Japanese Happiness

Japanese happiness is not the happiness of the Japanese. It is open to all cultures.

However, it is Japanese aesthetics that have devoted more attention and dedication to the reconciliation of human beings and nature with the cycle of life than Western aesthetic theory that focuses on disinterested pleasure. It therefore opens up a particularly accessible approach to the experience of the happiness of inner peace.

Through 27 artifacts and their stories, this book shows how beauty can make you happy and includes essays that discuss the current state of happiness research in philosophy, sociology, neuroscience, and Japanese studies.

With Essays by Rainer Zimmermann, Christoph Peters and Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit and a conversation between Tobias Esch, Paul J. Kohtes, and Rainer Zimmermann.