Elements of Japanese Design

by Boyé Lafayette De Mente

Learn the elements of the timeless beauty that is Japanese design in this concise reference volume.

Japanese design is known throughout the world for its beauty, its simplicity, and its blending of traditional and contemporary effects. This succinct guide describes the influence and importance of 65 key elements that make up Japanese design, detailing their origins—and their impact on fields ranging from architecture and interior design to consumer products and high fashion.

Learn, for example, how the wabi sabi style that's so popular today developed from the lifestyle choices made by monks a thousand years ago. And how unexpected influences—like tatami (straw mats) or seijaku (silence)—have contributed to contemporary Japanese design.

Elements of Japanese Design offers new insights into the historical and cultural developments at the root of this now international aesthetic movement. From wa (harmony) to kaizen (continuous improvement), from mushin (the empty mind) to mujo (incompleteness), you'll discover how these elements have combined and evolved into a powerful design paradigm that has changed the way the world looks, thinks and acts.

Chapters

Genres: Japan, Nonfiction, Design

160 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2006

About the author

Boyé Lafayette De Mente was an author, journalist, and adventurer. He wrote more than 100 books, most of them about the culture and language of Japan, East Asia, and Mexico.

De Mente joined the U.S. Navy and began his career as a cryptographer based in Washington, D.C. In 1948, he joined the U.S. Army Security Agency and was a decoding technician stationed in Tokyo. While there, he he founded and edited the agency's newspaper, The ASA Star.

De Mente wrote the first English guides to the Japanese way of doing business ("Japanese Etiquette and Ethics in Business" in 1959 and "How to Do Business in Japan" in 1962). His other books run the gamut from language learning to the night-time "pink" trades in Japan, the sensual nature of Oriental cultures, male-female relations, and understanding and coping with the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Mexican mindset in business and social situations. He has also written extensively about Mexico and his home state of Arizona.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boyé Lafayette de Mente is a good teacher, and I found myself instantly engaged with this catalogue of Japanese aesthetics. De Mente's writing is clear and unadorned, and he has a gift for presenting philosophical ideas concisely. I learned a lot, especially in the first half of the book. In this section, De Mente sets up the main principles of traditional Japanese design (wabi-sabi, wa, shibui, etc.). The second half of the book was less coherent, and many of the "elements" felt redundant with the principles already discussed. I was also a little disappointed that there weren't any pictures to help illustrate the ideas. Nevertheless, De Mente knows how to explain Japanese ideas to a Western audience without encumbering them with too much detail. I came away with just enough of the historical and philosophical context to give me a sense of how/when ideas emerged, but I also felt inspired to find more books on the subject.

[Bruce Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a primer on Japanese aesthetics, culture and world-view it is awesome. As someone who has lived in Japan for more than thirty years, and read hundreds of books on it, I still found new nuggets of information from this book.
My only major gripe with the book is this one. There are no macrons used. This leads to absurdities like this:

Yugen could very well be called the "mother word" in the essence of "things Japanese"...

Except it's not "Yugen" it's "Yūgen" with the macron above the u. Imagine a book on spelling that is full of spelling errors.

[sanaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good first read, almost like reading a dictionary to start reading and thinking about Japanese design.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive and to the point, this book presents the most common Japanese concepts with short descriptions. A really easy and informative read.