Book Review: Letter from Japan
Jun. 16th, 2026 12:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI love books that delve into the customs of other countries, so of course I had to read Marie Kondo’s Letter from Japan, written with Kondo’s interpreter Marie Iida.* The book is a collection of essays exploring various Japanese customs, practices, ways of seeing the world, often with an exploration how these concepts influenced Kondo’s tidying method, but the focus remains on exploring the customs themselves.
*Slightly unclear to me if Kondo wrote the book in Japanese and Iida translated into English, or if Kondo wrote in English and Iida helped with the English as she wrote. I waffled and decided to tag it as a Japanese translation.
Some essays I particularly liked:
The one about Japan’s traditional calendar, which breaks each season into six segments, which are further divided into five-day ko, or microseasons. If there’s a book in English just about the microseasons, I’d love to read it.
The concept of mottonai, the regret over wasting something that could still serve a purpose - Japanese mothers will cry “Mottonai!” if their children try to discard something still useful.
The Japanese tea ceremony. I knew about the tea ceremony but enjoyed getting more details about the theory behind the tea ceremony (although clearly this could also fill a book!), and also I was tickled when Kondo explained why she chose the tea ceremony as her extracurricular in high school: she had heard that students in the tea ceremony club got to eat a sweet treat every day!
The concept of do, the way - not any specific way, but the concept itself, the joy of striving for mastery. Currently (on the English-language internet, at least), there’s often an emphasis on the dangers of perfectionism and the joy of accepting good-enough, so it was invigorating to read Kondo’s assertion, “When you make a decision to perfect something, your life opens to a kind of meditative stillness and satisfaction… Continue on with faith in your own joy and soon enough, a path will emerge.” The concept of mastery/perfection as an expression of joy - of loving something so much that you want to take the time to do it right.
Kondo also notes the contrast between American English and Japanese, particularly the fact that American English tends to reward and value speaking loudly and confidently - to frame being able to speak loudly and confidently as inherently freeing. But Kondo comments, “When I speak in Japanese, I feel I can get away with speaking softly”; and it struck me that being able to shout your views is one kind of freedom, but being able to speak softly and still get a hearing is another.
*Slightly unclear to me if Kondo wrote the book in Japanese and Iida translated into English, or if Kondo wrote in English and Iida helped with the English as she wrote. I waffled and decided to tag it as a Japanese translation.
Some essays I particularly liked:
The one about Japan’s traditional calendar, which breaks each season into six segments, which are further divided into five-day ko, or microseasons. If there’s a book in English just about the microseasons, I’d love to read it.
The concept of mottonai, the regret over wasting something that could still serve a purpose - Japanese mothers will cry “Mottonai!” if their children try to discard something still useful.
The Japanese tea ceremony. I knew about the tea ceremony but enjoyed getting more details about the theory behind the tea ceremony (although clearly this could also fill a book!), and also I was tickled when Kondo explained why she chose the tea ceremony as her extracurricular in high school: she had heard that students in the tea ceremony club got to eat a sweet treat every day!
The concept of do, the way - not any specific way, but the concept itself, the joy of striving for mastery. Currently (on the English-language internet, at least), there’s often an emphasis on the dangers of perfectionism and the joy of accepting good-enough, so it was invigorating to read Kondo’s assertion, “When you make a decision to perfect something, your life opens to a kind of meditative stillness and satisfaction… Continue on with faith in your own joy and soon enough, a path will emerge.” The concept of mastery/perfection as an expression of joy - of loving something so much that you want to take the time to do it right.
Kondo also notes the contrast between American English and Japanese, particularly the fact that American English tends to reward and value speaking loudly and confidently - to frame being able to speak loudly and confidently as inherently freeing. But Kondo comments, “When I speak in Japanese, I feel I can get away with speaking softly”; and it struck me that being able to shout your views is one kind of freedom, but being able to speak softly and still get a hearing is another.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-16 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-16 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-17 12:04 am (UTC)Tea ceremony sweets, are, in my experience, awful and chalky, but I like that as a reason for taking up the practice too!
The thing about speaking quietly is great, and also reminds me of an ad for a perfume from my youth. The perfume was called "Whisper,"** and the tag line was "If you want to get someone's attention, whisper." We teens had our doubts about that as a viable method of getting attention, but definitely being able to speak softly and have people attend is--well, power!
**Oh look, a poster for it on eBay! Oh, and it looks like the perfume was called "Nuance," not "Whisper"