The Way of Beauty

In the Japanese tradition, the vision of a path is anchored in the deepest part of the soul. A path, more beautiful and more important than the goal to reach. The ways of the warrior, of Zen, of tea, of suppleness ("judo") are all individual quests. And learning which is done by the body more than by the words. Gestures repeated endlessly, mastering the form to reach the substance and a certain appeasement of the spirit. 

The beauty rituals are part of this philosophy and blend with the art of living. Japanese women follow codified daily routines, anchored in the culture of the country since the dawn of time. The cleaning of the face, for example. Oil first, for depth, then water and foam for freshness and purification. Each step has its own sensoriality and its own present. With caresses we massage lightly perhaps, we put the product there. We close our eyes to better feel our cheeks. So that there is no more elsewhere, nothing but the softness of life in the touch of the skin.

The weapon of the judo is the flexibility, the weapon of beauty the softness, this one imposes its measure, the delicacy. More than the other virtues, it is tactile. One of its privileged zones of contact, the hand, the fingertips. Body sweeping in full consciousness. Daily attention. Self-care as a way of life. 

With this routine, this discipline, Japanese women naturally work on prevention, sustainability, and a different way of approaching the passing of time (difficult to accept for us Westerners, who often seek immediate results). This daily prevention also brings a certain inner peace that allows us to anticipate the unexpected in a confident and serene way, a phenomenon whose importance we can understand when we know how much stress can affect health and beauty.