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For the Japanese, there is continual flow of spirit, and each person is a part of the great spiritual whole. A bamboo vase handed down from Sen no Rikyu may be falling apart and unable to hold water, but as the possession of a person with great kami, it is believed to still hold Rikyu’s spirit. It is believed that the kami of great men lives on in their possessions or works. In touching the revered utensils used in a tea ceremony, the feeling of history and spirit are thus passed on to the guest and help to further enhance the spirituality of the occasion. Whether this intangible spirit is an element in the wabi sabi aesthetic is difficult to say, but we often do seem drawn to objects that have a patina showing the passage of time and continued use. It is not unreasonable to suggest that we are in some way unconsciously drawn to some ineffable qualities with which an object has become imbued during the years of its use. The pots handed down from generation to generation seem to grow in their aura, and the effect that humans have and leave on an object, although they fall well outside the domain of reasonable scientific thought, become the focus of attention and reverence for the Japanese. For ceramics, whose frail appearance belies a resilience to physical decay, there is an ability to span many generations and for their expressiveness to increase through the years of use. This consistent element in the tea ceremony has helped to ensure the importance of ceramics not just in tea but also in Japanese society as a whole. Food is without doubt one of the most discussed and enjoyed activ ities in Japan. Ask a Japanese traveler how his overseas holiday was and, nine times out of ten, the first topic he mentions is the food. It is to the love of food that ceramics owes its continued survival, and despite changes in society there is still a great national appreciation for good food served on attractive pottery. There are literally thousands of potters in Japan who enjoy the status of artist. There are, of course, mass production systems that can make a thousand similar pots in one batch, but the Japanese love of pottery with a personal and unique feel continues to ensure its highly regarded eminence in Japan today. The types of pottery made today, including Bizen, Hagi, Raku, and Shigaraki, are still based largely on the aesthetics developed centuries ago, and a visit to a contemporary ceramics dealer in Japan will leave no doubt that the wabi sabi aesthetic is still a key. Japanese Flower Arranging Ikebana (literally “living flowers”), or the Japanese way of the flower as it is sometimes known, finds its roots way back in the seventh century when the Chinese custom of placing flowers as an offering to the Buddha was introduced into Japan. It was then a full eight hundred years before the first systemized form of flower arrangement, known as rikka, started to find favor. The rikka style, which means standing flower, was more sophisticated than the Buddhist offerings and more formal in its rules. There were seven branches symbolizing the peak, the hill, the waterfall, the town, the valley, the side receiving sunlight, and the side in the shade. It was built around the Buddhist cosmic view, and because of the constraints on the form, the rules tended to overpower the final aesthetics. Not surprisingly, Sen no Rikyu, with his dislike for rules and contrived forms of beauty, felt that the real beauty and aesthetic value of flowers lay not in there adherence to rules but to the way in which they were sympathetically displayed. It was Sen no Rikyu who started the nagaire movement, which means to “throw into,” and it is here where the spirit of wabi sabi can be found. Doing away with all formalism and again refraining from using opulent vases from mainland China, Rikyu remained true to his overall aesthetic scheme and chose the simplest of vases for the flower displays in his tea ceremonies, known as chabana (tea flowers). In place of more impressive flowers Rikyu insisted on the use of smaller wildflowers picked in the fields. He is said to have been the first to introduce the bamboo vase as a serious artistic expression, and the first vase used, called the Onjoji vase, has been treasured ever since. Even when the vase started to leak, the small pool of water that gathered around the bottom was appreciated as a natural flaw, beautiful and expressive in its own right. On one occasion Rikyu had heard of Hideyoshi’s desire to see the beautiful morning glories that were in flower in the tea garden. Following protocol Hideyoshi was invited, but on his arrival he was surprised to see that all the morning glories had been cut. However, on entering the tearoom, Hideyoshi noticed an exquisite flower arrangement that consisted of just one beautiful morning glory. Rikyu was showing his master that the truth of real beauty did not lie so much in the beauty of a field of flowers but in the contemplation of the life of just one. By focusing on just one flower one might be able to break the perceptual gap that lies between the flower and oneself and to realize that the flower and oneself are not after all existentially separate. Ikebana, like the gardens, uses a living medium in the creative process, and it is this ingredient of life that brings a unique feel to flower arrangements. Under Zen doctrine, all plants are seen as sentient beings in their own right and should be accorded this respect. The flower arranger from the nagaire school would show the greatest reverence for all life, and in this mood of humility allow the flower to express its own beauty without forcing it to fit some man-made construct. After the flower has passed through the different stages of its evolution and has played its part in the artistry, it will be laid to rest with the greatest respect. The mood of the flower artist, then, as with the potters, gardeners, and poets, shows a deep respect and humility toward life, allowing the expression to come from nature rather than a man-made con- struct. The minimal expression used in chabana flower arranging i again reinforcing the idea that less is indeed more and in some ways the work of an artist is as much in what they refrain from adding as what they actual put in. Defining Aesthetics “All art is quite useless.” —Oscar Wilde. As a literary artist of great stature, this comment by Wilde provides an interesting starting point for a discussion on the nature of art. By initially negating the value of art, the onus is on the student of art philosophy to show that art has a value and what that value might be. Looking at art in terms of its function will show the different ways in which art is used and more specifically the function that wabi sabi art can fulfill. Art is an integral part of life as it is the way we express ourselves and the way we feel about our environments. We can communicate verbally, in body language, even in silence; art is a way in which ideas and emotions can be shared. As Zen puts no store in language, the monks’ art took on the role of communicating profound truths, and the function of wabi sabi art was primarily the transference of spiritual knowledge. It was a vehicle for the Zen monks to share their insights. What Is Art? The apparent innocence and simplicity of the question “What is art?” belies the incredible scope that such a question covers, and despite intense efforts by the world of academia, a concise and universally accepted theory of art still proves illusive. There are almost as many theories on art as there are forms of artistic expression, and most of course are firmly rooted in the Western mind-set—a view that is prone to scientific analysis. This is radically different from the more intuitive approach that is prevalent in the East, and thus the current debate on art has become tainted with a very Western philosophical flavor. Since the fundamental starting point for Western understanding of the world is essentially determinist and Newtonian, it is limited in its ability to tackle the more metaphysical and ontological aspects of Eastern art theory. In order to have a more holistic view of art, and especially art from Japan, it is necessary to start any discussion from the very first assumptions on which our worldview is based. In artistic expressions there is the creator and then there is the person who perceives and assesses that which has been created. However, the scope of expression is so vast that no tangible barriers define the perimeters of what art is and what is just living. It has been suggested that everything we do, every gesture and every movement is in fact art, as it is the way we are expressing ourselves in the face of the environment with which we interact. This all-encompassing idea is, in fact,quite in keeping with Zen philosophy, which seeks to find artistry in every aspect of life. The term seishintouistu refers to the concentration of the mind and spirit on just one activity, and through this constant mental discipline the person is able to loose the dominance of the ego and become one with the activity. The artistry is the result of a mind focused on the task in hand, whether it be polishing a floor, raking gravel, or cutting vegetables. By bringing the mind to bear on the here and now, everyday activities can take on profound meaning and in Zen these are considered key for the development of the mind. This attitude can then transform the most mundane tasks into art. Zen teachers stress a state of mind called mushin, which could be likened to a state of total absorption in a task. This concentration helps subdue the ego so that mind and body can work in a free, natural, and uninhibited way. This erasing of the importance of self is seen as key to producing art that is not tarnished with the hues of self-indulgence or self-promotion. In his book Zen in the Art of Archery,