The Art of Japanese Life
Japan, a country of aesthetics, maintains the capacity to bring various things in life as a form of art.
Nature
Shinto attitude towards nature
Shinto is polytheistic and revolves around the kami ("gods" or "spirits"), supernatural entities believed to inhabit all things.
Buddhism Zen
Japanese rock garden (枯山水)
Painting
o Sesshū Tōyō (雪舟等楊; 1420 –1506) was the most prominent Japanese master of ink and wash painting from the middle Muromachi period.
雪舟（1420－1506）是一位日本室町时代水墨画画家，出生于备中国赤滨（今 冈山县总社市）。原为相国寺僧人，可能其间向同寺僧人学到了一些绘画技巧。其早期绘画主要是关于宗教人物，后来广泛取法中国唐宋元的绘画，1464年离开相国寺。1467年终于有机会搭乘明日贸易的船只访问大明王朝。《四季山水画》就是他访华期间完成。1502年的《天桥立图》则是他艺术成就的巅峰。他在将水墨画注入民族情感方面有开拓性贡献，影响了雪村周继等后继者。
o Ogata Kōrin (尾形光琳; 1658 – 1716) was a Japanese painter, lacquerer and designer of the Rinpa school.
尾形光琳（1658－1716），日本江户时代的男性画家、工艺美术家，琳派代表人物之一。画风以大和绘风为基调，晩年也有水墨画的作品。大画面的屏风之外，也有香包、扇面、团扇等小型作品和手绘的小袖、莳绘等作品。
Bonsai (盆栽)
Cities
Miyabi (雅) is one of the traditional Japanese aesthetic ideals, though not as prevalent as Iki or Wabi-sabi. In modern Japanese, the word is usually translated as "elegance," "refinement," or "courtliness" and sometimes to a "sweet loved one".
In traditional Japanese aesthetics, wabi-sabi (侘寂) is a world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".
Kyoto – beauty and elegance
· Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji
· tea as an art form
· Japanese tea ceremony
o express the appreciation of modesty, imperfection and impermanence
o a way to bring nature to the city
o Sen no Rikyū (千利休, 1522 –1591), also known simply as Rikyū, is considered the historical figure with the most profound influence on chanoyu, the Japanese "Way of Tea", particularly the tradition of wabi-cha.
千利休所创“侘”茶的茶道美学影响了许多方面，草庵茶更是引领日本茶道走向禅宗美学“本来无一物”的境界，并且由崇尚华贵“唐物”的审美过渡到遒劲枯高的本土化审美。在这种主张的影响下，日本茶道使用的茶碗发生了很大的变化，日本本土烧造的“乐烧”及朝鲜茶碗渐渐成为主流。
“茶碗”是最重要的茶具，品茶人都非常重视。“唐津烧”、“萨摩烧”、“相马烧”、“仁清烧”，尤其是“乐烧”等制品都非常适用于茶道。品茶人特别珍重“乐烧”，丰臣秀吉甚至用金印赐予制作者河米屋(朝鲜人)的儿子长次郎，特许他可以在瓷器上印有“乐”字，这是丰臣秀吉宅邸名称“聚乐”的第二个字。“乐烧”茶碗的构造非常适于饮茶：碗上涂有一层海绵状的厚糊，不易传热；粗糙的表面，易于把握；微微内卷的边沿，可防外溢；涂釉光滑，唇感舒适，且依然能使绿茶的泡沫就像在黑色粗瓷碗中那样明晰。
It is an artwork to be felt, to be touched, to be used, the texture, the weighting, the temperature, like you could feel the fingers of Chōjirō (長次郎, 1516–?1592) after 400 years.
Edo 江戶 Ukiyo-e (浮世), “floating world” – mysterious voice
· Kabuki (歌舞伎)
First performed by all female cast, later replaced by men performing both male and female roles
· Ukiyo-e woodblock printing
o Edo period – full-color printing for the first time
o Three roles: illustrator, wood carver, and printer
o Kitagawa Utamaro (喜多川歌麿mǒ; c. 1753 – 1806) was a Japanese artist. He is one of the most highly regarded designers of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paintings, and is best known for his bijin ōkubi-e "large-headed pictures of beautiful women" of the 1790s. He also produced nature studies, particularly illustrated books of insects.
A third of his works are the city’s sex works in the red-light district.
The Pome of the Pillow 春畫 shunga
series of city views
transported to Europe and shaped the form of modern art
Tokyo – turned the destruction into creation
street photograph
animation film (Akira WWII)
design – urban aesthetics
Yayoi Kusama (草間彌生; 1929 - )
“infinity room” infinite metropolis glittering away into the night
Japan’s urban imagination
They all together build up a country blatantly searches for itself.
art in man life, the artfulness of people, Japan, a civilization of several thousands years, cares profundly the details, about getting the little things right...
Oh, I LOVE DR. JAMES FOX, his accent, the soft-spoken rhythm and most esssentially, his extraordinary writing!
