The Beauty of Everyday Things (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Mention must also be made of the Japanese concept of the “Void,” which can be understood as existing as a pluripotent hypostasis from whence all creation issues. It is said that someone living in proximity to a flowering garden grows insensitive to its fragrance. According to philosopher and Japanese folk-craft pioneer Soetsu Yanagi, who formed the Mingei (“folk-craft”) movement in the late 1920s and 1930s in Japan, everyday objects should be viewed and treated as things of beauty. Inspired by the work of the simple, humble craftsmen Yanagi encountered during his lifelong travels through Japan and Korea, they are an earnest defence of modest, honest, handcrafted things - from traditional teacups to jars to cloth and paper. Yanagi’s philosophy of patterns has an interesting parallel in Cezanne’s portraits of the landscapes of Provence in southern France (such as Sainte Victoire Mountain), using a demanding system of parallel brushstrokes, which suggests an inner unity in keeping with Cezanne’s aim of painting being “harmony in parallel with nature.

By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. But it is now, in our age of feeble, quick and cheaply made things, that we see a growing longing for high quality objects, made with care. The powerful influence of Zen Buddhism on Japanese aesthetics is exemplified through the medium of the tea ceremony (leading to the phrase “Zen and tea are one”).After all, there is no greater opportunity for appreciating beauty than through its use in our daily lives, no greater opportunity for coming into direct contact with the beautiful. To decide that a particular piece must be valuable because it has a particular [artist's signature] seal is weak and demeaning.

I can imagine him wandering all over the Japanese and Korean countryside in his quest to find beauty. Or it might be more correctly said that the perception of good paper as a precious commodity has dwindled. There is just so much repetition in Japanese prose that if not tamed in the English version, begins to grate.Definitely less a meditation on everyday objects (as the title suggest) and more a repetitive compilation of one slightly snobbish art critic. Backed by delicate classical guitar, Bloom sings about the simple pleasures of summer: diving off a pier, sitting in the sun, listening to a blackbird sing. Readers who are more familiar with Japan will no doubt get more out of this, though I appreciated the chapter on Japanese aesthetic perspectives and enjoyed Yanagi’s uncluttered prose and sense of joy throughout. The views, opinions, beliefs, or strategies represented in published articles and subsequent comments do not necessarily represent the views ofTraversing Traditionor any employee thereof. Yanagi's everyday things are things that are produced in Japan's provinces, anonymous works that are mass-produced, but not in factories, often plain and simple even in its designs: pottery, paintings, clothes, statues.