How to gain mastery by imitating Japanese masters
How Imitation leads to innovation
Remember when the concept of Facebook or social media was innovative?
Nowadays, it seems like a lot of people are chasing that next big thing, while imitations of existing ideas are jokes on TV shows.
“Like Uber. — Except it’s Ööö-ber”.
“It’s like Facebook…for cats!”
But imitation shouldn’t be seen as a bad thing: in fact, it’s one of the ways that Asia actually innovates on ideas.
One method of ‘imitation’ is a Japanese concept called Shuhari (Kanji: 守破離), and it may help you develop your ideas to completion.
Shuhari, or breaking free of traditions
There is a perception in popular media that in Asia, there is a type of stubbornness about learning a skill. Traditions that have carried on hundreds of years are followed to the letter, with strict master-disciple relationship. That’s not always the case.
No two generations have lived the same life, and as a result skills have had to change. Shuhari is often tied to Japanese martial arts philosophy, where historically these changes were forced to occur. Martial arts used in war were adopted and changed to martial arts for…
