The tea ceremony was still practiced, as were calligraphy, ikebana, the koto, and the other traditional arts. Classes in the Japanese cultural arts were filled with teen girls whose mothers thought the skill would improve their marriage resumes and Westerners looking for the Way. Readers younger or older, or of a different bent of personality, most likely have alternate signified characteristics in their Signs of Japan. For example, Pacific Rim tiger economics or ruthless kamikaze expansionism. That is the intrinsically individual nature of language.
Similar acculturation does provide some continuity and context.
But across cultural boundaries the meaning of Signs may be opaque, if not impossible to discern. This is especially true with amorphous signifiers, vast sponges waiting to be saturated with meaning. Thus Western cultural denizens probably recognize my imaginary Japan, even if it is not their own. Propelled into fame and compelled into an Earth tour he never sought, Yukio must reevaluate not only his personal relationship to his art, but more significantly, his public identity as Artist in relationship with his audience. Black Mist s other futures are back on Earth.