> For Morse, the lack of stuff was less a product of aesthetics than of economics. He was frustrated that other critics had failed to consider ‘that the nation is poor, and that the masses are in poverty.’

> By turns reverential and condescending, ideas of Japan’s enlightened design sensibilities swept Western society.

Western colonizers are obsessed with the myth of the noble savage. It’s the exact same treatment Americans gave to natives - oh look how minimal, how simple, how in touch and in tune with nature they are.