3 years.

I dare say Tilda Swinton and John Byrne are bringing up their twins in their Nairn, Morayshire home in a style rather like the one featured in these magazines, but to find a similar sensibility in the West on this Japanese scale I think you'd have to go to Sweden.

mmm..a wee bit confused...i get the population bit , but the wealth? not as rich per head or richer? of course "elites" can indulge in lifestyle change at the drop of a hat, but the "industrial masses" of Scotland are what?.. not rich enough, not numerous enough, not "post-industrial" enough?

unemployment in areas decimated of services and industry is almost third generation now..lots of leisure with a DIY attitude ..if not theres the chemical method of slowing down..

i often used to see Japanese cultural movements as trends or fashions to be dropped once people align professionally with the society

thanks to your blog i am encouraged to delve deeper and try and bring it all back home..

ah i see...

"There are ways to be 'post-industrial' that the West will also eventually discover. They are not refusals of the West by losers, but refinements of the West by winners."

from your Slow Life link

Makes me really miss Japan.

Since most of my ranting recently has been so opposing, I feel the need to let you know how much I appreciate your writing and art.

Gambatte!!!

I think my favourite title is Navel of Life.

"I may be navel-gazing, but I'm gazing into the navel of life!"

I wouldn't mind a copy of Ku:nel, Slow Living, and Natural Life. Of course, I'd have to learn how to read Japanese first...

I've bought a number of issues of ku:nel and never knew what it meant before now!

matcha latte is lovely indeed. even to an espresso freak like me. and it's really taken off recently

I love the peice, and the ideas therin, but I can't help feeling that SlowLife is another fleeting subcultural movment in a country that is still very centered on work in connection with social status ( Having a fureta sun is no badge of honor for mom & dad), and economicly still quite industrial.-Jed

Well, you have to remember that magazines, as well as representing lived lifestyles, also represent aspirations, dreams and compensations for lifestyles they don't show. A leisure magazine with pictures of the countryside can speak of a productive life spent in the city, even if the second content is a hidden one.

And obviously there's a bit of a humourous paradox in the fact that non-materialist magazines want to be bought, and want to sell you things (they subsist on advertising, like other magazines), hence my joke about how the mags "endorse" my non-acquisition of them as purchased items.

However, I don't agree that Slow Life is a passing fad. I think it's the beginning of "the next thing" after the industrial revolution, and pioneering it is a tremendously important thing to do at this point. How do humans manage a trajectory away from mindless (and highly damaging) economic growth? What's actually important, once you reach an adequate level of material affluence? These questions are not going to go away any time soon, and neither is the environmental damage that will focus our minds on them.

"What's actually important, once you reach an adequate level of material affluence?"

I suppose this is where the silver lining in my warey mind lies, in the fact that once people are satisfied as consumers and individuals, they will hopefully want something diffrent (i.e. Im sick of an industrial style economy that scars the landscape, I want an eco-friendly alternative). Let's hope, as you sugest, that people will start to notice the damages from the industrial system, and propel a post-industrial SlowLife into the future. What are you doing today?-Jed

Over at marxy, I've pooh-poohed the japanese slow life fad over and over. I still think its a fad, but I think you're right. I've watched slow life slowly creeping over the entire magazine rack for the last year or so. I think it's a more significant fad than I ever gave it credit for.

m(_ _)m

Moushiwake nai.

but it should also be remembered that both the people producing these magazines and the ones featured in them do tend to work pretty hard and that the so caller 'creators' category is not really boho arty slackers but everything from electronics guys to aromatherapists (see feb. relax).

french peasants can't afford a house on the prairie either. it's not easy to get the world organized.

The latest Cabinet magazine (themed "Ruins" and which arived today, & I've only read 5% of) has a feature on "sandal-wearing “cranks” in 19th-century England".

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/20/

dacafe's diary:
http://dacafe.petit.cc/

http://www.dacafe.org

"...having babies... toddlers... fertility..."

You're not trying to tell us something about you and Hisae, are you?

Thanks for this - I've been following the links all over the place, and find these ideas so compelling and wonderful. Would love more posts about these things, or directions to archived ones.
--Stephanie

skull and bones: out

happy: in

Like pushing a button.

Unfortunately for Japan, none of these magazines could be considered "very popular," and they're all essentially targeted at the same narrow audience. Can Cam probably has more readers than all these combined.

I'm not sure anyone perceives these as "cutting edge" either. Just for late 20s/early 30s women who are out of the fashion rat-race.

Nice curation, though!

Marxy

If you are not obliged to buy the magazines... how do they keep going? What's the bottomline of the slowlife? (speaking as a would-be snail that is).

I'm a relative newcomer to your site Nick, although we met years ago when we were both playing at The Albany in Deptford. I used to play with Holy Joy and Test Dept. Went on to play with The Pogues from '91 - '96 and am now MD for Tom Waits on The Black Rider and playing musical saw all over the place. Check www.younggodrecords.com. Based in Brixton and travel a great deal. Love Japan and tour whenever possible. Be great to hook up next time i'm / you're over. I've been an avid follower and practitioner of Slow Food and read this post with much glee. Took liberty of sticking a few links in... Itadakimas!

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2005/11/japan_the_slow.html

http://www.slowfood.com/

http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf/OtherDocs/le_editorial010404.html

http://www.slowfoodfoundation.com/

http://www.slowfood.com/eng/sf_cose/sf_cose_organizz_jap.lasso

Just in case you didn't catch this NY Times article outlining some of the formal properties of cuteness: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/03/science/03cute.html?ei=5070&en=d694877296232dff&ex=1136955600&pagewanted=all

I think the bit about the political role of cuteness in Japan is particularly interesting. Have you encountered any instances of cuteness being used "to soften up the vertical society"?

Oh sure, like this sign:



I thought the NYT article was doing the same thing, actually: pulling us in with a cute panda picture, then making us take on trust a whole lot of statements prefaced by vague appeal-to-authority phrases like "researchers say... evolutionary scientists believe... Madison Avenue knows... experts tell us..." None of these people were named or quoted directly, you were just supposed to take it all on trust. Cute!

do these slowlife magazines have websites or some where to see spreads?

Hi, wow Ive been a fan of Momus for quite some time, and how pleasantly surprised was I to come across this fine article after Googling 'inaka lifestyle' (i undertake such random searches during most of my free time lately). Actually, I gruadated from a Japanese university last year and based my undergrad thesis on the Japanese green spiritual subculture...lifestyles, philosophies, etc etc., and did most of my qualitative research on Yakushima Island, quite a hot-spot for these types.
Anyway, a mag you might want to check out is here:

http://www.el-aura.com
More spiritually oriented, but with green lifestyle suggestions (cosmetics, retreats, etc.)

Ive been living in stinky Bangkok for half a year now; yearning for Japan...mainly the inaka and onsen...which lead me to the initial Google search that lead me more.

peace-
JJ

ps Momus/Nick Ive been enjoying your writings and thoughts ever since....5-6 years ago, when you did a reading/performance in LA. Youre a genius and inspiration to us with anthro degrees. enough of the gush.. :P