Why the Japanese are so meticulous about guitar?

N

neuroop

Member
I have wondered why the Japanese are so fascinated by technical details, playing, virtuosity.
They want to know every detail about the player, instrument, etc.

I always thought young guitar magazine showed this and just looking at the quality of paper it’s printed on it makes guitar world look like a joke.

I always figured it was a cultural thing. It shows up in so many ways.

Compare recent copies of each magazine here and the shipping boxes of two recent guitars I received, one from Japan and another a few states over from me where the bottom flap of the box was nearly open when it arrived.
 

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It's just a totally different culture.

I heard/read that at least some sporting events, people actually make sure to clean up after themselves so as not to leave the stadium dirty. US stadiums are trashed after an event. Just totally different.
 
Worth ethic, integrity, and honor/respect seem to be the main cultural components of Japan so no surprise it feeds into their craftsmanship. I only own Japanese built guitars anymore because you get a well set up guitar out of the box for a real reasonable price. Suits my budget. Plus most of the Japanese makers do not rely on hype or past glories to sell their instruments which I also like.
 
It goes way further back than guitar. Having studied traditional Japanese martial arts for over a decade that predate "karate", judo, aikido, etc, (one of the schools is anywhere from 600-900 ad) it's just the way the Japanese have operated for hundreds of years in every endeavor. Every single little thing has a specific set way of doing it, a reasoning behind it other than "just because the teacher said so". Everything has a purpose, and nothing is superfluous or frivolous. A samurai, or shinobi, could train for hours a day. They specialized generally in 1 thing and would train so hard at it that it was their craft. That surely couldn't have just been spontaneously invented by some samurai somewhere one day, so it's just in the Japanese dna, so it translates over to guitar.
 
VonBonfire said:
Worth ethic, integrity, and honor/respect seem to be the main cultural components of Japan so no surprise it feeds into their craftsmanship. I only own Japanese built guitars anymore because you get a well set up guitar out of the box for a real reasonable price. Suits my budget. Plus most of the Japanese makers do not rely on hype or past glories to sell their instruments which I also like.
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All things you see less and less of in the U.S.A. I hate to say it, I'm as patriotic as they come, but too many people here are lazy, don't give a fuck, etc.. There's many contributing factors, understandably, but there's companies here that don't share these standards.
 
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