Before Marie Kondo captured the world’s attention with her advice to rid yourself of things that “didn’t bring happiness.”
His name is Hideko Yamashita. And while Ms. Yamashita, 70, never arrived. Ms. Kondo’s The level of popularity inspired by Netflix, it is widely credited with spearheading the modern movement to declutter homes in Japan – or as it’s called overseas,Kondo-Ing“
The two women, born three decades apart in Tokyo, both preach the idea that households accumulate too much. Letting go of unnecessary items and creating minimal, uncluttered spaces can boost mental well-being, they say.
Ms Yamashita said she admired Ms Kondo, 40, for taking these ideas to the Western world. A spokeswoman for Ms. Kondo acknowledged in a statement that Ms. Yamashita has been a leading figure in the clean-up trend for years, but said Ms. Kondo had established her own philosophy.
More than two decades ago, Ms. Yamashita began offering seminars in Japan on intellectualization, the Japanese art of decluttering. In 2009, her book “The New Tidying Up Method: Danshari” — published a year before Ms. Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” — propelled her to fame.
Ms. Yamashita hosts a weekly Television show It is widely seen in Japan, occupying some of the country’s largest homes. She also runs a school where she trains students – mostly women, middle-aged and older – to become professional mitigation specialists.
When giving intellectual consultations, Ms. Yamashita walks around her clients’ homes in a one-shoulder apron with a red sash. With his neatly styled chestnut bob and a warm, slightly crooked smile, the septuagenarian radiates energy.
Ms. Yamashita and Ms. Kondo are reacting in different ways. In Ms. Kondo’s books and Netflix series, she offers easy-to-follow techniques for organizing wrapped in her signature joy and positivity. She advises keeping things that make you happy and thanking those who don’t before throwing them away.
Ms. Yamashita is more abstract, philosophical and probing — less accessible, Mary Kondo school converts argue. When sorting out what to keep or what to throw away, Ms. Yamashita encourages her clients to think about why they are attached to certain things, and to examine how abundance and obsession affect their emotional states. puts
“For me, wisdom is not about cleaning, organizing or throwing away things that don’t bring joy,” says Ms. Yamashita, slurping sesame-broth soba noodles at a Tokyo restaurant. “It’s about returning people to a state where it feels natural to be apart of things.”
“When people’s homes and minds are filled with too many things, they tend to burn out,” he continued. “It’s like you eat and then leave—it’s a normal part of our existence.”
“Intelligence is about creating an exit and bringing that flow back,” he added.
Ms. Yamashita first encountered dance during her university years in Tokyo, when she studied yoga and Buddhist teachings. What emphasized the release of attachments. After graduating and moving to Ishikawa Prefecture, west of Tokyo, he applied these principles to finishing his home. started doing, which she shared with her husband, son and mother-in-law.
It was from his mother-in-law that he discovered the difficulties of motivating others. When Ms. Yamashita would try to throw things away, her mother-in-law would rummage through trash bags, scolding her with “motenai” — a Japanese term for waste.
Her mother-in-law complained that the house was too small. “I wanted to scream, ‘If you get rid of things, you’ll have more space!'” Ms. Yamashita recalled.
In 2005, Ms. Yamashita, then 50, had another building built near her family home, called the “Intellectual Open House.” There, she began training her yoga students on the principles of domestic disintegration.
Four years later, Ms. Yamashita published her book. An instant success followed by dozens more. In total, Ms. Yamashita’s books have sold more than seven million copies.
Tomoko Ikari, an associate professor of consumer behavior at Tokyo’s Meisei University, said danshari resonates so strongly in Japan for a reason: the idea of living simply and being free from desires is embedded in Buddhist teachings that are deeply rooted in Japan. Helps in formation.
However, despite the popular image of clean Japanese homes and a lifestyle rooted in a Zen minimalist aesthetic, Japan is a land of limited space with a high concentration of people in large cities. Ms Akari said many of the houses are small and full of possessions.
“There were people who knew about Danshari, but it was very small before Ms. Yamashita’s rise,” Ms. Akari said. “Years later, what started with Ms. Yamashita has turned into the global ‘happiness-spreading’ phenomenon we see today.”
One morning last fall, Ms. Yamashita arrived at a small apartment on the eighth floor of a nondescript building in northwest Tokyo for a dance consultation. His video crew was on hand to record the session for his YouTube channel.
Dressed in light-washed jeans and a light white blouse, Ms. Yamashita entered the main living area, pausing to take in the view before her.
Towers of bags, baskets and hampers overflowed with clothes and toys. In one corner, dozens of dusty bottles sat behind beanbag chairs, while a small trampoline lay by its side. There was virtually no surface in sight, buried under an avalanche of old gadgets, picture frames and office supplies.
“Well, that doesn’t feel refreshing, does it?” Ms. Yamashita commented, flashing a smile as she turned to the wide-eyed owner of the apartment, Risa Kojima, standing across the room. “Do you plan to refresh it?” he asked.
Ms. Kojima, 41, and her husband, Takashi, both work full-time and have three sons — a toddler, one in kindergarten and one in elementary school. In addition to her day job, Ms. Kojima also does several side gigs, including photography and event planning. Her husband does most of the housework and takes care of the children.
A decade after they moved in, the couple’s 750-square-foot apartment had been cluttered for so long that they no longer realized the mess.
Starting in the living room, Ms. Kojima and her husband began sorting through baskets filled with old pens, gaming devices and charging cords. Ms. Yamashita would strut around the room in her signature apron, cleaning surfaces and peppering the couple with questions.
An initial question – “The comfort of this place and your attachment to these objects – which is more important to you? Which is more valuable?” – seemed to catch Ms. Kojima off guard, except for her stomp.
By the end of the five-hour session, as is often the case on Ms. Yamashita’s television show, Ms. Kojima had some answers.
“You see there are a lot of things out in the open, but we need to investigate deeply the fact that you have a lot of things,” Ms. Yamashita said in the middle of her cleaning.
“I think my mind is a mess,” Ms. Kojima replied, from work and elsewhere. He said, “There are many things that are constantly stuck in my mind.
Ms. Yamashita pressed: “Obviously, no one can see inside your head, but it’s visible in this space.” Then he pointed to the room. “Can you see how the challenges you’ve been dealing with in your head manifest here physically?” he asked.
“I think the problem is that I can’t even recognize when it’s too much,” Ms. Kojima said.
During a break between the morning and afternoon sessions, Ms. Yamashita, along with her video crew and Ms. Kojima, went to a small noodle shop down the street. Sitting at a low table in a corner of the straw-matted restaurant, Ms. Yamashita spoke with Ms. Kojima about how difficult intellectualism can be.
“In many ways, facing your stuff is like facing yourself,” Ms. Yamashita said. “We all take on a lot and when it comes to relationships and work, it’s hard to work on paring things down.”
The goal, she said, was to help the working mother of three learn to be aware when things are getting too much. “What we’re doing with your household items — it’s just training,” she said.