![]() ![]() Sasaki then learned about danshari, a Japanese concept of decluttering, and began reading the books of Marie Kondo, whose concept of keeping only things that "spark joy" is so ubiquitous that it got name-dropped in the Gilmore Girls reboot. He would find himself assessing his self-worth on what he did and didn't own - and he wouldn't like how he would measure up. "I would say I used to own 10 times more than I do now," he says. Sasaki estimates he now owns about 300 items. ![]() “Even if I come to New York, I’m not going to be buying souvenirs,” he tells me through his translator, Rieko Yamanaka, “so it seems like I won’t be needing it.”) (Sasaki, who lives in Kyoto, Japan, owns a suitcase but its days seem numbered. ![]() Later, I learn, the backpack is all he brought with him for his New York press tour to promote the English edition of Goodbye, Things, out April 11. He has thick-rimmed black glasses sitting on his face and he carries a large backpack, the kind people might use to go hiking. Then again, what does a minimalist look like? This one wears a gray sweatshirt over a gray shirt, slim off-black jeans, and comfortable-looking black sneakers. When I first meet Fumio Sasaki, who recently wrote a book called Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism, he is taking a picture of a neon sign in the office that reads, “I WANT IT ALL.” There’s nothing about Sasaki to indicate that he is a minimalist, someone who advocates purging unnecessary material possessions. ![]()
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