Shedenfreude
Comments: 15
For a long time I’ve been wanting to do a series of photographs of men and their sheds. You can tell a lot about a man from his shed. The trouble in Japan is that sheds are luxury items and nowhere near as integral to a man’s being as they are in Australia, for instance.
Where I come from, you pretty much have to have a shed. Here, comparitively few people even have the yard for them, and the sheds — if they can be called that — are not much more than little closet-sized outdoor cupboards to store a coiled up hose, a rake, and a broom.
I’ll get around to it one day. In the meantime, it’s something to think about.
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Posted to Oh, the Humanity • 2004.01.11 (Sun) • 21:30
Comments
Posted by Mark 2004.01.11, 21:54
It’s “Schadenfreude” :)
Posted by jh 2004.01.11, 21:57
Even when you’re talking about sheds…?
Posted by Mark 2004.01.11, 22:01
I have teh st00pid and didn’t realize the pun. I hang my head in shame!
Posted by jh 2004.01.11, 22:06
Relax, it’s nothing to do with you. It’s actually the position of the moon or something. This has been happening to me so much lately that I found myself wondering if I wasn’t developing some sort of neurological disorder whereby my sense of humour was being eaten away.
I think it’s a great idea — and a pretty decent pun. And since it’s in German, it might be worth pointing out that Germans love sheds in their tiny garden allotments known as Schrebergaerten (after some nut named Schreber). I’ve always wanted to make a collection of photos of those tiny houses rural kids here in Canada use in the winter to wait in for the school bus. Not even sure they have a name.
Posted by Silus Grok 2004.01.12, 02:07
Bus stops.
Posted by Ed 2004.01.12, 07:09
You need this book.
Posted by Justin Knol 2004.01.12, 11:52
You could also read this one - Complete Blokes & Sheds
Posted by msg 2004.01.12, 12:35
It’s catching. It’s…viral. I lived in a shed once. It was pretty big for a shed. When I first heard the word “watershed” I had a wonderfully inaccurate image/experience that still echoes all these years later.
Posted by Dean 2004.01.13, 06:24
I love sheds, which is why I am very happy that I have been given stewardship of the shed attached to the building in which I live.
I say stewardship because I see myself as a caretaker rather than an owner, ensuring that a culture of shedism perpetuates in our little corner of the world. I seek to keep the shed dream alive for those who will come after.
May I also reiterate the link to Men and Sheds ,which is an excellent book indeed.
Posted by andrew 2004.01.13, 13:18
I have no shed, which fact causes me pain. I recall a conversation with a friend, also late 30s male, married, 2 kids:
Him: I don’t get any respect from my family. Me: Haven’t you realised yet: you’re the bottom of the heap , you’re dirt. Him: Yes, but I have a shed, so I’m happy dirt! Me: Bastard!
Posted by s naka 2004.01.13, 19:30
Unless you are extremely lucky, you would have to go to countrysides to find traditional mono-oki/koya(sheds), which have virtually been driven to extinction from city life scenes in the process of urbanization and replaced by pre-fabricated sheds like Yodoko and Inaba Mono-oki’s.
Posted by s naka 2004.01.13, 22:21
Can these sites of any interest to you? Items #31,87etc Dozo & Monooki1,2,3etc
Posted by jh 2004.01.13, 22:54
s naka —-
Wow! Thanks for those links (and the earlier ones to the prefabricated things ;-). Fantastic. The b&w photography on the second site you posted is just beautiful.
I don’t know why I feel so nostalgic for traditional Japanese buildings, but somehow the style and materials seem so familiar. It’s heartbreaking to watch them disappear.
Ed, Justin —-
Thanks for the links to those books. Of course I knew someone must have beaten me to it. I think it’s a subject with plenty of scope, though. I’ll definitely try to track down copies here in Tokyo.
I wonder if the importance of sheds to men begins in childhood with cubby houses or tree houses —- private domains away from the world. My brother, sister and I had a wonderful cubby house built by my father, and a friend had one made out of a corrugated iron water tank turned on its side and half buried in a vacant block next to his house. I remember both of these as it I had last been in them yesterday.
Posted by Michael Savoy 2004.01.18, 05:31
Dictionary.com:schadenfreude Click for Dictionary.com
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