Today I have been immersed in the story of Sen no Rikyu and the Japanese aesthetics of silence. After watching "The Search for Sen no Rikyu", I am reading "Sen no Rikyu: The Silent Avant-Garde".
Read an explanation from the Japan Language Exchange Institute on the Japanese pronunciation of cherry blossom "SAKURA".
"SAKURA", which symbolizes the spirit of Yamato, is written as "cherry" in Chinese characters. The word "ying" has the meaning of entwining and embracing. The Chinese saw the overall scene of cherry blossoms surrounding trees in full bloom and created the word "ying".
But before Chinese characters were introduced to Japan, what did the name pronounced "SAKURA" mean? In ancient Japanese pronunciation, "SAKU" means "split in two" such as splitting or cutting. "RA" just adjusts the intonation or indicates a certain state. Therefore, the license meaning of "SAKURA" is "SAKU".
When the ancient Japanese saw cherry blossoms, they called them "SAKU", probably because they were looking at the petals. There is a small notch on the edge of the cherry blossom petals, and the front end is divided into two. Chinese people on the mainland see the overall image of a cherry blossom tree wrapped in clusters of pink flowers, while Japanese people on the island nation hold a falling petal in their palms and stare at the tip of the petal.
This graphic explanation immediately embodied the Japanese aesthetic spirit. I was intoxicated by their sensibility.
Many people like to associate Japanese aesthetics with their geographical and resource poverty. Just like Europeans think that the more flowers, the more beautiful they are, which is an expression of abundance, but Japanese people like to put a flower in a large empty vase. I don’t deny that there must be a lot to do with it, but I prefer to explain this aesthetic as Japan’s forest culture.
Compared with desert culture and grassland culture, this is a shade culture that does not show mountains or dew water. The first two are unobstructed and demonstrate a culture of strong self-assertion to survive. Naturally, they will not pay attention to the current useless details and strive to hone their ability to control core resources. In contrast, Japan, which is located in the forest of the archipelago, has always been wrapped in the humidity and warmth of the forest. The rich changes in products throughout the year allow people here to hide in the forest and gaze at the tips of small petals, even the smallest details. It is also a kind of beauty. This is also a kind of richness.
The predecessor of Kaiseki cuisine was just a preparatory activity before drinking tea. The so-called tea in Japanese tea ceremony is matcha, which is made by grinding tea leaves into tea powder and drinking it directly. There are strong tea and thin tea. Strong tea is almost viscous and contains a lot of caffeine, which is unbearable on an empty stomach. If you don't eat something beforehand, your body won't be able to bear it, so you must serve snacks before tea. The further development of this stomach-filling snack resulted in kaiseki cuisine. Kaiseki cuisine is not to fill the stomach, but to prepare for drinking tea, so the portions are minimal, so only a small amount of food is placed on the huge tableware. Minimalistic and delicate kaiseki cuisine finally broke away from the ultimate goal of "tea" and became a highly regarded and elegant food.
This is Japan’s aesthetic appreciation for minimal details. They keep condensing and refining the very rich meanings, and finally only a little bit is left, which becomes the minimalist style. .
Similarly, Japanese waka are themselves quite short poems. After stretching and contracting, they evolved into connected songs and connected sentences, and finally condensed into haiku, which became the shortest of five, seven, five and seventeen tones. of poetry. On a broad piece of paper, only a simple stroke represents a certain meaning. Even Japanese cameras, cars, and chips have this condensed and refined aesthetic hidden inside.
Among the most well-known stories about Sen no Rikyu, there is the allusion of Sen no Rikyu and morning glory. The morning glories that Rikyu planted in his garden were quite rare at the time and loved by everyone. After Toyotomi Hideyoshi heard about it, he decided to go to Rikyu's yard for a tea party and enjoy morning glories no matter what. On the morning of his visit, Sen no Rikyu removed all the morning glories in the courtyard. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi was angry, he found a beautiful morning glory full of vitality in the vase in the tea room. He was amazed. Impressed.
Sen no Rikyu condensed the dazzling beauty of morning faces in the courtyard into a single flower.
Therefore, looking back at the minimalist, colorless, and even invisible style of Japanese design products that are now popular around the world, there is nothing surprising. This was the aesthetic framework laid down by Sen no Rikyu hundreds of years ago when he condensed the tea room to one square meter, made the tea bowl a simple black without any color, and removed the cumbersome and expensive flower utensils and replaced them with bamboo inserts.
DAY 10 ?/ DAY 165
Most of the material in this article comes from "The Silent Avant-Garde" by Akasegawa Haranpei, so it can be regarded as a reading note, haha.