Japanese Aesthetics
By
Ronnie Littlejohn
The Core Values:
1) Naturalness.
Central to Shinto an emphasis is on the sheer raw beauty of nature in
its pristine form. The ancient belief
was that the Kami indwell nature. The
great sand and rock gardens of the past did not sculpt rocks into cranes or
turtles, but found rocks that looked like them.
In Shinto shrines as in Ise, everything is natural. There is no paint,
no treated wood—so things must be rebuilt periodically. In the West, aesthetic judgments usually
trade on creations made by persons, alterations of nature, imitations. But not in
2) Perishability. This value derives from the appreciation for
the seasons and their change. The cherry
blossoms are beautiful, but fleeting.
Even
3) Sensitivity.
In the Japanese mind, to be a human is above all to be sensitive (as
opposed to being rational). But it is
the sort of sensitivity that is mono no
aware. Motoori Norinaga invented the
term “mono no aware” over two hundred years go as an expression of essential
Japanese culture. The phrase is often translated as “sensitivity to things,” as
well as “poignancy,” “the sadness of things” and acceptance of the temporary.
This understanding can be expressed through language, but the root of this
sensitivity comes from within, and needs no words. Mono no aware is such a
passionate and insightful quality; at its core is that beauty is found in the
transient and fleeting. It is the “natural manifestation of the life
force…specific to the Japanese spirit” according to scholar Wang Xiaolin. It is
no wonder that many Japanese arts revolve around mono no aware, because art
captures pathos and beauty unlike any other expression.
These values
found in aesthetic practices such as the Japanese garden, haikus, ikebana, tea,
and calligraphy.
Chado-The Art of Tea
it is a social event;
it stresses Japanese aesthetics
it can have a religious dimension.
That it is a social event is obvious. Guests
gather at an appointed time to be served food and drink. This can be an
informal tea which consists of serving a sweet and some tea, or even a small
meal with the sweet and tea. This is called a chakai and can take anywhere from
20 minutes to an hour or so. The number of guests for this sort of tea can be
as small as one, and the highest number of guests is determined only by the
limitations of the host's facilities. Guests also can be invited to a much more
formal gathering called a chaji which involves highly structured gathering
rituals, the serving of a meal in multiple courses, an intermission in a
garden, and then a solemn thick tea ceremony followed by the less solemn thin
tea ceremony. A chaji will last from 3 to 5 hours and only 5 guests at most
will be present. Both the chakai and the chaji have the same purpose which is
to serve food and drink to guests. The difference lies in the quantity of food
and drink, and the increased amount of ritualized movement that is necessary
when you are serving more and doing it in your finest fashion. As with any
serving of food and drink in the world, a sensible host will invite people who
are compatible, for no one sits down with enemies to share a meal. In English
we have the word "companion" which means a friend who does things
with you. Etymologically "companion" came from 2 Latin words, cum
which means with, and pan which means bread. Thus the original meaning
of the word was the one with whom you were willing to share food. I believe
that all nations can readily associate the sharing of food and drink as a
symbol of friendly acceptance. The tea ceremony is definitely this sort of
social event.
Let's turn now to the aesthetic dimension of
tea. All great cultures in the history of civilization take care to serve a
meal in a proscribed manner, and that prescription will always involve a
certain amount of beauty. The appearance of the food, the utensils used in
serving the food, and the decoration of the eating place should be quite
appealing to the eyes. This is common throughout the world. In the tea ceremony
this concern for beauty is so deeply pursued that tea can truly be referred to
as an art form. Body movement is completely choreographed, even down to finger
positions. Tea utensils can be of such a high quality that you will find them
in art museums throughout the world. This is true also of tea architecture.
(The
The tea ceremony as an art form cuts through
a whole spectrum of Japanese culture because it embraces many art forms such as
architecture, gardening, ceramics, textiles, calligraphy, flower arrangement,
and cuisine, plus a few rather arcane art forms such as the sculpting of ashes
and the building of a beautiful fire.
The third dimension of tea is the religious
dimension. The religious mentality which
is frequently brought to a tea ceremony is that of Zen Buddhism. Zen people
talk about the whole universe being experienced in the drinking of a bowl of
tea. This experience comes from giving yourself over totally to the here and
now and fully participating in the tea with a heart free from selfish desires.
There is a sort of forgetting of everything and everyone else….emptying oneself
of all things except the moment. There’s
the taste, but the eventual disappearance of the tea. There’s the stillness and quietude,
indicating movement away from attachment and the drive to override the natural
flow of things.
Chado is not telling us to wrap the moment
with an extraneous meaning, but to savor the moment and to delight in its
sweetness by giving it careful attention in a beautiful way. It is in this
approach that the deepest meaning will be revealed as truth experienced, and
the fullness of that truth will defy verbalization.
The
Haiku Moment
There is
5-7-5 syllable structure in a Haiku and an inclusion of a
seasonal reference, but these seem secondary when one looks at what makes the
haiku different from other poetic forms. And that is called the "haiku
moment." It seems easiest to liken haiku to a photograph, which captures a
moment in time. A pure photograph describes a scene, and this description
causes an emotional response in its viewer. There is no caption on the
photograph that tells us what emotional response we are to take from it.
It is instead a simple moment in time, unencumbered.
Haiku is the same thing. When a butterfly
lands upon an open flower, what does the haiku poet take from this? The same thing that his reader will take from it when he describes
the moment in verse. But he trusts his reader to sense the same
emotion from his accurate description of the scene. He does not need to say
"How beautiful!" in reference to the moment, because his words should
evoke the correct response in his reader. There is a very close
connection here to the Japanese idea of mono no aware.
This type of art form is seen often in
Haiku follows the same pattern as these
examples. It captures a moment, describing objects within the frame, and the
beauty is gleaned from the emotions evoked from such a presentation. Perhaps
the most famous haiku poet, Basho, said, "The
haiku that reveals seventy to eighty percent of its subject is good. Those that
reveal fifty to sixty percent we never tire of." What this tells us is
that the nature of haiku is in letting the reader's response finish the poem.
Haiku Poems by
Richard Wright
I am nobody
A red sinking autumn sun
Took my name away
A laughing boy holds out
his palm
Until they are white
In the falling snow
The crow flew so fast
That he left his lonely
caw
Behind in the field
Exercise:
·
How can “nobody”
be a name and also mean “no body” as in “no thing”?
·
What is the
double meaning of the boy’s hand turning white and of the falling snow?
·
In the last poem,
what did crow leave behind…is it permanent….how is it like our life?
·
Poets often use
haiku to suggest moods. What distinctive Japanese mood do you associate with
these poems?
·
How do the poems
reveal features of the connection between humans and nature in the Japanese
mind?
·
How can you
compare this kind of art form to flower arranging and Japanese gardens?
Ikebana
(Japanese:
生花,
literally "living flowers") is the Japanese art of flower arrangement, also known as kadō
(華道 or 花道)—the "way of flowers".
In contrast to the decorative form of flower
arranging in western countries, the Japanese flower arrangement creates a
harmony of linear construction, rhythm, and color. While westerners tend to
emphasize the quantity and colors of the flowers, devoting their attention
mainly to the beauty of the blossoms, the Japanese emphasize the linear aspects
of the arrangement. They have developed the art to include the vase, stems,
leaves, and branches, as well as the flowers. The entire structure of a
Japanese flower arrangement is based on three main points that symbolize heaven, earth, and humankind.
Ikebana began as a kind of ritual flower
offering made in Buddhist temples in Japan during the sixth
century. In these arrangements, both the flowers and the branches were made
to point toward heaven as an indication of faith. A more sophisticated style of
flower arrangement, called rikka (standing flowers), appeared in the fifteenth
century. The rikka style reflects the magnificence of nature and its
display. For example, pine
branches symbolize rocks and stones, and white chrysanthemums
symbolize a river or small stream. The rikka style became popular in the seventeenth
century, used as a decorative technique for ceremonial and festive
occasions, though today it is regarded as an antiquated form of flower
arrangement and is rarely practiced.
The most significant changes in the history
of ikebana took place during the fifteenth
century, when the Muromachi shōgun Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436–1490) ruled
Another major development took place in the
late sixteenth
century. A more simple style of flower arrangement called nageire
(meaning to throw in or fling in) appeared as part of the tea ceremony. According to this style, flowers
are arranged in a vase as naturally as possible, no matter what materials are
used. Because of its association with the tea ceremony, this style is also
called cha-bana (茶花, literally "tea flowers").
In the 1890s, shortly after
the Meiji Restoration (a period of modernization and
westernization in
Modern ikebana dates from 1930 and goes by the
transliteration zen'ei ikebana or zen'eibana. This form of ikebana
is more expressive than the classic style. Along with tea ceremony and calligraphy,
ikebana was one of the arts in which women were traditionally schooled in
preparation for marriage. Today, flower arrangement is venerated as one of the
traditional arts in
Japanese gardens are very important to the Japanese. All of the gardens are
representations of nature. The purpose of these gardens in to
capture nature is the utmost natural way, and do it with a touch of
artistic feeling. The Japanese gardens, for the Japanese people, have an
ancient history influenced by Shinto, Buddhist and Taoist philosophies. These
philosphies are used in the creation of the
The essential elements to a
Japanese garden are water, plants, stones, waterfalls, trees, and bridges—each
has a symbolism
There are two common
misconceptions concerning Japanese gardens.
o
The first is that
the Japanese gardens always follow certain ground rules with regard to both
arrangement and content. This is not true. The architect does follow some rules,
but he/she is free to express his/her creativity through the Japanese garden.
o
The second is
that Japanese gardens are miniature gardens. This is also not true. Everything
that is designed is accessible for full size adults, but sometimes the small
trees give the illusion of the Japanese garden being small.
There are five different
styles of Japanese gardens
o
Strolling pond
garden (crafted)
o
Natural garden
(left natural)
o
Sand and stone
garden. When a person looks at this garden it looks "void." The sand
gives off the sense of space and emptiness. The key here is that the sand
clears the visitors' minds of the outside world, allowing them to make their
own interpretations of the garden. Some say that the white sand represents a
body of water, and the rocks in the middle of the sand are the islands of
o
Tea garden has
two sections: an outer garden and an inner garden. There is also a ceremonial
Tea house. Everything that is included in this garden is placed with the utmost
authentic care for arrangement. The stones, stone laterns, and the traditional
stone water basin all have a symbolic relationship. The inner garden is a
private garden and is to be viewed only from the Tea House. This garden
surrounds the Tea house. The outer garden (soto roji)
is the waiting area for guests. The guests wait here, on a wooden bench with
straw cushions, for their host to come and greet them. When the weather is
cold, a teaburi, a kind of heater is used to keep guests warm. There is
also a wooden pail of hot water set out for guests to wash their hands and
rinse their mouths as a sign of ritual purification before entering to Tea
House.
o
Flat garden is a
garden which falls in between the Sand and Stone and