This document discusses the concept of "wa-fu", meaning Japanese style, and how it emphasizes natural elements. Wa-fu food, clothing, homes, and other cultural aspects incorporate patterns and shapes found in nature. The author proposes that Shakespeare may have encoded the radical scientific ideas of Giordano Bruno about the sun and earth into his plays in a wa-fu style. By focusing on natural themes and imagery simply, Shakespeare could have explored these concepts without overtly stating controversial ideas. The author has published articles interpreting Shakespeare's works in this wa-fu/naturalistic way and sees similarities between emphasizing humanity's connection to nature and Bruno's philosophy of harmonious existence.

1. 和風シェイクスピーア
Wa-fu Shakespeare

2. What is “wa-fu”?
“Wa-fu” （和風）
means “Japanese-style”

3. Wa-fu 和風, Japanese style, is contrasted with
yo-fu 洋風 (western style)
In general, if you
contrast “wa-fu” and
“yo-fu”, you can notice
a pattern.

4. Looking at some photos of the wa-fu food on the right and the yo-fu food
on the left, we can notice that though both look delicious, the Japanese
ones (wa-fu) refer more clearly to nature through the way they look like
they did when alive or growing.

5. Looking at clothes next, we notice that
kimonos (wa-fu clothes) almost always
have patterns from nature on them

6. Wa-fu dishes are the color of the
sky, clouds, beach sand, rocks, or
a stormy ocean. Nature prevails.

7. Let’s even take a look at a wa-fu toilet.
It resembles a hole in the ground and
wastes from the body are evacuated
more completely and more easily---
more naturally-- than from a western-
style toilet.

8. So, too, a wa-fu house and room.
Traditionally, a Japanese house is very
simple and natural. Wood beams, rice
paper doors, rice straw mat (tatami)
mat floors. Each part is simple to craft
and can be replaced and composted
easily: no varnish, paint, nails. It follows
a natural forest model.

9. Yes, there are even wa-fu socks and
shoes!! Once again, we can notice the
natural elements: the geta shoes look
like a piece of natural wood. The socks
reveal toes. The effect is natural.

10. EVEN an interpretation of
SHAKESPEARE
can be
WA FU
和風

11. Back in the late 1500s, the news that the earth was circling
the sun----and powered by the sun---was little understood.

12. One man, Giordano Bruno, came up with a
thermodynamic heliocentric model in the 1580s.
• He based his ideas on Copernicus’ earlier
model.
• But Bruno added the sun’s heat and light as
the factors that powered the earth.

13. What if Shakespeare had
wanted to encode Bruno’s
ideas—so radical in 1600--
about our sun and earth—
nature—into his plays???

14. Yes!!!!! He did!!
(“Juliet is the sun”)
• I actually have published many articles (only in
Japan, naturally) on this idea.
• I’m getting thousands of views a year (thank you so
much, everyone!!!) (These are from all over the
world, though, not just Japan!)
• And I think such an interpretation would be a wa-fu
interpretation of Shakespeare.

15. 和風
• My interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays are
based on nature and the sun, the earth, fossil
fuels, human beings, and other natural
elements…
• And, like wa-fu style, my interpretations are
very simple.

16. Bruno & the dolphin…
• “Bruno’s symbol of philanthropy was the
dolphin—that most gentle of creatures that
swims through an ocean of infinitely changing
waters, while constantly attempting to reach
the light of a sky it can only occasionally
glimpse”---Hilary Gatti, “A Tranquil Universal
Philosophy” from Essays on Giordano Bruno,
Princeton U. Press, 2011)

17. • Wa-fu design and aesthetic principles are
constantly trying to make users aware of nature:
sun, moon, rocks, leaves, trees, the ocean.
• It is a constant reminder that we live in nature,
are surrounded by nature, belong to nature, are
part of nature.
• Living harmoniously with nature can be seen as
one aspect of Bruno’s concept of a “peaceful
swim through the infinite ocean of universal
being”.

18. • Wa-fu design enables users to spot, glimpse,
or understand their place within the planet as
a natural place.
• And probably Shakespeare had this goal in
mind as well. Since fossil fuels are just
temporary, but could last millennia……it’s
really unknown how long they could go on for.
• But the sun will still keep shining, that’s for
sure.

19. One of my favorite quotes!!
In Japan people have “an underlying
sense of being creatures of nature
rather than lords of it.”—
http://onlyablockhead.typepad.com/blockhead/
2015/06/the-pleasures-of-japan-2.html

20. 日本、ありがとう！！
• THANK YOU, JAPAN, for everything!!!!
• 心からありがとうございました！！