Japanese Aesthetics February 2011

Japanese Aesthetics: I PART 1: aware [mono no aware], okashi, miyabi aware: 1st an exclamation of surprise & delight The “ah-ness� of things The meaning developed over time.

Gradually tinged with sadness colors or perfumes a sentence: awareness of the perishability of a sight or sound. (cherry blossoms)

Japanese Aesthetics: I PART 1: aware [mono no aware], okashi, miyabi aware, cont…

Becomes a term of merit, associated with deep emotions.

Modern meaning: “wretched”

mono no aware: “the sadness of things” More like sensitivity to things okashi: delight; brings a smile to the face.

Both aware and okashi reflect a refined, aristocratic society.

Japanese Aesthetics: I miyabi: courtliness/refinement Quiet pleasures enjoyed by the aristocrat Needed special education to be appreciated.

Aristocratic hierarchy of values is reflected discussion of love and lovemaking.

Limited the expressive range of Japanese Poetry [cf. Plato – a kind of censorship?]

Avoids the crude or unseemly, but dilutes real feeling Negation of simpler virtues, such as makoto/ sincerity.

Justified the court’s way of living & their contempt for the peasants.

Yet transmitted to all of Japanese society & still survives today” Japan is an “aesthetic” society.

Japanese Aesthetics: II PART II: focus on impermanence – intensifies &

darkens previous aesthetics. Consequence of war.

“Use old means for new ends.”

Yugen: profound, remote, mysterious Those things that cannot be expressed easily in words A kind of symbolism: more suggestive than direct, therefore more spiritual.

Japanese Aesthetics II Yugen

continued…

Like aware, but in aware the realization was the end of the emotion – not extending to the dark regions Art is a gateway to something else – an eternal region/eternal silence – found in the gesture of a Noh actor.

Yugen can be comprehended by the mind, but not expressed in words.

Intuitively sensed.

To suggest the stillness there must be form or pattern.

Japanese Aesthetics II Yugen

continued…

Yugen is the quality of the highest realm of art, an absolute domain to which all forms point.

Beauty in Noh is guided by miyabi.

Noh drama: theater of suggestion; importance of ghosts In times of “no action” – “unconsciously revealed spiritual strength of the actor.

Search for incorruptible [not absolute] values in a time of change & destruction.

Japanese Aesthetics II Wabi/Sabi: Wabi means things that are fresh and simple.

Sabi means things whose beauty stems from age. Taking pleasure in what was old, faded, lonely Love of imperfection is found in the tea ceremony The hut is bare and devoid of color Tea utensils are made of coarse pottery

Japanese Aesthetics II Wabi/Sabi: Not symbols of remote things [not like yugen] No lamenting as in aware – love the fallen flower [haiku eg.]

Art is a refuge, a haven of tranquility Easier to understand than yugen The love of the old and unobtrusive is a defense against mechanization.