Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

Master of Arts Program in the Humanities, University of Chicago

 

 

An Aesthetics of Everyday Life

– Modernism and a Japanese popular aesthetic ideal, gIkih –

 

 

 

YAMAMOTO Yuji

 

May 14, 1999

 


Notes

This thesis was originally submitted as a MA thesis on May 1999. This version contains few modifications and additions as of March 25, 2002.

Macrons (due to a technological problem, substituted by circumflex, ô, û) are used to indicate prolongation of vowels.

The updated version of this thesis is available at <http://purl.org/yuji/papers/papers-e.htm>.

Japanese names are spelled in the order of surname, given name.

Some historic Japanese authors are called by their first name following the convention. Thus, Futabatei Shimei is called Shimei, but Kuki Shûzô is called Kuki.

 

0.    Introduction

Nineteenth century Japanese popular cultural phenomena, most notably the Japanese woodblock print and painting, ukiyo-e, have made significant contributions to modernist artistic movements, in particular the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau, impressionism, post-impressionism, and fauvism. In addition, it is worth mentioning the influence of Japanese architecture on Frank Lloyd Wright, who also loved ukiyo-e.[1] These influences are primarily the result of applying Western values, specifically, aesthetic values to the interpretation of Japanese culture.

However, this interpretation has had the tendency to be one-way, and there have been relatively few attempts to applying non-Western ideas to Western culture. Is this because it is futile to do so? Or because it is impossible? Rudyard Kipling's well-known line gEast is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet[2]h is quoted in various contexts. Although the subsqent lines continue that a personal encounter would not be hindered by institutional barriers, one would inevitably feel that the significance of this line is greatly changed. The East and the West did meet and are meeting in this very moment, perhaps far beyond the imagination of Kipling, and yet, one would still doubt if two worlds truly meet if cultures are not equally observed through vernacular concepts from both sides.

The Japanese aesthetic ideal, iki may serves as a fine example of the application of a vernacular aesthetic ideal for clarifying the nature of the Japanese contribution to modernism. As we will see, iki holds a special place in Japanese aesthetics because it enjoyed wide popularity among the worldfs largest premodern urban population in the late eighteenth century, or Edo with more than 1.3 million inhabitants. Although its connotation may have changed somewhat, iki survived the modernization of Japan, and it is still of wide concern in everyday life.

I will argue that applying a vernacular aesthetic concept to Western/modern works of art is not only beneficial, but also necessary for a fairer understanding of the influences of non-Western ideals on these works, especially when the vernacular aesthetic challenges the notion of gwork of art.h I will posit that a viewpoint based on a vernacular aesthetic will broaden the scope of Western aesthetics. We shall see, for instance, how iki is observed in Wrightfs masterpiece, the Robie House.

1.    Iki in Historical Context

Iki originated among the townspeople of Edo, especially around the pleasure quarters in the late eighteenth century. Middle to lower class Edo townspeople[3] praised iki[4] fashion, enjoyed iki situations, behaved with iki discretion to couples, and wished to be iki persons, while the aesthetic sense of richer merchants was characterized as being tsû (connoisseur) with an emphasis on intellectual aspects[5]. Many ukiyo-e artists pursued the depiction of iki figures in iki fashion. Iki appeared in various genres of Edo literature such as kibyôshi, sharebon, and ninjôbon, often featured as the main theme. A reference to iki appeared in a ninjôbon[6], Tatsuminosono (1770)[7] shows that iki was held by both men and women. Iki also frequently appeared in Edo popular songs such as kouta, or jôruri, dramatic narrative.

Although iki was a popular concern of townspeople, it was not a subject of academic concern in the Edo period. The first extensive, systematic study of iki is considered to be Kuki Shûzô[8]fs The Structure of gIkih (Iki no kôzô) published in 1930. From 1921 to 1929, Kuki studied Western philosophy in France and Germany, and he supported his arguments in The Structure of gIkih using the method of Western philosophy, especially indebted to Martin Heideggerfs hermeneutics.

So far, the historical consequences of the impact of Japanese cultural phenomena on modernism may have been covered by scholars, however, the scope of the study of popular premodern and modern Japanese aesthetics was relatively limited until the 1960s. Popular premodern and modern Japanese aesthetics have been problematized to some extent by Japanese critics[9] but only in the context of classical studies on Edo that rarely uses a comparative approach.[10] After Japan opened to the West[11], both Japanese and non-Japanese critics attempted to explain Japanese cultural phenomena, and their approach was to contextualize Japanese aesthetics within Western aesthetics. However, many Japanese critics did not attempts to apply Japanese aesthetic ideals to Western culture, although this is not necessarily true, since they believed Japanese aesthetic ideals unique and incompatible with Western and modern culture.

Kukifs well-known definition of iki in The Structure of gIkih consists of three marks, (Merkmal in German) gerotic allure[12] (bitai) with pride (hari) and resignation (also sophisticated indifference, akirame).h[13] Kuki[14] emphatically attributes iki to geisha[15] in the Fukagawa[16] pleasure quarter, who manifests these marks well. Kuki distinguishes spontaneous manifestations and artistic manifestations[17] of iki, and he provides ample examples.[18] Although he identifies iki in plant and natural phenomena, such as willow or sprinkle, he primarily deals with corporal manifestation as spontaneous manifestations. Kuki maintains that the gerotic allureh of the opposite sex is the first mark of iki. He finds iki to be dynamically sustaining physical and emotional distance between the opposite sex, but not completely losing it, citing Achilles chasing the turtle in the paradox of Zeno.[19] Then he observes gprideh based on idealism of gthe Warriorsf Wayh (Bushidô) as the second mark.[20] On the one hand, one shows gerotic allureh inconspicuously, but on the other, one shows resistance against the opposite sex, not easily yielding. Finally, he states gresignation,h or sophisticated indifference based on Buddhist thoughts as the third mark.[21] Contrary to the popular stereotypical images of Japanese women[22], it should be noted that gerotic allureh in iki is not a coy, submissive, fawning attitude as Kuki writes giki must be an attitude which shows a kind of resistance against the opposite sex while being an eerotic alluref.h[23] He highlights the quasi-feminist aspect of iki, the gheroismh primarily manifested by unyielding woman in comparison with masculine dandyism, citing Charles Baudelairefs Fleur du Mal. Although Kuki accepts similarity between iki and dandyism, he differentiates iki from dandyism by stating that ikifs heroism is breathed not only by men, but also gby the women of ethe world of suffering,fh[24]

Today, iki has become part of the vernacular of the Japanese not limited to Edokko, or modern Tokyoite. As Nishiyama puts it, it is gthe common property of the Japanese people.h[25] Japanese aesthetics have developed many subtle aesthetic ideals such as aware[26], wokashi[27], yojô[28], yûgen[29], wabi[30], sabi[31], and so on. However, these ideals are obsolete, existing mostly in literary and artistic jargons. On the contrary, iki is an active part of the Japanese vocabulary today. After examining the research conducted by Endo Yukiko and Honma Michiko (1963), Suwa Haruo maintains that galthough iki has changed from its original meaning to a certain extent, it is not obsolete, and used by some people with positive meaning.h[32] Iki was inherited by common people across the span from premodernity, to modernity to postmodernity the period of change from Edo to Tokyo.[33] Because it avoids extremes – neither too vulgar nor excessively transcendental – iki may be the last survivor among Japanese aesthetic ideals.

2.     Reexamining The Structure of gIkih

2.1.  What Kuki Missed Criticisms on The Structure of gIkih

Both Tada and Yasuda state that only Kuki has deeply studied the aesthetic sense of the Japanese from the aspect of iki. Yasuda also acknowledges that there is no firm scholarly work has followed The Structure of gIki.h[34] Thus, much of later literature on iki remains heavily indebted to this work. Despite its significance to the study of iki, The Structure of gIkih is not free from criticism. It has to be clarified that although Kukifs contribution to the articulation of iki is enormous, it is, by no means, the sole account of iki.

The first criticism of the Structure of gIkih is that although Kuki extensively exploits terms of Western philosophy (particularly from Heideggerfs hermeneutics) and cites Western works of art, he is inconsistently pessimistic towards Western understanding of iki. Iki is not an absolute, exclusive ideal only available to the Japanese as Kukifs maintain, but rather relative and flexible. For example, Kuki inadvertently reveals that whether the same pattern, stripes is iki or not depends on the context rather than to say iki is a fixed value attached to certain objects. As we shall see in the following sections, the usages and meanings of iki are fairly diverse[35] and unstable, since no one examined it academically before Kuki. The second criticism would note Kukifs excessive philosophization of iki and his slighting the role of townspeople (chônin) in iki, to be specific, Edo townspeople (Edokko). Leslie Pincus notes: gIn eIkif no kôzô, the link between popular cultural forms and the material transformation of Tokugawa society has effectively disappeared.h[36] Although Kuki successfully illustrated important aspects of iki, he might have reduced, intellectualized, and philosophized it too far for an aesthetic ideal that relating to the everyday life of urban populations. In connection with the first, a third criticism is that Kuki might have underestimated the geverydaynessh (nichijô-sei) of iki, in his nationalistic passion to gauthenticateh[37] iki. The first and second criticisms will be discussed in the following sections, and the third will be discussed in a separate chapter.

2.2.  The Aesthetics of Edo Townspeople (Edokko)

Iki was primarily the aesthetics of Edo[38] townspeople, or Edokko. As contrasted by Yasuda,[39] unlike other Japanese aesthetic ideals, such as wabi or sabi, iki is a unique aesthetic ideal in that it has never been practiced by warriors, nobles, Buddhist monks, or hermits. Since it requires practical, aesthetic-experiential sophistication rather than theoretical, intellectual sophistication. iki belonged and practiced solely by the ordinary townspeople – craftsmen, carpenters, plasterers, steeplejacks, firefighters,[40] fishermen[41], their wives, and geisha. It is estimated that Edo had a population of more than 1.3 million at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and it was the largest city in the world at the time. Townspeople and warriors were about half million each, and Edo was marked by a significantly larger male population.[42] Iki blossomed into an aesthetic ideal among the townspeople of Edo, which was a fully developed gpremodern city.h

Somewhat contradicting Kukifs philosophized observations, evidences suggest that iki was casual and impromptu, and sometimes even superficial and somewhat vulgar. As Takeuchi quotes from a witty novelette (sharebon, literally meaning gsmart bookh), Daitsu Hôgo (1779), giki (with ideograms for gapproachh (shukô)) means impromptu.h Kitagawa Morisada writes in his Morisada Mankou (1853), an encyclopedic genre chronicle: gone who follows the fashion is called iki.h[43] After examining the various elements of iki, such as kioi (pumped up), isami (chivalrous, valiant, courageous, energetic), inase (gallant, dashing, dapper, smart, rakish, stylish), Nakao points out the general vulgarity of iki, even though it is an aesthetic ideal.[44]

Edokko, or a gpureh Edo townsperson, and iki are inseparable, and one cannot stand without each other. The Edo townspeople are proud to be born as a Edokko, as Edokko are often compared with Parisien in their strong pride and affection to their liveliest capital city. What make them different from Parisien is Edo peoplefs pride of the poverty and anti-intellectualism. Interestingly, as noted by Saito Ryûzô, Akahori Matajirô, and Miyatake Gaikotsu[45], despite Edokkofs poverty and lack of education, they boasted of generosity to spend money, and anti-intellectualism that despised and challenged the authority of warriors. Nakao Tatsurô writes gsince the professional craftsmen class and subsidiary workers were proud of their skills, they didnft learn reading and writing, or cultivate themselves.h A popular anonymous senryû (a genre of comical, satirical haiku) made during the Edo era shows their contempt for the attachment to money:

Only the one who failed to be born Edokko saves his money.[46]

Iki was a favorite subject of literature in the Edo period. A popular writer Santô Kyôden[47] is known for his illustrated satirical fiction (kibyôshi, literally meaning gyellow-covered bookh). A typical kibyôshi, Edoumare uwakino kabayaki (Spitchcock of Lech Born in Edo, 1785) is frequently cited as in reference to iki. The books of this genre have a striking similarity to some modern comic books in their interplay of graphics and text[48], and their erotic themes. These books upset the government officials who considered them immoral, and Kyôden was arrested and handcuffed for fifty days. These evidences further assert the casual, popular aspects of iki, as well as ikifs stance against the authority. It should be noted that one of the earliest modern Japanese writers and creators of modern style of writing, the genbun-icchitai (the Write as We Speak Style), Futabatei Shimei writes that he incorporated the Fukagawa locution appearing Edo literature into modern style of writing. Shime admits coarseness of the Fukagawa locution, at the same time, he finds it gpoetical.h[49]

We find iki in Nishiyamafs summary of definition of Edokko, in a work of sharebon, considered a masterpiece for this genre, Tsûgen sô-magaki (Grand Brothel of Connoisseur Language, 1787) by Kyôden, a sequel to Edoumare uwakino kabayaki.

. . . He is not attached to money; he is not stingy. His funds do not cover the nightfs lodging. . . He is quite unlike either warriors or country bumpkins. . . He has iki (refinement) and hari (strength of character). . . [50]

Kukifs attribution of pride in gthe Warriorsf Wayh[51] in The Structure of gIkih is repeatedly questioned and criticized by Tada[52], Minami[53], and Pincus[54] among many other critics. Minami also notes sashi, the right of Fukagawa geisha to refuse unfavorable customers after peeking through a hole. (It is the geisha who peeks through, not the customer.)[55] As epitomized in the previously summarized definition, townspeople actually despised warriors.[56] On the other hand, warriors had their own pride and they would never called themselves Edokko. gThe Warriorsf Wayh was intended primarily for men, and not women, who play a greater role in iki. More over, Edokko is a title only granted to those who are born in Edo, not new residents. Since many of warriors served feudal lords (daimyo), and their residence in Edo was only temporary due to the system of sankin kôtai,[57]  the warriors were not born in Edo, and therefore not Edokko. These local warriors temporarily serving in Edo were thoroughly derided as asagi-ura, referring to their outmoded fashion of pale blue cotton lining, and these warriors were often quoted by Edokko as being the typical opposite of iki, yabo.[58] Edo townspeople still had to obey the warriors in the decaying feudal society, but Edokko resisted and revenged warrior class through sophisticated means of mocking. An early modern Japanese writer, Nagai Kafû sees ukiyo-e as a manifestation of iki by common people rather than the ruler class: gDoes not ukiyo-e latently manifest the pride (iki) of common people who do not succumb to the persecution of the (Tokugawa) government, and sing a song of triumph?h[59]

2.3.  Is Western Understanding of Iki Impossible?

Although his subject was a distinctively Japanese phenomenon, Kukifs arguments authenticating iki in The Structure of gIkih are backed by Western ideas, notably Heideggerian hermeneutics. Although the focus of this work is on Japanese aesthetics ideal, Kuki wrote his draft during his stay in Paris. Tada describes this work as a gphilosophy in a foreign land to evaluate Japan, especially Edo.h[60] Pincus also suggests the influence of Kant over Kukifs approaches in The Structure of gIki.h

Though he hoped to guarantee the gJapanesenessh of iki, his rendering of Edo style suggests, in fact, other affinities. Kuki described the aesthetic and moral disposition of iki in a manner worthy of Kantfs third Critique, replicating nearly all of the significant moments of aesthetic judgment: disinterestedness, purposiveness without purpose, and the free play and autonomy of the aesthetic function.[61]

Kuki also bolsters his argument by citing Western thinkers and poets such as Zeno, Roscelin, Biran, Nietzsche, Valery, and Bergson, and artists such as El Greco, Rodin and Chopin along with Japanese materials.[62] On the other hand, Kuki limits the readers to almost solely the Japanese[63]. Citing Western ideas to explain a Japanese idea is not necessarily problematic, but Kukifs dependency on the Western ideas clearly contradicts his pessimistic conclusion towards the Western understanding of iki. Behind Kukifs inconsistency, one can observe a severe ironic dilemma in the modernization and Westernization of Japan, i.e. Kuki and modern Japanese intellectualsf ambivalent attitude toward the West. Pincus summarizes Kukifs inconsistency:

Ironically, the theoretical idiom of gIkih no Kozo, designed to demonstrate a Japanese cultural authenticity rooted in an indigenous past, simultaneously bore witness to the interval of a heterogeneous modernity that irrevocably separated contemporary Japan from its premodernity.

2.3.1.  Ambivalence to the West - The West as the Other

In order to understand Kukifs inconsistent stance, it may be necessary to note how the West has been perceived by the Japanese. The generalized term gWesth (seiyô) has particular connotations for the Japanese, which might produce a sense of incongruity to the Westerners. You could imagine, for example, how an gOrientalh would feel a sense of incongruity with the term gOrient,h as in the thorough study by Edward Said on how the term gOrienth has been (mis)perceived in the Western context. About the danger of seeing an exotic illusion, Oscar Wilde alarms us in a satirical way. In his gThe Decay of Lying,h Wilde has Vivian say gThe Japanese people are the deliberate self-conscious creation of certain individual artists c The actual people who live in Japan are not unlike the general run of English people; that is to say, they are extremely common place, and have nothing curious or extraordinary about them.h[64] As a reminder of the context in which the word was used in Kukifs text, I shall continue to use the term gthe West.h

The West, has been the cultural significant Other to the Japanese, while Westernization/modernization has been threatening the Japanese identity. Not only in most of the formerly colonized countries, but also in Japan, the terms gmodernh and gWesternh are often used with similar, if not identically. The distinction between these terms has been a source of polemic. When communication to the outside of Japan was limited before 1854, Japanese intellectuals had not been urged to be nationalistic. After the opening of the nation in 1854, the intellectuals considered Westernization not only a benefit brought from an gadvancedh society to the Japanese society, but also a cultural threat. It was a practical as much as emotional conflict. Japanese intellectuals were necessitated to create (or resuscitated, because they needed historic justification) and defend the national identity. However, even the most nationalistic advocate would not insist on refusing all benefits of the Western culture. As Japanese intellectuals recognized the conflict, they also realized their ironical situation that enhancing their national identity cannot bypass using Western ideas. Some Japanese intellectuals tried to reconcile this ambivalence in different ways, but not always with success. Pincus calls Kukifs attempt of philosophizing iki an gaesthetic defenseh against the gimperatives of modernization.h[65]

No one doubts that iki was a historically unique ideal developed by the Japanese in the sense that there is no precisely identical ideal in existence elsewhere. Nevertheless, this is not to say that iki is inexplicable or that the study of iki is futile to Western readers.[66] When relating Japanese aesthetics to Western aesthetics, one of the fundamental questions of comparative aesthetics emerges. At one extreme, a critic – whether s/he is a Westerner or not – may fall into the discourse of cultural imperialism, forcing guniversal valuesh on a non-Western culture. To Kant, at least, aesthetic judgment must be universal. Although this may be an extreme example, to Frederick Gookin who reviewed Okakurafs The Book of Tea, nineteenth century Japan was in a gstate of half-civilization but little removed from barbarism.h[67] On the other extreme, a critic may lean towards a nationalistic view that rejects the Western understanding of non-Western idea. Heidegger warns in a dialogue with a Japanese,[68]: gHere you are touching on a controversial question which I often discussed with Count Kuki – the question whether it is necessary and rightful for Eastasians to chase after the European conceptual systems.h[69] The uniqueness of Japanese culture has been sometimes exaggerated in the discourses titled nihonron and nihonjinron, literally gdiscussions of Japanh and gdiscussions of the Japanese,h[70] and The Structure of gIkih is counted among them. But again, those who hysterically attack gJapanese uniqueness discourseh need to be aware of the danger of cultural imperialism.

Thus, the question of how to relate Japanese ideas with Western ideas has been a major problem among Japanese intellectuals since they encountered Western ideas at the end of nineteenth century to the present. However, these ideas have not been thoroughly articulated in the Western sense. As Michael Polanyi maintains in his book, The Tacit Dimension, certain ideas – or what he calls them gtacit knowledgeh – do not take the form of language yet nevertheless play important roles in a society. Unlike Western ideas, East Asian ideas, including Japanese gtacit knowledge,h are often inseparable from their practice. From a Western viewpoint, these ideas are an integration (or mixture) of philosophy, religion, art, moral, and life style. In premodern Japan, intellectuals were receptacles of ideas of East Asian thought, but they had not developed a way to articulate these ideas. Non-intellectuals practiced these ideas, and intellectuals verbalized these ideas, but the native articulation was seen to be somewhat incomplete after the introduction of the system of Western thought. The gJapaneseh (Tezuka) replies in answering Heidegger that the Japanese language glacks the delimiting power to represent objects related in an unequivocal order above and below each other.h[71] Whether this is true or not, Japanese intellectuals needed to arm themselves with Western ideas, as well as to explain native Japanese ideas. With the emergence of national identity, this situation spawned an ambivalent attitude toward the West. In order to be nationalistic, Japanese intellectuals could not avoid training themselves in Western ways and employing Western discourse. Originally, iki belonged to Edokko, non-intellectuals townspeople of Edo, and Kuki gave it a status within intellectual discourse. The definition of iki had to be given – although it may not be perfect – by an individual at a certain point in order to articulate iki academically.

2.3.2.  Relativity of Iki

Although I sympathize with Kuki in his anxiety of losing onefs own culture, I maintain that the study of iki will contribute to enriching not only Japanese aesthetics, but also comparative aesthetics. Contrary to Kukifs attempt to seek a gstrict meaningh[72] of iki, iki is a relative, flexible value but not an absolute, exclusive value.

Iki is an etymologically flexible word. If not futile, it would be very difficult to give precise definition of iki, it being a colorful concept. When a Japanese word is written with different ideograms, the same single (phonetically identical) word can carry dozens of different nuances, sometimes quite different meaning. When a Japanese word is written with phonograms, either hiragana or katakana, the word leaves the possibility of interpretation opened. Takeuchi lists fourteen examples[73] of different ideograms appeared in Edo literature and popular songs, each one of them having different nuances, used for this single word, iki. Kuki himself lists four different connotations of iki.[74] If iki is written with phonograms, as Kuki did for the title of his book, the precise meaning of the word become almost indeterminable.

Manifestations of iki oscillate depending on the context. For example, Kuki recognized iki in stripes, especially vertical rather than horizontal ones. However, as Kuki admits himself, horizontal stripes can be iki when the sensation and emotion is insensible to vertical stripes.[75]

3.    Recontextualization of Iki as An Aesthetics of Everyday life

3.1.  Iki as an Alternative Aesthetics Based on Everyday Life

Despite his use of Western methodology, Kuki originally presupposes that there is no iki in the West (although Kuki does see iki in the West as explained later), and his text seems to miss several important points for Western readers. In his attempt to authenticate iki, Kuki seemed to deliberately ignore the properties of everyday life,h or everydayness (nichijô-sei) in iki.

What Kuki seemed to miss is that iki is primarily aesthetics of everyday experience rather than artistic experience. As Tada calls iki a gprofane aesthetics,h[76] the everydayness of iki need more attention to clarify the position in relation to Western aesthetics that are firmly based on art and works of art rather than aesthetic experiences from everyday life. Although this cannot be an exhaustive account of conditions of iki, and I do not intend to propose a new structure of iki, I will re-examine iki with an emphasis on everydayness.

I would like to add two axes reflecting everydayness for the purpose of comparison with Western ideas – namely, simplicity and implicitness. Everydayness is essential to iki, and very helpful to understanding iki, as Yasuda defines iki as gaesthetics of craftsmenfs, aesthetics of common people, or aesthetics in (everyday) life.h[77] I would like to expound on this idea in the following section.

3.2.  Formal Iki and Situational Iki

In order to approach iki, it would be useful to think of iki from two different viewpoints – formal and situational. Kuki distinguishes gconscious phenomenah such as a personfs disposition and gobjective manifestationsh[78] as appearance, behavior, and fashion[79] but this terminology poses a certain problem. To Kuki, iki is a gmeaning experienced in a form of national embodiments,h that is only accessible to the Japanese and he insists that iki must be understood first as gconscious phenomena,h then as gobjective manifestations.h[80] Here, Kuki falls into a logical trap. If the reader (a Japanese) already knows what iki is, no further explanation is necessary. In other words, if an explanation can articulate what iki is to a Japanese, then it should also serve non-Japanese readers.

In order to demonstrate the explicability of iki, I will use viewpoints slightly different from Kukifs, which are formal and situational. Formal iki is iki manifested on objects at a formal level. The judgment of formal iki is based on concrete appearances. One observes formal iki in design, color, or objects. On the other hand, situational iki is iki perceived from the whole situation, but not from any particular object. Situational iki is primarily applied to the whole of action, understanding discretion in love affairs, behavior, ambiance, or lifestyle of person, or it could be applied to natural phenomena (such as a sprinkle or a willow.) A phrase of an Edo popular song goes:

An iki crow doesnft caw at dawn, tyoito-tyoito, only a yabo crow caws frantically.

This phrase blames a crowfs cawing at dawn as if to hurry the couple who spent a night together.

Particular contexts or situations contribute to yielding or enhancing iki. While Kukifs gconscious phenomenah (which is not present in non-Japanese, according to Kuki) must precede gobjective manifestations,h situational iki does not necessarily precede formal iki. Formal iki and situational iki are closely connected and not mutually exclusive. However, it is situational iki that characterize iki as an intriguing aesthetic ideal. One might even call iki as a gsituation aesthetics.h

In modern Japanese, iki is more often used in its situational sense rather than its formal sense. There seems to be no consensus on iki colors in modern Japanese, for example, but iki tends to refer to the quality of scheme, combination, and actual use of color rather than the color itself. Examples of manifestations of iki brought up by Kuki are sometimes too analytical, and rigid, such as limiting iki color only to gray, brown, and blue[81]. There is a danger of reducing iki to merely certain preferences of colors, designs, or patterns. Situational iki allows a wider, more flexible interpretation and it is relative and context dependent, subject to change.

3.3.  Simplicity of Iki

Although simplicity is a shared characteristic of Japanese aesthetic ideals, such as wabi[82] or sabi[83], it is one of the distinct properties of iki, especially in comparison with non-Japanese aesthetic ideals. The simplicity of iki includes geometrical simplicity at a visual level, and at a more abstract level, structural simplicity. The former corresponds with formal iki while the latter with situational iki.

When Kuki elaborates on artistic manifestations of iki in The Structure of gIki,h two things should be noted. First, contrary to Kukifs conclusion, these manifestations are not phenomena unique to Japan, but on the contrary, fairly circulative. One should note that the fact that the notion of iki is not found universally does not hinder iki from being understood outside of Japan. Iki does not necessarily universally exist, but it can provide an alternative aesthetic viewpoint.

One can observe iki in geometrical simplicity at the level of concrete visual representations. According to Kuki, certain simple geometrical patterns can yield a sense of iki. Kuki deals in highly visually abstracted patterns, such as that which might be associated with the simplicity observed in some modern art movements. To Kuki, gnothing but parallel lines can expressh[84] the dichotomy of the gself and the opposite sex.h[85] Kuki clearly declares that a gcomplex pattern is not iki.h[86] To Kuki, even a swastika (manji)[87] appears to be gcomplexh when it is compared with stripes. He also claims that a radiant pattern[88] is not iki because the visual expression of iki must be indifferent and purposeless by avoiding concentration.[89] Kuki states: gpictorial patterns are not iki when they are contrasted with geometrical patterns.h He limits the application of iki to concrete visual art, but not abstract visual art. Kuki lists the following formal conditions to fit manifestations of iki in a work of concrete visual art: when it is drawing primarily based on outline rather than painting, the colors are not rich, and its composition is not complicated.[90] For example, Kuki points out that painting must be gcompositionally simpleh to qualify as iki, although painting is not exactly the artistic form best suited to convey the sense of iki. He also lists simple hairstyle[91] and natural make up[92] as spontaneous manifestations of iki, but fails to observe that simplicity is a common required condition for iki. The question of simplicity here overlaps with the concerns toward simplicity of some modern artists. The reason why some modern Western artists are regarded as grevolutionaryh is partly because their geometrical simplicity contrasts with preceding concrete art movements. Ironically, Ludwig Mies van der Rohefs motto, gless is moreh inadvertently reveals the inherited phobia of simplicity, or incessant decorative impulse in Western art, which can be read as: gmore is better.h (Hence, gless is better.h) This is not to say simplicity was not an aesthetic issue in the West, however, simplicity did not gain wide popularity until the advent of modernism, and artists, poets, and philosophers such as William Morris, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau started to praise simplicity. It is modernism that brought simplicity into everyday life. On the other hand, Japanese have plenty of words to describe positive simplicity such as assari, sappari, sukkiri, soboku, etc, and the word kirei, which describes gcleanliness without dusts or dirth also signifies gbeautiful.h

It is quite possible that Kuki consciously avoided referring to his contemporary Western artists producing abstract, geometrical painting with an intention to highlight his presupposed guniquenessh of iki. It is interesting that even though Kuki does not mention many of his contemporary modern abstract artists[93] but concrete artists such as Jean Antoine Watteau, Constantin Guy, and Edgar Degas.[94] Kuki reaches strikingly clear parallels of abstract modern artists in terms of pursuit of simplicity. Although the use of primary colors may not exactly conform the choices of iki colors (gray, brown, and blue), it would not be hard to imagine that the stern geometrical simplicity of abstract art, especially Mondrianfs compositions, carry certain elements of iki, if not all of them.

As much as concrete representation, one sees iki in abstract simplicity, which corresponds to situational iki. One extremely simplified – not only visually, but structurally – form of art would be ga choice,h as Marcel Duchamp demonstrated gready-mades.h As seen in his Fountain, a urinal, or any mass-produced artifact gbecomesh works of art, when it is chosen, signed, and placed in a museum.

Alan Watts equates carefully-chosen rocks in a Japanese garden with objet trouvé.

So this rock that you would find in a Japanese garden is the uncarved block, or what we call in the West objet trouvé where the artist instead of making something, selects it. He finds a glorious thing and shares his finding with other people, and that finding is a work of art.[95]

Duchampfs stance would be much more appropriately called ganti-arth rather than gnon-arth since to him art is visible and what he did was to obscure it, deconstruct it. On the other hand, iki is an aesthetics of non-art, because art[96] in the Western sense did not exist in premodern Japan when iki was practiced, since the boundary between garth and geverydayh was non-existent from the beginning. The criterion gJapanese arth is essentially a Western product.

To decide gsomething is not arth may be easier than to decide gsomething is art,h because artistic phenomena are less than non-artistic phenomena, the rest, non-art that is everyday life. In the West, a part of everyday life includes art, but the whole of everyday life is not art. Art is an attempt to differentiate a part of everyday life in order to make it more than everyday life. In the Western context, everydayness is the norm that should be destroyed in order to be creative. A work of art must be framed, distinguished, authenticated, spotlighted, and highlighted to be a legitimate gwork of art,h to be different from everyday life. As an accomplice of artists, the museum is an institution to support this project called art.

Duchampfs gready-madesh problematized the traditional Western concept of the work of art and blurred the boundary between garth and gnon-art,h or geverydayness.h By presenting a urinal as a work of art, Duchamp demonstrated that a museum is an instrument to create the field of art, that art is a product of concept, and that art does not reside in the physical work. It seems quite appropriate to apply the term iki to L.H.O.O.Q., another gworkh by Duchamp in its modern, extended sense. By adding a moustache to the Mona Lisa, he breaks the stalemate between garth and gnon-art.h He gave the Mona Lisa a new meaning in a new context in the simplest and most sophisticated manner. In iki, the aesthetics of everyday life, or practical aesthetics do not require garth, but choices made in everyday life in the simplest form were valuable as any works of art. In iki, gto be simple,h or the orientation toward simplicity in everyday life forms an aesthetic experience that in itself yields pleasure. An oxymoron gsophisticated artlessnessh seems to describe this aspect of iki well.

3.4.  Implicitness of Iki Museum as a Counter Example

Iki avoids explicitness, eloquence, and verboseness. Implicitness is another axis to be added to the understanding of iki. The concept of beauty allows narcissism, which may involve the self-asserting statement gI am beautiful.h A narcissist statement does not disqualify someone from being beautiful. In the case of iki, however, the statement gI am ikih is impossible because iki must not be self-asserting and explicit, but rather, inconspicuous and implicit. One might characterize the inconspicuous, implicitness of iki as gan aesthetics of the back.h Face-to-face is not considered to be iki, and is avoided in manifestations of iki. Nishiyama lists an ukiyo-e by Hishikawa Moronobu[97], Mikaeri bijin (The beauty who looks back) as a manifestation of iki.[98] Known to philatelists because it was used as a design for a Japanese stamp, this masterpiece captures the moment when a young woman looks back, showing her profile. When one compares the figures in ukiyo-e with Western classical portraits – for instance the Mona Lisa, who stares back directly at the viewer – one immediately notices the difference. It is almost impossible to find an ukiyo-e image resembling to the well-known propagandistic poster, I Want You (1917) by American painter James Montgomery Flagg, featuring a stern Uncle Sam pointing a finger directly at the viewer. This was not simply because ukiyo-e was not propagandistic, but because a figure staring back was not iki. One is given the impression that one is not looking face-to-face in any ukiyo-e not only in a physical sense, but also in an emotional sense. It is worth mentioning that the decorative knot of the belt (obi) of a kimono is designed to be placed on the back in a womanfs kimono, but rarely at the front.[99] The emphasis of the beauty of the nape in nukiemon also confirms that showing onefs back is important in the corporal manifestations of iki.

As a kind of corporal manifestations of iki, it is possible to determine the aesthetically best relative position of two people in terms of iki, especially a man and a woman in reality, or in paintings or films. The best iki relative position would be back-to-back. Tada suggests that back-to-back is the source of Kukifs idea of the suspended tension of gdualismh[100] between a man and woman, in contrast with the occasion the face-to-face embrace resolve the tension in the West. Yasuda points out that Kuki might have seen a boudeuse, a type of double sofa in the figure of the letter S that appeared in nineteenth-century Paris, and which has two seats facing opposite directions, in which Tada sees iki.[101]

The absence of museums in Japan is an interesting case for exemplifying the implicitness of iki practiced in everyday life. The fact that there was no institutional art museum founded in traditional Japanese culture suggests a difference between the attitudes of Japanese and Western aesthetics. The first modern Western art museum in Japan, the Ohara Museum of Art was not built until 1930, coinciding with the publication year of The Structure of gIki.h It is hard to find examples of even temporary art exhibits in premodern Japanese culture.

Ukiyo-e, for instance, was certainly not considered gart.h Nute states that ukiyo-e was gprimarily a form of popular entertainment, and certainly not bijutsu or fine art.h[102] As it is well known, ukiyo-e was typically used as wrapping paper in Japan, and its gartistic valueh was effectively gdiscoveredh in the West. Ukiyo-e was appreciated rather personally, but few of the Japanese at that time would imagine gexhibitingh ukiyo-e in a public place. Therefore, the first substantial exhibition of ukiyo-e was held in the US, not in Japan, and even then, it was initiated by an American, Ernest Fenollosa.h[103]

Nute continues:

Indeed, when the World Columbian Exposition opened in May 1893, the first extensive exhibition of ukiyo-e prints in the United States – Fenollosafs gHokusai and His Schoolh exhibition at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts – had only just ended; and the first public exhibition of common ukiyo-e in Japan was not held until some five years later, and again this was partly organized by Fenollosa.[104]

One might even call an art museum a yabo (the opposite of iki) place since its primary objective is to explicitly exhibit artifacts. Verbosity of labels and explanations of works backed by intellectual backgrounds does not comply with iki. Okakura writes: gTo a Japanese, accustomed to simplicity of ornamentation and frequent change of decorative method, a Western interior permanently filled with a vast array of pictures, statuary, and bric-à-brac gives the impression of mere vulgar display of riches.h[105]

A museum collects artifacts and attracts the focus of the visitorsf attention, but iki avoids focus and despise intellectual analysis. The curators must be able to answer the visitorsf questions and everything must be clarified with thorough examination and articulation in this particular cultural field – namely, the museum – that dissociates itself from everydayness. This fissure between art and everyday life within a museum make the place yabo. The aesthetic experiences gained from the encounter with artifacts are confined in a museum. The artifacts shown in a museum are gpure art,h which are detached from the context of everyday life. In this sense, both the tea ceremony and a tokonoma are qualified as being iki in a larger sense because they are not verbosely explanatory, and art and everyday life are not estranged, but remain inseparable.

3.5.  Iki as gNon-arth

Iki is gnon-art,h or artlessness, and iki is different from either artistic or anti-artistic attitude. One will not find an entry for iki in A dictionary of Japanese art terms despite its importance as an aesthetic ideal, not because it is an extremely rare term but because iki is characterized by its non-artness. An anti-artistic movement is just another term for denoting another artistic movement, such as Dadaism or surrealism. This happens in the same way that iconoclasm based on iconophobia leads to a mere replacement of the old iconolatry with the new one. After eighty years since its first exhibition, the shock brought by Duchampfs Fountain is considerably weakened, and it is canonized as a work of art. Following gcommon course of thinking,h[106] in The Structure of gIki,h Kuki decides not to question the difference between spontaneous manifestations and artistic manifestations of iki. Here, he seemed to miss a crucial point, not realizing that the Western idea of garth must be examined when he deals with a Japanese aesthetics. Kuki calls patterns in design, architecture, and music as subjective, or free art, and in painting, sculpture, and poem as objective, or mimetic art.[107] Kuki mainly finds iki in free art rather than mimic art. He maintains that this is because free art is less restricted by concrete manifestations of iki but has a full possibility in abstract manifestations of iki. One will notice that all three examples of free art (in his classification) – design, architecture, and music – do not fit the typical definition of art in its strictest sense. This is not surprising, as Japanese aesthetics, especially iki, focuses on aesthetic experience rather than works of art.

If one examines the problem closely, one will immediately face the difficulty of using the term gJapanese art.h The usage of this word is very loose, but some Japanese aesthetic ideals, especially iki, actually conflict with the very idea of gart.h The differences in value systems require careful examination when comparing gJapanese arth and Western art. For example, the essential activities often referred to as gJapanese arth such as calligraphy, flower-arrangement, tea ceremony, gardening, and bonsai cannot be immediately placed in the context of Western art history. The term gJapanese arth is elusive because art is tightly integrated with everyday life – to be precise, they were not separated in premodern Japanese culture. The term gJapanese arth can only be possible when one accepts this different approach to the word gart.h

3.5.1.  Tea Ceremony

One may be temped to equate the Japanese tea ceremony with an art exhibition, but, in fact, they show essentially different characteristics. The tea master must show not only his or her skills in handling tea wares in the proper manner, and in choosing proper tea and sweets, but also in exhibiting a scroll, flower-arrangement, and tea cups all in harmonious coordination according to the season and circumstances. Teacups made by notable craftsmen can indeed be considered gworks of art,h and the visitors are expected to make witty comments about the teacups. At first sight, this whole situation may show a resemblance to a visitor commenting on a work of art in a museum. However, unlike works of art, these teacups actually serve their instrumental purpose, as receptacles for drinking tea. No separate pieces of this experience are considered to be independent works of art to be appreciated, but rather, what matters here is the whole aesthetic experience embedded in one day of the incessant current of onefs life. It is the whole environment and the moments in which the experience takes place, from the architecture of the teahouse and the garden to the design of the teacup, or the entire gsituationh of tea ceremony that naturally fits into the context of everyday life. Ekuan Kenji explains the significance of drinking tea:

The ritual drinking of tea gathered all elements of daily communication into the tea hut. Drinking tea and partaking of food are daily activities. But, into these, the tea ceremony introduced a revolution in beauty and appreciation. A fresh aesthetic renewed the texture of existence. The everyday activities of drinking tea and eating were organized into a code of manners, long with an etiquette for the use of space and utensils drawing each participant into an almost spiritual dialogue.[108]

3.5.2.  Japanese Alcove (Tokonoma)

Another good example of the inseparable state of everyday life and art is seen in the alcove in a Japanese house called tokonoma. Whether a house follows traditionally Japanese or Western style, most Japanese homes have at least one Japanese-style room.[109] Inside the Japanese style room (washitsu), there is a designated alcove in which is placed a vase of flower arrangement or an ornament (okimono) such as curiously-shaped natural stones, and a scroll of East Asian painting or calligraphy on its wall. Only a few objects are displayed on any one occasion, and these must maintain the metaphorical connections among themselves taking into account the context of the season. Here, the entire harmony has a priority over the values of artifacts. A modern Japanese writer, Tanizaki Junfichirô, describes the importance of context in Japanese alcoves in his Praise of Shadows: gEven the greatest masterpiece will lose its worth as a scroll if it fails to blend with the alcove, while a work of no particular distinction may blend beautifully with the room and set off to unexpected advantage both itself and its surroundings.h[110] When one compares tokonoma and art exhibition, it is clear that tokonoma places the utmost emphasis on the context rather than objects.

3.5.3.  Repetition and Ritual

Everyday life necessarily includes ritual aspects. It is our tendency to rationalize the situation, but we cannot concentrate all our efforts into investigating what is happening around us. We do not have the time to extricate ourselves from a situation and simply analyze it. Therefore, we cease our investigation, and must proceed without further rationalization. We habitually do many things without any persuasive reasons.

Let us assume that art is the creation of new value: rituals, thus cannot be art because it could be valuable but it does not create any new value (unless creating new rituals, such as the gGolden Dawnh and other modern ceremonious magic groups). In a Western context, the word grepetitionh or its derivative grepetitioush almost immediately connotes a negative meaning. Ritual is, by definition, a repetition, and often a target of elimination in the course of modernization. However, the meaning of ritual depends on the attitude of participants. A wedding in a modern society, for example, is a widely accepted ritual because it is generally a once-in-a-lifetime event, or not so many times from the viewpoint of the couple, but it could be boring for some visitors who find it repetitious.

In Japanese aesthetics, however, repetition is not a problem for giving meaning to ritual. Kuki takes gwoman just finished bathingh[111] (Yuagari-sugata) as an example of a spontaneous manifestation of iki. He maintains gHaving the reminiscent image of nude in the immediate past, in a woman dressing casually in a simple yukata (a traditional Japanese cloth worn after bathing), the erotic allure and its formal cause complete an expression of iki.h [112] This is not an artistic event or situation, but it is an almost ginsignificanth event in everyday life.

Other examples of spontaneous manifestations of iki include the locution of casual conversation, a certain posture, dressing in a gauzy cloth, a slim body, a slender face, light makeup, simple hairstyle, going barefoot etc[113]., suggesting how innocuous everyday phenomena emit iki. On the other hand, works of art can be iki, but their gartfulnessh makes them rather difficult to be iki. Paying attention to the above-mentioned everyday phenomena has been satisfying the aesthetic desire of the Japanese. The stereotypical remark on the Japanese is that they glack creativity,h but this is not necessarily taken as an insult. An aesthetics of everyday life places emphasis on aesthetic consumption (that is, appreciation) rather than aesthetic creation. A glivedh ritual is different from the neurotic behavior of compulsory repetition, in which one cannot stop acting despite his own recognition of the meaninglessness of the action. The Japanese are not bored with repeating rituals, because they find value in repeating. Since each action is repetitious, repetition within an action is avoided. As Okakura Kakuzô observes in the Book of Tea,

In the tea-room the fear of repetition is a constant presence. The various objects for the decoration of a room should be so selected that no colour or design shall be repeated. If you have a living flower, a painting of flower is not allowable. If you are using a round kettle, the water pitcher should be angular. A cup with a black glaze should not be associated with a tea-caddy of black lacquer.[114]

A Japanese prostitute, a Greek philosopher, and a French painter do not necessarily share the same everyday life, but we can extract the common attributes of everyday life in all of them. The common attributes associated with everyday life could be described as gcommonplace,h gstagnate,h gcomplacent,h gritualistic,h and so on. These attributes do not necessarily play an active role in Western aesthetics. If art is about the unyielding attempt to create new values, and everyday life is about immersing complacency of self-satisfaction, art and everyday life seem to show a polarity in the West. Everyday life plays a crucial role in Japanese aesthetics as gthe properties of everyday life,h most notably in iki where aesthetic experiences override the significance of individual works of art.

A Russian Formalist critic, Victor Shklovsky maintains that gdefamiliarizationh is crucial to art.

. . . art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feels things, to make the stone stony. The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects gunfamiliar,h to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged. Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object; the object is not important.[115]

To a certain extent, this Formalist attempt at defining art is applicable to the elaboration on how iki works. When the gobject is not important,h the focus shifts to experience from work. When one read Shklovskyfs gartfulnessh as gaesthetic quality,h this principle can be applied to describe how iki works relative to the norm of everyday life. The difference between the Formalist approach and iki is that while the Formalists ultimately depart life and intend art – whether it is an object or not – iki encompasses art into everyday life.

3.5.4.  Iki as Shaking of Everydayness

It is not possible to give a full account of everydayness because the characteristic of everydayness lies in its very guncharacteristicness.h Iki could be thought of as gthe shaking of everydayness.h Everydayness is not necessarily complacence or stagnation, but rather, lively homeostasis when it is stimulated by iki. Tada notes that the gflows of commodities, persons, informationh of the Edo pleasure quarters or fish market where manifestations of iki are abundant, are the gopposite of the sense of stagnation.h[116] Manifestations of iki do not seriously undermine everydayness as some Western art does under the name of creativity, nor are they buried in everydayness. Rather, they reside on the boundary of the everyday and the non-everyday. They resist everydayness, but they do not aggressively destroy everydayness. Since the homeostasis of everydayness is sufficiently stable, when certain manifestations of iki occasionally shake the everydayness, increased sensitivity brings aesthetic pleasure with even subtle, slight changes emerging on the surface of everydayness.

What Kuki lists as spontaneous manifestations of iki – primarily modeled after rakish Fukagawa geisha – in a slightly relaxed posture, dressing in light clothes, or in yukata just finished bathing, woman with a slender, willowy figure with a slender face, in bare foot, with light make up, in simple hair style, revealed nape or foot, and making slight gestures of hands. Or iki natural phenomena such as a sprinkle or branches or willow – these are all common scenes encountered in everyday life, but sensitiveness can catch and appreciate the subtlety.

The principle of defamiliarization is also applicable here as much as to Formalist art to the extent that gsomething differenth from the norm is appreciated in iki. However, manifestations of iki do not accumulate to bring irreversible change. They fall back to the current of everydayness. Thus, one is able to gain pleasure repeatedly with sensibility towards subtle changes, whereas some Western art continuously seeks for newer, stronger stimuli, possibly spoiling sensibility toward subtle nuances and change that could be appreciable otherwise.

4.    Examples of iki in modernity and the West

4.1.  No iki in the West?

Kuki claims that gThe fact that there is no equivalent word of iki in the West, a conscious phenomena called iki has no place as a certain meaning in the ethnic being of the Western cultureh[117] In this claim, he almost disregards that any culture is subjected to change, and a foreign word could be integrated in a culture. However, Minami Hiroshi and Tada Michitarô among other critics note that the understanding and application of iki can be extended to modern and non-Japanese cultural phenomena beyond its original space and time, Edo[118]. As we shall see later, Kuki himself applies iki to Western cultural phenomena in his own poetry. Kuki also writes in a note to a brief essay in French, gThé­­âtre Japonaish: gIl y a quelques années jfai été très heureux de voir la technique de hanamichi appliqué dans un des music-halls parisien, aux Champs-Elysées.h[119] There is no more description of what he found, but I see here that Kuki wished iki to find intercultural application rather than remain incomprehensible to the West.

4.2.  Iki in Modernity and the West

Some modern cultural phenomena, as well as Western cultural phenomena seem to manifest iki, reflecting Kukifs observations of iki. Kuki inadvertently reveals his own attempts to apply iki to modern and/or Western cultural phenomena. Minami points out Kukifs association with several French women during his stay in Paris from Kukifs poetry.[120] This period, from 1925 to 1927 curiously coincides with Kukifs drafting of The Structure of gIki.h Minami notes that Kuki finds manifestations of iki in Paris from his multiple uses of the word iki in his own series of poetry in reference to French women.[121] The names of dozens of French women haunt his poetry, gPari Shinkei (Paris, a landscape in my mind).h After Minami and Pincus, I cite here one of Kukifs poems as irrefutable evidence of his discovery of iki in the West. These lines are taken from a poem titled gFish Restauranth in the form of a dialogue between a man from ga distant Eastern archipelago,h and a parisienne, who are about to go to their favorite fish restaurant for dinner. The parisienne says:

Dressed in black silk
My figure will simmer
   against silvery walls,
A chaste white rose at my breast
A strand of pearls at my throat
Around my wrist, a platinum watch
And on my finger, a white diamond ring.
A hat, the color of sea lettuce,
   Set low at a rakish (iki) slant.
Allow me a touch of red on my lips,
And tell me once more Ifm your princess of the sea. [122]

Minami notes in Kukifs poem gThe son of the doorkeeper,h gan example of iki not only in forms or voice, but also behaviorh[123] on a French boy, François playing harmonica for the lovers.

In the room next to ours,
You were playing harmonica
The barcarolle sings:
gThe beautiful night, the night of love,h
From the Tales of Hoffmann
Who told you to do us
Such iki service?[124]

Here, iki is used to describe a smart discretion based on sympathetic discernment in the matters of love, frequently expressed as a set phrase, giki discretionh (ikina hakarai) in Japanese.

In another poem, a jealous Susanne blames a man who was carried away by a Russian diva.

Isnft it right?
Yes, I know that.
You were gazing on
The chanteuse who sang
The flirtatious chanson
In her seductive, iki voice
With your enraptured eyes.[125]

In this poem, gerotic allureh would be the closest meaning of iki. 

Tada sees the possible application of iki transcending national characteristics in his dialogue with Yasuda.

Tada: Of course, the whole of iki is a characteristic of an ethnic group (the Japanese), and it is absolutely impossible to transplant it to Europe. However, it is possible to appropriate iki by taking in certain factors of it (even to those who are not familiar with iki). In this sense, iki can have universality and communicability. This is my reading of The Structure of gIki.h If this is the case, even if iki is extinct, something new will be yielded.[126]

Kuki does state that iki is ga lifestyle unique to the Japanese,h[127] but he does not explicitly deny the Western understanding of iki. Rather, his extensive use of Western philosophical devices suggests that the understanding and application of iki is not limited to the Japanese. If we take Kuki for an exclusive nationalist who refuses communication with the world outside Japan, it would be difficult to explain Kukifs seeming inconsistency by explaining a Japanese aesthetic ideal with Western philosophical approaches. What Kuki drove at was a cultural concern rather than a nationalistic or political one. Kuki writes in his brief essay gCfest le paysanh in French: gje parlerai de mon pays, je risquerais même dfêtre un paysan. Il ne sera question ni de politique, ni de commerce, ni de lfarmée et la marine. Laissons de côté ces choses superficielles.h [128]

4.2.1  Fashion and Hairstyle

It would not be inappropriate to seek spontaneous manifestations of iki in modern fashion and hairstyle. In fact, certain modern cultural phenomena suit very well what Kuki described in his book. For example, deep navy blue or indigo blue[129] jeans can be iki, if they are straight[130] and remain as simple as possible without any variations in decorative patterns[131]. A T-shirt is an equivalent of yukata, a simple kimono that is considered iki, in its use as casual wear, its material (cotton), and its simplicity. As for hairstyle, Kuki notes, gsimple hairstyle manifests iki.h[132] For example, a masculine woman is not always necessarily iki, but a slender girl with short hair wearing a T-shirt and pants can be seen to manifest iki. In connection with concrete images in films, it is not wide of the mark to say that a boyish girl figure, such as Jean Seberg in Jean-Luc Godardfs film, A bout de souffle (1959) and Feye Wang in Chungking Express (1994) by Wong Kar-wai, carry iki. They seem to conform to the standards of iki – slender, natural makeup, simple hairstyle, and moreover, in the provocative, but implicit gallureh and gprideh of their boyish outfit. Minami, following Nishimura Shinji[133], points out the swapping of masculinity and femininity at the level of both emotion and fashion around the pleasure quarters.[134] Fukagawa female geisha[135] had typically male names, such as Yonehachi. They also dressed in menfs kimono, haori, and they talked and behaved like men[136]. In addition, we may safely consider the ponytail as iki from its simplicity and casualness, and that it parallels to nukiemon.[137] As Kuki explains: gOne finds iki in revealed nape,h and it is not explicitly erotic, but gsubtly implies the passage to skin.h[138]

4.2.2  Iki in Behavior

Iki does not only appear as physical manifestations but also behavioral manifestations as situational iki. We find iki in dramatic moments of gresolution of triangular relationh in literature and film. One who gives up his or her own love often manifests iki, because there is conspicuous eroticism in the resignation of his or her pride. One finds iki when Cyrano expresses love for his rival in Edmond Rostandfs novel, Cyrano de Bergerac, or when Rick gives up his love for the sake of the one whom he loved in Casablanca (1942).

This role is often played by supporting characters as well as heroes and heroines. Hans Sachs who withdraws himself in Richard Wagnerfs Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is iki. A Fukagawa geisha Yonehachi, who suppresses agonizing jealousy, is considered a typically iki figure in a ninjôbon (realistic romantic novel, a genre of Edo literature), Shunshoku umegoyomi (The Colors of Spring, Plum Calendar) by Tamenaga Shunsui.[139]

4.3.  Modern Artistic Manifestations of Iki

4.3.2.  Architecture - Iki in the Robie House

It is not unreasonable to find manifestations of iki in one of Wrightfs masterpiece, the Frederic C. Robie House (1908-10) in Chicago. In fact, many elements of the Robie House successfully match Kukifs models of iki. Although it is not my purpose to prove the influence of iki on Wright in terms of art history, the Robie House will serve as an example of a possible application of iki on Western cultural phenomena.

Kuki[140] and Takeuchi[141] make note of the iki on ukiyo-e, which had a considerable impact on modern Western art. In relation to Wright, Nute extensively discussed the relationship between ukiyo-e and Wrightfs architecture.[142] Nute counts among Wrightfs views of ukiyo-e as a gdemocratic expression of ordinary life.h[143] It is probable that Wright was inspired by the abstract elements known to us as iki from ukiyo-e, as we shall see later. It is not a coincidence that Kukifs father, Baron Kuki Ryûichi,[144] in alliance with Okakura Kakuzô[145] in support of the Japanese fine-art exhibit at the 1893 Worldfs Columbian Exposition, introduced Japanese architecture to Wright for the very first time and immensely inspired him.[146]

Kuki cites traditional teahouse architecture as a manifestation of iki. As Kevin Nute relates at length, teahouse, or sukiya architecture had a gspecial importanceh to Frank Lloyd Wright, according to Wrightfs own words.[147] Nakao Tatsurô suggests a folk etymological link between the aesthetic ideal closely connected to iki, sui, and the assignment of ideograms suki in sukiya.[148]

William Jordy notes the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement on Wright, and that gthe Arts and Crafts movement had been influenced by an enthusiasm for Japanese art, an enthusiasm shared by Wright.h[149] Jordy also says that Wright built ga small shingle house for himself in Oak Park, its interior revealing influences from both the Arts and Crafts movement and from Japanese designh in 1889.[150] Jordy passionately continues to point out the formal similarities, nageshi, the grooved horizontal members just overhead of traditional Japanese house. Jordy maintains Wright gcould plausibly (if exaggeratedly) assert that it was not Japanese architecture that claimed his attention, but the Japanese prints that he collectedh because Wright is the only one who used the Japanese-inspired elements gas abstractly and creatively.h Although it may be not easy to determine which influences are greater, whether ukiyo-e or actual Japanese architecture, it is certain that what influenced Wright are not only formal imitation, but also abstract aesthetic qualities in premodern Japanese design. It is not my purpose to evaluate the degree of the influence of Japanese design on Wright, but to confirm the circulativity of the Japanese aesthetic quality that impressed Wright; namely, iki.

The Robie House clearly stands out among other houses in the area in many ways. The first thing that one notices about the appearance of the Robie House is its extensive use of straight lines. Although heavily influenced by Chinese architecture, premodern Japanese architecture is distinguished from Chinese style in its strict preference of iki straight lines over elegant curves, for example, the round roof of a typical fifteenth-century Ming dynasty architecture, the Altar of Heaven, or the frequent uses of arches in the Forbidden City. If you are familiar with Japanese architecture, you will immediately have a sense of déjà-vu when you see the straight lines and stripes appearing in the Robie House. Kuki admits geometrically accurate circular or semicircular windows[151] typically used in teahouse architecture, as seen in a work of ukiyo-e, gView from Massakih by Andou Hiroshige. However, he maintains that iki architecture gavoids curvesh as a rule.[152] The use of straight outlines throughout the Robie House conform to this rule with only one exception, which is a part of the ceiling to pull the attention of visitors and lead them to the second floor.

The Robie House shows distinctive harmonious simplicity. Nute quotes Wrightfs fellow Prairie School architect Thomas Tallmadge:

One further aspect of his [Wrightfs] art should receive attention – namely, his debt to the Japanese. From them he received inspiration and encouragement to reduce the requirement for a house – as, for instance the number of rooms – to the simplest terms, and to eliminate as far as possible such appurtenances as furniture, picture, and so forth. From the Japanese, too, he learned to make doors and windows an integral part of the design, not floating on its surfaces.[153]

This harmonious simplicity appears as various parts of the Robie House. The bricks used in the Robie House are Roman bricks that are narrower and longer than standard bricks. He also ghad the masons conceal all the vertical joints while all horizontal joints were deeply underscored.h[154] While surrounding Victorian houses using ordinary brick do not show clear stripes and resulting heavy gbrick pattern,h the arrays of the bricks consisting of walls the Robie House show clear stripes, important manifestations of iki noted by Kuki. As Donald Hoffmann, William Jordy, and Joseph Connors remarked, this brickwork is an important quality of the Robie House as gWright picked the Robie House along with Cheney House and the Imperial Hotel as examples of his best brickwork.h[155] If the stripes were too narrow, they might be elegant but not iki, but they have gadequate width and simplicityh so that the gdualism is clearly perceived.h[156] Horizontal stripes of walls may not sound iki at first, as iki prefers vertical stripes seen in the lightness[157] of a sprinkle or a willow to horizontal stripes. However, the ghoveringh roof planes, as Wright puts it, a characteristic of the Prairie House, does not convey a gheaviness of stratah[158] in the Robie House. Moreover, horizontal stripes are iki among towers and vertical structure of Victorian houses as Kuki says ghorizontal stripes can be sensed as iki with fresh taste especially when our sensation and emotion become dull toward vertical stripes.h[159] Although the roof structure looks quite stable, the simple structure that lacks gables and whose flat eaves extend horizontally creates unusual lightness that cannot be seen on adjacent buildings. The dull orange-red, almost subdued brown color of bricks also contributes to iki, since gthere would no color but brown (gtea colorh in Japanese ideograms) the preferred color for iki.[160]

The small, inconspicuous entrance reminds us of sukiya architecture. Although on a bigger scale, the principle of gcrawlh into the space is the same in the Robie House. Inside the house, there are many ggrille worksh reminding us of parallel wooden bars bringing the sense of iki stripes. They appear as a part of a wall, a quasi-ranma[161], a part of a handrail of a staircase, and grille covers of heating. Indirect lightings called gmoon lighth inspired by the shoji[162] or andon[163] but replace synthetic resin to paper, create dim light required for an iki architecture.[164] As a part of interior design, Wright designed the furniture for the Robie House. Iki is also observable in the furniture. One would immediately recognize the striking similarity between the design of chairs and Japanese architectural design, especially the long back of the chair consisting vertical wood bars.[165] The table has lighting on corners that also follow the design of andon. The color of contrast between the white wall (whose original color is yellow) and dark brown woods certainly reflects gsimple dualism,h the element of iki that is repeatedly stressed by Kuki.

One might wonder if an equivalent of tokonoma can be found in the Prairie House. Kuki notes that contrasting tokonoma with the other parts of a room creates iki.[166] A hearth in the playing room clearly mimics the horizontal shelves of two different heights, a common design of tokonoma. Wright did not merely mimic the form of Japanese architectural design, but he also understood the significance of tokonoma in a home. According to Nute, Grant Manson first suggested that Wright might have translated gthe tokonoma, c the focus of domestic contemplation and ceremony, into its Western counterpart, the fireplace.h [167] Nute points out that: gPerhaps c we have the inspiration for Wrightfs apparent translation of the tokonoma alcove of the Japanese domestic interior into the eintegralf fireplace of the Prairie House.h[168] Kôyama Hisao also stresses that gthe central hearth in a design move of literal transposal: for the sacred recess, the tokonoma, Wright substituted the fireplace.h[169] (Bold in the original.)

Regarding these observations, we may conclude that the Robie House manifests iki well in many aspects. As Jordy repeatedly stresses, like all the Prairie House, the Robie House is gnaturalh and gorganic.h[170] When one recognize the aesthetic quality captured by Wright from Japanese gartlessh art in the Robie House, the quality contributes to gthe first modern American househ according to Wright, the quality shared by Edo townspeople, the quality is not wabi or sabi, but iki.

5.    Conclusion

Kuki articulated for the first time the popular Japanese aesthetic ideal, iki, but excessively philosophized in his own struggle over his ambivalent feeling toward the West and modernity. In order to reconcile them to form the Japanese identity in the interwar period, Kuki somewhat slighted the qualities of everyday life, vulgarity, frivolity, and casualness – or the liveliness of everyday life – and he manipulated iki to be backed up by gthe Way of Warriorsh in his nationalistic attempt. Three criticisms have revealed his limitation. First, I have noted the inconsistency (as much as his own dilemma) between his methodological dependence on the West and his doubts over the Western understanding of iki. Second, I have discussed the issue of manipulating the origin of iki and displacing the crucial role of Edo townspeople, Edokko, as bearers of iki to the warriors class, whose authoritative nature was quite foreign to and incompatible with the casualness of iki. Third, I have pointed out Kukifs slight of the geverydaynessh (nichijô-sei) of iki. Kuki effectively used Western philosophical devices to articulate iki, but he overemphasized the uniqueness of iki attributed to the gJapanese raceh as if to say its value is incommunicable to non-Japanese. However, the two axes, simplicity and implicitness can be used to identify iki in the Western context as gnon-art.h When one seeks the source of iki in the inseparability of life and art, iki is no longer inaccessible to the non-Japanese. Furthermore, examples of manifestations of iki, such as in Kukifs own poems and other cultural phenomena clearly show the possibility of applying iki in modern and/or Western culture. In the gWestern/modernh context, the Robie House by Wright manifests iki without necessarily depending on the possibility of a direct connection to iki via Japanese architecture or ukiyo-e.

Iki does not accept two extreme views – that it is an ideal only comprehensible to the Japanese, or that it is reducible to just another universal ideal, rather that it is a gcirculativeh aesthetic ideal. It would be futile to overemphasize the uniqueness or universality of Japanese aesthetics. Iki is certainly unique in some way, but it is by no means incommunicable. The productive argument should be whether studying Japanese aesthetics contributes to Western aesthetics. Aesthetics of everyday does not aestheticize the parts of everyday, but rather renders the whole of everyday life aesthetic. Iki provides an alternative viewpoint beyond the scope of gexotich Japan that can be summed up as gthe shaking of everydayness.h


6.    Bibliography

6.1.  English-Language Sources

Connors, Joseph. The Robie House of Frank Lloyd Wright, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984. 

Dale, Peter. The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness, New York: St. Martins Press, 1986.

Ekuan Kenji. The Aesthetics of the Japanese Lunchbox, edited by David B. Stewart, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1998.

Heidegger, Martin. gA Dialogue on Language: Between a Japanese and an Inquirerh from On the Way to Language, Translated by Peter D. Hertz, New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

Hoffmann, Donald. Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House: the Illustrated Story of an Architectural Masterpiece, New York: Dover Publications, 1984.

Jordy, William H. Progressive and Academic Ideals at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, in American Buildings and Their Architects, vol. 4, New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972.

Light, Stephen. Shûzô Kuki and Jean-Paul Sartre, Influence and Counter-Influence in the Early History of Existential Phenomenology, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1987.

Nishiyama Matsunosuke. Edo Culture: Daily Life and Diversions in Urban Japan, 1600-1868, Hawaii, University of Hawaiei Press, 1997. [A translation of Edogaku nyûmon. See Edogaku nyûmon.]

Nute, Kevin. Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan: The Role of Traditional Japanese Art and Architecture in the Work of Frank Lloyd Wright, New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993.

Okakura Kakuzô. The Book of Tea, ed., Everett F. Bleiler, New York: Dover, 1964.

Pincus, Leslie. Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan: Kuki Shûzô and the Rise of National Aesthetics, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

Polanyi, Michael. The Tacit Dimension, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1966.

Roemer, Michael. gThe Surfaces of Realityh, Film Quarterly, 18 Autumn 1964.

Secrest, Meryle. Frank Lloyd Wright: a biography, University of Chicago Press ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Shklovsky, Viktor. gArt as techniqueh In Russian Formalist Criticism: Four Essays, Translated by and with an introduction by Lee T. Lemon and Marion J. Reis, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965. 

Tanizaki Junfichirô. Praise of Shadows, Translated by Thomas J. Harper and Edward G. Seidensticker (Stony Creek Connecticut: Leetefs Island Books, Inc., 1977), First published in 1933.

Watts, Alan. Uncarved Block, Unbleached Silk: the Mystery of Life, photos and introduction by Jeff Berner; calligraphy by Renée Locks. New York: A&W Visual Library, 1978. 

Wilde, Oscar. gThe Decay of Lying,h in Intentions, New York, The Nottingham Society, 1909, First published in 1891.

6.2.  Japanese-Language Sources

Futabatei Shimei. gYoga genbun-icchitai no yuraih [The origin of my gWrite-as-We-Speak Styleh] in Futabatei Shimei Zenshû [Complete works of Futabatei Shimei]. vol. 5, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1938.

Haga Noboru. ed., Edo no utsuri kawari [Transition of Edo] in Chônin bunka hykkaronshû [Encyclopaedic essays on townspeople culture] vol.3, Tokyo: Kashiwa Shobô, 1981.

Kuki Shûzô. Kuki Shûzô Zenshû [Complete works of Kuki Shûzô]. Edited by Amano Teiyû, Omodaka Hisayuki, and Satô Akio. 12 vols. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1981.

Minami Hiroshi. geIkif no kôzô o megutteh [Concering The Structure of gIkih] in Nihonjin no Geijutsu to Bunka [Art and culture of the Japanese] Tokyo: Keisô Shobô, 1980.

Miner, Earl. Tôzai hikaku bungaku kenkyû [Comparative literary studies of the East and the West], Tokyo: Meiji shoin, 1990.

Nagai Kafû. gEdo geijutsu ron,h [Discourses on Edo art] in Nagai Kafû Zenshû [Complete works of Nagai Kafû], Tokyo: Chûô kôron, 1948.

Nakao Tatsuro. Sui tsû iki: Edo no biishiki kô [Sui tsû iki: A study of Edo aesthetics senses], Tokyo: Miyai Shoten, 1984, (1985 printing)

Nishiyama Matsunosuke. Edogaku nyûmon [Introductin to Edo studies], Tokyo: Chikuma Shobô, 1981.

Suwa Haruo. Edokko no Bigaku [The aesthetics of Edokko], Tokyo: Nihon Shoseki, 1980.

Tada Michitarô and Yasuda Takeshi. gIkih no kôzô o yomu [A reading of The Structure of gIkih], Tokyo: Asahi Shimbunsha, 1979.

––. ed., Nihon no Bigaku [Japanese aesthetics], Tokyo: Fûtôsha, 1970.

Ogi Shinzô et al. Edo-Tokyo-gaku jiten [The Edo-Tokyo encyclopaedia], Tokyo: Sanseido, 1987.

 



[1] Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan, and Secrest, Frank Lloyd Wright, pp. 185-187. For Wrightfs love towards ukiyo-e, see Secrest, p. 136.

[2] Kipling, The Ballad of East and West.

[3] Tsû and iki are closely related, and the distinction between the two is not always clear. Suwa Haruo contrasts tsû in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter and iki in the Fukagawa pleasure quarter. See Suwa, Edokko no bigaku, pp. 69-71. Nishiyama Matsunosuke interprets iki as an aesthetic sense, and tsû as stylized folkways. See Nishiyama, Edogaku nyûmon, pp. 208-211.

[4] In Japanese, iki is a part of speech similar to an adjective, or adjectival verb. When it is attached before a noun, a conjugated form of an auxiliary verb gnah is added after iki. Therefore, iki conjugates as in gan ikina womanh when treated in the conjugated form as an independent word. However, to avoid confusion, I will use iki without this modification as in gan iki woman.h

[5] Suwa, Edokko no bigaku, pp. 56-59.

[6] A genre of Edo literature deals with sentimental love story.

[7] Nakao, Sui tsû iki, p. 166.

[8] Baron Kuki Shûzô (1888-1941) was a Japanese philosopher born in Tokyo. After studying in France and Germany, he taught at the Kyoto Imperial University. He had direct contacts with several European philosophers while he was in Europe. He attended lectures delivered by Martin Heidegger in 1922, and he also had close conversation with Jean-Paul Sartre in 1928. For the encounter between Kuki and Heidegger, see Heidegger, gA Dialogue on Languageh in On the Way to Language. For the philosophical exchange between Kuki and the then youthful Sartre, which possibly inspired Sartre to pursue phenomenology, see Light, Stephen. Shûzô Kuki and Jean-Paul Sartre.

[9] Tada and Yasuda, ed., Nihon no bigaku (Japanese Aesthetics), p. 5.

[10] Edo is the former name of Tokyo. It was the capital of Japan between 1603 and 1868. This period is called the Edo Era.

[11] The Treaty of Kanagawa, also called the Perry Convention, Japan's first treaty with a Western nation signed in 1854, marked the end of Japan's period of seclusion.

[12] I adopt this translation proposed by Leslie Pincus in preference over gcoquetry,h which may yield too submissive of a connotation. Pincus also proposes gseductivenessh as a translation of bitai. See Pincus, pp. 126-127.

[13] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû  , I: 23.

[14] Kukifs mother, Hatsuko (or Hatsu), later baroness, was a geisha in the pleasure quarters of Kyoto.

[15] As often misconceived, a geisha is a professionally trained entertainer (in traditional dancing and music), and not the same word as yûjo, which means prostitute. This distinction was especially pronounced in Yoshiwara, the most prestige licensed pleasure quarter, but sometimes obscured in private, unlicensed brothels.

[16] Fukagawa is a primarily unlicensed pleasure quarter in southeast of Edo. It is often contrasted with licensed, prestige and the prosperous Yoshiwara pleasure quarters.

[17] Kuki claims that gobjective manifestations,h that is, concrete examples of iki must be preceded by understanding of iki as gconscious phenomena,h that is, inner conception (Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shuzo Zenshu, I: 14.) In Kukifs version of iki, this claim eventually alienates non-Japanese understanding of iki.

[18] The Structure of gIkih has four sections other than introduction and conclusion: Connotative Structure of Iki, Denotative Structure of Iki, Spontaneous (or natural) Manifestations of Iki, and Artistic Manifestations of Iki. Spontaneous (or natural) manifestations of iki includes iki appearing on human body (pronunciation of words with prolongation and sudden stop, slightly relaxed posture, dressing in light clothes, woman in yukata (an informal unlined cotton kimono for loungewear, sleepwear, or summer wear) just finished bathing, woman with a slender, willowy figure, bare foot), and face (a slender face) and certain facial expressions, light make up, simple hair style, nuki-emon (a style of dressing kimono to pull back the collar so that the nape of her neck shows), hidari-zuma (an affected style of walking while holding the left hem of kimono), and slight gestures of hands. Artistic manifestation of iki includes vertical stripes, certain colors (gray (grat colorh), brown (gtea colorh), blue), Japanese teahouse architecture, and some styles of traditional singing.

[19] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 16-18.

[20] Ibid., I: 18-19.

[21] Ibid., I: 19-21.

[22] Unlike masculine dandyism, although the emphasis of iki is on women, iki is also widely practiced by men.

[23] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 18.

[24] Ibid.,  I: 79-80. gThe world of suffering,h or kugai () is a Buddhist term to see the world filled with suffering, derived from a parable to describe the vastness of suffering, kukai (), the sea of suffering. In connection with a different word, kugai (), which means public association, kugai had come to refer to the pleasure quarter in sympathetic view to geisha who were suffered from exploitation.

[25] Nishiyama, Edo Culture, p. 53.

[26] Aware means gtouching.h

[27] Wokashi literally means ginteresting,h an aesthetic ideal representing sophisticated, intellectual attractiveness of the Heian era (794--1192).

[28] Yojô is a term to describe implicit emotional aftermath appearing in poetry.

[29] Yûgen is mysterious profundity, appearing in poetry and Nô theater. It was derived from aware, and was developed to sabi by the haiku master, Matsuo Basho.

[30] Wabi literally means gquieth and glonely,h an aesthetic ideal representing austere refinement used in haiku (seventeen-syllable Japanese short poem) and Japanese tea ceremony.

[31] Sabi literally means grustyh and glonely,h an aesthetic ideal representing loneliness, and simplicity used in haiku.

[32] Suwa, Edokko no bigaku, p. 195.

[33] Tada and Yasuda, ed., Nihon no bigaku (Japanese Aesthetics), p. 31.

[34] Tada and Yasuda. gIkih no kôzô o yomu, p. 9. Also Tada and Yasuda, ed., Nihon no bigaku (Japanese Aesthetics), p. 5.

[35] As discussed in the following section 2.3.2, the application of different ideograms to the single sound gikih gives freedom of interpretation, resulting to generate dozens of variations with different nuances.

[36] Pincus, Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan, p. 133.

[37] Ibid.

[38] The Edo Era saw the unprecedented emergence of townspeople class. The Edo era passed without war for 300 years while warriors gradually losing their power. Although warriors preserve many feudal privileges, as economic system developed, merchants emerged as a new power in Japanese society. Some warriors had to adopted a son from rich townspeople or farmer by selling their family prestige counting for dowry.

[39] Tada and Yasuda. gIkih no kôzô o yomu, p. 20.

[40] Nakao lists carpenters, plasterers, and steeplejacks as typical artisans, who were well respected. They also served as firefighters. See Sui tsû iki, p. 15.

[41] The center of iki, the Fukagawa pleasure quarter used to be a fisherman town. See Nakao, Sui tsû iki, p. 166.

[42] Ogi et al., The Edo-Tokyo Encyclopaedia, p. 592.

[43] Ibid., p. 427.

[44] Nakao, Sui tsû iki, pp. 176-177.

[45] Haga, ed., Transition of Edo, pp. 228-237.

[46] Ibid., Edo, p. 230.

[47] Santô Kyôden (1761-1816) is a pseudonym of Iwase Samuru.

[48] Kyôden was also a professional illustrator, who provides the illustrations for the same book under another pseudonym, Kitao Masanobu. See Miner, Tôzai hikaku bungaku kenkyû pp. 266-267.

[49] Futabatei, gYoga genbun-icchitai no yuraih (The Origin of My gWrite as We Speak Styleh), Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1938.

[50] Nishiyama, Edo Culture, p. 42.

[51] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shuzo Zenshu, I: 18-22.

[52] Tada and Yasuda, gIkih no kôzô o yomu, p. 71, 107.

[53] Minami, geIkif no kôzô o megutte,h pp. 91-92.

[54] Pincus, Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan pp. 131-132.

[55] Minami, geIkif no kôzô o megutte,h p. 92.

[56] See also: Tada and Yasuda. gIkih no kôzô o yomu, p. 65.

[57] Sankin kôtai was the strategy of the shogunate government to put under surveillance and regulate feudal lords by consuming their financial resources through a rotation of periodic services in Edo.

[58] Nakao, Sui tsû iki, pp. 218-220.

[59] Nagai, gEdo geijutsu ron,h Nagai Kafû zenshû, XI: 187-188.

[60] Tada and Yasuda. gIkih no kôzô o yomu, p. 35.

[61] Pincus, Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan, p. 188.

[62] Kuki also criticizes Western thinkers and artists claiming that he cannot find the perfect representation of iki in their ideas and works of art.

[63] Kuki was competent in French and German, and he wrote several essays in these languages. If he intended European readers, he was capable of expressing his ideas in these languages.

[64] Wilde, gThe Decay of Lying,h in Intentions.

[65] Pincus, Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan, p. 194.

[66] My focus on gJapan-Westh relation in this general approach to iki is following Kukifs narrative, but this does not necessarily exclude other cultures. For example, iki in specifically French culture or iki in relation to Chinese culture would require whole sets of different argument.

[67] Gookin, The Dial, January 1905.

[68] This dialogue is based on the visit of a scholar of German literature Tezuka Tomio, but as any careful reader would notice immediately, it does not gfictively recreate[s] his discussions with Kuki,h (The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness, p. 69) as Dale mistakenly perceives.

[69] Heidegger, gA Dialogue on Language,h p. 3. Baron Kuki was mistakenly referred as a Count throughout in gA Dialogue on Language.h

[70] Nihonjinron, or gDiscussions of the Japaneseh and gJapanese uniqueness discourseh are two different discourses by definition. Although Peter Dale (1986) defines as gworks of cultural nationalism concerned with the ostensible euniquenessf of Japan,h (The Myth of Japanese Uniqueness, intro.) this observation is a clearly exaggerated generalization. Nihonjinron is merely a general term to include geverything written about the Japaneseh as he initially calls it, and the term gcultural nationalismh is not applicable to many of commentary essays attributed to nihonjinron. His three characteristics of nihonjinron – assumption that Japan is a homogeneous society, that the Japanese are radically different, and that they are consciously nationalistic – may not apply except in extreme cases. The works attempting to describe heterogeneity of the Japanese is also included in nihonjinron. Many of the works have strong tendency to be self-reflexive rather than egoistically nationalistic. Dale does not mention, for example, a stingingly reflective work from the viewpoint of an imaginary Jewish writer, Isaiah BendaSan, (a pseudonym of Yamamoto Shichihei) The Japanese and the Jews (1972) or Nihonjinron (1994) and other works by Minami Hiroshi.

[71] Heidegger, gA Dialogue on Language,h p. 2.

[72] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 77.

[73] Ogi et al., The Edo-Tokyo Encyclopaedia, p. 427.

[74] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 82-83.

[75] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 55.

[76] Tada and Yasuda. gIkih no kôzô o yomu, p. 21.

[77] Tada and Yasuda, ed., Nihon no bigaku (Japanese Aesthetics), p. 45.

[78] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 24 n6.

[79] Appearance, behavior, and fashion are included in one Japanese word, narifuri.

[80] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 14.

[81] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 60.

[82] See p. 5n, wabi.

[83] See p. 5n, sabi.

[84] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 53.

[85] Ibid., I: 17.

[86] Ibid., I: 57.

[87] In Japan, an ancient symbol, swastika is often used in the context of the Buddhist tradition. Although Pincus suggests Kukifs political motive behind authenticating iki, one can see Kukifs attitude to strictly separate aesthetic judgment from politics here. It is not likely that he was not aware, that what he saw as not iki is the national symbol of Nazi Germany (although ) which became an ally of Japan six years after the publication of gIkih no kôzô. See also the next note.

[88] This inevitably includes the Flag of Rising Sun (Nisshôki) used in the former Japanese Navy. Although this is not explicitly mentioned in The Structure of gIki,h, Kukifs preparatory notes specifically dismiss Nisshôki as not iki. (gIki ni tsuite,h (Concerning Iki) Kuki Shûzô zenshû, special volume: 19.)

[89] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 57.

[90] Ibid., I: 52.

[91] Ibid., I: 46-47.

[92] Ibid., I: 46.

[93] Kuki mentions Pablo Picasso in a table in preparatory notes to The Structure of gIki,h gIki ni tsuite,h Kuki Shûzô zenshû . Special volume: 6, but Kukifs position to Picasso is not clear in this table.

[94] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 105.

[95] Watts, Uncarved block, unbleached silk, p. 7.

[96] The word art is distinguished between geijutsu (art in general) and bijutsu (fine art) in Japanese. The origin of the term geijutsu dates back to a fifth century Chinese historiography, Gokanjo (432), but geijutsu was strictly used as translation of art in English and the equivalents in other European languages, such as German Kunst, or French art.

[97] Hishikawa Moronobu (-1694) was a leading painter at the early stage of ukiyo-e development.

[98] Ogi et al., The Edo-Tokyo Encyclopaedia, pp. 16-18.

[99] Judo cloth is a notable exception for several (obvious) practical reasons, for example, not to damage the back when one is thrown on the back.

[100] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 17.

[101] Tada and Yasuda. gIkih no kôzô o yomu, pp. 58-59.

[102] Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan, p. 21.

[103] Ernest Francisco Fenollosa (1853-1908) was an American Orientalist and educator.

[104] Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan, pp. 21-22.

[105] Okakura, The Book of Tea, p. 38.

[106] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 41.

[107] Ibid., I: 51.

[108] Ekuan, The aesthetics of the Japanese lunchbox, pp. 28-30.

[109] This is partly due to the presence of butsudan, a family Buddhist altar, based on the complex of Buddhist and ancestral worship. Succession of this altar from the parents to the heir is mandatory, and placing butsudan in a Western style room is out of place. Butsudan is often placed next to tokonoma, enhancing the spiritual centrality of tokonoma in a Japanese home.

[110] For a reference to Japanese alcove, see Tanizaki Junfichirô, Praise of Shadows, trans. Thomas J. Harper and Edward G. Seidensticker (Stony Creek Connecticut: Leetefs Island Books, Inc., 1977), First published in 1933.

[111] It should be noted that Edokko loved bathing (like the modern Japanese), especially in the bathtub filled with very hot water. Since many of Edokko could not afford to have bathtub at home, they frequently used public baths, yuya. Townspeople walking after bathing was a common scene. See Nakao, Sui tsû iki, p.174.

[112] Ibid., I: 43.

[113] These examples are commonly used compound words in Japanese, rather than being the composite of an adjective and a noun.

[114] Okakura, The Book of Tea, pp. 40-41.

[115] Shklovsky, gArt as technique,h p. 12.

[116] Tada and Yasuda. gIkih no kôzô o yomu, p. 21.

[117] Ibid., I: 80.

[118] Edo is the name of the place as well as a historic period.

[119] gSeveral years ago, I was very happy to see the technique of hanamichi is applied in a music hall at Champs-Elysées.h Hanamichi is Japanese flower arrangement. Kuki, gThé­­âtre Japonais,h Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 255 (94). This book contains the parts written in two opposite writing directions, right from left for Japanese and left from right for European languages (German and French), and the number in the parenthesis is the pagination for European languages.

[120] Kuki, gPari Shinkei,h Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 109.

[121] Minami, geikif no kôzô o megutte,h p. 76.

[122] Translated by Pincus (Pincus, Authenticating Culture in Imperial Japan, p. 45.), with my modification. Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 119-120.

[123] Minami, geIkif no kôzô o megutte,h pp. 77-78.

[124] Kuki, gPari Shinkei,h Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 122.

[125] Kuki, gPari Shinkei,h Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 161.

[126] Tada and Yasuda. gIkih no kôzô o yomu, p. 207.

[127] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 3.

[128] gI will talk of my country at the risk of being called a bumpkin. It is not a question of politics, or commerce, or army or navy. We should leave these superficial matters aside.h (My translation) Kuki, gCfest le paysanh in Kuki Shûzô zenshû  I: 255 (94).

[129] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 62.

[130] Ibid., I: 58.

[131] Ibid., I: 59.

[132] Ibid., I: 46-47.

[133] Nishimura, Edo Fukagawa jôcho no kenkyû, 1926.

[134] Minami, geIkif no kôzô o megutte,h pp. 88-90.

[135] Geisha, professional performers were predominantly woman, but there were also male geisha.

[136] Nakao notes kyan, tomboyishness in relation with iki . See Sui tsû iki, pp. 175-176.

[137] See p. 4, note on nuki-emon.

[138] Ibid., I: 47.

[139] Suwa, Edokko no bigaku, pp. 60-65. Yonehachi is considered to be typically iki in her fashion as much as her behavior.

[140] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 43-44.

[141] Ogi et al., The Edo-Tokyo Encyclopaedia, p. 427.

[142] Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan, Chapter 6, gThe woodblock print and the geometric abstraction of natural, man-made and social forms.h pp. 99-119.

[143] Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan, p. 108.

[144] Kuki Ryûichi was the Vice-Minister of Education, the Japanese Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the United States, and the Director of the Tokyo National Museum. Ryûichi was a personal acquaintance of Wright.

[145] Okakura Kakuzô (also known as Okakura Tenshin, 1862-1913) was a notable art historian and critic. He was a Curator of Fine Arts at the Imperial Museum, an adviser on Chinese and Japanese art at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. For his intimate relationship with Kuki, see Tada and Yasuda, gIkih no kôzô o yomu, pp. 12-13.

[146] Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan, p. 31 n 59. See also Secrest, Frank Lloyd Wright, p. 185.

[147] Ibid., pp. 122-141.

[148] Nakao, Sui tsû iki, p. 32.

[149] Jordy, Progressive and academic ideals at the turn of the twentieth century, p. 182.

[150] Ibid., p. 183.

[151] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 66.

[152] Ibid., I: 66.

[153] Thomas E. Tallmadge, The Story of Architecture in America (1928 ed.), p. 229.

[154] Connors, The Robie House of Frank Lloyd Wright, p. 25.

[155] See Frank Lloyd Wright, gIn the Cause of Architecture, V: The Meaning of Materials – The Kiln,h Architectural Record 63 (June 1928): pp. 555-561.

[156] Kuki, gIkih no kôzô, Kuki Shûzô zenshû, I: 56.

[157] Ibid., I: 54.

[158] Ibid., I: 54.

[159] Ibid., I: 55.

[160] Ibid., I: 61.

[161] A wooden panel used as a decorative transom.

[162] A Japanese sliding door consisting of straight, simple wood frame and paper.

[163] A paper lantern with wood frame.

[164] Ibid., I: 67.

[165] Currently, the reconstructed set of table and chairs exist at the Smart Museum in Chicago.

[166] Ibid., I: 65.

[167] gFrank Lloyd Wright and the Fair of f93,h Art Quarterly 16, no. 2. (summer 1953). Also see Ching-Yu Chang, gJapanese Spatial Conception – 7,h Japan Architect, no. 330 (October 1984): p. 64.

[168] Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan, p. 41.

[169] Kôyama, in Nute, Frank Lloyd Wright and Japan, Forewords.

[170] Jordy, Progressive and academic ideals at the turn of the twentieth century, p. 196.