JAPANESE AESTHETICS (Bigaku)
A characteristic feature of long-established aesthetics within Japan is the inclination to value symbolic portrayal more highly than realistic representation. Another trait is the assumption that true art involves a selective presentation of the beautiful and skirting of the humble and vulgar. As a result, artists have tended to choose nature for their subjects, thus shunning the portrayal of everyday life for the ordinary people. The taste for grace and elegance by the Heian court exerted a lasting effect on later cultural traditions, and established elegance as one of the main standards for beauty. Such important notions as okashi, fūryū, yūgen, and iki all carried a nuance of elegance.
Another highly valued attribute was impermanence, which could be considered a variation of elegance, for delicate beauty was considered fragile and ephemeral. Buddhism, with its emphasis on life’s uncertainty, merged with this ideal and provided a certain “philosophical” depth. Such aesthetic values are aware, mono no aware, yūgen, wabi, and sabi all thus implied transience.
An artistically created empty space, either in time or in space, became an important idea in aesthetic practices. Simplicity fit together with the concept of mimesis, which stressed symbolic depiction. Concepts like wabi, sabi, ma, yojō, and shibui were all oriented toward simplicity in their basic inferences, consistently showing distaste for rich or ornamental beauty.
Simplicity also means “naturalness,” or a lack of pretension, in artistic expression. In traditional Japanese aesthetics the gap between art and nature is considerably shorter than in the West. The mystery of nature could never be presented through description; however, it could only be suggested and the more brief the suggestion, the greater its success.
Another highly valued attribute was impermanence, which could be considered a variation of elegance, for delicate beauty was considered fragile and ephemeral. Buddhism, with its emphasis on life’s uncertainty, merged with this ideal and provided a certain “philosophical” depth. Such aesthetic values are aware, mono no aware, yūgen, wabi, and sabi all thus implied transience.
An artistically created empty space, either in time or in space, became an important idea in aesthetic practices. Simplicity fit together with the concept of mimesis, which stressed symbolic depiction. Concepts like wabi, sabi, ma, yojō, and shibui were all oriented toward simplicity in their basic inferences, consistently showing distaste for rich or ornamental beauty.
Simplicity also means “naturalness,” or a lack of pretension, in artistic expression. In traditional Japanese aesthetics the gap between art and nature is considerably shorter than in the West. The mystery of nature could never be presented through description; however, it could only be suggested and the more brief the suggestion, the greater its success.
(First published 2008.09.16. Copyright 2006 by Hayato Tokugawa. All Rights Reserved)
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