Spinning the Wheel.

(From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI))

Byline: Dario Ponissi

In my veins runs the blood of explorers, adventurers, seekers of truth, passionate people who made the pursuit of their dreams the very fabric of their lives.

Above all, my ancestors were travelers. Some like Ponce de Leon - who journeyed to the New World with Christopher Columbus and have been rumored to be the discoverer of the secret of eternal youth - went west. Others sought their fortune in the east and became princes of small countries, or national heroes of the bigger ones. Yet others have left their small mark in history by using their diplomatic skills in international disputes between Italy and Austria, during that troubled period of turmoil that has come to be known as the 19th century. My family tree is more or less traceable from its purported 12th century origins up to that point. There is, after that date, a gap of about 70 years for which no valid information is available. Yet, the traveling bug seems to have been alive and well in all my relatives accounted for in recent times. Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Canada, if you look for a Ponissi, you will definitely find one. Oh, and Japan, of course. I have been living here for the past 16 years and found it as adventurous as our modern times and our modern lifestyle permit. I'm not talking Indiana Jones, of course (although I have come across some great archaeological sites, from time to time).

No, in Japan the main adventure, for a westerner at least, lies in trying to penetrate the many layers of a world that seems very familiar at first sight, but that becomes increasingly complex and different once you begin living in it. I have collected many words that could define my experience. Let's spin the adjectives wheel and see where it stops. Fascinating. Many possibilities here. Faithful to the fact that, after all, I studied languages at university, let me briefly talk about the country's mother tongue. It is fascinating the way the Japanese language evolved and was transformed into a tool not so much as for communication but rather for survival of the fittest. It seems designed mainly to avoid conflict; it contains very few "strong" words, mainly used when there really isn't any other alternative. In Italy, the country where conflict has been a way of life since Roman times, whole dictionaries of "strong words" are actually published, with regional, provincial and often urban variations. The source of such wealth is probably to be found in the millenarian struggle between the haves and have-nots. Lacking actual weapons, the poor often recurred to taunts to strike at their oppressors, sometimes even more effectively. In Japan the lower classes very likely never had a chance to express themselves in such a way. The country was unfortunately trapped in rigid caste-like systems, that put divine attributes on their leaders, thus eliminating any possibility of real criticism or even of satire (would you use irony on a god who could slice you in two with his katana, sword?).

I find this attitude still extant even in ...