Quotes About Gaman

In Osaka slang, a tattoo is called gaman— you know, "patience" or "perseverance." There are two things about getting tattooed that seem to impress people, the money it costs, and the pain it causes.

Japanese gaman is not a philosophical concept. The conventional translations fail to convey the passivity and abnegation that the idea contains, the extent to which gaman often seems indistinguishable from a collective lack of self-esteem. Gaman was the force that united the reeling refugees in the early days after the disaster; but it was also what neutered politics, and permitted the Japanese to feel that they had no individual power over and no responsibility for their national plight.