Japanese Aesthetics: Historical Overview by Yuriko Saito in Encyclopedia of
Aesthetics ed. Michael Kelly (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, 2014)
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classical art forms: tea ceremony, no drama, haiku
daily activities: packaging, cooking, etiquette
aesthetic concern affects all areas of people’s lives.
aesthetic egalitarianism
a) experiences equally regarded: bathing, gift-wrapping, archery, swordsmanship
b) no distinction between higher and lower senses
c) typical aesthetic experience engages several senses, unlike the west
i) tea ceremony: elevates otherwise mundane activities
ii) ritualized event
iii) attend to the tea, the surrounding environment (the garden, tea hut, privy,
weather, tea bowl, flowers, scroll, utensils, host’s elegant movements)
iv) engages several senses
v) the occasion will never repeat itself: a once-in-a-lifetime event
d) audience required to take an active role
e) Shinto: kami, dynamic spirit, resides in every natural object
i) Contributed to the Japanese tendency to find aesthetic value in everything
ii) this world viewed as constituting reality itself
iii) Japanese painting subject matter primarily nature: landscapes, flowers,
animals
f) attention to every aspect of aesthetic experience: Heian court period 745-1185
i) literature, calligraphy, nature appreciation, music, fashion, courtship ritual,
incense connoisseurship, exchanging poems
ii) aesthetic sophistication sole criterion of worthiness of a lover
g) Zen Buddhism introduced from China end of 12th century: “being thus”
i) warriors who came after the Heian: many art forms flourished
ii) again in Zen: enlightened experience of ultimate reality
iii) all objects are rendered equally real, valuable: Dogen (1200-1253)
prevalence of the Buddha nature, refers even to the smell of excrement
iv) appreciate the thusness of everything
v) Matsuo Bashio: haiku maters elevate fleas and lice to aesthetic heights.
vi) Garden design and flower arrangement: withered twigs or simple flowers
often used
h) Edo period (1600-1867): kabuki theater, woodblock prints, genre literature:
aesthetic sensitivity entrenched in daily life
5) the aesthetics of implication, suggestion, imperfection
a) yojo: emotional aftertaste in poetry
b) wabi: the beauty of poverty in the tea ceremony: the austere stark atmosphere
for example of a desolate and colorless landscape
c) yugen: mystery and depth, primarily in No theater of Zeami Motokiyo (13621443): chillingly exquisite and severe beauty achieved without opulence
d) all of these favor aesthetic minimalism
e) aestheticization of the aged and the imperfect became the mode of affirming one’s
existential predicament
f) celebrates perishability and imperfection, even death (seppuku or hara-kiri)
showing how elegantly one may leave the world, also in the parting poem
6) respect for the essential characteristic of the object
a) Japanese garden to take advantage of what the site and the materials offer
b) eleventh century manual for garden-making Sakuteiki (The Book of the Garden):
concerned mainly with rock arrangement, by Tachibana no Tsunayoshi: native
characteristics of each rock should be attended to
c) flower arrangement and bonsai: discerning the unique characteristics of each
plant and shaping it to highlight each individuality
d) Japanese cooking also accentuates the characteristics of the ingredients
e) Basho instructs his disciples to “listen to the pine tree” and “enter into the
bamboo” when composing haiku
f) a design composed primarily as a vehicle of the artist’s self-expression is
criticized as “artificial” or “forced”
7) sincerity and devotion as criteria in criticism
a) evaluation of a work of art refers to the artist’s state of mind
b) artistic endeavor is a secular means to enlightenment: most artistic disciplines
may be referred to as “the way” do: sado: tea ceremony, gado: painting, kado:
flower arrangement, shodo: calligraphy, kyudo: archery, kendo: swordsmanship
c) “no intent” “no self” attained through rigorous training: allows the object to
evoke its inner essence to which the artist listens: results in “spontaneous”
appearance of the object or performance
d) potter must submitted to unexpected reactions of the gaze in firing
e) artistic merit is the degree of absence (achieved through artistic transcendence) of
an artistic intention
f) thorough integration of body and mind