Do the Japanese really love nature more than all other people ?

[pipokun]

If I were you, Maciamo, I'd loudly agitate us over the anti-zoo movement outside Japan or species extinction in Japan after Meiji ...

The movement is also here. The latter one is really critical, for the extinction of Toki bird, Japanese crested ibis, unabled the Ise shrine to preserve every 20 year reconstruction work. The shrine will continue to do the work, but it is not exactly the same as the ones hundred or thoudsand years ago any more...

[gaijinalways]

Actually, I just thought of one area where maybe you forgot to mention that the Japanese are often 'talking and thinking' about nature; poetry..haiku for example. Traditional haiku always features some natural scenery and some comparison to the sun, moon, an animal, etc. Now of course one could argue that just talking about nature is not the same as spending time in it, but one would have to state that in haiku often people had to think and observe some aspects of nature to write the comments that they struggled to include in their poetry. Now of course whether Japanese as compared to other people aound the globe write more poetry about nature or not, I don't know.

[Maciamo]

Actually, I just thought of one area where maybe you forgot to mention that the Japanese are often 'talking and thinking' about nature; poetry..haiku for example. Traditional haiku always features some natural scenery and some comparison to the sun, moon, an animal, etc. Now of course one could argue that just talking about nature is not the same as spending time in it, but one would have to state that in haiku often people had to think and observe some aspects of nature to write the comments that they struggled to include in their poetry. Now of course whether Japanese as compared to other people aound the globe write more poetry about nature or not, I don't know.

Poetry has been inspired by nature since ancient times, probably all over the world. I don't see in what Japan is special for that. In fact I found traditional Japanese art in general not to be very "nature-centered", compared to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Traditional Japanese art is very much Buddhism-centered. Shintoism didn't inspire muc artists. On the contrary, Roman mosaics, for instance, are almost always about nature, the four seasons, etc. Greco-Roman mythology is full of themes about nature, such as the gods of the 4 four winds, the Nymphs, who were personifications of the creative and fostering activities of nature, or many other gods associated with nature (Dionysos the god of wine, Pan the shepherd god, Artemis the huntress, etc.). The cult of nature is also very present in modern paganism.

[pipokun]

But French Dionysus is now believing in more beer than wine, isn't it?