Allow me to be pedantic and say that English has a perfectly good two-word phrase for this exact phenomenon, "dappled light."

The internet is very big on Japonisme (not to say Orientalism) so I feel obligated to present a contrary viewpoint once in a while.

This is not the same thing. "Dappled light" refers to the pattern on the lit objects, while this is referring to the visible beams of light themselves a la https://live.staticflickr.com/3342/3663701610_a5f8e10d7a.jpg

I've heard people call it "sun rays" or "sun beams" in English, but it's definitely not a well defined concept.

A google image search for "木漏れ日" gets me about 50% beams and 50% patterns on the forest floor, so I don't think the difference is as clear cut as all that. But even on that basis, we then have two words--sunbeams for the beams and dappled light for the pattern--where the Japanese have only one. By the logic of the usual breathless linguistic fetishism that we see everywhere online, that means English has twice the reverence for the natural world that Japanese has.

Sir, your racism is showing

Contrary viewpoint to what? I don't think anyone claimed that there was no English equivalent.

No but the English equivalent doesn't get accused of reflecting the English' romantic and emotional love of nature.

but it may very well be seen as a mark of English pragmatism, or other more fitting attribution of archetypes, in return.

Interpretations of cultural origins of expressions in either language and romantic admiration for the shapes that words take is neither meant as a qualification of the speakers, nor is the fascination for one culture automatically meant to be entitled or hostile towards another.

You may very well admire the poetic yet observative nature of Japanese composita, as well as take delight in uncommon, inventive and elegantly rythmic English idioms. You may as well interpret freely what you see in them. All without putting one above the other, or regarding them as competitors.

And I'll be happy to have learned both today!

why do you assume that people made shit up? Maybe they learned it from somewhere? Maybe the "romantic and emotional love of nature" exists and there no need for anyone to "accuse" something to be it. You don't sounds like someone who can speak Japanese (or any foreign language really), so why do you think your theory is more plausible than that of people who do?

Such a self-centered point of view.

It is not a matter of being able to convey a meaning in your language. It is about the story behind what a phrase comes to be in another language. Because of semantic domains and history and culture and all that, the story that comes with it can certainly not representable in a translation.

To claim a language is perfectly fine to represent any concept and hence the use of any other language is some sort of negative trend, is to deny the richness in other cultures and histories, almost to the point of being racist.

The worst thing about this kind of people is their urge to feel obligated to share.

Somewhat related, I saw a Reddit post of someone who got a tattoo of 木漏れ日 and the native speakers in comments generally thought it was an odd.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Japaneselanguage/comments/16b8r7c/p...

There is also a word for this in Icelandic I believe. I remember seeing an interview with the Icelandic band Sólstafir, and they said this is the meaning of their name. I can't find the link now though.

It's fascinating how specific words in different languages can be, yet how they have a range of meaning that still relates them closely.

"solstafir" means almost the same, but more precisely translates as "crepuscular rays" -- the beams of sunlight sometimes emerging right at twilight, when the sun passes clouds just on the edge of the horizon.

how i learned about that: Solstafir was one actually of the first bands i discovered through early-ish open internet. I stumbled upon them on former rokk.is back when i was in school, where they used to distribute their music for free.

I would also include beams of sunlight going through an opening in the clouds under the term "god ray", rather than it being specific to tree leaves. However, I'm not a native speaker.

I love the word (e.g. the movie Perfect Days), but I feel a little sad seeing these beautiful ideas adopted as names for mundane products. I guess there's no harm in it - it's OK, really - but it feels a little cheapening.

There are some space between windows when using this, which create some komorebis