Public/Private Spheres in Japanese Society
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In Japanese society, there are certain signs and symbols differentiating between private and public space. Every society makes some distinction between these two spheres, but the underlying meaning of this difference and the ways in which the difference is enforced differ from one society to another. The Japanese view of public and private spheres is bound with ideas about religion, historical developments, and attitudes toward the place of the individual in society. The Japanese view also contrasts sharply with that of the Anglo-American tradition, indicating a number of differences in the way the two types of society are constructed in the ways in which the individual relates to those societies. An analysis of the rationale for the differentiation between public and private spheres in Japanese society leads to a consideration of the symbolism involved and to a comparison of that symbolism with the Anglo-American tradition. The separation that exists between the public and the private spheres in Japan has a religious and philosophical underpinning based on both indigenous and foreign traditions. Contemporary Japan is a secular society with certain strong values that infuse both the public and the private spheres: Creating harmonious relations with others through reciprocity and the fulfillment of social obligations is more significant for most Japanese than an individual's relationship to a transcendent God. Harmony, order, and self-development are three of the most
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likewise separated by sliding panels (Greenbie, 1988, 14).
The Japanese home generally includes a garden, which may be one of several different types. The house walls are permeable so that the surrounding space is visible from inside, and domestic privacy thus requires that the garden be enclosed by a fence. The home space is defined by this fence and not by the walls of the house, and the garden space encompasses family life and separates it from the public domain. The chief goal in the home unit of form-function is a combination of harmony, consensus, and belonging. The symbolism of separation of private space from public space is important and colors how people react to each:
Everything outside of the garden walls is a different sphere. Even things that can be seen above the walls from within, the mountain of the borrowed landscape or the roof of an adjoining building, have a different character when they are viewed from outside the garden wall. Belonging to a different context, they take on a different meaning (Greenbie, 1988, 20).
Historically, in old Japan, space and social organization were interrelated so that the way in which space was organized in the public sphere represented the hierarchical organization of soc
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Dolan Worden, American British, Historically Japan, Japan West, Japan Japanese, Jeremy Robinson, , Prior Japan, North American, Contemporary Japan, worden 1990, dolan worden, dolan worden 1990, public private, public private spheres, public sphere, private sphere, robinson 1989, private spheres, jeremy robinson, hall 1966, japanese society, jeremy robinson 1989, honolulu university hawaii, society japanese view,
Approximate Word count = 2645
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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