Mottainai

Gleaning of The Gleaners represents one aspect of mottainai (Jean-François Millet, 1857).

Mottainai (もったいない, 勿体無い^?) is a Japanese term meaning "a sense of regret concerning waste when the intrinsic value of an object or resource is not properly utilized."^[1] The expression "Mottainai!" can be uttered alone as an exclamation when something useful, such as food or time, is wasted, meaning roughly "Oh, what a waste!" In addition to its primary sense of "wasteful", the word is also used to mean "impious; irreverent" or "more than one deserves".^[2]

Usage in Japanese

Mottainai in Japanese refers to far more than just physical waste (resources) as in other cultures. It can refer to wasted and wasteful efforts and actions, activities, time, souls, talents, emotion, minds, dreams, and potential. It is even used to refer to thought patterns that give rise to wasteful action. Mottainai activities commonly lead to anger or protest when the person who is observing the utter waste is incapable of holding back their emotions. Those who do not dwell on the negative and are resigned to move on are more capable of sadly regretting.

Grammatically, it can be used in Japanese as an exclamation ("mottainai!") or as an adjective phrase ("it feels mottainai"). There is no plural form. The collection of mottainai things could be called mottainai koto (もったいない事^?).

As noted below, the phrase was part of a trend of Japanese culture that went unappreciated during the modern period, and was slowly dying out with the older generation before being rediscovered by an African visitor to Japan.

History

In ancient Japanese, mottainai had various meanings, including a sense of gratitude mixed with shame for receiving greater favor from a superior than is properly merited by one's station in life.^[1]

One of the earliest appearances of the word mottainai is in the book Genpei Jōsuiki (A Record of the Genpei War, ca. 1247).^[3]

Mottainai is a compound word, mottai+nai. Mottai (勿体^?) refers to the intrinsic dignity or sacredness of a material entity, while nai (無い^?) indicates an absence or lack (Mottai further consists of mochi (勿^?), meaning "inevitable; unnecessary to discuss", and tai (体^?), meaning "entity; body").

Mottai was originally used in the construction mottai-ga-aru (勿体が有る^?, literally "having mottai"), which referred to a dignified entity. Today, mottai is also used in the construction mottai-buru (勿体振る^?), meaning "pretentious" or "giving oneself airs" by assuming more dignity than one truly possesses.

Buddhists traditionally used the term mottainai to indicate regret at the waste or misuse of something sacred or highly respected, such as religious objects or teaching. Today, the word is widely used in everyday life to indicate the waste of any material object, time, or other resource.

Revival by Wangari Maathai

Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai is a promoter of mottainai as an environmental protection concept.

Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai visited Japan at the request of the Mainichi Shimbun for an event related to the Kyoto Protocol in 2005.^[4] At this time, she learned this word while discussing ecological issues with the Mainichi Shinbun's editor-in-chief. She was impressed by the depth of similarity between the Japanese meaning of the word and equivalent concepts in English and Swahili concerning people's responsibility to respect the earth through frugality and conservation. At the Kyoto Protocols, she wore a shirt with the word "MOTTAINAI" written on it in all capital rōmaji, and asked the audience to use the word in their everyday lives. She became a widely recognized celebrity in Japan for discovering and promoting what is referred to as a "MOTTAINAI" movement. Maathai told Japanese TV that she tried to find equivalent words to mottainai in other languages, so as to spread the concept all over the world, but in vain.

She promoted the concept of mottainai as a term that is roughly equivalent to the English phrase "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" or the proverbial phrase "Waste not, want not". The term is more closely equivalent to the English phrase "What a waste". Therefore, she promoted the use of the word mottainai as an international expression.

Japanese singer/songwriter Masashi Sada has promoted this concept and created the song "MOTTAINAI" to revitalize the spirit of mottainai in Japan. The song was played on Everybody's song (みんなのうた, minna-no-uta^?), a children's public television program on NHK TV, in April and May 2007 to raise children's awareness of resource conservation.

A news article on NPR's Morning Edition on 8 October 2007 discusses Mottainai Grandma, a children's book by Moriko Shinju.

In the 2009 Playstation 3 game Trash Panic, valuable items that must be preserved are called mottainai and, in contrast to the common trash in the game, they must be dealt with as a valuable item, instead of compacted or destroyed.

Actual food waste in Japan

Japan's agricultural ministry estimates that 23 million tons of food were discarded in 2007, about ¥11 trillion ($120 billion) worth, which is the monetary equivalent of Japan's annual agricultural output. Moreover, it cost ¥2 trillion ($21 billion) to process that waste.^[5]

See also

• Affluenza
• Anti-consumerism
• Conspicuous consumption
• Freeganism
• Frugality
• Itadakimasu, the Buddhist attitude concerning resources
• Mono no aware, awareness of the impermanence of things
• Simple living
• Thrifting

External links

• Mottainai Campaign official site
• NPR story about Mottainai Grandma
• Mottainai Movement in Brazil

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Daijirin Japanese dictionary 2nd ed. (Japanese)
2. ^ Masuda, K: Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, page 1139. Kenkyusha Ltd., 1974
3. ^ This early use of the word appears in a story about Yoshitsune in the Battle of Yashima. On horseback, Yoshitsune dropped his bow into the sea. A vassal cried out, "Don't pick up the bow, let it be!" but he picked it up while being pursued by the enemy Taira clan. After the battle was over, the vassal used the word mottainai in admonishing Yoshitsune that he should have considered his own life more valuable than even a worthy bow. Yoshitsune retorted that if the enemy saw that inferior bow, it would have disgraced the Genji clan. Referencing site in Japanese: 1; "26 Historical place of Yoshitsune dropped the bow"(26弓流しの跡), 2; 義経の弓流しの跡
4. ^ PDF Perspectives of language: cultural differences and universality in Japanese M Sasaki - Cultural Diversity and TransversalValues: East–West Dialogue
5. ^ "Japan loves wasting food". The Japan Times. March 1, 2009. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20090301pb.html.