Ikigai

blinkist DE • March 01, 2023

Ken Mogi

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What's in it for you: An introduction to the Japanese art of living.

You've probably asked yourself: What is the secret to a long life? Love, a healthy diet,
good DNA? On Okinawa, an island group south of the Japanese mainland, the answer
to this question seems to have been found. People there live significantly longer than
elsewhere, and many of the islanders live to be over 100 years old. They lead a
completely normal everyday life: They look after their grandchildren, cook for friends
and relatives and pursue their hobbies. Just like normal people. But how do we explain
the unusually high life expectancy of people on Okinawa?

The Japanese author Ken Mogi suspects that this is the mentality that is typical for his
country - a basic approach to life that makes people happier and healthier. This special
philosophy is deeply rooted in Japanese culture and even has its own name: Ikigai . It is
something like the secret source of strength for the Japanese.

I'm Michelle from Blinkist and in the next few minutes I'll explain the art of Ikigai and
the five pillars that make it up. I also have a few interesting anecdotes that I hope will
inspire you to find or strengthen your own Ikigai.

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Ikigai – the formula for a fulfilled life

Jiro Ono is a minor celebrity in Japan. The 96-year-old Michelin-starred chef has the
reputation of making the best sushi in the world. Even former US President Barack
Obama, who was on a state visit to Japan in 2014, raved that he had never tasted better
sushi than that of Jiro Ono. And Obama should know, after all, fine dining in world-
famous Michelin-starred restaurants is part of everyday working life for a powerful man
like him.

Jiro Ono is proud of his skills, which he has perfected through years of dedicated
attention to detail. For example, he invented a special smoking method that gives the
fish a distinctively intense flavor, and he developed a procedure that allows valuable
salmon roe to be kept fresh all year round. When he prepares his famous marinade, he
always finds the perfect ratio of vinegar and salt, and before turning an octopus into
sushi, he massages the meat with his own hands for a whole hour to make it tender and
juicy.

Anyone who enters Jiro Ono's legendary restaurant can watch the old man doing his
work with an upright posture and a dignified expression behind a simple wooden
counter. When the star chef sees that his guests enjoy their food, a small smile always
crosses his face. For him, preparing the small traditional fish appetizers is the meaning
of his life and the joy of his everyday life - recognition and professional success are at
most a welcome bonus. In other words: Jiro Ono has found his Ikigai .

Ikigai means something like "meaning of life". This Japanese attitude to life is probably
the reason why Jiro Ono, at almost 100 years old, is still happily in the kitchen every
day. Scientists at Japan's Tohoku University have even found a direct connection
between Ikigai and physical health. Of over 50,000 test subjects between the ages of 40
and 79, those who said they had found their Ikigai had a significantly lower risk of
developing heart and circulatory problems.

It is not possible to say for sure whether this is because people with Ikigai exercise
more and eat healthier, or whether Ikigai reduces stress hormones, which are known to
be bad for heart health. One thing is certain: Ikigai is good for you! Every child in
Japan knows this. The term is an integral part of everyday language and almost every
Japanese person organizes their daily life according to the principles of Ikigai.

But what exactly is it about? We'll take a closer look at it below. We'll start with the first
of the five pillars of Ikigai, which is: start small.

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The first pillar of Ikigai: Start small!

Anyone who walks through Tokyo early in the morning will experience something
amazing: at 6:30 am sharp, you can see large groups of people in the city park moving
their arms and legs in sync with music. This traditional morning exercise called Rajio
taisō , literally "radio gymnastics", was introduced in 1928 by the Japanese government
and the radio station NHK as a health-promoting measure. Raijo Taiso does not only
take place in public green spaces. Whether in schools, construction sites, offices or at
home in the living room: people exercise before starting the day's work.

The small daily ritual is a wonderful example of the first pillar of Ikigai: start small.
Think about it: if you set your most ambitious goals in front of you first thing in the
morning, you will only overextend yourself unnecessarily and, in the worst case, you
will stay in bed. A small, manageable morning ritual, on the other hand, gently brings
you out of the realm of dreams and gets you ready for the day.
In general, the morning is a special time of day in Japanese culture. It is not for nothing
that Japan is also called "the land of the rising sun". On New Year's Day, the Japanese
climb Mount Fuji early in the morning to admire the sunrise from the summit. Many
local products - including a beer brand, a newspaper and a television station - use the
image of the life-giving rising sun as their logo.

Science confirms the Japanese morning cult. After our brains have been busy sorting
and processing experiences all night, they are fresh and receptive to new creative tasks
in the morning. The morning hours are therefore the most productive time for your
brain. Especially if you are one of those people who press the snooze button a few
times after the alarm goes off, it is a good idea to remember the first pillar of Ikigai.

Start small and build up your Ikigai slowly by starting your day with small steps. Don't
worry, it doesn't have to be early morning exercise. A walk around the block or a cup of
coffee on the balcony will do the trick. Or maybe a delicious breakfast and an hour of
reading an exciting book will entice you out of bed? Use your morning ritual to start
the day with joy and ease, and don't skip it under any circumstances. If it's too time-
consuming because you simply don't always have the time for an hour-long yoga flow,
replace it with something else and start even smaller. That way you learn to achieve
great things in small stages.

Under no circumstances should you approach the Ikigai thing too stubbornly. On the
contrary: As we will see in the next Blink, the art of letting go is also part of a
successful life.

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The second pillar of Ikigai: Learn to let go!

One of Japan's biggest export hits is the fairytale animated film Spirited Away. Its
creator, anime director Hayao Miyazaki, often sits at his desk for weeks at a time,
meticulously creating thousands of imaginative, colorful sketches. He is so engrossed in
what he is doing that he often doesn't notice how time passes. Drawing completely
captivates him and makes him forget everything else - even himself.

This deeply satisfying state of self-forgetfulness was named "flow" by the Hungarian-
American psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. Anyone who is in flow experiences
Ikigai in its purest form. You identify completely with your activity and experience deep
feelings of happiness. You don't need any external motivation to achieve your goal - the
work itself is reward enough.

Sounds like a life of paradise, doesn't it? Unfortunately, our ego often gets in the way in
everyday life. We can only achieve flow if we do something for our own sake. To do
this, we have to free ourselves from our desires for money and validation. If we succeed
in doing this, extraordinary things can happen.

Connoisseurs of traditional Japanese ceramics, for example, believe that the unrivaled
quality of antique vases is due to the fact that artists of the past had no personal
copyright and were free of any vanity. This meant that they could devote themselves
entirely to their creative process. The result of their creative flow included tea bowls of
truly unearthly beauty, called Yohen Tenmoku. Their glaze of iridescent blue and violet
tones is reminiscent of the stars in the sky. Only three of these celestial bowls remain in
the whole of Japan today, and even the greatest luminaries in their field are unable to
reproduce these bowls. The old masters of ceramics were obviously also masters of
Ikigai.

What can you do to practice the art of letting go and live the second pillar of Ikigai? It's
actually very simple: be creative! Write a poem or paint a picture. The more you let
your imagination run wild without judging, the more your ego will retreat. Maybe you
feel like singing a song here and now. Just like that and just for you. Go for it!

So, did it feel weird or was it maybe even fun?

When you are ready, we will move on to the third pillar.

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The third pillar of Ikigai: Live in harmony and sustainability!

Japan is a country of refined restraint. This also applies to celebrity culture. Self-
promoters such as Paris Hilton and Justin Bieber have a hard time making a name for
themselves there – the Japanese simply don't like exhibitionism. Instead of pop stars,
they prefer to worship the ancient shrines of the Shinto religion. Among these is the
two thousand year old Ise Shrine. It is dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu and is
said to house the sacred mirror, one of the most important imperial insignia of the
Japanese imperial family. Every twenty years, the Ise Shrine is completely dismantled
and rebuilt with fresh wood, faithful to every detail. Even after more than two
thousand years, it is still as good as new. The 5500 hectare forest that surrounds it is
also lovingly tended and cared for. Every day, employees collect fallen leaves from the
paths and spread them over the tree roots as natural fertilizer.

This devoted preservation of tradition is typically Japanese. There are many family
businesses in Japan that have been passing on their craft to the next generation for
centuries. The Ikenobō family, for example, has been dedicated to Ikebana , the art of
flower arranging, since 1462. And the Kurokawas have been selling traditional Japanese
sweets for almost 500 years.

All of these examples represent the third pillar of Ikigai: living in harmony and
sustainability. The appreciation of old traditions and the passing on of proven
knowledge ensure social cohesion and stability. A feeling of continuity arises that gives
life a deeper meaning. This mentality is an effective antidote to the modern consumer
and competitive culture that constantly craves the brand new and unused.

The third pillar of Ikigai is meant to remind you that it is more important to preserve
and protect than to win and conquer. Practice looking at the world around you as an
old forest whose beauty you want to preserve at all costs. Which plants haven't been
watered for a while, where do weeds need to be pulled, which tree perhaps needs more
light?

Sustainability also includes careful use of your own resources. Or to put it another way:
A good work-life balance is the basic requirement of Ikigai. The people who flock to
Japan's popular comic markets to sell manga they have drawn themselves and dress up
as their favorite comic heroes seem to see it the same way.

Of course, you can also recharge your batteries with fewer weird hobbies. Take a
moment to list all your favorite activities. Knitting, cooking, sailing, playing the guitar...
whatever makes your heart beat faster! Now think about when you last did these
activities. Can't remember? Then it's high time you grabbed your calendar and blocked
out enough time for it. This way, harmony and sustainability can enter your soul and
you'll get a little closer to your Ikigai.

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The fourth pillar of Ikigai: Enjoy the little things!
About 1000 years ago, a lady-in-waiting named Sei Shōnagon served the Japanese
empress. In her free time, she devoted herself to writing and left behind a collection of
short literary anecdotes about life at court. This collection is known today as the so-
called Pillow Book and is considered one of the most important testimonies of Japanese
cultural history.

One of the simple but insightful texts in the Pillow Book is about observing the little
things in everyday life. In it, Shōnagon lists all the little things that she finds
particularly pretty or cute: sparrows that hop over when you feed them breadcrumbs,
or the tiny fingers of small children. Those who can enjoy such details are practicing
the fourth pillar of Ikigai: the joy of the little things.

The idea behind it is very simple: Ikigai, the meaning of life, is made up of many small
pleasures. Let us remember Jiro Ono, the chef who found the purpose of his existence
in making sushi. Even this highly specialized process consists of several, actually
simple, individual steps - from going to the fish market, to cooking the rice grains, to
finally serving the fresh delicacies. The smell of fresh fish roe, the sound of the knife
cutting, the satisfied faces of the customers - all of these little things are what add up to
Jiro Ono's great happiness.

The fourth pillar of Ikigai teaches us to sharpen our awareness of the beauty around us
and to open ourselves to all the little wonders the world has to offer.

The Japanese religion also celebrates the colorful diversity of life. Instead of a single,
larger-than-life and punishing god, there are eight million gods in the Shinto religion.
Some of them are small enough to fit into ordinary household items, even cooking
spoons, brooms or pieces of clothing. This belief naturally affects the attitude with
which the Japanese go through life. Of course, those who believe that a god lives in
every stone, tree and creature are particularly careful with these things.

At the same time, the idea of ​eight million gods is a symbol for the many different ways
of shaping life. There is not just one single path to happiness, but at least eight million
different ones. And just like the Japanese religion, Ikigai is nothing other than the
successful balance of countless small things. Isn't that a beautiful thought?
The Japanese, in any case, do not restrict themselves to a single doctrine of life, but
allow many different traditions to flow into their everyday lives. They see no
contradiction in making a pilgrimage to the Ise Shrine, attending a Buddhist funeral
and still celebrating Christmas or getting married in white. To outsiders, this colorful
mix sometimes seems a little strange. In Martin Scorsese's film Silence , an immigrant
Catholic priest complains that Japan is a swamp in which nothing can take root
because the most diverse customs exist in parallel.

This image is a good starting point for understanding the fourth pillar of Ikigai. A
swamp doesn't have to be a bad thing. After all, it is a fully functioning ecosystem, full
of powerful microorganisms.

With this in mind, ask yourself what things and values ​your mental swamp consists of?
It is probably a mosaic of countless small building blocks, your very own mixture. This
swamp - colorful, wild and alive - is the home of your personal version of Ikigai.

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The fifth pillar of Ikigai: Be completely in the here and now!

Let's move on to the fifth and final pillar of Ikigai. If you look closely, you might notice
that the tips we have learned in the last few minutes all have one thing in common.
Morning exercises, creative flow, your favorite hobby, mindful perception of beautiful
things - all of these rituals ultimately have the same goal: they bring you into the here
and now.

The here and now, the present moment, is the point in time at which the fullness of
Ikigai is revealed. A particularly suitable means of arriving in the here and now is
sensual pleasures.

In Japan, for example, you can find them in Sembikiya, the oldest fruit shop in the
country. It was founded in 1834 and sells high-performance fruit, so to speak. The fruit
on display here is the pride and joy of the fruit farmers, who strive for nothing less
than perfection. They tirelessly optimize irrigation and cultivation methods and select
only the finest varieties. The result is fruit that tastes so extraordinarily sweet and juicy
that it has become a luxury item. A Sembikiya cantaloupe costs the equivalent of 150
euros. The intense taste experience must be worth it. Tourists who try this top-quality
fruit for the first time rave about it as if it were a religious awakening. Fleeting
pleasures like these only last a few seconds, but they give us an intense experience of
the moment.

Of course, you don't have to spend three-figure sums on food to integrate the fifth pillar
of Ikigai into your life. Even an exquisite cup of tea, a warm ray of sunshine on your
neck or the scent of fresh herbs can catapult you into the here and now.

Are you wondering if the meaning of life can really be that simple? Don't you also need
success in your career, luck in love or at least a well-filled bank account? Science agrees
on this question: There are no prerequisites for happiness. The false belief that certain
external factors are necessary for this makes it even more difficult to find inner peace.
Because if you focus too much on one thing - the next promotion, the dream wedding
or the perfect bikini body - you close yourself off to the true riches of life and your
perception never really arrives in the here and now.

Instead, embrace the idea that your life can have meaning even if you don't achieve
anything special. You don't have to be a winner to have Ikigai. Ikigai is not a high-
performance sport, but a spiritual ability to adapt to the circumstances of your
environment. The five pillars - start small, let go, live harmoniously and sustainably,
appreciate the little things and be in the here and now - are signposts that help you
enjoy the present and face the future with calm.

With this final thought I would like to leave you.

I hope that our little trip to Japan has given you some ideas on how to orient your
thoughts and actions towards the ideas of Ikigai. Hopefully, this will bring you a little
closer to finding your own personal meaning in life. I wish you the best of luck and
look forward to hearing from us again soon.

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