Using elements of Japanese aesthetics (2024)

The more east you go from Europe the more you encounter cultures that have long standing culturally aesthetic conventions that are woven into their society. These conventions need not exist as a singularity, and many conventions live pluralistically side-by-side. Some of these conventions are formally tied to religious belief, some exist alongside a religion without being part of it, and some transcend religious divergence. But what they do have is a long-standing codification.

Unlike our western views of aesthetics which are essentially trend based, Japanese aesthetics are broader ideals that can be applied to the elements of life, be that complex and spiritual, or just to a trendy fashion based westernism.

Japanese aesthetic are not one singular set of rules, but a plurality of guidance constructs on how one should approach life and art. Some of these are to our eyes directly attributable to what we understand as Zen, others appear more straightforwardly applicable as artistic constructs and the ideals that should be sought for in an image. To this end I will move through the main aesthetics from the most straightforwardly applicable, to those that rely on a discipline and a state of mind.

The beauty in imperfection — 佗寂 Wabi-sabi

I find this to be the subtlest Japanese aesthetic, its key is in delicately applying its principles and not making a principle element something special that defeats its point. On the whole this principle draws on the trueness of nature itself.

If we return to my metaphor above of the wave we can view the peak of the wave as the panicle of its existence, but Wabi and Sabi relate to the thoughtful approach to everyday life, and that the true beauty is not to be found at the peak of the wave but at any other state in its formation or decay. In this the intelligent mind can appreciate these states of beauty that are not the most obvious.

In our wave we can see where the principles that underlie Wabi-sabi exist in a compositional context:

Datsuzoku: The element that ignores the rules, is freehand, irregular, disorganized — otherwise elements that are the opposite of the western stereotypical view of Japan.

f*ckinsei: The use of asymmetry and irregularity.

Kanso: That the image is as simple as possible to convey the meaning.

Koko: That the element is raw, basic, weathered — in the way that it has not been enhanced.

Shizen: It is natural in its essence; it is not trying to be something else.

Seijaku: Emoting the feeling of tranquillity.

Yūgen: Which is arguably an aesthetics in its own right (which I further discuss below), is the point that the image is making is with graceful subtlety, and not in a way that is confrontational, brash or demanding, or indeed obvious.

The human ability for spontaneity and originality — 粋 Iki

Iki is an aesthetic that is primarily used to describe the human appreciation of natural, or the pure unadulterated beauty or the human form, it is not used to describe nature itself. So with regard it has little direct use in our subject of Landscape Photography. Unless, that is, we are including the human form within our image and as such we are drawing an illustrative parallel from the landscape to discuss the human form. In this case you may have an argument to apply an Iki aesthetic to your work.

Where this would be directly applicable, rather than using the broadly similar Wabi-sabi above (they both shun perfection), is that Iki includes a principle for a tasteful use of sensuality.

The high ideal of elegance — 雅 Miyabi

When you think of the historical high ritual cultural Japan this is the aesthetic you are conjuring up in your mind. However, it is not as predominant in modern Japan as the preceding aesthetics. In my introduction, I eluded to how aesthetics never really became embedded in the west’s culture, due to cultural abuse: the same reasoning could be ascribed to Miyabi. This is because it became the courtly method to exclude all manifestations of vulgarity, from crudity of form to uncomplimentary metaphors. As the wealthy were the only people who could afford the luxury of such lifestyles, there soon became the belief that only upper stratus in society could truly appreciate the Miyabic aesthetic.

However, within Miyabi there is the important principle of Mono-no-aware which I think I can best describe as an appreciation of the beauty throughout a full life-cycle, including its passing, such that a beautiful melancholy is expressed without final resolution being fulfilled. In the west, a parallel can be found in Miles Davis’s motif of not playing the final expected note in a musical phrase.

The simplicity of purpose — 渋い Shibui

In this aesthetic that sees the simple unobtrusive beauty in culture. The subtle the entity possesses enriches the viewer more with each viewing as the simple subtle details and form are more open to further interpretation than highly detailed forms that point the viewer to specific and definite conclusions.

Where detail does exist, it is always within the form and not exaggerated from it; so Shibui could be the patina on metal, the weave in cloth, furrows in a ploughed field. In this way something that conforms to the Shibui aesthetic could conform to Wabi-sabi, but not all in the Wabi-sabi aesthetic will conform to Shibui as metal engraving, embroidered cloth and land sculptures would all be too contrived to conform.

Of the mystical that cannot be easily expressed — Yūgen 幽玄

Where something is present but cannot be seen, might just be the underlying concept of this aesthetic. In other words, the ultimate resolution of this aesthetic may very well be that an entities presence is only expressed by the effects of the entity — like the presence of a fish in the water may be the swirls it leaves at the surface.

In written or performed are heavy use is made of nature’s metaphors as description, therefore in photography the elements of nature can be used as a narrative device to describe another story that underlies the pictorial description.

Modulation between movement in three acts — Jo-ha-kyū 序破急

This aesthetic is definitively physical in its form and relates predominantly to a rhythmic movement pattern that starts slowly, accelerates, then ends abruptly. To us the manifestations we are probably most common with are the highly crafted Japanese Tea Ceremony and the sword based martial art Kendo, though it is native land it is applied directly to Theatre and Poetry. Indeed, there are those that are applying its principles to conceptual art.

That being said, in photography there is no reason that the spirit of this aesthetic cannot be applied to the still medium. In this it is perfectly possible to craft an image that encapsulates the essence of these three movement in one image; if not adequately in the three acts of a tryptic. But it is not an aesthetics that I could claim yet to be adept at.

The form and function of the routine — Geidō 藝道

Geidō as it captures system and discipline can also be described as the ritual aesthetic, and like Jo-ha-kyū can be used as a codification for Japanese Tea Ceremony and the sword based martial art Kendo, as well as high art Theatre, Calligraphy, Pottery and Flower Arraigning. But, those from the west who have dabbled in Japanese martial arts will be familiar with the prescribed forms of the Kata, where fighting sequences are formally stepped through and formal grading relies of achieving a level of accomplishment.

So photographically we all have prescribed rituals that we step through when we size-up a potential image, what Geidō may give us is a concentration that means we consider all aspects in our subject and how we want to resolve it in the final image, without taking shortcuts, or making absent-minded mistakes. To return to the Kata in Karate for a parallel example, this is a list of scenarios of how to deal with various opponent threats, this does not proscribe that when attacked by a swinging sword you must deal with it as in the Kata, merely that you can recall a potential solution with little thought.

Unless you are really dedicated to the ideal of contemplation in harmony with action, it may be best not to think of this too much as a Zen like process. If we observed the practice in Hitsuzendō calligraphy (the way of Zen through a brush), it is believed that unification with the highest reality can be found through the calligraphic practice, and in this the resultant image must breathe with the vitality of the eternal experience. It may be a lot easier to equate this with the more common modern Japanese calligraphy, where the well-proportioned and pleasing to the eye is the achievable goal. But I know I have on occasion spent endless time meditating a scene before I have brought myself to click the button.

The great circle of everything — Ensō 円相

If we return to my wave metaphor Ensō is the circle that describes the wave. In this circle we have the absolute of enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and the void (the potential state). To us the most common manifestation is probably the Hitsuzendō calligraphic aesthetic of drawing the Ensō circle itself as mentioned above, in which that artist channels themselves to create a circle that embodies the elements of the aesthetic in one or two brush strokes as a meditative exercise.

With Ensō all the other aesthetics are captured to some extent, as their bearing has implications on how the practitioner develops in their enlightenment.

To those like me, the barely enlightened westerner, Ensō therefore appeals as a way of consolidating the elements of the other aesthetics, in a way that allows them to be accessible as elements that produce a whole understanding that any process does not have a start and an end, but goes on before and after.

To elaborate this a bit further; the process of taking a photograph is not just from framing the shot to producing the artwork, it is the sum of your life that has brought you to produce the image.

In the western consciousness their springs to mind one discourse that in this vein:

John Ruskin: “The labour of two days is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?”

James McNeill Whistler: “No. I ask it for the knowledge I have gained in the work of a lifetime.”

In this Whistler was essentially expressing in a western capitalist justification the core of Ensō, as an artist you are drawing on everything you have learned, and if you harness all its collective wisdom you will be capable of producing enlightened art.

…how does all this alt-culture help me in my photography?

Well, it makes things simpler by making you think of a concept rather than execute by a formula. To be successful as a photographer you must have an artistic mind, and as an artist you deal natively with concepts as ways to explore and relate, rather than by formulas to repeat and copy. If you think about it this is the difference between an Artist and a Craftsman (yes you can be both). What the Japanese aesthetics give you is a way to explore a method of working that channels you towards an enlightening picture, rather than proscribing that it must be so.

In Wabi-sabi, Miyabi, Shibui and Yūgen we have this mindful guidance of ideals that we can aim for in an image and the illustrative approach.

In Jo-ha-kyū and Geidō we are exposed the more ritualistic aesthetic structures that allow the artistic act itself to become structured, exploring the beauty in the creation of the form as well as the form itself. This is not in the same way as ritualising a graduated filter on every sky, or upping the amber in every autumnal scene, but in ritualizing the thought of considerations that your scene deserves.

Then in Ensō we appreciate that each image should be viewed in the context of our life’s work, not just as a project, excursion, or capture of a fleeting chance.