Japan from Anime to Zen by David Watts Barton

Author:David Watts Barton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stone Bridge Press

43. Gifts, Giri and Japan’s Obsession with Packaging

Visitors who spend any amount of time in Japan quickly become aware of the importance, even the primacy, of presentation: A nice meal or a gift, or even an everyday object, is always appreciated in itself—but just as important is how it is wrapped or otherwise packaged.

Go to a shop, even to buy a T-shirt or a package of breath mints, and then watch as the clerk carefully wraps the item in paper, affixes a printed sticker to hold it, puts it into a bag, then folds over the top of the bag and affixes another sticker to close it. This focus on presentation comes right down to the receipt, which isn’t just handed over; it is presented, with both hands, the eyes of the clerk fixed on the customer—with a smile.

Once one notices this—and it is difficult not to—one sees it everywhere, from hotels with their beautifully laid-out personal items and perhaps individually wrapped biscuits or chocolates, to grocery stores with their individually wrapped fruit, to the way a shirt comes back from the dry cleaner wrapped in plastic with a tiny paper bowtie affixed to the collar.

Wrapping (tsutsumu) and tying or binding (musubu) are ways of showing that something is important or precious—of separating mundane things from the mundane world—and thus they are signs of respect. Properly wrapped and properly presented, anything can be made special.

Westerners, particularly in the hyper-efficient modern world, with its casual indifference to appearances, may find this pretentious or even false. But to the Japanese, who rigorously observe the division between tatemae (the public face or “official position”) and honne (the “true voice”), presentation isn’t just pretense—it is everything.

Wrapping is important, as it is in all cultures, in the presentation of gifts. But Japanese gift-giving, while often “from the heart,” is just as often a prescribed action that represents a complex social code with multiple hierarchies and responsibilities. Gift-giving is just one of many forms of giri (obligation, or duty) in Japanese culture: A gift is an obligation, and it is often one that comes with an obligation to reciprocate. Gifts may be given freely and with sincerity, but a sense of giri may not be far behind.

This puts even more pressure on the wrapping. Because of this, it is important to give as much attention and praise to the wrapping as to the gift itself. Considering the Japanese skill in wrapping and packaging, this isn’t hard to do.

Elegant presentation goes far beyond mere gift-giving in Japan. Take lunch, for instance: Even the cheapest bento boxes display their modest lunch items with great care, and the boxes are often quite beautiful themselves. If they are not lacquerware, they are plastic painted to look like it. A recent trend among Japanese mothers was a competitive approach to kyara-ben, or bento boxes “with character”—in which case the humble rice ball may be decorated to look like an adorable panda bear. Even the mundane school lunch was an area to demonstrate mastery of presentation.

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