Unique Civilisation Characteristics
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A civilisation is a
shared set of values,
culture, art,
architecture, history
and ways of life; and
most of all,
fundamental and
(usually) unconscious
assumptions about the
way that the world
works and is.
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Latin American
Orthodox
◦ Baltics, Greece, Eastern
Europe, Russia
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Eastern
Muslim
Japan
Sub-Saharan African
Western
◦ Anglosphere + western
Europe
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Give every civilisation the benefit of its
own assumptions
Civilisation chauvinism to assume
one’s own civilisation has the universal
understanding
Approach other civilisations and
cultures from the assumption that their
fundamental values and understanding
of the world is different from your
own.
Universality (multiculturalism) may be a
Euro-centric ideology?
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3.
All civilisations and cultures are fully
explainable from Western premises and
methods.
Western science is the universally-valid
method of study.
All civilisations and cultures perceive
the world—configure phenomena—
identically and in away that Western
science can explain
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In Japan, no story to history; no plan; no set plot of events.
◦ “undeniable tendency of Japanese culture is to avoid logic,
the abstract, & systemization, in favour of emotion, the
concrete, the unprogrammatic.”
Events are accumulative by simple addition
Japan assimilates by a addition of an external concept or item
and then re-contextualising it (their metaphor is a swamp)
◦ In contrast, the West requires an accommodation to new
concepts: a reconfiguration of the addition or of the entire
system around it.
No transcendental values: which means that when adding new
not necessary to discard the old. Therefore, no cultural crisis.
 E.g. ‘Born Shinto, Married Christian; Buried Buddhist”
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Intensely subjective
Context creates meaning
◦ “demons chuckle when they hear us talk about next year.”
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Passivity a virtue when connected with reflection
Æsthetics are more important than Logical
consistency .
◦ Death is æstheticised in seppuku
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Only slight exaggeration to say that Japan is an
æsthetic. Japanese relations to each other—
formalities, hierarchies, rituals—and to nature are
æsthetic,
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Western concept of symbolism: one thing signifies
another type of thing. Platonic Forms; Judæo-Christian
type-archetype; Freudian conscious-subconscious
Japan: this thing is associated with that experience or
aspect. Non symbolic.
A lonely old tree is associated with—invokes—thoughts
of age and loneliness. The meaning is in the person,
not the object: an æsthetic approach to the world.
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Western Art—the fuller the mind of the
perceiver the better the Art is appreciated
◦ Literary Modernism: James Joyce Finnigans Wake
◦ Renaissance Art: Giorgione The Tempest
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Japan: the less the mind is active, the better.
Compare the paintings in the next two slides
as examples of the difference in exactness
and firmness of detail between the two
civilisations’ representative works of art,
The Presence of Absence
Hokusai:
神奈川沖浪裏 (Under a Wave Off Kanagawa)
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mujokan: A sense of
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From Buddhism:
transience
◦ the impermanent
quality of life,
nature, and
human artifacts.
◦ 4 Noble Truths
◦ 8-Fold Path
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mushin is an intellectual, æsthetic & martial
concept:
◦ remove the conscious mind from getting in the way
of understanding, appreciation and response.
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Zen 禅那 : from zenna = a practice of
meditation
Zen koan emphasise meditation on nothing
(‘mu’)
Japanese martial arts work toward mushin as
highest warrior state
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Two different words
meaning “silence”:
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chinmoku:
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seijaku: kanji =
kanji=“sink (down)”
+ “no-word.”
“quietude” +
“loneliness (sabiness)
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wabi : a grand total wordview – the ultimate
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sabi: a design philosophy: individual objects
structure of the Universe.
either in nature or in manufacture, which
reveal or inspire reflections on the wabi
nature of things.
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Metaphysical Basis
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Spiritual Values
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State of Mind
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Moral Precepts
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Material Qualities
◦ Evolving toward or from nothingness: change. Love equals death
◦ Truth comes from observing nature.
◦ Greatness exists in the inconspicuous & overlooked details.
◦ Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness
◦ Acceptance of the inevitable, appreciation of cosmic order
◦ Get rid of desire and all that is unnecessary.
◦ Focus on the intrinsic & ignore material hierarchy
◦ Local and cultural situation and order: no absolute principle
◦ Suggestion of natural process; irregularity, intimacies;
unpretentious; earthy; simple above all.
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The original connotation of wabi is based on the aloneness or
separation from society experienced by the hermit,
suggesting to the popular mind a misery and sad forlornness:
The life of the hermit came to be called wabizumai in Japan,
essentially "the life of wabi," a life of solitude and simplicity.
◦ Only by the fourteenth century in Japan were positive attributes
ascribed to wabi and cultivated.
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wabi is literally – i.e. etymologically -- poverty, but it came to
refer not to merely absence of material possessions but nondependence on material possessions.
2nd & 3rd of the 4 Noble Truths (suffering caused by craving;
divest of objects craved
◦ simplicity that has shaken off the material in order to relate
directly with nature and reality.
◦ absence of dependence frees itself from indulgence, ornateness,
and pomposity.
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wabi is quiet contentment with simple
things.
In short, wabi is a way of life or spiritual
path.
◦ Zen principles inform wabi: a native Japanese
syncretism of Confucian, Taoist, Buddhism, and
Shinto traditions.
◦ Typical of Japanese addition over Logic
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wabi precedes the application of aesthetic.
wabi principles applied to specific objects
and works of art or craft, this is sabi
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sabi is the outward expression of aesthetic values
built upon the metaphysical and spiritual principles
of Zen
◦ translates these values into artistic and material qualities.
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sabi considers that natural processes result in
objects which are:
◦ Irregular
◦ Unpretentious (subtle)
◦ ambiguous. (See yaeba.)
 sabi objects are:
 irregular in being asymmetrical
 unpretentious in being the holistic fruit of wabizumai
 ambiguous in preferring insight and intuition, the engendering of
refined spiritualized emotions rather than reason and logic.
 Ambiguity allows each viewer to proceed to their capacity
for nuance.
WABI
SABI
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ten-chi-jin:
‘heaven-earth-man’
◦ a sense of something
high, something low.
and an intermediary:
the axes are spacial,
temporal and human.
The middle concept is
(explicit in the
configuration of the
Noh stage) a bridge.
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shichi-go-san: “7-
5-3” Celebrate a
child's 3rd, 5th & 7th
birthdays, and a
deceased’s 3rd, 5th &
7th anniversaries.
◦ Haiku is 5-7-5
syllables; rockgardens have oddnumbered#
arrangements of
stones
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shin-gyo-so (true,
moving & grass-like.)
◦ In calligraphy, blockstyle, kana & cursive; in
the cha-no-yu, of its
implements, formal,
semi-formal, informal.
Shin-gyo-so is an
effective schema for
mapping the uniquely
Japanese manner of
reacting to any discrete
new foreign encounter.
Evident in literature in
comparative
representations,
structural contrasts and
developments in
character
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jo-ha-kyu (gathering,
break, urgent action)
◦ A concept exemplified
by -- & likely originating
in contemplation of -the waterfall. In
literature -- notably
haiku -- it signifies
introduction,
development, action. In
music, it has several
compounding
applications, essentially
a triptych of increasing
rapidity & climax. This is
accepted as the natural
rhythm -- gestation,
birth, life is just one
obvious universal triad/
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The Japanese poetry form haiku is a perfect expression of the
unique Japanese civilisation values.
The following slide contains a famous example from the great haiku
poet Matsuo Bashō (17th C. AD).
This haiku is deceptively simple.
◦ the essence of haiku is ‘cutting out’—and so although it seems small, the
poem contains all of the civilisation values of Japan listed above.
◦ all the Japanese civilisation concepts are there in the poem, in condensed
form.
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For example, haiku has three phrases (i.e. lines) of 5, 7, 5 syllables:
a expression of shichi-go-san
 old
pond!
 frog jumps in
 water's sound