The Vocabulary of Japanese Aesthetics

PART 1: aware [mono no aware] okashi ~ miyabi

What are the example given for each?What do these examples tell us about the word’s meaning?

Japanese Aesthetics: I

aware: 1st an exclamation of surprise & delight The “ah-ness” of things The meaning developed over time.

Gradually tinged with sadnessBecomes 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: Imiyabi: courtliness/refinement

Quiet pleasures enjoyed by the aristocratNeeded 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 feelingNegation 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, mysteriousThose things that cannot be expressed easily in words

A kind of symbolism: more suggestive than direct, therefore more spiritual.

Japanese Aesthetics IIYugen 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

What are the examples? pp. 51-52

Japanese Aesthetics IIYugen continued…

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

How does yugen work? p. 52Noh drama: theater of suggestion; importance of ghosts

In times of “no action” – “unconsciously revealed spiritual strength of the actor. See pp. 52-53Beauty in Noh is guided by miyabi.Search for incorruptible [not absolute] values in a time of change & destruction.

Japanese Aesthetics IISabi: to grown old/rusty

Taking pleasure in what was old, faded, lonelyLove of imperfection is found in the tea ceremony

The hut is bare and devoid of colorTea utensils are made of coarse pottery

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 tranquilityEasier to understand than yugenThe love of the old and unobtrusive is a defense against mechanization.

“wabi-sabi” [see link on our homepage]