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Art History: The World Beyond West Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that is influenced by the concepts of value and beauty as they connect to the arts. Philosophers throughout time, such as Plato, have presented solid ideas about what artists should create and what people should like. In the world of today people have become more liberal on the philosophy of art resulting in the vast array of modern artist and styles / methods . Aesthetics varies from culture to culture because of people's various apperception, uses, and beliefs about art and beauty.
Depending on the critics perspective, the work of art can be interpreted as having a different meaning than that of the artist's original intent. The aesthetics of Japan matured on its own because of Japans geographic location. (Fiero) The sea protected Japan from foreign invasion and enabled its rulers to control contact with other nations. Isolation allowed Japans aesthetic art forms to develop on their own until inevitable contact with other cultures took place, such as the Chinese, Buddhist, and even the Western. The Japanese word karachi bears the closest meaning to art.
It means form and design, implying that art means the something is living and has functional purpose and spiritual simplicity. Harmony in all things is the main theme in Japanese aesthetics; their worldview is nature-based and centered in the beauty of simplicity and harmony with nature, or wabi-sabi. Shintoism is the native religion that was created and developed exclusively on the island of Japan. Isolated for most of its history, this folk religion had created its own concepts of spirituality and reality as well as methods of expressing them. Shinto people were very pristine and in tune with spiritual forces, called kamis, that inhabit all things from people and plants to shrines and landmarks. An ancient chronicle reports that in their world myriad spirits shone like fireflies and every tree and bush could speak (Fiero).
Shinto believers built shrines not only from natural materials, but also to be surrounded by nature to use as a calling zone for kami worship. Their worldview is basically deep and optimistic letting alone the darkest aspects of human attributes. The most important kami of worship, by no accident, is Amaterasu (the sun goddess), also the most important characteristic in nature itself. The biggest reason for celebration is the enrichment of life, and before these ceremonies washing with water is a must, even the fluent motions of anointment of the water over the flesh has a spiritual meaning. Cleansing with water is an example of their love for purity, within themselves and nature, and the preference for cleanliness. The physical characteristics of Shinto shrines, festivals, and rituals, even their attitudes, values, and appreciative respect for life can be considered an art in their own right (in any right for that matter).
Japanese art until the 9 th century is essentially religious art, restricted to temple construction. When Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and illustration hand scrolls transmitted Buddhist teachings, the Japanese integrated ways to worship the cosmos and deities. (Fiero) One of the greatest influences in Japanese aesthetics is a direct result of the introduction of Zen Buddhism. The donation of Zen to Japanese culture consists of architecture, poetry, ceramics, painting, calligraphy, gardening, the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and other crafts. Calligraphy is based on brush strokes that are sweeping and fluid in motion, emphasizing spontaneity rather than predictability, random rather than fixed. According to Zen philosophy, or religion, reality is each moment authentically lived. In landscape painting emptiness is a key element, because space itself is brought to life with a few strokes of the brush.
This reflects the Zen idea of music, empty subject-object discrimination. Japanese poetry, or haiku, advocates serenity and simplicity to invoke mood and arousal. Flower arranging consists of natural appeal and charm. It is accomplished with a remote display of blossoms, and it is made sure that the arrangement is set up to look like it was still in or made by nature. In landscape gardening the gardener cultivates as if not cultivating (wu wei), as if the gardener were one with the garden. As a result, the garden appears helped rather than controlled.
Along with Zen, art aspires to not only symbolize nature itself, but to become a work of nature. Buddhists also brought advanced new methods for building and for casting in bronze, and new techniques and materials for painting. Simplicity, emptiness, directness, and naturalness are the trademarks of Japanese Zen Buddhist art. Japanese art is a combination of Buddhist religious elements tinted with strong Zen sensibilities and the Shinto emphasis on naturalness to create a poetic reality.
Despite Western involvement Japan has and will always maintain its unique style. Bibliography: Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition. London: McGraw-Hill, 1998.
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Research essay sample on Art History The World Beyond West
