Building Up Archives - understand-culture

Background Before the Conclusion

In 2022, President Online described Toyota’s rules for writing reports. The writer Noji Tsuneyoshi quoted a Toyota executive who had helped create them. A document is written on a single sheet of A3 paper, turned sideways. Bōtō ni kaku no wa ketsuron de wa nai. Mondaiten no haikei setsumei da. “What is written at the start is not the conclusion. It is an explanation of the background of the problem.”

The executive gave the reason. If only the conclusion is written at the start, the reader cannot tell what the document is about. The headline of the article read: “Writing the conclusion first” is something not to do.

Opening, Development, Turn, Conclusion

Kishōtenketsu (起承転結) is a way of building a Chinese poem. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten explains it with the four-line zekku . The first line is ki , the opening, the second shō , the development, the third ten , the turn, and the fourth ketsu , the conclusion. According to the encyclopedia Nihon Daihyakka Zensho, the structure matured in China around the eighth century.

It appears in Japanese school lessons. A 2021 lesson of the Sapporo board of education for second-year junior high school students explains it this way. The first line begins the poem, the second takes it up and develops it, the third changes the scene, and the fourth brings the whole to a close.

Conclusion First

The HR glossary of the company Kaonavi describes the PREP method, a model for writing and explaining in business. It follows the order Point, Reason, Example, Point: conclusion, reason, example, conclusion.

In 2018, the speech consultant Yano Kaori, an associate professor at Nagasaki University, wrote in President Woman: Yoku kiku kishōtenketsu no junban wa jikeiretsu de ari, kore wa bijinesu de wa NG desu. “The familiar order of kishōtenketsu is chronological, and in business it is not acceptable.”

The Operative Part First

Article 253 of the Code of Civil Procedure lists what a Japanese civil judgment must contain. The list begins with the shubun , the operative part. The facts and the reasons follow.

The facts section must state the claim and the arguments needed to show that the operative part is correct.

Introduction, Break, Haste

Jo-ha-kyū (序破急): introduction, break, haste. In gagaku , the old court music, the word names the three movements of a piece. The Noh master Zeami applied it to the structure of a Noh play and to the order of plays in a day’s program.

The encyclopedia Mypedia notes that Zeami made a structure of five sections the basis of Noh composition: one section for jo , three for ha and one for kyū .

The Pillow

A rakugo performance begins with the makura , the pillow. The storyteller opens with small talk and short jokes before the actual story. In a guide for beginners in the magazine of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, a writer from the National Engei Hall explains: Makura o futte kankyaku no kimochi ga yawaraida tokoro de, hanashika wa hondai ni hairimasu. “When the makura has put the audience at ease, the storyteller enters the main story.”

A Kyoto City guide calls the makura the warm-up before the story. With it, the storyteller finds out what that day’s audience likes.

Opening and Closing Words

A formal Japanese letter follows a fixed frame. When it opens with a tōgo, an opening word such as haikei, it should, as a rule, close with a ketsugo, a closing word such as keigu. A Mynavi guide calls this the principle.

In a business letter, the opening word is followed by a seasonal greeting and then the body. One sample greeting in the guide begins kunpū no kō, in the season of the fragrant breeze.