Japan House | Kengo Kuma

“Each culture chooses the articulating element of its identity – sometimes explicitly, by others, silently. An animal, a plant or an aspect of geography can synthesize the cultural baggage of a people, their values, their worldview. Canada, for example, elected the maple tree; the United States, the eagle; Australia, the kangaroo; Russia, the bear.

Bamboo was not chosen as a symbol of Japan. It is, however, a kind of secret ingredient that manifests itself in different ways in the cultural fabric of the country. The plant, which was so omnipresent, became imperceptible to the Japanese, is the object of the first thematic exhibition of JAPAN HOUSE São Paulo. With it, we celebrate the encounter of two cultures that have a rich history of contact.

Old known to the Brazilian, bamboo presents itself in more than 200 species in our territory. Acre is the largest native forest of the plant in the world, but we know little to take advantage of it. Throughout the world there are more than 5,000 registered uses of bamboo, Japanese culture being an impressive source of material-related techniques and some of its most creative expressions.

In addition to mundane uses, bamboo is a spirit. A form of existence that is defined by emptiness, in the contrast between the fibrous stem and the inner hollow. An absence that, transposed to the Japanese culture, is fullness, space for the potentials, for the creation and for the mind centered in the present. Emptiness allows one to look at life in an integrated way. To dialogue with the traditions, the knowledge and the experiences of the ancestors. Find knowledge and inspirations in the daily work and in the contact with the other. Facing the challenges of the contemporary with a light, inventive, disruptive posture.

Japanese thinking materializes in palpable objects, which synthesize experiences – and which are the best way to know the country. The presence of bamboo extends from tea ceremony to martial arts, from music to architecture, from the visual arts to rural utilities, from religious rites to child pranks, from literature to innovation and technology. It has permeated the whole life of this people since forever, putting contemporary Japan and Prehistory in line.

Bamboo is a grass, in the essence of which the Japanese recognize. It has strong roots, is strong, light, rigid, resilient, discreet. The attributes of the plant are confused with those of the Japanese culture itself and explain its role as silent protagonist within it – it is worth more to exist than to exhibit. To dwell on the nuances of this intimate relationship is to open up to a new horizon of possibilities and senses. ”

Marcello Dantas, curator and programming director of JAPAN HOUSE São Paulo.
Available at: www.japanhouse.jp/saopaulo/event /BambuHistoriesOnJapan.html