Tag: aesthetics
All the articles with the tag "aesthetics".
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Japanese Aesthetics Glossary: 14 Terms Every Japan Lover Should Know
By K. YamaUpdated:A clear, accurate glossary of 14 Japanese aesthetic terms — wabi-sabi, ikigai, ma, yūgen, mono no aware, kintsugi, and more — with the myths corrected.
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Iki (粋): Japan's Edo-Born 'Cool' — and Why It's Not Shibui
By K. YamaUpdated:Iki is Japan's aesthetic of understated cool — flirtatious, proud, and detached all at once. Born in Edo, analyzed by a philosopher. Not the same as shibui.
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Ma (間): The Japanese Art of Negative Space and the Pause
By K. YamaUpdated:Ma (間) is Japan's meaningful emptiness in space AND time — not 'negative space' but the charged interval holding music, rooms, and the page together.
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Mono no Aware: The Japanese 'Pathos of Things,' Explained
By K. YamaUpdated:Mono no aware is Japan's 'pathos of things': the bittersweet awareness of impermanence, where sadness and beauty arrive together. More than melancholy.
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Shibui (渋い): Understated Beauty, and Why It's Not Wabi-Sabi
By K. YamaUpdated:Shibui is Japan's understated, refined beauty — related to wabi-sabi but not the same thing. The difference, and why the word began as a sour taste.
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Wabi-Sabi: The Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty
By K. YamaUpdated:Wabi-sabi is Japan's aesthetic of imperfect, impermanent beauty — and the West mostly gets it wrong. What it really means, from tea room to brush.
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Yūgen (幽玄): The Japanese Aesthetic of Suggested Depth
By K. YamaUpdated:Yūgen isn't a vague 'beauty of the universe.' It's Japan's precise aesthetic of suggested depth — born in court poetry, perfected on the Noh stage.
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