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The Japanese aesthetic tradition, just like any other cultural tradition, encompasses diverse tastes and arts. They range from minimalism of Noh theater to flamboyance of Kabuki theater, somber severity of monochrome brush ink paintings to opulence of gold-gilded screen paintings, and simple rusticity of tea huts to august majesty of castles. Among these diverse aesthetic phenomena and pursuits, one theme stands out for being somewhat unusual, yet is generally identified as forming a quintessentially Japanese taste. It is celebration of those qualities commonly regarded as falling short of, or deteriorating from, optimal condition of object. Specifically, these qualities are found in objects with defects, an impoverished look, or aging effects, as well as in a landscape or moon obscured by clouds, mist, or fog. I shall refer to this Japanese appreciation of aged, obscured, impoverished, and defective as the Japanese aesthetics of imperfection and insufficiency.' In following discussion, I shall explore aesthetic, social, historical, and philosophical dimensions of this Japanese aesthetic taste. I hope to shed light on complexity of this aesthetic phenomenon which is intertwined with diverse aspects of Japanese people's lives.
Yuriko Saito (Wed,) studied this question.