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Healing Scenery Spun out by Words
The beauty of nature has long seized the hearts of the Japanese people who are particularly sensitive to the movement of time. We have been charmed by the poetic and lingering imagery of nature, especially by the changing of the seasons, the shifting of the months and years, and the fleeting moments between passages of time and vague deepness. An entire culture unique to Japan lies there.
We are especially intrigued by four-syllable Japanese words: Komorebi (sunlight falling through foliage), soyokaze (breeze), yuubae (sunset), asagiri (morning mist), yuugiri (evening mist), sazanami (ripple waves), yuuzuki (evening moon), samidare (early summer rain), yuugure (twilight), amadare (raindrops), seseragi (murmuring brook)
Why are Japanese "healed" or "relaxed" by these words?
Medical observations of four-syllable "healing and relaxation" words:
Below is a medical approach of why these four-syllable words have a "healing" or "relaxing" effect upon us:
They match the psychological rhythm of breathing
Harmony with respiration
The words, "komorebi", "soyokaze","yuubae","sazanami","amadare","seseragi",
"kogarashi","samidare" are all composed of four syllables. This is believed to be because it corresponds to the rhythm to which we breathe in and breathe out. In other words, when we voice four syllables, we are speaking out in a psychologically steady rhythm.
They contain one voiced consonant, which has a lingering effect.
Also, these words all have one voiced consonant within them. Could this be because voiced consonants have a lingering effect? For example, Occidental bells have a resonant sound whereas Eastern bells (Buddhist temple bells) have a low sound that our bodies are slowly imbued with. Voiced sounds are a more sensuous sound that reverberates by lingering. Compared to the Western drum, Japanese drums also have a low trailing sound that lingers on the five senses. Therefore, words like "komorebi","soyokaze","yuubae" and "sazanami" have a prolonged poetic ring because they all contain one voiced sound.
They depict a natural phenomenon representing a turn of the year or time of day, such as transition into mornings and evenings, along with other passages of time.
These words imply movement in time, intrinsically involving change. They also express transience, frailness, softness as well as delicacy and joy. "Kogarashi" and "samidare" sugggest a change of season, "akebono, asagiri, yuubae, yuunagi" illustrate the light and dark unfolding through a day.
Most of them represent a subtle, delicate or low-key phenomenon
"Soyokaze, sazanami, komorebi" are soft and delicate, low-key and vague phenomena, in whose afterglow we bask. In this, we find a culture unique to Japan alive, lingering and unbroken through time.
- akebono
- breeze
- clouds
- colorful(flower)
- colorful(rainbow)
- evening calm
- isaribi
- light
- morning calm
- morning mist
- murmuring brook(river)
- murmuring brook(springwater)
- murmuring brook(waterwheel)
- raindrops
- ripple waves(river)
- ripple waves(sea)
- sun spot
- sunlight falling through foliage
- sunset
- sunsetsun
- twilight(clouds)
- twilight(sunset)