Ikigai
Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles travel to the tiny Japanese village of Ogimi, one of the so-called Blue Zones with the highest concentration of centenarians in the world, to investigate why its residents live so long and seem so content. Interweaving interviews with local elders and a plain-language survey of Japanese concepts like ikigai, the reason one gets out of bed in the morning, they draw out habits around diet, movement, community, and purpose. The result is a gentle, practical guidebook that blends pop psychology, Okinawan tradition, and short exercises designed to help readers locate a life worth getting up for.
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Two Spanish authors travel to the village of Ogimi on Okinawa, home to many people over 100, and use what they find to walk readers through ikigai, the Japanese idea of having something to get up for.
Ikigai introduces the Japanese concept of ikigai, often translated as reason for being, found at the intersection of what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. The book draws on interviews with centenarians in Okinawa.
Some Japanese commentators have noted that the four-circle Venn diagram popularized by the book is a Western adaptation rather than a traditional Japanese framing. The underlying concept of ikigai is real and widely used in Japan, but the diagram is more of an export-friendly simplification.
Ikigai was written by Hector Garcia, published in 2016.
Ikigai is 208 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Ikigai takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
Ikigai is a standalone novel by Hector Garcia, not part of a series.
Ikigai is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.