A country’s identity is reflected in its visual aesthetic, be it architecture, clothes, domestic interiors or artefacts.
When I lived in Japan in the 1960s, I was amazed at the distinctive aesthetic and beauty of Japanese homes. Even the most modest interior had the simple understated elegance of pale sand-coloured tatami mat flooring, the sliding shoji paper doors in pale wood, the low seating and single alcove with an ink-painted scroll and spare ikebana flower arrangement: just a stem, a flower and a leaf, sometimes a small stone… . Exquisite. Then you went into their proudly named ‘Western’ room and all was garish, overdone: heavy stuffed plush sofas with lace antimacassars on the back and arms, elaborately draped velvet curtains with gilded ties and tassels, a gaudy pile carpet, sometimes even a big bouquet of artificial flowers in a cut-glass vase on the embroidered doily decorated table! It was as if that unerring Japanese eye for style had been totally lost. In those days, before Hanae Mori and Issey Miyake, even their dress sense, though most of them were abandoning their stunning kimonos and adopting western clothing, was equally fussy and unflattering.
January 2025, volume 49, No 1