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Before Marie Kondo captured the world’s attention with her exhortations to rid ourselves of items that did not “spark joy,” there was another Japanese guru of decluttering. Her name is Hideko Yamashita. And while Ms. Yamashita, 70, has never reached Ms. Kondo’s level of Netflix-induced fame, she is widely credited in Japan with spearheading the modern movement of decluttering our homes — or, as it has come to be called overseas, “kondo-ing.”
The two women, born three decades apart in Tokyo, both preach the idea that households amass too much stuff. Letting go of unnecessary items and creating minimalist, tidier spaces, they argue, can enhance mental well-being.
More than two decades ago, Ms. Yamashita began offering seminars in Japan on danshari, the Japanese art of decluttering. In 2009, her book “The New Tidying Up Method: Danshari” — published more than a year before Ms. Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” hit shelves — propelled her to fame.
When performing danshari consultations, Ms. Yamashita glides around her clients’ homes in a stylish one-shoulder apron with a red sash. With her neatly styled chestnut bob and a warm, slightly crooked smile, the septuagenarian radiates energy.
Ms. Yamashita is more abstract, philosophical, and probing — less approachable, converts of the Marie Kondo school argue. When sorting through what to keep or toss away, Ms. Yamashita pushes her clients to think about why they are attached to certain items, and to examine what overabundance and obsession do to their emotional states.
For me, danshari is not about tidying up, organizing or tossing away things that don’t spark joy. It is about returning people to a state in which parting with things feels natural. When people’s homes and minds get clogged up with too many things, they begin to fester. It’s like how you eat and then release — it is a normal part of our existence.
In 2005, Ms. Yamashita, then 50, had another building constructed near her family home, calling it the “Danshari Open House.” There, she began coaching her yoga students on the principles of household decluttering.
It was from her mother-in-law that she discovered the difficulties of encouraging others to declutter. When Ms. Yamashita tried to throw things away, her mother-in-law would rummage through the trash bags, scolding her with “mottainai” — a Japanese term expressing regret over waste.
Ms. Yamashita first encountered danshari during her university years in Tokyo, when she studied yoga and Buddhist teachings that emphasized letting go of attachments. After graduating and moving to Ishikawa Prefecture, west of Tokyo, she began applying these principles to declutter her own home, which she shared with her husband, son, and mother-in-law.
Tomoko Ikari, an associate professor of consumer behavior at Meisei University in Tokyo, said danshari resonated so strongly in Japan for a reason: The idea of living simply and detaching from desires is embedded in the Buddhist teachings that help shape Japan.
However, despite the popular image of tidy Japanese homes and lifestyles rooted in a Zen minimalist aesthetic, Japan is a country of limited space with a high concentration of people in big cities. Many homes are small and overcrowded with possessions, Ms. Ikari said.
In the Kyoto-style restaurant, Ms. Kojima and her husband began sorting through baskets filled with old pens, gaming devices, and tangles of charging cords. Ms. Yamashita flitted around the room in her signature apron, wiping down surfaces and peppering the couple with questions.
One early question — “The comfort of this space and your attachment to these items — which matters more to you? Which has more value?” — seemed to catch Ms. Kojima off guard, leaving her stumped.
By the end of the five-hour session, as often happens on Ms. Yamashita’s television show, Ms. Kojima had found some answers. You’re noticing there are too many things out in the open, but we need to probe deeper into the fact that you have so much stuff.
I think my mind is cluttered, Ms. Kojima replied, from work and elsewhere. I have so many things constantly being jammed into my head. I think the problem is that I can’t even recognize when there’s too much.
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