From Deep Culture to Peak Culture

Abstract

Although in many cases scientific terminology used in Modern Japan was originally coined in the West and then imported and translated, there are certain original terms. Among them this paper focuses on two humanistic and sociological terms, shinso-bunka and choten-bunka. The former indicates the initial condition of culture, the latter its achievements. As they are not imported terms, we need to translate them into Japanese. The deep culture and the peak culture are their respective translations, both proposed by the author. We may observe and discuss the forms of deep culture and peak culture everywhere in the world. Concerning Japan, there are many contemporary sub-cultures with high reputation such as anime, but here, five classic forms of culture shall be mentioned as peak cultures, that is, No-drama, Sado-tea-ceremony, Bushido-warrior’s-way, Shinto-religion and Waka-poetry. After analyzing deep culture roughly, its peaks shall be depicted rather ideally