Anthropology: Japanese Body Aesthetic - Research Paper Example

From her history of international contact, Japan has gone through its own evolution. I specifically zeroed in on the beauty work that both men and women undergo in the Japanese society in order to feel they are more accomplished and a better person. Changing the exterior of themselves serves as an “up” beauty treatment for people who go through expensive, invasive and vigorous regiments including routine visits to esute beauty salons. In my paper I will be discussing the change that the aesthetic culture in Japan has undergone and the unique remobilizations it went through.

 The changes that are discussed within the novel can be seen through the anthropological phenomena that can be observed as cultural changes. According to Serena Nanda and Richard L. Warms, authors of Culture Counts: A Concise Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, “Cultures are subject to change. Whether propelled by their internal dynamics or acted upon by outside forces, cultures are always in flux (24). In looking at the system of beliefs that have developed in Japan about the female and male identity as it relates to body aesthetics, the theory of culture change as it identifies the transitions that a culture will endure during the course of its development helps to explain the ways in which body aesthetic concepts have emerged within the Japanese culture.

  Japanese Men and Women The Japanese culture has been a uniquely defined social grouping of people whose ideals have been a conglomeration of spiritual, beauty-oriented, and wisdom centered concepts from which a society has developed that is almost unreachable through Western ideas on life and culture. Japan is an island nation, its Asian influenced society developing, almost independently from the rest of Asia because of its geographic separation from the mainland of the East. While the Japanese belief systems are widely misunderstood by Western people, the Western aesthetics have highly influenced the Japanese culture, creating a pop culture, consumerist infusion into the contemporary cultural setting of Japan.

However, while Japan may have adopted some Western trends and ideals in style trends and culture, Japan has had an aesthetic that emphasized the importance of beauty since long before Western concepts began to infiltrate the culture. Japanese men have a tradition of value that is based upon “character, social standing, earning capacity, lineage, and other social criteria“(Miller 14), which makes them not unlike most societies within the world. However, one distinct difference is the high level of importance on honor as it relates to the individual and as it reflects back upon the family.

However, in the last century, a slight shift from the idea that honor is a community bound characteristic to a more individualized and contained concept has occurred. In addition, an increase in the desire to have aesthetically pleasing visual appearances has emerged as an important part of the male identity. Where the culture used to focus on accomplishment and character, a shift towards outward appearance for males has occurred. The allure and femininity of the Japanese female has always been an important part of the female identity.

As in many cultures, the Japanese see women as an object of desire, the value of the female rising in proportion to the beauty that she can exude. In