Need Foreigner's Help to Understand Our Own Stuff?

I sometimes feel that normal Japanese things change to something special after being valued by foreigners.

For example, as you may know, ukiyoe is a wood print, which was very close at hands of people during the Edo era that is the last samurai era.

Ukiyoe was first deemed art by a French woodblock artist.  He imported a china from Japan to France and found ukiyoe which was used for wrapping of the china.  The ukiyoe was made by Hokusai who later became a very famous ukiyoe artist.  The French artist was very impressed by the ukiyoe, and the ukiyoe became widely known in some Europe countries since then.  Following the ukiyoe boom in Europe, Japanese started treating ukiyoe as art.

Hokusai

Like ukiyoe, manga used to be just popular, or even despised in the Japanese society particularly by adults.  However, it seems to have been revalued after being accepted and becoming widely popular in foreign countries.  The Japanese government is now trying to introduce or export manga to overseas as one of the Japanese sub-culture items.  I don't disagree to officially introduce manga as sub- or pop-culture item of Japan, but am surprised by the fact that manga is a part of the nation's initiative, which seems not realistic a few decades ago when manga was not so accepted by our society.

As the other example, mt. Takao has been having many more attentions from Japanese since five or so years ago after being given triple stars by the Michelin.

Mt. Takao is located in Tokyo and is close to an urban area, regardless, it has lots of nature.  Many people living in Tokyo and other near areas realized but maybe didn't appreciate it very much.  They seem to have recognized the beauty in this sightseeing spot after the Michelin's high evaluation, and since then mt. Takao has become something special rather than just popular spot.

The above all three items used to be just general among ordinary people and were given higher status after receiving recognition from foreigners.

I'm proud that the Japanese things are accepted by foreigners.  On the other hand, I wonder if Japanese don't have its own views to value the Japanese things or need foreigners advice to recognize true values of those Japanese things.

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