Subtitle: A Japan-Origin “Civilization of Kyōmei (Resonance)”
In this essay, I use the three notions of “co-quake, co-resonance, and mutual attunement” collectively as the Civilization of Resonance.
This essay proposes a framework for a Civilization of Resonance, drawing on Hartmut Rosa’s resonance theory while rooting it in the Japanese cultural foundations of musubi (musuhi/musubi: the generative binding force—“creative tying”—in Shinto cosmology) and prayer (a stance of gratitude that attunes self and world). In a 21st century that keeps accelerating, convenience has widened the distance between hearts; fear is beginning to cloak society. What we need now is not conquest or control but a turn toward resonant relations. I outline pathways to re-design politics, economics, education, and even AI on the basis of this Japan-grounded Civilization of Resonance—so that past and future, humans and nature, and person to person may once again find harmony. This is a new civilizational blueprint from Japan.
A slightly open door with bright white light shining through, casting a soft glow into a quiet blue room — symbolizing the beginning of a new era or the awakening of consciousness.
Why Resonance, and Why Now?
The 21st century keeps accelerating—information, technology, the economy, and AI. Paradoxically, the more connected we become, the further our hearts drift apart. The current civilization shows signs of exhaustion; we await a new dawn.
Hartmut Rosa’s theory of resonance has drawn attention in Europe. He argues that a society is healthy when humans and world “answer” one another—when they resonate. Yet so far the theory has largely remained within European sociological frames; as a design principle for civilization itself, it is still unfinished.
For over a decade, I have worked with the theme co-quake, co-resonance, and mutual attunement. This is not mere metaphor; it is a life-view that runs through Japanese culture. In the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki (8th-century chronicles), deities trade songs; in waka (classical Japanese poetry, typically a 31-syllable tanka form), a “heart’s timbre” travels between people and nature; in Bushidō (the way of the warrior), sincerity is a cultivated aesthetic. All point toward a civilization in which people and nature—and people with one another—are joined through resonance.
This Civilization of Resonance is not confined to environmental ethics. It is a re-founding of politics, economics, education, science, and technology on the principles of co-quake, co-resonance, and mutual attunement.
Beyond Rosa, contemporary thought offers related currents—rhythm studies, ecological resonance, actor-network theory. Yet in Japan, a civilizational synthesis has not yet emerged. Precisely for that reason, a unified resonant perspective issuing from Japan carries global significance.
Chapter 1: Structural Conversion of Civilization — From Expansion & Control to “Attunement”
1) What Modern Civilization Brought
Roughly 500 years ago, a civilization of expansion and control took shape. Science, economic growth, and information abundance enriched humanity—yet also deepened separation from nature, alienation of the heart, and division among people. The endless spiral of “faster, more, easier” produced an accelerated society, draining us of stillness and connection.
2) The Limits of Expansion
At its core lies the belief that humans conquer the world: we control nature, systematize society, and technologically manage life. The world is treated as an object of use. At the end of control, we discovered: material plenty doesn’t fulfill the heart; social media grows while loneliness spreads; more information obscures truth. Here sit the limits of the expansionist paradigm.
3) A New Axis: Resonance
What we need is neither conquest nor management but a re-composition of resonant relations—what I call the Civilization of Resonance. Resonance does not seek to change the other by force; it feels the other’s presence, answers it, and changes together. This already appears in ancient Japanese thought: the “eight million deities” (yaoyorozu-no-kami) resonate with one another; humans, nature, spirits, and things co-tune. The operative forces are not control but musubi (creative binding) and prayer (attuned gratitude).
4) Direction of the Shift
The task is to shift from “expansion” to “resonance.” We needn’t abandon technology; we must use it according to resonant principles. The issue is not the tool but the direction of the heart guiding it.
The civilization of expansion advanced by “operating” on the world; the civilization of resonance will evolve by “attuning” with the world. This is a millennial task.
5) The First Sign: Words
When structures change, language changes first; language tunes the heart, and the heart steers action and society. As phrases like co-quake, co-resonance, mutual attunement spread, we stand at the threshold of a new era—an era where power is not domination but answering heart to heart.
Chapter 2: What Is Resonance? — Three Principles: Responsiveness, Transformation, Unavailability
1) Not Mere Agreement
“Resonance” is not feel-good harmony. Like tuning forks, beings answer each other and are changed. Not one-way influence but a relation in which both are newly born—the core of a Civilization of Resonance.
2) Responsiveness — Being as Dialogue
The first principle is Responsiveness: we are never isolated individuals; we live by ongoing dialogue with someone or something. Wind in the trees, the fragrance of flowers, another’s words—each is a call from the world to which we answer. Lose responsiveness, and we drift into emptiness and anxiety. A civilization needs cultures that school the answering heart.
3) Transformation — Being Born Anew Through Encounter
The second principle is Transformation: true resonance changes us. Not subduing or persuading the other, but changing together through meeting. In Kojiki’s exchanges of song, words move hearts and soften the world. A mature civilization delights in change rather than fearing it.
4) Unavailability — Reverence for What Cannot Be Owned
The third principle is Unavailability. Modernity prizes only what can be used or operated. Yet what truly moves the heart—love, prayer, beauty, nature, life—is not ownable. Resonance is the heart’s stance that says, even if it cannot be possessed, I still wish to attune to it. Reverence for the unavailable frees civilization from domination and leads us back to humility.
5) A Civilization of Relations
• Responsiveness cultivates connection with the world.
• Transformation renews the self through encounter.
• Unavailability safeguards the sacredness of life.
A society built on these is governed not by sheer economic or political calculus but by the quality of relations. Institutions and technologies are evaluated by a single question: do they deepen resonance between people and the world?
6) To Resonate Is to Live
To live is to sound into the world and answer its sound. Place this at the center of civilization, and society aligns with the rhythm of life. The next chapter looks at how this principle has been breathing in Japanese myth, literature, and art.
Chapter 3: Resonant Principles in History — Ancient Japan’s “Civilization of Sounding”
1) A Worldview of Sounding
The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki depict a world where humans and nature, heaven and earth, visible and invisible co-resonate. In the myth of Amaterasu’s Rock-Cave (Ama-no-Iwato), the deities do not force the door; they dance, make music, and laugh—and light returns. Harmony is restored not by domination but by resonance.
2) Waka — Poetry as a Bridge of Hearts
From ancient times, Japanese expressed feeling through waka (classical Japanese poetry, usually a 31-syllable tanka). Poetry is not logic but the heart’s timbre, a bridge between singer and listener, between nature and human. The idea of kotodama (“spirit of words”)—that uttered words carry animating power—testifies to a faith in voice as world-moving resonance.
3) Noh — The Quiet Sound of Maturity
In medieval times, this sensibility crystallized in Noh (classical masked musical drama). A Noh stage is a space where actor and audience, sound and silence, this shore and the other, attune. Works like Kumano, Atsumori, and Nue sublimate life and death, love and impermanence, into beauty, evoking yūgen (aesthetic depth/mystery). This is not a victor’s aesthetic but purification through resonance, cherished even in wartime by the warrior class.
4) “Shirasu” and “Ushihaku” — Governance by Resonance
Two terms in the Nihon Shoki illuminate political philosophy: shirasu (to “illuminate/know/guide”—govern by listening and attuning) and ushihaku (to “dominate/possess”—rule by control). Japan’s ideal was shirasu, governance that listens and resonates with the people—an archetype for resonant governance today.
5) The Power of Musubi
Japanese culture often speaks of musubi (musuhi/musubi: the creative binding force)—different beings resonate and give birth to new life. Lightning, rice, life itself were seen as workings of musubi. This is a generative pillar of a Civilization of Resonance.
6) Continuity into the Present
A Civilization of Resonance is not a new invention but a re-discovery of a spirit cultivated over a millennium. The question is how to re-enter this wisdom in an age of technology, economy, and AI.
7) From Resonant History to a Resonant Future
Resonance is also temporal: ancient prayers still reach our hearts. When that voice sounds again today, a Japan-origin Civilization of Resonance can illuminate the world.
Chapter 4: An Ethics of Resonance — “Makoto (Sincerity)” and Prayer
1) Beyond Good vs. Evil
Binary ethics (good/evil, right/wrong) is clear but divisive. Reality exists in relations of resonance, where the axis is not moral victory but harmony vs. disharmony. The ethical question of a resonant civilization is not “what is good?” but “what generates resonance?”
2) Makoto — When the Heart Resonates, Truth Appears
Makoto (sincerity) means not deceiving others, nor lying to one’s own heart. It is not fixed correctness but the courage to choose “what resonates most now.” Listening before judging—to hear, to receive, to accompany—creates harmony.
3) Prayer — Gratitude Before the Unavailable
Prayer here is not petition but an ethical practice: accepting that some things cannot be operated or owned, and honoring them. In quiet prayer, the self thins, borders soften, and one returns to a field of resonance.
4) “Wa” — Order by Sounding, Not Suppression
Prince Shōtoku’s “Wa o motte tōtoshi to nasu” (“harmony is precious”) can be read as an early declaration of resonance. “Wa” is not compromise or conformity; it is dynamic equilibrium, like different notes forming a chord.
5) From a Culture of Shame to a Culture of Resonance
Traditional “shame culture” asked, before law or punishment, whether one’s resonance was disturbed. That empathic self-restraint tuned social order. Going forward, we aim to sustain order not by fear but by love and empathy—a culture of resonance.
6) Ethics as a Way of Living
Rather than obeying external rules, living itself is ethics: What timbre do my actions release into the world? What ripples do they make? As this sensibility spreads, society changes quicker than law.
7) The Future Guided by Sincerity and Prayer
Makoto is the axis; prayer is the wave that refines it; wa is the harmony born at their intersection. Thus prepared, humans can resonate with others, with nature, with the divine—and even with AI.
Chapter 5: Resonant Institutions & Social Structure — Systems Sustained by Heart
1) Society Is Moved Not by Systems but by Hearts
Even a perfect system fails if corrupted hearts run it; imperfect systems flourish when noble hearts animate them. Institutions are vessels; the heart is the soul. The design principle of a resonant civilization centers on the tuning of hearts.
2) Autonomy and Interdependence
The social law of resonance is autonomy with interdependence. One must stand on one’s feet to truly resonate with others. Total dependence decays; total isolation withers. This gentle binding characterized Japan from the Jōmon period (Jōmon: prehistoric Japan, c. 14,000–300 BCE) onward: villages lived autonomously yet linked through trade, festivals, and marriage—an extended peace lasting over ten millennia in archaeological periodization. Up to early modern times, extended families functioned by role autonomy and mutual complementarity.
3) Edo as a Resonant Society
In the Edo period (1603–1868), Japan had about 260 han (domains, administrative units). Many aimed at self-sufficiency and independent accounting, yet were softly connected by festivals, trade, education, and culture. The shogunate served as a center of coordination (a tuning hub). This architecture underwrote roughly 260 years of relative stability—a society where systems were run by heart.
4) Today’s Problem — Over-Integration and Dependence
Pursuit of efficiency and uniformity has dulled the resonant heart. Centralization erodes a sense of entrusted responsibility and shared pride, expanding system dependence and passivity. We must recover a structure where autonomous individuals bind gently.
5) Designing with the “Direction of the Heart”
We need not rebuild all institutions; we must correct the intent that runs them:
• Politics: from domination to coordination of harmony
• Economy: from competition for scarcity to circulation of support
• Education: from ranking to learning that attunes
With the direction of the heart set toward resonance, civilization changes—even within the same frameworks.
6) How to Realize It
People animate systems; culture forms people. Seed resonance in education, arts, and local communities. Let society move not by top-down orders but by bottom-up resonance—the original sense of “democracy” (“governing together”).
7) The Age of the Heart
Like Edo’s townspeople and Jōmon’s elders, quietly resonant hearts uphold society. Law alone cannot change civilization; when hearts change direction, systems follow.
Chapter 6: Practice, Culture, and Art — Giving Form to Resonance
1) From Theory to Practice
Philosophy matters only when felt, enacted, and embodied in society. The Civilization of Resonance lives as a cultural movement of shared practice.
2) Art as the Epiphany of Resonance
Noh (classical masked musical drama) forms a resonant space where performer and audience, sound and silence, the seen and unseen, meet. Chanoyu (tea ceremony) and kadō/ikebana (flower arrangement) are cultures that embody resonance through vessels (utsuwa): every gesture is a prayerful motion of attunement. These arts give beauty-form to resonance.
3) Resonant Locality — Reviving “Small Edos”
Civilizational practice begins locally. Like Edo-era life-regions—autonomous yet softly connected—individuals, neighborhoods, and communities can be self-reliant and co-resonant. With agriculture, medicine, food, education, and culture as axes, each keeps its rhythm while the whole finds harmony—a network society by resonance, not division.
4) The “Resonantization” of Technology and AI
Technology sped ahead, often detached from the heart. Yet AI and digital space can be vessels of resonance. Let AI be a partner in thinking and creating, amplifying the soul’s timbre. The aim is not to replace humans but to extend human resonance—a technology with spiritual direction.
5) Resonant Knowing Through Education & Arts
Education’s aim is not mere accumulation of facts but the cultivation of resonant sensibility. Children are natural resonators—hearing insects, sensing the wind, weeping for others. Teachers are guides of resonance. Through music, poetry, theater, and visual art, we grow felt knowledge / connective knowledge / prayerful knowledge.
6) Culture and the Vessel
An utsuwa (vessel) is any form that receives and transmits resonance—a bowl, a house, language, even the heart. Clear vessels yield clear sound; clouded vessels, distorted sound. Culture’s task is to refine the form by polishing the heart—a core Japanese aesthetic with deep Jōmon roots.
7) Practice Philosophy — Feel, Cultivate, Connect
Greetings, gratitude, honoring nature, caring for others—ordinary gestures generate resonance. Civilization is the daily music produced by the vibrations of countless hearts.
8) Resonance Takes Shape
When theory gains soul and practice gains form, civilization lives. In a Noh pause, a tea-room’s stillness, or a surge of empathy online—resonance is already breathing. The world has not forgotten how to resonate. Our task is to give that resonance form.
Chapter 7: The Dynamics of a Civilization of Resonance — Spreading, Overlapping, Maturing
1) Spread by Resonance, Not Propaganda
A resonant civilization spreads heart to heart, not by force. Like fire catching from fire, resonance expands by induction, not transmission. Exposure to someone’s life, words, prayer, or kindness awakens the same timbre in us. This is not sudden revolution but ripening.
2) Inheriting Memory Across Generations
Resonance crosses time. Ancient prayers echo in kagura (sacred Shinto music-dance), and the sincerity of Bushidō beats within today’s desire to be honest. Maturity means reviving ancient timbres in the present.
3) Backflow and Resistance
Every new civilization meets counter-currents. As resonance deepens, old structures creak. The way forward is not destruction but tuning—do not fight, do not rage, do not push back. Quiet courage protects resonance.
4) A Resonant Network Society
The internet and AI should be vessels of resonance, yet algorithms often amplify anger and division. The key is a network of quality, not quantity: depth of empathy over views; seismic intensity of the heart over raw spread.
5) Stages of Growth
1. Awakening of the Individual (prayer, gratitude, art, dialogue with nature)
2. Repair of Relations (family, neighborhood, companions)
3. Social Ripples (resonant ethics permeate organizations and institutions)
4. Civilizational Maturity (technology and spirit integrate; humanity becomes a resonant being)
These unfold not linearly, but as overlapping ripples.
6) Generational Handover of Sound
Younger generations are gifted at sharing resonance through digital media. Adults offer prayerful direction—not instructing from above but co-resonating beside them—so that technology with spirit can emerge.
7) Quiet Waves Change the World
Civilizational shift is not an explosion but the overlap of countless small resonances: kindness, gratitude, prayer. No loud voice is required; quiet sincerity is enough.
8) Toward a Resonant Future
Civilizations change not by systems alone but when people resonate. I intend to advance this Civilization of Resonance both academically and practically. Rooted in Japanese culture, it will kindle new hope.
Epilogue: Into the Age of Resonance — From Theory to Action, and to Prayer
1) At the Dawn
The next transformation is not industrial or informational but a revolution of the heart. Not conquest or ownership, but autonomy with mutual resonance. The world’s renewal will not be led by empires or vast systems but by self-standing individuals and clear waves of the heart.
2) A Way of Life Called “Resonating”
Humans with humans, humans with nature, humans with AI, past with future—everything sounds, and together we play the symphony of life. Tune your own note; let it ring not with anger or fear, but with love and prayer.
3) Resonant Politics, Economics, Education
Politics is the tuning of public resonance; economy is the circulation of resonance; education is the cultivation of the ear of the heart. Systems already exist; what we must recover is the heart that makes them sing.
4) One Heart Can Move the World
Civilizations begin not with the crowd but with one quiet decision. Each of us is a source of resonance: your note awakens another’s, and the chain re-writes civilization.
5) A Civilization as Prayer
Prayer is not pleading to a deity but gratitude that becomes one with the world—from Jōmon prayers to divine songs in the Kojiki, from Bushidō’s sincerity to the stillness of tea. A Civilization of Resonance sets this prayer as its organizing principle—a time when the heart’s stance sustains order beyond economy or politics.
6) A Resounding Earth
Today’s pains—war, hunger, environmental ruin, loneliness, nihilism—are shadows cast by disconnection; they can be healed by recovering resonance. The world is still beautiful. The human heart still knows how to resound.
Thus the Civilization of Resonance is not a far-off dream; it is the miracle of here and now. Each of us is a note in that music. Live like a prayer—that is how we walk into the age of resonance.
“The Civilization of Resonance” is not a religion or a mere theory; it is a civilizational declaration as a way of life. The sound spreads quietly but surely from the depths of the world. If you listen, you will hear a new tone answering your heart from every corner of this planet.
Notes on Terms (for readers)
• Waka: classical Japanese poetry, typically a 31-syllable tanka form.
• Noh: classical masked musical drama emphasizing musicality, gesture, and yūgen (aesthetic depth/mystery).
• Musubi / Musuhi: Shinto notion of generative binding—creative, life-producing connectedness.
• Kotodama: the “spirit of words,” belief that uttered words carry animating power.
• Shirasu / Ushihaku (Nihon Shoki): contrasting governance ideals—shirasu = illuminate/know/guide (resonant rule); ushihaku = dominate/possess (control).
• Kagura: sacred Shinto music-dance used in festivals and rites.
• Han (domain): administrative unit in the Edo period under the Tokugawa shogunate.
