Kininaru Nihongo: Curious Japanese — Words from Reiwa Japan ①
“Seiri Seiton” — “order and tidiness” — has long been one of the slogans displayed above the blackboards in Japanese primary school classrooms.
Children grow up learning habits that are considered perfectly natural: putting textbooks neatly away in their desks, hanging their bags properly on the wall, and returning cleaning tools to their original place after use. Teachers are also famously strict about keeping one’s hair and clothes properly arranged.
As students move on to secondary school, the focus gradually shifts inward. Before important examinations or sporting events, teachers often advise them to “steady your breathing” or “compose your mind.”
Later in adult life, many people encounter expressions such as chōshin (adjusting the mind), chōsoku (regulating the breath), and chōshin (aligning the body) as ways of coping with stress and maintaining balance.
Recently, younger generations in Japan have begun using the word totonou more frequently. It is often associated with the feeling after a sauna session — when both body and mind feel refreshed and reset. Perhaps people also feel totonotta after a digital detox, when they regain a sense of mental and physical balance.
Interestingly, the Japanese word totonou can be written with two different kanji characters: 「整う」 and 「調う」. Though similar, they carry slightly different nuances.
「整う」 suggests putting something in order or correcting its form, while 「調う」 conveys harmonising, calming, or bringing something into balance.
When tidying a room, 「整える」 feels appropriate; when restoring harmony to the body and mind, however, 「調う」 may capture the deeper meaning more accurately.
The organising expert Marie Kondo attracted worldwide attention with the idea that by arranging one’s living space, the mind itself also becomes calm and balanced.
Visitors to Japan are often struck by how clean everything feels — the streets, the buildings, even small public spaces. Walking through a carefully maintained city can somehow help organise one’s thoughts. Breathing fresh air at a quiet rural shrine or temple, far from crowds, can feel like clearing and refreshing the mind itself.
Of course, some visitors to Japan may find its emphasis on orderliness and formality a little uncomfortable.
But I would wholeheartedly recommend that these are the kinds of experiences that help both body and mind totonou－ in Japan.
Kisun, Kyushu Guide