ON THE STRUCTURE OF CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE AESTHETICS

Author(s): Rea Amit

Source: Philosophy East and West , APRIL 2012, Vol. 62, No. 2 (APRIL 2012), pp. 174-185
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41426844

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41426844?seq=1&cid=pdf-
reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

University of Hawai'i Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access
to Philosophy East and West

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 ON THE STRUCTURE OF CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE
AESTHETICS

Rea Amit

Combined Ph.D. Degree Program in Film Studies and East Asian Languages and
Literatures (Yale University)
rea.amit@yale.edu

The inspiration for this article was Kuki Shüzö's well-known study Iki no kõz
structure of iki) (1 930), in which he conceptually analyses some aspects of J
aesthetics. Kuki was striving to define a united notion of Japanese aesthetics b
several traditional terms, which he worked to elaborate as aesthetic concepts.
I will not try to do the same with contemporary concepts, but rather discuss how
usage of some contemporary terms could be thought of in a single aesthetic
ture. While Kuki's study dwelled on the term iki, which he considered to be
thetic term, I will focus attention on a social designation, otaku, which encom
the aesthetic terms that are to be discussed here.
While the term otaku is yet to be defined in Western scholarship, it is well est
lished in contemporary Japanese discourse. Among the abundance of writings
theme, the best is undoubtedly Okada Toshio's influential study Otaku n
nyümon (Introduction to Otakuology) (2000), which attempts to articulate th
in a conclusive manner. According to Toshio's study, the term otaku refers t
individuals or groups who dedicate a large proportion of their time to a specific br
of culture, namely film, anime ; manga , video games, and the world that ope
in between these commodities (from the real world of the Akihabara, Haraju
Ikebukuro wards of Tokyo to the fantastic worlds imagined there). This world
tween mixes both fiction and real life together, and is chiefly known by phe
such as the kosupure (costume play). This play can be seen in Ikebukuro's Su
City area, between Harajuku Station and Yoyogi Park, and throughout Japan an
other parts of the world in unique locations such as the fashionable meido-k
(maid coffee shops). The inhabitants of both the fictional and the near-fictional w
use a specific jargon, or slang, which is a descriptive language that, by mea
verbal implements, allows them to encounter their surroundings. But this sla
gone outside the limited world of the otaku and has penetrated the world of every
Japanese and even beyond into the art world (that is, the world of aesthetics). The
of this article is to consider some of the main terms in contemporary Tokyo,
consider how a few of the terms might work in an aesthetic environment in
to one other, and with relation to a specific sui generic cultural aesthetic, t
Japanese Aesthetics.1
In The Structure of Iki, Kuki theorizes that by bringing different terms u
single restriction, iki , that stresses their interrelations, he would be able to
some of the unique characteristics of Japanese aesthetics as a whole. The act

1 74 Philosophy East & West Volume 62, Number 2 April 201 2 1 74-1 85
© 2012 by University of Hawai'i Press

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ing opposing terms facing each other but also pointing toward one larger term, he
speculated, might create a technical definition and a commitment of aesthetic lan-
guage to the objects it refers to. Michael F. Marra suggests that there is a personal
sense of tension throughout Kuki's miscellaneous writings.2 In a theoretical sense, we
can see this tension also in The Structure of Iki as the hiatus between two seemingly
contradictory terms. This dialectic method continued to play a significant roll in
Kuki's aesthetics, and he continued to make it his focus even in the final book he
published, Bungeiron (Essay on the fine arts) (1941). He explores the tensional
engagement of antinomies in an aesthetic discourse in his discussion of the term
füryü. While the term usually refers to taste or elegance, it is a compound that Kuki
unpacks to stress an inner tension within the term itself. He also considers its duali-
ties, such as optimism and pessimism3 and natural beauty and artistic beauty.4 He
breaks the term into two different uses: aesthetic (bi), which he associates with the
first character of the compound ( fu , meaning wind or spirit), and the social or even a
sense of aestheticism (tanbi), which comes from the character гуй, meaning trendy or
fashionable. The culmination of his discussion, as in The Structure of Iki, is a geo-
metrical formation composed of a set of inner dual relations that illustrates a single
structure.5 In both cases the diagram serves to visualize what is seemingly impossible:
the aesthetic language. When the different notions were exposed this way, creating a
map of multiple aesthetic sensibilities, he might have thought, a better grasping of the
entire notion of a unique and cultural Japanese Aesthetics became more feasible.
This article follows Kuki's dialectical method with an aim to build a structure that
might bring light to the Zeitgeist in contemporary Japanese aesthetics, and by doing so
also to single out a correlation with Kuki's modernist aesthetics toward the possibility
of an overarching notion of a Japanese cultural aesthetics, past, present, and future.
It is important to note that Kuki was neither the only nor the last6 to scrutinize
Japanese aesthetic concepts or categories. Rather, Kuki was merely one of several
aestheticians in his time who were looking into these issues. Prior to and during the
early days of World War II, scholars at both Kyoto and Tokyo Universities aspired to
define the specific qualities of Japanese culture, or "Japanese-ness." In aesthetics, the
inclination tended toward the creation of conceptual form that would be both
Japanese and systematic in Western terms. Highly distinguished in this field, besides
Kuki, were Okakura Kakuzõ (Tenshin),7 Watsuji Tetsurõ, Tsuzumi Tsuneyoshi, and
Önishi Yoshinori, whose two publications Ydgen to aware (Ydgen and aware) (1 939)
and Fugaron: Sabi no кепки (The theory of fdga: A study of sabi) (1 940) introduced
for the first time a systematic consideration of the well-known terms sabi , wabi,
ydgen , and aware. However, as contemporary Otabe Tanehisa points out, these
scholars failed to achieve a Japanese method of aesthetics that would rely entirely on
conceptual thinking.8 It is striking to see that more than half a century after Önishi
the discussion of Japanese aesthetic concepts has been taken up once again. How-
ever, this time it is a broad phenomenon that originated with several social groups
rather than with high-culture professionals or university professors.
Morikawa Kaichirõ, curator of the Japanese pavilion at the Venice Biennale's
Ninth International Architecture Exhibition (2004), suggested, in his book Otaku:

Rea Amit 1 75

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Jinkaku = kùkan = toshi ( Otaku : Persona = space = city), that otaku- related terms
such as moe, kawaii, puni, hatare, and yaoi are a perpetuation of previous aesthetic
terms, such as wabi and sabi.9 Morikawa was not alone in stating this, as Okada, in
his consideration of otaku , had associated several otaku views with the Edo-period
term used by Kuki, /7с/. A similar view was held by Yomota Inuhiko in Kawaii-ron
(Study of kawaii) (2006) and Miyamoto Kenji in Nihon no biishiki (Japanese aes-
thetic consciousness) (2008). Yomota noted that the term kawaii has had an extended
evolution within Japanese language, literature, and culture. Miyamoto usesYomota's
definition and elaboration of the term kawaii , but goes further in his discussion of the
broad genealogy of Japanese aesthetics, in which he identifies certain qualities that
are found throughout the last millennium of Japanese considerations of the pleasur-
able in the arts. The main arbiter of Japanese aesthetics in the West, Michael F. Marra,
made similar claims while discussing the evolution of aesthetic categories as an
object of European philosophical study from Burke to the early French work of
Étienne Souriau.10 Marra questioned whether traditional Japanese terms should be
considered "aesthetic/' because aesthetics, as both a word (bigaku) and a discipline,
was not introduced into Japan until the late nineteenth century (mainly through the
works of Nishi Amane, Ernest Fenollosa, Otsuka Yasuji, Nakae Chõmin, and Mori
Õgai). Nevertheless, Marra is very much impressed by the work of Kuki and Onishi,
who try to bring what he considers to be pre-aesthetic rhetorical terms within a more
schematic and systematic Western discipline. And he points to the possibility of
regarding new terms, such as kawaii and moe , and even individually created cate-
gories such as mabusabi (invented recently by the contemporary poet Shinohara
Motoaki), as aesthetic categories.
Azuma Hiroki stands apart from Marra and many others. Influenced by late
French theory (mainly that of Lyotard), he writes that the contemporary postmodern
era is entirely different from any other period in the history of Japan and, therefore,
impossible to compare to previous times. He is also unwilling to regard these terms
as aesthetic, at least not according to the disciplinary usage of this word.
Despite different perspectives in linguistics, history, sociology, and popular cul-
ture, it is clear that the discussion of a term in an aesthetic context is something to be
considered aesthetically. It was Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten who first adapted the
Greek term into the German Ästhetisch , which he defined as "the science for direct-
ing the inferior faculty of cognition or the science of how something is to be sensitively
cognized."11 By "the inferior faculty of cognition" Baumgarten means the senses as
opposed to the superior intellectual and spiritual contemplations. According to
Baumgarten, what aesthetics is concerned with is bodily perception and the way we
value the phenomena we perceive. Aesthetic concepts, then, are specific terms that
are used to denounce a particular experience, such as an encounter with an object,
which is a sensual phenomenon.
The definition of aesthetics can be confusing, but the British philosopher Frank
Sibley, writing in 1 959, 12 made a clear distinction between metaphorical insights and
aesthetic concepts by linking the former to a reasoning process and the latter to a
perceptual one. For instance, in stating that a piece of work is "dynamic" or "sad,"

1 76 Philosophy East & West

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
one engages in mental, emotional, and reflective capabilities, and an explanation
made to support the claim resides entirely in an imaginative-expressive sphere. In
contrast, stating that the same piece is "beautiful" would, according to Sibley, force
its advocates to state as support for their claim one or more non-aesthetic concepts
(generally descriptive terms such as color, light, and shape). Although both "dynamic"
and "beautiful" could be seen as critical notions of a piece of art, it is only the latter
which uses an aesthetic concept, while the former is but a metaphorical one. Sibley
writes:

The critic is successful if his audience began by not seeing, and ends by seeing for itself
the aesthetic character of the object. Sometimes when a critic helps us to see aesthetic
qualities, we have missed them by simply overlooking some important and responsible
non-aesthetic features, or by not seeing them in relation, in a certain light, or in the light
of the title; one cannot expect to see a dancer's grace without in some degree noticing the
features that make her graceful.13

In other words, it is not the features of an object but the qualities that are the
consequences of carefully selected features that establish an aesthetic statement.
That is, an object is not beautiful in itself, but depends on the reading of its features.
For instance, a film relies on the performance of the actors, the camera direction, the
editing, and many other parts to come together as a whole. Although giving an aes-
thetic term to an object is not sufficient for an aesthetic judgment, it is a good point
of departure for criticism. A film may be very beautiful, but nevertheless fail to meet
a critic's approval because of other reasons, such as its values or ethics (for example,
Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 Triumph des Willens). In this sense, Western terms do not
differ in essence from Asian ones. Francis Hutcheson's discussion of beauty in his An
Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1 738), Burke's and Kanťs
close examinations of Lucretius' aesthetic notion of the sublime, and also Allen Carl-
son's recent engagement with the sublime, the picturesque, and the beautiful14 share
an affinity with discussion of non-Western terms, such as Zeami's ydgen,]5 Sen no
Rikyü's wabi, and Bashö's sabi, as they all call attention to characteristics that are a
surfeit of the object's features. In other words, there is nothing beautiful in a painting,
sublime in a landscape, ydgen in a Nõ performance, wabi in a tea ceremony, or sabi
in a haiku. It is for the critic to argue that these qualities can be perceived by discov-
ering the connection between a work's features and the means of capturing the work
as a whole.

Мое

Мое is a noun rooted in the verb moeru , meaning to come into bud or to sprout. It is
antonymous with пае , the noun of the verb naeru, meaning to wither or sink. Its
genealogy is long; Horikoshi Hidemi16 notes that it can be found in early classics
such as Makura no sõshi (The pillow book) and Murasaki Shikibu's Cenji monogatari
(The tale of Genji). It can also be found in the modern classical fiction of Natsume
Sõseki, Kawabata Yasunari, and Dazai Osamu.17 However, defining moe is difficult.

ReaAmit 177

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Õizumi Mitsunari's Мое по кепкуи 18 (A research into Мое) relies on the etymology
of the word:

The essence of the phenomena of longevity (sei mei). A blind willingness for living. That
is, life as it is. . . . Мое is invoked for our innermost primordial phenomena when encoun-
tering an appealing object. It is the feeling of gradually growing and bubbling over from
oneself. Like an effusion of life ( inochi).] 9

Oizumi's definition of moe does not coincide with Sibley's notion of the aes-
thetic; however, Oizumi's definition is quite loose and focuses on the effects rather
than the causations of the abstract emotional state. He is following, somewhat
roughly, the existential approach of Martin Heidegger toward the aesthetic experi-
ence. A more concrete notion of moe is provided by Azuma Hiroki, who, despite
rejecting all traits of Japanese aesthetic history in today's culture, comes up with a
coherent exposition of moe. In Dõbutsuka suru posutomodan: Otaku kara mita
Nihon shakai 20 (Postmodern animalization: Japanese society as seen from an Otaku
perspective), Azuma considers many issues in what he terms as postmodern Japan,
including a short section on aesthetics. In his study, Azuma provides a detailed and
coherent statement of the meaning of moe. He begins by altering the term to what he
refers to as moeyõso (the moe factor). This notion of moeyõso should not be confused
with moe kyara (a character's moe), which is closer to Öizumi's rather emotional or
expressive description. Мое yõso is a specific feature that, as Azuma explains, is
found in many of otaku' s oeuvres, such as film, anime ; manga , and video games, and
which is found frequently in characteristics of items or characters. For example,
wearing a hat with ears like a cat or wearing a tail attached to ordinary pants, wear-
ing se-ra clothes (Sailor Moon outfits), and even a way of speaking, like adding the
meaningless ending nyo to a statement. Any of these might bring out the moe factor.
The moeyõso is not required, but is nevertheless a positive and adequately unexpected
feature of an object, phenomenon, or even a part of speech. Azuma offers the ex-
ample (figure 1 ), in which a single hair is erected in a way that fails to follow the hair
style, as if it were not expected, intended, or planned. This is known as ahoge when
referring to one hair and shokkaku when there are two (figure 2).
It might be said that moe is a supplement that encourages an emotional insight
by its observer; it is a fantasized factor added to a realistic presentation, or it is a
slightly grotesque postscript of an animated or drawn character.

Kawaii

Kawaii has many meanings in contemporary speech. In a non-otaku setting it is an

extension of "pretty" or "cute." Yomota Inuhiku describes its etymology from the
Heian period, and the diverse threads that lead up to the present. He notes that in
Makura no sõshi it appears as kaowayushi, meaning a state of bashfulness or embar-
rassment, with a red or blushed face. At this point it was not necessarily regarded as
an aesthetic term, but as a descriptive term. Appearing in the twelfth-century collec-
tion Konjaku monogatarishü (Anthology of tales from the past), the now abbreviated

1 78 Philosophy East & West

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Figure 1

Figure 2

kawayushi is meant to express a combination of pity, adversity, harshness, and loveli-

ness (suggesting a similarity with the word karen). This seemed to move it closer to
other late Fujiwara-period aesthetic notions such as aware (or mono no aware). A
further advanced version, kawayui, kept the negative aspects of pity and regret, which
connects it with today's expression kawaisõ (poor, pathetic, repentant). In the Edo
period, the term was sometimes pronounced kawaigaru and sometimes (in its popular
rendering) as kawairashii, but both, according to Yomota, expressed notions similar
to their contemporary counterpart kawaii.
At the beginning of the Meiji period, the term became widespread and took on a
more concrete meaning by referring to something small, innocent or innocent-like,
and childish or girlish. It was during this time that it became kawaii. Yomota notes:

Rea Amit 1 79

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 We should not confine kawaii culture to the present day, as a subculture term. Kawaii's
origins extend back to the Makura no sõshi of the early eleventh century. There is a com-
mon thread shared by Edo-period Kabuki, popular literature, and writers such as Dazai
Osamu. A small object, fragile things, a feeling of needing to protect someone, and an
allusion of coquetry (bitai) have all helped to refine the unique aesthetic to which this
word refers. In the capitalistic society of the second half of twentieth century, we saw an
enormous growth in industrial production; however, the roots of the aesthetics of kawaii
are perfectly imprinted throughout modern literature.21

There remains, however, an ambiguity concerning the antonym of kawaii. One

can say kawaikunai, but this is merely "not -kawaii/' and a negative form of the term
is not an opposite. One may think of kimoi and busu , but an elegant solution will not
be found here. Busu commonly refers to the unpleasant appearance of a woman,
young girl, or any other female character (in manga or anima for instance), and
kawaii is far from a synonym for "beautiful" (utsukushii). Yomota gives the example
of kawaii obaachan (meaning kawaii grandmother), which points to certain non-
aesthetic characteristics of an aged woman, including her warm personality and
gentle disposition, to come up with an aesthetic judgment. To state busu obaachan ,
however, would be to refer solely to a person's unpleasant physical appearance. The
use of kimoi brings with it a complexity of another kind. Kimoi is a popular abbre-
viation of kimochi warui. It literally means to feel nauseous and refers to any general
ill feeling, including a physical reaction. A more puzzling candidate, however, is its
late hybrid mutation kimokawa, which shares characteristics of both kawaii and
kimoi. The result is the kimokawa , a word sharing some similarities to busu , but
kimokawa is slightly different and has a broader meaning. Finally, the last option that
comes to mind is busaiku, which is a compound word meaning no work or poor
craftsmanship, but it has also come to imply aesthetically challenged features, clum-
siness, and awkwardness.

Sugoi, Kakkoii, Yabai, and Other Terms

While kawaii has become well known throughout the world, largely through the
work of artist Murakami Takashi and successful franchises such as Sanryo's Hello
Kitty ; and while moe is receiving growing attention and is written about more and
more, there are many other terms related to this subculture that have yet to be fully
recognized as part of this contemporary verbal network. When architect and curator
Morikawa Kaichirõ suggested that some of these terms should be viewed in light of
traditional expressions, he mentioned moe , but also three not very well known terms:
puni , hatare, and yaoi. He explains them as follows:

Puni , from the onomatopoeia puni puni, originally described the soft feeling of cheeks; it
now refers to someone with infantile qualities.

Hetare, from the verb hetabaru (to crouch) or hetaru (to fall flat), is used to describe weak-
willed or wimpy characters. Yaoi was originally an acronym for the words yamanashi (no
climax), ochinashi (no punch line), and iminashi (no meaning). The term now refers to the

1 80 Philosophy East & West

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 process of taking existing male characters from anime or manga and pairing them together
in a romantic relationship.22

These three terms do not follow Sibley's notion of aesthetic terms, as they refer to real
physical features or human characteristics, and the last is but a name of a habitual
practice. To speak of puni or yaoi is to consider physical capacities or knowledge, but
not aesthetics. Indeed, such characteristics of human beings or fantacized persons
are worth further reconsideration for their affinity with the realm of aesthetics, along
with some other characteristics, such as tsundere (from tsun kake or tsun tsun plus
dere dere, referring usually to a female character who is rather cold but all of a
sudden turns out very loving and passionate - a common moe factor in anime and
manga) and yandare (known also as yaya tsundere , slightly tsundere, describing a
character who isn't cold but is in some sort of distress or mental pain and who
expresses, at the same time, her affection toward another character). Yet, this is a far
too ambitious a task to undertake and is one that exceeds the limits of this article.
These are, at any rate, far from aesthetic terms in the conventional meaning. As for
names and descriptions, they provide no aesthetic judgment; they either tell us what
is out there or inform us about something new to us. We could, of course, argue
whether something is in fact puni or yaoi, but then we would be arguing against our
opponent's physical capacities or knowledge, but not his or her aesthetic judgment
(it would be the same as quarrelling over whether a far-off vision or sight was a car
or a house, but not whether it was beautiful or not).
Kuki illustrated the structure of iki in a diagram that revealed the inner relation-
ship between iki and several other aesthetic terms. By adding contemporary terms to
the diagram, insight into the relationship between terms can be gained. The terms are
placed opposite one other and terms that do, at first, seem in opposition or do not
show any relation reveal their inner, hidden nature. The new pairs added to the
illustration in figure 3 are sugoi-heibon and kakkoii-dasai.
In figure 3 the terms reveal something we otherwise would not have noticed.
Kawaii is usually regarded as the counterpart of the manly kakkoii, which is usually
translated as "cool" in English. The synonym for kawaii is dasai (old-fashioned, unso-
phisticated, or shabby), which is here placed under busaiku. Under moe stands
sugoi, which is a frequently used adjective in contemporary Japanese. Its etymology
reveals partly negative connotations in early times, but it is now frequently used to
express enormity of scale or emotions or an overwhelming phenomenon. Heibon (or
futsu), its chosen antonym, expresses the banal, the ordinary, or mediocrity.
It would take too much boldness to make any claims concerning the centers of
the squares and the linkage between them. Still, some might like to imagine, although
at a great distance from Kuki's sabi, an upper-center with kimokawa and its counter-
part on the bottom, with matching rarely used hybrid terms busaikawa and karuku-
yabai. Kimokawa has common ground with the positive kawaii, and also kimoi.
Examples of objects with such exceptional features would include the creature
appearing in the film Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1 984), some of the subjects of photos by
photographer Diane Arbus, and many of the little girls portrayed in the paintings of

ReaAmit 181

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Figure 3

Nara Yoshitomo. It is difficult to find examples of busaikawa (busaiku plus kawaii) or

karukuyabai (meaning slight disappointment or risk from a combination of yabai,
meaning chancy or a sound of disappointment, and karuku, meaning light). These
terms might be thought of as concepts to be analyzed sometime in the future.

Conclusion : Aesthetic and Non-aesthetic

When Kawabata Yasunari received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, he gave a
speech titled "Utsukushii Ni hon no watakushi" (Japan the beautiful and myself),
showing the importance he gave to a single aesthetic term in his concept of Japan. In
1994, when Õe Kenzaburõ received the same prize, he titled his speech "Aimai
Nihon no watashi" (Japan the ambiguous and myself). The gap Õe highlighted
between himself and Kawabata signified a shift. In 2006, Liberal Democratic Party
(LDP) leader Abe Shinzõ entered the Prime Minister's office under the slogan "Utsu-
kushi Nihon he" (For a beautiful Japan). A series of swift political changes then
brought Asõ Tarò to the office. Asõ, a well-known manga fan, had different aesthetics,
and brought the as yet not so popular slogan "cool Japan/' Asõ is also known or
mocked as "Mister Cool." The ambiguity articulated by Õe can be felt in this context,
and is a significant point in Japanese aesthetics. Notably, the global economic reces-
sion has brought a revival of the term kawaii as yasukawa (cheap kawaii ), denoting
an object that is cheap or not fully elaborated, yet at the same time possesses the
positive aesthetic characteristics of kawaii. This term likely had an effect on the fash-
ion style labeled fasuto fashon (fast fashion), referencing fast food and implying that
it is clothing made fast and cheaply. While it is difficult to predict the future of Japa-
nese aesthetics, it can be speculated that the heightened discussion on the environ-
ment and ecological issues might give birth to an ecological aesthetics.

1 82 Philosophy East & West

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 In Meiji times, Japanese scholars were struggling to define aesthetics in Japan.
Along with Nishi Amane's conception of aesthetics as kashu-ron 23 (the science of
elegant taste) and shin bigaku (the science of the sense of beauty) (1 874); Nakae
Chomin's translation of Eugène Véron's L'èsthétique (1878) as Ishi bigaku (1883);
and Mori Ögai and Tsubouchi Shöyö's well-publicized dispute over literal issues.
However, there is also Nishi's 1872 publication Bimyõ setsu (The theory of grace)
which was famously influenced by Hartmann's aesthetics. Nishi aimed at explaining
exquisite or delicate beauty, but his words unintentionally point to the current spoken
word that is written with a different kanji but retains the meaning of delicacy and
subtleness along with blurriness, vagueness, and sometimes questionabi lity.24 Thus,
it might be argued that Japanese aesthetics as a body is somewhat misconceived,
as the translation of aesthetics into bigaku , but it would be unthinkable to diminish
Japan's variety of tastes and elaborations, and it would be regrettable to leave out
premodern or postmodern segments.
Arnold Berleant argues for a wider interpretation of the role of the environment
and of perceptual engagement within a culture. He sees the historical development
of any cultural aesthetic proceeding from a strong grounding in its natural envi-
ronmental apparatus to modern technological trends, which can be further seen as
alterations of the landscape.25 From this perspective we can also observe inner-
cultural alterations within the sphere of Japanese culture and Japanese aesthetics
from the past and into the future.
Contemporary cultural subgroups in Japan today pay attention to objects and
features that others may dismiss or disregard. These objects are judged and appreci-
ated for their aesthetic qualities. As Baumgarten suggested, these objects refer to
unique sensual experiences from which judgment and appreciation can begin. This
does not mean that Japanese concepts are isolated in scope and refer only to Japa-
nese objects, as has been alluded to in the works of modernist scholars. On the con-
trary, these concepts advocate a cognition process that is universal. The experience
of the beautiful can be attainable by anyone; thus it should be considered alongside
the new terms discussed here.
Although a good deal of the theory of aesthetics is very much a philosophical
venture, it is strongly tied to human activities, primarily artistic ones. Bashõ and Sen
no Rikyü were both theoreticians and practitioners of their aesthetics in a straightfor-
ward manner, and this coherence between theory and practice of aesthetics is such
that they can never be separated. And although it is difficult to bridge the gap between
traditional and contemporary aesthetics, one might think of Haiku as J-pop, or Rikyd's
tea room (chashitsu) as either a karaoke box or a maid coffee shop. This by no means
suggests a comparison between artistic activities in different epochs; rather it is an
optional aesthetic interpretation toward an establishment of a continuing thread
within one cultural sphere. It should therefore come as little surprise that many of the
studies mentioned in this article are not by aestheticians but by people with a com-
mitment to a particular craft. Morikawa Kaichirõ is a theorist in the field of architec-
tural design, Miyamoto Kenji is an architect, and Yomota Inuhiko is a film historian
and critic, as is Donald Richie, who also wrote about traditional Japanese aesthetics.26

ReaAmit 183

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Neither Yomota nor Richie ever considered how aesthetic terms are manifested on
screen. Yet, it would be compelling to think further of some of the terms discussed
here in light of films such as Koi no mon (Otakus in Love) (2004; directed by Matsuo
Suzuki) and Kyûtï haní (Cutie honey) (2004; directed by Anno Hideaki). Aesthetic
terms by themselves are not sufficient for the creation of a distinguished aesthetic
discourse. Nevertheless, I would argue, they are worth considering as a necessary
condition, as aesthetic terms are the building blocks upon which such discourse may
be constructed.

Notes

1 - The notion of a cultural aesthetic is taken from Arnold Berleant's "The Idea of a
Cultural Aesthetic," Dialogue and Universalism 11-12 (2003): 113-122.
2 - Michael F. Marra, trans, and ed., Kuki Shuzõ: A Philosopher's Poetry and Poetics
(Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004), pp. 6-10.

3 - Kuki Shüzö, Bungeiron (An essay on the fine arts) (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten,
1941), p. 62.
4 - Ibid., p. 65.
5 - Ibid., p. 76; and in Kuki Shuzõ, Iki no kõzo (The structure of iki ) (Tokyo: Iwanami
Shoten, 1930), p. 58.
6 - See, for example, Nakao's analysis of the terms sui, tsü, and iki in NakaoTatsuro,
Sui , tsü , iki (Tokyo: Miyaishoten, 1 984).

7 - It might be argued that Okakura was not working under the same militaristic
environment as his younger colleagues, yet, as Karatani notes, Okakura had a
propensity in his work that preceded the nationalistic flavor of the aesthetics
writings to come. See Karatani Kojin, "Uses of Aesthetics: After Orientalism,"
Boundary 2 25 (2) (1998): 145-160. Further biographical evidence of the
immense impact Okakura had on Kuki himself can be found in Kita Yasutoshi,
Kuki to Tenshin (Kuki and Tenshin) (Tokyo: PHP Kenkyüsho, 2008). The title
actually refers to Kuki's father, Ryüichi, but Shüzö, too, is mentioned there
explicitly, notably on p. 304, where he is reported to have said that he would
have liked to have Okakura as his father instead of his biological one.

8 - Otabe Tanehisa, "Some Aspects of Japanese Aesthetics: How Has It Discussed

'Japanese Qualities'," International Yearbook of Aesthetics 2 (1998): 63-80.
9 - Morikawa Kaichiro, Otaku: Jinkaku - kükan = toshi ( Otaku : Persona = space =
city) (Tokyo: Gentõsha, 2004).

10 - At the UCTP Nihon Shiso Seminar "Aesthetic Categories: Past and Present,"
held November 28, 2008, at the University of Tokyo.

1 1 - Paul Guyer, "History of Modern Aesthetics," in The Oxford Handbook of Aes-

thetics, ed. Jerrold Levinson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 25.

1 84 Philosophy East & West

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
12 - Frank Sibley, "Aesthetic Concepts," Philosophical Review 68 (1959): 421-450.

13 - Frank Sibley, "Aesthetic and Non-aesthetic," in Approaches to Aesthetics: Col-

lected Papers on Philosophical Aesthetics, ed. John Benson, Betty Redfern, and
Jeremy Roxbee Cox (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 38.

14 - Allen Carlson, Nature and Landscape: An Introduction to Environmental Aes-

thetics (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009).

15 - For a fascinating discussion of the development of this term by Zeami see

Andrew T. Tsubaki, "Zeami and the Transition of the Concept Yugen : A Note on
Japanese Aesthetics," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 30 (I) (Fall 1971):
55-67.

16 - Hidemi Horikoshi, Moeru Nihon bungaku (The moeru of Japanese literature

(Tokyo: Gentõsha, 2008).

17 - Makino Takefumi, Мое de yomitoku meisaku bungaku annai (Guide to read-

ings on moe in masterpieces of literature) (Tokyo: Inforesuto, 2007).

1 8 - Oizumi Mitsunari, Мое no kenkyu (Research on moe) (Tokyo: Kodansha, 2005

19 - Ibid., p. 34.

20 - Azuma Hiroki, Dõbutsuka suru posutomodan: Otaku kara mita Nihon sha
(Postmodern animalizaron: Japanese society as seen from an otaku perspective
(Tokyo: Kõdansha, 2001). This book was partially translated as Otaku: Japan's
Database Animals by Jonathan E. Abel and Shion Kono, but the present article
was originally written prior to the publication of this book.

21 - Yomota Inuhiko, Kawaii-ron (Tokyo: Chikuma Shinsho, 2006), p. 36.

22 - Morikawa, Otaku: Jinkaku = kukan = toshi, pp. 36-37.

23 - In his landmark publication Hyakugaku renkan (The chain of the one hundr
sciences [i.e., "chain of knowledge," "encyclopedia"]) (1870).
24 - The word bimyõ, the way Nishi used it, might have been considered quite fas
ionable in his time, as the writer and poet Yamada Taketarõ changed his name
to Yamada Bimyõ. For more detailed information about this intriguing issue
see Michael F. Marra, trans, and ed., A History of Modern Japanese Aesthetics
(Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001), and Japanese Hermeneutics
Current Debates on Aesthetics and Interpretation (Honolulu: University o
Hawai'i Press, 2002).

25 - Arnold Berleant, "The Idea of a Cultural Aesthetic," p. 1 1 6.

26 - Donald Richie, A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Pres

2007).

Rea Amit 185

This content downloaded from

202.43.95.117 on Sat, 07 Nov 2020 10:14:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms