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Text by Shin'ichi Takemura, | ||
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For some people, boaters, surfers and gliders for instance, who are equipped with special sensory-ware to live on the air-water interface, winds, air currents, and low pressure troughs are visible and tangible reality. Like water, air flows, rises and falls ; its density, weight and velocity are constantly changing, causing subtle whirlpools and turbulances to appear and occur. There is a "heavy wind" and a "light wind," the latter dispersing into rising air. A small change in air pressure causes the wind to become lighter or heavier. These people with such "aerial sensitivity" feel such subtle changes when they are aboard a boat, experiencing the physical sensation of a high or low pressure front passing. As there are mountains and valleys in the topography, so there are highs and lows in the atmosphere, however optically invisible. And, as surfers and gliders and boaters know, this aerial topography is nothing abstract like a weather chart, but something real and substantial. Environmentally interactive work-ware such as surfboards, yachts and gliders are not merely sports equipment; they are also expert media for developing delicate and holonic sensibilities in regard to the macroscopic and invisible realm of the weather and the atmosphere. The Cultural Value of Sensory Resources to Perceive the Form of the Air Since antiquity, wind has been called by a variety of names. In Japan, in particular, there are traditionally more than two thousand words, including regional and seasonal variations and derivatives, for kind of winds. This fact suggests that the Japanese have had a keen awareness about the wind, a highly developed sensibility toward that invisible, intangible object, and an inclination to perceive it as something real and substantial. In literature, too, there are key "pivot" and seasonal words such as "kochi" (east wind), or "kogarashi"(a biting winter wind), to name only two. We also have a number of cliched phrases that deal with the rain such as "shigure"(autumn shower) or "harusame"(spring shower) , just like the Inuit who have a large vocabulary to distinguish and describe snow. Their role is to underline our sense of the season or of nature, and even to spell out our view of life in its transience. It might seem difficult to revitalize such a sensibility within the context of our contemporary urban lives. But in reality, each one of us possesses wind-detecting sensors. You may not be a hang-glider or a yachtsman, and you may not have more than one or two words for the wind, but you are unconsciously affected by the "mood" of the air, and you certainly feel the subtle, seasonal changes of weather you are exposed to. Actually, our physical condition changes dramatically according to changes in air pressure. When, for example, a weather front passes through a given region, many people suffer headaches and even strokes. The Restoration of Our Body-Weather Sense Throughout the world, there have been traditional schools of weather awareness, what can be called "Body-Weather Schools," or the science of physiometerology. Traditional medicine in China, India and Greece paid great attention to the relationship between human physiology and such environmental factor as seasonal changes and the weather. In every region and culture of the globe there are certain patterns of thought concerning weather and health. People around the world have detailed mental maps of the relationship between our physical constitutions, illness, and the regional climate. People might say that in a certain season if a wind blows from a certain direction then such-and-such an epidemic will come; or if such-and-such a person has a particular constitution, he or she had better be careful during a given time of year. They are kind of physiometerological charts. And in certain epochs in history, people would issue warnings about the probability of incidence of certain illnesses during specific seasons and weather conditions. These might be called "Body-Weather Forecasts." To study the sky and to learn the wind is profoundly and intimately related to knowing oneself. In this sense, the ancient art of environmental detection and forecasting by observing the sky and the air was a truly pragmatic approach to health. Winds give rise to visible and tangible phenomena and movements, and through them, we become aware of other levels, invisible and intangible, of the Earth's life and of our own lives. This is why, since ancient times, the wind has been perceived as a premonitory sign telling us of the advent of deities and spirits. As an invisible energy, the wind awakens our extra sensorial perceptions. Wind is more than a physical phenomenon. More than anything else, it is a messenger carrying information. That is why people once considered it essential to listen to its subtle, near-inaudible voice. Let's redesign our sensory devices so as to develop the appropriate sensibilities for perceiving the air and wind. It is by no means an abstract or esoteric practice: every human being is capable of it. |
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