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=Japanese Aesthetics - Overview=

As A Whole
"The more artistic art becomes, the more it serves to pacify our passion for action." - Akutagawa Ryiinosuke

The study of aesthetics refers to the nature and philosophy of beauty. While it may be easy to regard “beauty” as objective, we must remember that indeed it is all in the eye of the beholder. Japanese aesthetics differ vastly from Western aesthetics, which causes a great deal of confusion between Eastern and Western scholars attempting to study the art and literature of the other.

In studying the Japanese aesthetic, it is useful to focus on several important aesthetic ideas that have shaped Japanese culture, specifically: mono no aware (the pathos of things), wabi (subdued, austere beauty), sabi (rustic patina), and the principles of Zen Buddhism.

**Zen**
media type="youtube" key="XK_4Z5DZcNM" height="279" width="344" align="right" There are two very general aspects of Japanese aestheticism to keep in mind. The first is that nature of life is extremely transient, and lacks any real lasting substance. Zen Buddhism refers to this idea as impermanence. Buddhist priest Yoshida Kenkô explains:

“It does not matter how young or strong you may be, the hour of death comes sooner that you expect. It is an extraordinary miracle that you should have escaped to this day; do you suppose you have even the briefest respite in which to relax?” (Keene 1967: 120).

Rather than being distraught by the inevitability of life, however, much of the Japanese sense of beauty is centered around the understanding, and embracing, of this truth.

**Mono no aware**
Mono no aware literally translates to “the pathos of things.” The term is used to describe the awareness of the inherent impermanence of life. One especially relevant consideration for the Japanese sense of beauty is that mono no aware is a sense of beauty in “wistful sadness,” an understanding of how short the term of life truly is.

Heike monogatari (The Tale of the Heike Clan), an early Japanese novel, introduces with the following lines, which show directly the sense of emptiness and brevity that characterizes mono no aware:

“The sound of the Gion shôja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sôla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind.” (McCullough 1988)

**Wabi /** **Sabi**


Wabi - Sabi is the connection between two Japanese ideals, Wabi, which applies to simple, austere beauty, and Sabi, which is akin to the beauty of age. Kenkô, in his collection of essays //Essays in Idleness,// poses the question of “Are we to look at cherry blossoms only in full bloom, at the moon only when it is cloudless?” (Keene 1967: 115). He asks, essentially, a question of Wabi - Sabi. For the philosophy which sees in terms of cycling levels of brevity, forsaking the momentary form of life is tantamount to ignoring the whole thing. To ignore the flowers when they aren’t in full bloom is to reject the true form of the flower, which is present throughout the entire life of it’s form.