Traditional Japanese aesthetics developed from the country's period of self-isolation and were influenced by Chinese ideas, Buddhism, and Western concepts. Japanese art focuses on "form and design" as well as living functionality and spiritual simplicity. Key aesthetic principles include wabi-sabi (appreciation for impermanence and imperfection), miyabi (elegance and refinement), and shibui (simple, subtle beauty). Additional concepts are iki (originality), jo-ha-kyu (gradual tempo changes), yugen (mystery), and enso (calligraphic circle representing absoluteness).

1. Japanese
Aesthetics

2. Background
• Art forms and aesthetic ideas
developed from self-isolation
• Traditional Japanese art and
Aesthetics were affected by Chinese,
Buddhism and the West
• Art – “Katachi” – “form and design”
• Art is synonymous with living,
functional purpose, and spiritual
simplicity

3. • Value of harmony in all things
• Nature-based and concerned with
the beauty of studied simplicity and
harmony with nature

4. Wabi-Sabi
• beauty of things imperfect,
impermanent, and incomplete;

7. Miyabi
• elegance, refinement and courtliness
• elimination of anything vulgar or
unsightly

9. Shibui
• simple, subtle, and unobtrusive
beauty

11. Iki
• Originality or uniqueness

12. Jo-ha-kyu
• Tempo that starts slowly, accelerate
and end suddenly

14. Yugen
• Mysterious
• Concealment

16. Geido
• Discipline and ethics

20. Enso
• absolution, enlightenment, strength,
elegance, the Universe and the void
• represented by a form of minimalism

23. Kawaii
• Cute

27. Sources
• http://art.unt.edu/ntieva/download/teaching/Curr_resource
s/mutli_culture/Japan/Aesthetics/Japanese%20Aesthetics_
Wabi-Sabi_Tea%20Ceremony.pdf
• http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2009/09
/exposing-ourselves-to-traditional-japanese-aestheticideas-notions-that-may-seem-quite-foreign-to-most-of-usis-a-goo.html
• http://coolinsights.blogspot.com/2012/12/9-elements-ofjapanese-aesthetics.html
• http://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/9-principles-ofJapanese-art-and-culture