Culture Is Not Sustained by the Exceptional

For a long time,
I believed that sustaining culture required
specialized knowledge
and a deep passion to devote oneself to it.
And so, I kept my distance.

Still, I held a vague feeling that
Japanese culture is beautiful—
while appreciating it
somewhat as if it belonged to someone else.

But what is “culture,” after all?

A word I have used many times.
Once again, I opened the dictionary.

Culture (bunka)
The totality of human ways of living.
…Passed down through learning and tradition, while continuing to develop through mutual exchange.
(Excerpt from Digital Daijisen)

There is nothing particularly difficult about it.

What our predecessors built,
we now learn and pass on.
Perhaps that alone is what it means
to sustain a culture.

Then a phrase came back to me.

“Human beings die twice.
The first time is when the body perishes.
The second is when they disappear
from people’s memories.”
— Rokusuke Ei

Could the same be said of culture?

Woven onward among people.

Culture ought to exist close to us, surrounding our daily lives.

As near as possible—something anyone can take pride in as the culture of their own country.

Changing with the times, blending into everyday life,

and still, I hope to play a small part in ensuring that what culture truly is continues to be passed down faithfully.

It does not require special knowledge or skill.

Simply to know culture,
to feel it close to us—
even that, surely,
 helps sustain it.