Long before Marie Kondo’s #1 bestselling book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up took the world by storm, another Japanese bestselling author, Hideko Yamashita, introduced the underlying concept of “Dan Sha Ri.” More than just the art of decluttering one’s closets and drawers, Dan Sha Ri teaches us how to carefully observe our relationship to the stuff to which we cling and to free our minds of attachments which do not serve us. If you were intrigued by Ms. Kondo’s book and would like to dig deeper into the ideas which inspired it, you’ll love Dan Sha Ri.

“If you have ever opened a full closet and found nothing to wear, or stayed with a boyfriend you are no longer in love with, let go of them and try danshari,” Yamashita told a packed room of anxious urbanites on a recent visit to Beijing. “Get rid of the unwanted things so you can build up what you really want.”

Hideko Yamashita Clutter consultant/Creator of Danshari/Author
She was born and raised in Japan. When she was studying at Waseda University she encountered the three steps of practices – “Dan””Sha” “Ri” which stem from Yoga teaching. Later when she visited Enryaku temple in Shiga prefecture in Japan her body and soul understood the true sense of the altamate minimalism. Since then she started to figure out how we can practice those three yoga teachings not at a temple but at our own closets. After more than 10 years of try and error, she finally succeeded to figure it out. “DanShaRi” was born. Her book sold over 3 miilon copies in Japan and more than 1 million in China and Taiwan.