Much ado about an existential ikigai

August 2024

… sing along four kimono-clad members of what seems to be a teenage-girl band alongside a floral kariyushi wearing cool boy-band in perfect unison. Such is the camaraderie between the 90’s super-hit band Nenes and their fellow famed Okinawan music band Begin, the song’s original composers, that often the two professional bands perform each other’s creations publicly. Regardless of the commercial agreement, such an open gesture is not uncommon amongst the pacific archipelago inhabitants’ harmonious, selfless and happy existence, something the elixir of ‘ikigai’, in the international bestseller, attributes to their longer-than-usual life-expectancy. 

A stroll down Amerika-dori in downtown Naha, the capital city in the center of the largest of the Kerama isles may seem like a happy blend of the far-east and the wild-west, but to the tirelessly opposing residents, whose desperate attempts of urging the local government to negotiate the removal of the 4 American military bases out of the island’s heart have so far seen no light of the day. And with China flexing its muscles in the nearby waters around disgruntled Vietnam by building its own bases on landmasses that sprung-up out of nowhere almost overnight doesn’t give much of an ikigai to the islands’ saboku-na junjou-na hitotachi (simple and pure hearted folk). The bases that are closer to Taiwan have been there since the imperial red army’s surrender and have allegedly been the reason of the serial suicides by local young women in the 90s, some of whom are claimed to have been victims of sexual abuse by personnel of the occupying foreign military. Constant sonic booms caused by low flying fighter jets quite naturally (no pun intended) disturb the serene spectacle of shimmering stars. Had it not been that the frequently tornado-torn isles were the poorest prefecture of Japan, perhaps the opposing voices would have resonated better with Tokyo. The case for Okinawa is diminishing and its inhabitants with their fair share of the world’s problems are equally stressed.

“I think the concept of ikigai can be likened to that of perfection, therefore unattainable. One can certainly work towards it if that’s what one’s personality type is but, it just seems to be another standard placed on humanity, i.e, the romantic poetic nature of it can be quite misleading if one is not careful about one’s actions when trying to achieve it”, says Christina Kasiraja-Lebrun who, a seemingly poster-child for ikigai has completely transformed her successful career in corporate to a full-time professional fashion model in New York and Miami's highly competitive glamor scene. Leveraging her years of corporate leadership experience, she additionally mentors aspiring and accomplished corporate professionals as a mental-health coach, pushing them beyond their comfort zone and realize their full potentials. For many with Christina's versatility of calibre, the pleasure in tackling everyday's challenges defines their existential ikigai.

Yet, there seems to be something of an ikigai prevailing in ordinary Okinawans’ contentment in life that may be likened akin to the similar peace attributed to the Balinese islanders or the myriad other Mediterranean isles or coastal regions with a gut-friendly and earth-sustaining diet complementing their soul-uplifting climatic conditions. A research supported reason for such a healthy existence is most certainly the plethora of negative ions in the air created by the Lenard effect from self-colliding waters all around coastal areas and isles that have proven benefits towards reducing depression and angst in the populace exposed to them causing positive biochemical influences on human behavior. No doubt the meditatively practiced ikigai seems to be one of the prominent causes of the long-life-dwelling Okinawans. Until the rest of the world’s dietary habits and geographical dispersion can be altered to match the Okinawans, the ikigai is perhaps the easiest to draw inspirations from.