お辞儀 Ojigi Bowing
|
Bowing is a social gesture to express greetings, courtesy, and respect. It is said that bending one’s head in front of the other person originally meant to show that he had no antagonism against the other person. Since the Nara period, the ways of bowing in accordance with the other person’s social position had been established using examples introduced from Chinese rules of decorum. In Japan, there are three kinds of bowing; Saikeirei (very formal bowing), Keirei (formal bowing), and Eshaku (nodding). Each type of bowing differs in the degree of bending the body and the length of time. Different bowings are given according to the other person’s social position and the degree of respect that should be paid. Bowing is practiced mainly in Japan and other East Asian countries, while in the western culture, women perform a bowing-like gesture of curtsy. Different from handshaking, which shows friendliness, bowing shows respect. In Ogasawara-ryu School of Etiquette adopted by the Tokugawa Shogunate as the formal rules of decorum, there were nine kinds of bowing, which indicates they put great importance on the decorum.
- name
- Ojigi