In the shadows of gratitude: On mooded spaces of vulnerability and care

Gratitude is a ubiquitous phenomenon in everyday social interactions, yet it has received relatively little attention within anthropology. Past approaches to gratitude have focused on its practical expressions within exchange relationships. In contrast, this article considers the phenomenology of gratitude as a moral mood. Drawing on ethnographic episodes of gratitude between older care-recipients and their unpaid family carers in Japan, I argue that gratitude generates an aesthetic atmosphere that attunes carer and cared-for to each other. I explore this through the Japanese notion “kage,” or the “shadow,” an atmosphere of shared interdependence and vulnerability that is not reducible to darkness or light, pain, or comfort. In the context of informal care of older people, this ambiguity provides space for sharing complex relational experiences and easing the weight of emotional strain. This Japanese example provides a model of new ways to engage with gratitude ethnographically, particularly in situations involving close care.