I should like to give readers some examples of this preference: Ukiyo-e and other traditional Japanese pictures have no shading, the world being treated as a two-dimensional surface. Similarly, traditional Japanese music totally lacks the idea of chordal harmony, common to virtually all other cultures.

Architecturally speaking, the disregard of volume is reflected in the traditional use of sliding doors. In European homes, doors open and close into the third dimension. Even clothing shares this preference.

The kimono consists of several square segments that can be packed into a suitcase very simply without creasing. Furthermore, a woman wearing a kimono is transformed from a three-dimensional figure into a two-dimensional painting, with a beautiful picture adorning both her front and her back.

The kimono, once removed from surface, as it were, turns reality into a picture, thereby returning to the world of two-dimensionality.