Japanese Relationships between Nature, Art, and Religion

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that is influenced by the concepts of value and beauty as they connect to the arts. Philosophers throughout time, such as Plato, have presented solid ideas about what artists should create and what people should like. In the world of today people have become more liberal on the philosophy of art resulting in the vast array of modern artist and styles/methods. Aesthetics varies from culture to culture because of people's various apperception, uses, and beliefs about art and beauty. Depending on the critic’s perspective, the work of art can be interpreted as having a different meaning than that of the artist's original intent.

The aesthetics of Japan matured on its own because of Japan's geographic location. The sea protected Japan from foreign invasion and enabled its rulers to control contact with other nations. Isolation allowed Japan's aesthetic art forms to develop on their own until inevitable contact with other cultures took place, such as the Chinese, Buddhist, and even the Western. The Japanese word katachi bears the closest meaning to "art." It means "form and design," implying that art means the something is living and

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Harmony in all things is the main theme in Japanese aesthetics; their worldview is nature-based and centered in the beauty of simplicity and harmony with nature, or wabi-sabi. Cleansing with water is an example of their love for purity, within themselves and nature, and the preference for cleanliness. Simplicity, emptiness, directness, and naturalness are the trademarks of Japanese Zen Buddhist art. This reflects the Zen idea of mushin, empty subject-object discrimination. Despite Western involvement Japan has and will always maintain its unique style. The biggest reason for celebration is the enrichment of life, and before these ceremonies washing with water is a must, even the fluent motions of anointment of the water over the flesh has a spiritual meaning. Calligraphy is based on brush strokes that are sweeping and fluid in motion, emphasizing spontaneity rather than predictability, random rather than fixed. When Buddhist sculptures, paintings, and illustration hand scrolls transmitted Buddhist teachings, the Japanese integrated ways to worship the cosmos and deities

One of the greatest influences in Japanese aesthetics is a direct result of the introduction of Zen Buddhism. has functional purpose and spiritual simplicity. Along with Zen, art aspires to not only symbolize nature itself, but to become a work of nature. Isolated for most of its history, this folk religion had created its own concepts of spirituality and reality as well as methods of expressing them. An ancient chronicle reports that "in their world myriad spirits shone like fireflies and every tree and bush could speak" (Paul Watt for the Asia Society's Focus on Asian Studies, Vol. The donation of Zen to Japanese culture consists of architecture, poetry, ceramics, painting, calligraphy, gardening, the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and other crafts.

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