A super interesting read in T Magazine by Pico Iyer on the Japanese culture of keeping the old.
Here’re some quotes, but make sure to read the full article:
‘…the assurance that a copy of a place can sometimes look more authentic than the place itself.’
‘But deep down, I think it’s also because a culture centered around the seasons knows that the old keeps coming back, in new forms, with every passing year. And a culture based on impermanence — the wisdom of its oldest spiritual principles borne out by centuries of warfare and earthquake and fire — is less attached to the stuff that doesn’t last than to the values that do. Modernity is always fashionable in Japan, but nothing looks more out of date than yesterday’s version of tomorrow.’
‘Modernity is permanently recyclable in Japan, and seeking out the new is in fact the country’s oldest tradition. As Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa had it, famously, in “The Leopard,” his novel of 19th-century Sicily, “If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”’