JAPAN!

Teachings of the never forgotten, of the Japanese. As the world today, is embellished with the plethora or extra-ness, the Japanese would have a completely opposite approach. Think the Baroque period never existed. The Japanese would shake their heads at the Baroque approach. They would believe that all of the “extra-ness” in their work could all be encompassed in one simple method. One can see this in the different forms of art, where this is all ornamented in the Japanese term, yūgen.

A very important artistic form in Japan was the Nō Drama, which very well comprises of this simple but complex Japanese idea. Take the set of a play, it would have props, characters with make up, vivid costumes, much gesticulation, and dynamic volume. They had their value in the term wabi, which is the beauty of simplicity. Now, take it all away, and you are left with basically a stage… you have now accomplished Nō Drama. Simple eh? This was the way Japanese would illustrate this form of art, and oh so simple to understand right, no! Its complexity stems from its aged, experienced performer, masks, and “off beat” music. The key to the “simplicity” is so that the viewer isn’t distracted from the true message of the play. The point is not to withdraw the attention from the premised emotive element. The constraint allows the more deliberate meaning to settle.

This same simplicity of the Japanese manner can be seen in their poetic form, the Haiku. It compromises onji, 17 syllables, distributed between three lines, with the presentation of 5–7–5 in syllables. Sounds simple, negatory! The objective is to follow those rule, have it be nature expressive and then have a real meaning. You can see these the Haiku methods in this poem,

bright red


the pitiless sun


autumn winds

Matsu Bashō

The reader can witness the kigo in this poem by use of words autumn, but the pitiless sun, as though its striking appearance in summer and spring are withdrawn as the seasons are changing like its September. The cutting word in this piece, the kireji, that signals the shift is red as it offers sympathy on “the pitiless sun”.

This poem doesn’t say a whole lot in words but its reference to nature reflects on people, because the belief is that people exist with nature, not against it, because it is a very key feature in the lives of people. This could be through fantasy, memory, or maybe premonition. The Japanese had this thought that a little can go a long way and that’s how they portrayed their work.

Word Count: 526