Syuhei Inoue

Finding My Japanese

Silence as Grammar

On what Japanese leaves unsaid.

On Kodawari – The Word I Wish I’d Known Sooner

Kodawari is the quality of a craftsman who has spent thirty years perfecting the temperature of his broth. It is the record collector who refuses to buy anything that was not pressed in Japan. It is the calligrapher who will not stop until the brushstroke, which nobody else would notice, feels right. It is a stubborn, loving, quietly fierce commitment to doing one thing exactly as it deserves to be done.