Airplane Mode Publishing House
One page a day, from ikigai and wabi-sabi to Zen and the way of the samurai. In your inbox at 7am. Free.
Free for the whole year. Unsubscribe with one click.
Today's page
1 January
"Those who have ikigai know, however dimly, why they get up in the morning."
— Mieko Kamiya, Ikigai ni Tsuite
To begin 365 Days of Japanese Philosophy, we'll be starting with a month dedicated to the Japanese concept of ikigai. What is ikigai? There isn't a perfect English translation, but we might use "purpose" or "meaning"…
What arrives each morning
That day's entry from the book, word for word, with the page number it carries in print.
A few lines from a poet, a monk, a tea master or an old proverb, then a short reflection and one small thing to try.
366 pages, 29 February included. No paywall and no upsell sequence. Unsubscribe whenever you like.
The year
Japan is full of philosophy in disguise.
Every year, tailors at temples across the country press their broken needles into soft tofu to thank them for a working life. The shrine at Ise has been torn down and rebuilt in fresh cypress every 20 years since 690. These customs carry their philosophy without ever naming it, and this book reads them closely, a page a day.
You'll meet monks who sat through mountain winters, a tea master who wouldn't beg pardon of the warlord who ordered his death, a swordsman who claimed he never lost a duel and spent his last years painting, and a psychiatrist who asked her patients what still connected them to tomorrow.
Each page opens with a quote and follows it with a short reflection: where the idea came from, what it meant then, and what you might do with it today. Every Japanese word is explained where it appears, and wherever research comes up, it's credited to the researcher and the year.
Matsuo Bashō Kobayashi Issa Miyamoto Musashi Kenkō Dōgen Sen no Rikyū Kakuzo Okakura Jun'ichirō Tanizaki Sei Shōnagon Kamo no Chōmei Ryōkan Yamamoto Tsunetomo Zeami Yosa Buson Masaoka Shiki Mieko Kamiya Nishida Kitarō and 49 old proverbs
The book
The same 366 pages as a book you can open at whatever today happens to be. It closes with a reading map for hard days and a shelf of translations to read next.
The email is the whole book either way, and it's free.
Questions
Yes. One email every morning for the whole year, at no cost. Unsubscribing takes one click.
The email is the book. Each morning you get that day's page from 365 Days of Japanese Philosophy in full, with the page number it carries in print.
No. Every Japanese word is explained on the page where it appears, and every page stands on its own.
You start with today's page. Each month has its own theme, from ikigai in January to ichigo ichie in December, but nothing depends on a page you missed.
At 7am in your own timezone.
One page of Japanese philosophy at 7am, your time. Read it with your coffee, or wherever you actually read (we won't ask).
Free for the whole year. Unsubscribe with one click.