Fudogaku (Climate and Culture) — Where does 'uniqueness' come from? | Earth Folklore Lens #001

Academic study is a lens for viewing the world.

Where does 'uniqueness' come from?

When I walk through Kyoto, I have a strange sensation.

I love the 'atmosphere' of Kyoto.

I have lost count of how many times I have visited.

For me, it is like a second home.

I walk aimlessly along the grid-like streets, glancing at the Kamo River.
Just hearing the words 'agaru' (go up), 'sagaru' (go down), 'higashi-iru' (go east), and 'nishi-iru' (go west) from a taxi driver makes me feel, 'Ah, I've arrived in Kyoto.'

I stop at the rock garden of Ryoan-ji, visit the Mirei Shigemori Garden Museum, and gaze at the moss garden at Saiho-ji.

I ride the cable car and walk through Enryaku-ji on Mount Hiei, the head temple of the Tendai sect.
And finally, as always, I stop by Keibunsha Ichijoji.

In Kyoto, strange things happen.

While my body is walking through Kyoto, my thoughts are traveling through hundreds of years of time.

I used to love this feeling.
But one day, I suddenly wondered:

What exactly is it that I feel is 'Kyoto-like'?

Is it the shrines?
Is it the mountains?
Is it the Kamo River?
Is it the traditional townhouses (machiya)?

I feel like it is none of those.

That 'atmosphere' I feel every time I come to Kyoto.
I wanted to know its true nature.

I started reading books.

Architecture taught me about buildings.
History taught me about events.
Religious studies taught me about faith.
Folklore studies taught me about daily life.

But,

Kyoto still does not become Kyoto.
At that moment, one book caught my eye.

“Fudo” (Climate and Culture)
The author is Tetsuro Watsuji.

Because the title was 'Fudo,' I thought it was a book written about climate and culture.
However, I was surprised when I first opened the book.

The subtitle is,
“An Anthropological Study”

Not climate, but human beings.
Here, my question changed slightly.

Watsuji, too, had started his journey from a single sense of discomfort.

Western philosophy at the time tried to think of humans as universal beings.
However, Watsuji re-examined this through his experiences in Europe.

“What is a human being?”

A person living in Berlin.
A person living in Kyoto.
A person living in the desert.

Can we really speak of them as the same 'human'?
Looking only at humans does not reveal the human.

People always live in a relationship with the land, climate, and their way of life.
That is why Watsuji took up the lens of,
“The relationship between humans and climate/culture”
It was not to explain the climate.

It was to re-examine the human being.

I close Watsuji's book and try walking through Kyoto once more.

Then, the scenery looked a little different.

The mountains are not just mountains.
They are mountains that have nurtured people's lives.

The Kamo River is not just a flowing river.
It is a river that has shaped the city's time.

Shrines are not just buildings.
They are existences where a long relationship between people and place has accumulated.

The world began to appear not as 'things,' but as 'relationships.'
But then, a new sense of discomfort was born.

When does that relationship become 'Kyoto-ness'?

While thinking about such things and tracing the literature, the name of one French researcher appears repeatedly.

Human geographer and philosopher Augustin Berque.
Berque, too, had started his journey from a single sense of discomfort.

It was when he saw the landscape of rice cultivation in Hokkaido.
People creating rice paddies in a cold region.

Did the environment determine the culture?
Did culture dominate nature?

Neither can explain it.

People change the land,
and the changed land in turn changes the people.

Facing that scene, Berque re-examines the question:

“Why are people and the world thought of as separate?”

Humans do not live outside the world.
They live in the world and experience the world through their relationship with it.

That is why Berque took up the lens of,
“The relationship between humans and the world”
It was not to explain the world.

It was to re-examine the activity of humans 'dwelling' in the world.

Having walked this far, I return to my initial question.

I started walking in search of 'Kyoto-ness.'

Watsuji started walking from the sense of discomfort of,
“What is a human being?”
Berque started walking from the sense of discomfort of,


“Why are people and the world thought of as separate?”The places where we started walking are different.
But all three of us started walking not from the answers, but from a sense of discomfort.

That is why I think academic study is interesting.

Academic study does not teach you the answers.

It is something that takes your questions one level deeper.

The people who walked with me this time

Tetsuro Watsuji

Sense of discomfort
“What is a human being?”

Lens
“The relationship between humans and climate”

Augustin Berque

Sense of discomfort
“Why are humans and the world thought of as separate?”

Lens
“The relationship between humans and the world”

It seems this question cannot be fully explored through climate studies alone.

Walking with Watsuji,
walking with Berque,
the world has started to look a little different.

However, I have not reached an answer.
Rather, the question has become deeper than before.

“Where does ‘uniqueness’ come from?”

I still do not know.

That is why I
intend to walk a little further.

Walking through the world with my body.
Walking through academia with my thoughts.

What kind of academic lens should I wear next?