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Japan
Fundamental
Religio-Æsthetic
Concepts
Characterising the
Japanese
Civilisation
Shuichi Kato on Japan & Literature
No story to history; no plan; no 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 addition
Japan assimilates by a simple addition of an external
concept or item and then recontextualising it
In the West, there is an accommodation required: 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. No cultural crisis.
‘Born Shinto, Married Christian; Buried Buddhist”
Japanese Religious Æsthetic: Mujokan
Mujokan: A sense of
transience
the impermanent
quality of life,
nature, and human
artifacts.
Buddhism: 4 Noble
Truths
Japanese Religious Æsthetic: Mujokan
Mujokan: A sense of transience
the impermanent quality of life, nature, and
human artifacts.
First of Buddhist 4 Noble Truths: Dukkha
love of ambiguity and the abhorrence of
clarity in literature and everyday language
tendency in design and architecture toward
the asymmetrical and seasonal rather than
the symmetrical and permanent:
click for current example: ‘yaeba’.
asymmetry is open to movement of observer’s
eye or mind & therefore suggests transience.
mono no aware
Mono no aware: “awareness of the
pathos of things”
Mono: things; aware: sadness.
Literary origin:
Lady Shikibu, c.985 Tale of Genji
Lady Shōnagon, c. 966 The Pillow Book
Contemplation of natural objects—trees &
plants, weather, seasons, and human
affairs—to reflect on the inevitable sadness
of one’s own transient existence.
wabi-sabi
Wabi refers to a wordview -- a sense
of space, direction, or path
Sabi is an aesthetic construct rooted
in a given object and its features, plus
the occupation of time, chronology.
Wabi-sabi is a commonly unitary referral
in modern times.
Now, alas, a pop æsthetic: “Honey, look at
that darling wabisabi coffee table!”
wabi-sabi
Metaphysical Basis
Evolving toward or from nothingness: change. Love equals
death
Spiritual Values
Truth comes from observing nature.
Greatness exists in the inconspicuous & overlooked details.
Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness
State of Mind
Acceptance of the inevitable, appreciation of cosmic order
Moral Precepts
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
Material Qualities
Suggestion of natural process; irregularity, intimacies;
unpretentious; earthy; simple above all.
wabi
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: i.e. mono no aware.
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.
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.
wabi, con’t
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
Wabi precedes the application of aesthetic.
principles applied to objects and arts, this
latter is Sabi
sabi
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.
Sabi considers natural processes result in objects
that are
Irregular (cf. the yaeba example above.)
Unpretentious (subtle)
ambiguous.
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: objects
ki-sho-ten-ketsu
起承轉合
Literary composition principle
Reader-centred, opposed to Western
writer-centred: esp. Modernism,
James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, etc.
KI: opening, beginning
SHO: continuing
TEN: turning away (change)
KETSU: binding together.
Japanese Religious-Æsthetic
Concepts
Shichi-Go-San: “7-53” Celebrate a child's
3rd, 5th & 7th birthdays,
and a deceased’s 3rd,
5th & 7th anniversaries.
Haiku is 5-7-5 syllables;
rock-gardens have oddnumbered#
arrangements of stones
Japanese Religious-Æsthetic
Concepts
Ten-Chi-Jin: ‘heavenearth-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.
Japanese Religious-Æsthetic
Concepts
Shin-Gyo-So (true, moving
& grass-like.)
In calligraphy, block-style,
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
Japanese Religious-Æsthetic
Concepts
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/