Relay Column: "How Can We Distinguish Between Clothing & Housing?" – Trying on a Home and Arriving at Clothing: An Allegory (Takayoshi Ishino)

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PROFILE

Takayoshi Ishino

Takayoshi Ishino, Doctoral Program in Tourism Studies at Rikkyo University Graduate School, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (DC-2) at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. His field of expertise includes cultural anthropology and tourism research. His studies focus on the legal status of individuals in motion and the ontology of their physical presence, exemplified through the process of applying for tourist visas to Japan in the Philippines. His published works include "ツーリスト・アクセス" ("Journal of Tourism Studies" 9(2), 2021), among others. He has contributed to the compilation of books like "よくわかる観光コミュニケーション論" (Minerva Shobo, 2022), "アフターコロナの観光学" (Shinyosha, 2021), and more.

"Among the three essentials of clothing, food, and housing, food is a bit special, but can you differentiate between clothing and housing? Do you have an answer?"(1)

This is a quote from Hiroshi Mori's novel "詩的私的ジャック." The question, posed by university professor Sohei Saigawa to a class of female university students in a Family and Environmental Studies program, is one I've been unable to answer for nearly a decade. Upon reflection, it's curious that both clothing and housing can be expressed by the same kanji character that means "to wear" (着る) and "to arrive" (着く).

To wear (to clothe), to eat, to live. Clothing, food, and housing are said to be the three essentials of human life. If we attempt to conceptualize the distinctions between them instantly, clothing seems to involve placing something "above" the body, food includes putting something "inside" the body, and housing consists of positioning something "outside" the body. The divergence lies in the relative positions to the body.

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