Japanese toilets (Essay Sample)

A Japanese toilet is a place of spiritual repose the most aesthetic element of Japanese Architecture according to Tanizaki. The toilet is located away from the main house a corridor surrounded by natural growths of leaves and moss. The dim lighting, finely grained wood and the location’s tranquility direct a user’s gaze is towards the leaves and blue skies. The three prerequisites he enjoys most about the toilet are its degree of dimness, absolute cleanliness, and the quiet. Overall, the toilet is regarded as perfection to any individual with a taste in traditional architecture. Apart from its beauty, Tanizaki focuses on the toilet as a place of mental reflection declaring no one words can compare the sensation as one sits in the dim light basking in the reflections from the shoji lost in meditation, gazing out the garden. The long narrow windows at floor level allow one to align with intimacy to the sound of dropping rain falling from the eaves and trees, seeping into the earth as more water rushes by. The toilet is also a place to listen to the chirping of insects, singing of birds, viewing of the moon and every other landmark moment. Due to its grace and how it pushes its user to mental activity, Tanizaki suspects that the toilet is the hub where most of the poets birthed their ideas. On the other hand, Westerners regard the toilet as the most unsanitary and unclean room of the house. it is painted in bright white colors in every corner which only serves as a forceful reminder of the issues of our own bodies disallowing psychological delight. The illumination points out the cleanliness of what we can see leading the mind to thoughts of the unseen. In Tanizaki’s opinion, in places such as the toilet the difference between the clean and unclean is best when obscured and shrouded in a dusky haze (Tanizaki, 1977 pg 1-6). The Present-day Japanese Toto toilet is based on a contemporary architectural design following the pattern of the initial Japanese ...