[Apocryphon]

Really interesting to consider that this might be one of the few incidents that Shintoists, or at least "cultural Shintoists," have gotten offended at a western production.

Makes me wonder if this is why Apple went out of their way to apologize for the ad. I think if this ad just had non-culturally-specific backlash, they would've simply moved on. But because this impacted a specific market's sensibilities, maybe they felt the need to do a public mea culpa.

[adrian_b]

I have seen recently a documentary about Japanese food, and an interesting fact was that the chefs at some big Japanese restaurant had a special decorated grave, in some nice yard, in which they deposited their old kitchen knives, when those were so worn out that they could no longer be used.

They felt that it would be disrespectful to just dump somewhere the main tools of their work, after they had used those every day for decades.

[stuartjohnson12]

This is a beautiful sentiment.

[novaRom]

I have asked chatGPT to write a hokku:

In garden's silent nook, Beneath cherry's tranquil look, Blades retire from the cook.

[p1nkpineapple]

Out of curiosity, what was the doco?

[adrian_b]

It was from 2015: "Wa-shoku Dream: Beyond Sushi". ("wa-shoku" means "Japanese food")

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3846402/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8...

[smsm42]

I think a lot of people are a little bit Shintoist. That's one of the reasons why we have museums - we regard things as some kind of reflection on people and events, and a chair in which a famous person sat or an instrument they played is different for us than otherwise identical object that doesn't bear that imprint. We may not literally believe in things having spirits, but for many the things have some qualities that go beyond their physical structure. Emotional value, etc.

[xattt]

This is a market where shame and apologies still have significance.