Imperfection

I visited Nikko, a beautiful little town with many temples and shrines. At Toshogu Shrine, I was told that this five-story pagoda has its first four roofs built in Japanese style, while the top one is Chinese. Very mysterious... It turns out this isn’t some architectural error. The belief is that by building the fifth roof in a different style, the designers intentionally wanted to avoid perfection. This was to stop the evil spirits and gods getting jealous. They obviously don't like seeing humans accomplishing something faultless. That’s a privilege exclusive to gods. But the human inventiveness has no limits and the evil spirits were tricked. 

The same idea can be found in the Yomeimon gate. It has twelve pillars with some patterns carved on each of them. However, on one of the pillars the patterns are upside down. The evil spirits were fooled once again. 

It looks like even some modern companies adhere to this philosophy. Like “7-Eleven” for instance, a well-known chain of convenience stores. On their logo, “eleven” is written in capital letters except the “n” at the end, which is lowercase. 

So to all those wondering why I’m not the perfect husband, employee or friend, here’s my answer: I do it on purpose!!! Can’t risk getting the evil spirits angry!