Japanese beauty and culture

When I think about the Japanese view of beauty, uniquely Japanese images appear in my head. A porcelain face with painted lips, sweeping loops and coils of pressed and coifed black hair, silk embroidered kimono. However, as displayed by Butoh and ritual suicide, there is also a balance of severity and serenity that comprises the Japanese aesthetic. There is beauty in death, including the finality of it, its stillness, the pain and sorrow of it. It makes me consider America’s aesthetic values and I find it difficult to visualize something completely “American”. All of the images besides Native American aren’t truly or originally American. Does the exoticism of uniqueness pique a colonizing countries’ urge to capture a country and its culture? Though there have been vast and varied social changes in Japan since WWII, I still marvel at Japan’s success at retaining some of its ancient culture. Perhaps it is partly due to the occupation which seemed briefly to wash the county in a deluge of Western culture. A country on the verge of losing its identity might latch on to the past for stability (as well as for obvious reasons of tradition). Now that some time has passed, it seems that in Japan, younger generations seem much less interested in holding on to traditional culture. I wonder how this may affect the way Japanese culture is carried on or changed in Japan, and also how Japanese culture is disseminated across the globe.