Depth and Space in Sleep: Intimacy, Touch and the Body in Japanese Co-sleeping Rituals

Abstract

s This article centres on an empirically based phenomenological analysis of how children are put to sleep in Japanese nurseries. Drawing on interviews and participant-observations conducted at a daycare centre in north-east Japan, this article explores the cultural and social meanings attached to co-sleeping. It explores the process through which co-sleeping becomes a manifestation of intimacy, and emphasizes the sensuous and embodied experience of sleep between teacher and child. Examining alternative theories of embodiment, this article helps to extend our understanding of experiences of co-sleeping from finite separate bodies, to a sensuous experience and space that is all-encompassing and inclusive of more than just the body (non-Cartesian).

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