University of Hawai'i Press

The Artistic Way and the Religio-Aesthetic Tradition in Japan
Author(s): Richard B. Pilgrim

Source: Philosophy East and West, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Jul., 1977), pp. 285-305
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
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Richard B.
Pilgrim
The artistic
way
and the
religio-aesthetic
tradition
in
Japan
INTRODUCTION
The most
general
intent of the
following
is to
point
to and
attempt
to further
understand what we
might
well call the
"religio-aesthetic
tradition" in
Japan.
Most
simply
stated,
this is that tradition or
aspect
of
Japanese
culture and life
in which artistic form and aesthetic
sensibility
become
synonymous
with
religious
form and
religious (or spiritual) sensibility.
It is that
point
at
which,
as Hideo Kishimoto
says:
"both
religion
and art
try
to achieve
tranquility
of
mind and to
grasp objects
as
they
are. On this
point, religious
value and aesthetic
value become one."'
Or,
it is those instances in which the aesthetic and the
numinous form an intrinsic
unity,
and where the arts become
primary
data for
the historian of
religion.
Such an
aspect
of
Japanese
life and culture
comprises
a "tradition" insofar
as it forms a distinctive matrix of
phenomena
and intention-a matrix
which,
while
certainly closely
related to the institutionalized
religious
traditions of
Japan
and at
points overlapping
with
them,
stands on its own as a
unique
aspect
of the
spiritual/religious
life of the
Japanese.
It is this distinctive matrix
which
Ienaga
Saburo
points to,
in
part,
when he discusses various traditional
arts in
Japan
as
revealing
the
important
soteric value of an aesthetic relation
to
nature,
and
says
of this that:
If one considers
Japanese religious history
with the
purpose
in mind of dis-
covering
what
things
in fact
gave
salvation to the souls of the
Japanese people
and then selects
only Shinto, Buddhism,
and
Christianity,
and overlooks the
salvation
provided by
Nature
[aesthetically apprehended]-that which,
in
fact,
is much more
[inherently] Japanese
and extends much farther than these others
-then one will not be
capable
of
tracing
the real
spiritual development
of our
people.2
While such a statement and factor
might
be considered to
encompass
more
than the
religio-aesthetic
tradition manifested in the
arts, certainly
one
major
part
of it would be that tradition. This conclusion is
supported by Ienaga's
central concern with the
yamazato (mountain village
or
recluse)
tradition and
the
poets
and artists who reflect it. In
any case, Ienaga's
thesis
points directly
to the issue
here;
that
is, suggesting
the
importance
of a distinctive matrix in
which artistic form and aesthetic
sensibility
are
religious,
and become
"primary
data" for an
understanding
of
Japanese religious/spiritual
life.
The more
specific
intent of the
following
is to
probe
the
religious
character
and
significance
of the ideal of the
"Way" (do, michi)
as it has related to certain
of the traditional arts of
Japan,
and as it indicates
perhaps
the most central
part
of the
religio-aesthetic
tradition. It is the
suggestion
of this article that
the
Way
arts are
finally
and
ideally primary
forms of
aesthetic/religious
discipline
and fulfillment in
Japan and,
as
such,
are a crucial
aspect
of the
Richard B.
Pilgrim
is an Assistant
Professor
in the
Department of Religion
at
Syracuse University.
Philosophy
East and West 27, no. 3, July
1977.
? by
The
University
Press of Hawaii. All
rights
reserved.
286
Pilgrim
religious
life and values of
Japan. Ideally, they
are-in and
through
the
artistic/
aesthetic
process
and
sensibility-vehicles
for
spiritual
transformation. As
Toyo
Izutsu
says:
The do in the field of art is a
way
of
leading
to
spiritual enlightenment through
art;
the do consists here in
making
an art a means
by
which to achieve en-
lightenment
as its ultimate
goal.
In the artistic do ...
particular emphasis
is
laid on the
process,
the
way, by
which one
goes
toward the
goal.
To
every
stage
of the
way
a certain
spiritual
state
corresponds,
and at
every stage
the
artist tries to
get
into communion with the
quintessence
of art
through
the
corresponding spiritual state,
and make himself bloom in the art.3
The
religious
character and
significance
of the
Way
ideal in the arts is
perhaps
best established
by
first
showing (rather broadly)
how artistic
discipline
and fulfillment
might
be considered as
spiritual discipline
and
fulfillment,
and
second
by looking
at some
particular examples
of aesthetic criteria in artistic
form which
carry religious meaning-namely,
here
yigen
and sabi.
I ARTISTIC "WAYS" AS SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE AND FULFILLMENT
The
fundamentally religious
intention of the
Way
arts in
Japan
is
expressed
in
any
number of
places,
and the
following
statement
by
the
contemporary
tea
master Soetsu
Yanagi
not
only
summarizes that intention but
suggests
the
ideal still lives in
Japan today:
The
Way
of Tea is a
way
of salvation
through beauty.
Hence the
chajin (tea
master)
must make a
paragon
of himself so as to
preach
laws like a
religious
man. He must have a
profound
love of
beauty, high
discernment of
truth,
and
deep experience
in
practice.
So far as
cha-no-yu
is a
Way, spiritual discipline
should come first.4
Such a
Way,
as
suggested here,
is characterized both
by
a
specific practice
and
discipline
and
by
some
understanding
of "salvation" or
spiritual
fulfillment.
Considering
the former
first,
we
might
see the
religious
intention of the
discipline
both in the sense of
following
a sacred tradition and sacred
models,
and in an
understanding
of the
discipline
in an art as a
yana (vehicle)
or
yogic technique.
Certainly
one
thing
that
"Way"
indicates is a tradition of
masters, techniques,
and
principles.
This tradition
may
take on a sacred or
religious
character insofar
as it becomes the locus of sacred models
(for example,
the ancient masters and
their
art)
and sacred or secret
principles
and
techniques
which one must faith-
fully
follow. Kenko
(fourteenth century) suggests
this
understanding
of the
sacred and
paradigmatic
character of the tradition when he
says:
"Those who
faithfully
maintain the
principles
of their art and hold them in
honor,
rather
than
indulge
in their own
fancies,
become
paragons
of the
age
and teachers for
all."
5
More
importantly,
however, discipline
in the
particular
forms and
techniques
of the art
might
well be understood as vehicles or means for
religious
self-
transformation.
Ideally
in the
Way arts, perfection
in
technique
is never an
287
end in
itself,
but rather a means for
going beyond technique
to
spiritual/
artistic
fulfillment-thus,
a
discipline
of
body
and
mind/spirit
which seeks
true
creativity;
a
creativity
which is at the same time
spiritually
and
aesthetically
based. This is rather
clearly
seen in the
ranking systems
of
many
of the arts.
In Zeami
(1363-1443)
and the No
theatre,
for
example,
the lower ranks in the
actor's
training
consist of initiation
into,
and
practice of,
the
primary
forms
and
techniques
of the art-in this case both chant and
dance,
and the roles to
be
portrayed.
In the
higher ranks, however, perfect technique
is assumed and
one is free to
develop
the
deeper
levels of artistic and
spiritual creativity.6
Analogously,
Zeami's various
writings
themselves show this
development.
His
earliest
writing,
Kadensho
(1400),
reflects a concern for monomane
(imitation)
and
technique,
while his later
writings (latter 1420s)
show a concern for the
development
of the
underlying spiritual strength (shinriki)
of the artist.
Another
example
of the
merging
of artistic with
is in the
Heian
poetic
tradition where the
Way
of
poetry
was
thought by
some to be
both a
poetic discipline
and a meditative
discipline,
not unlike that form of
meditation in Tendai Buddhism known as shikan
(calm [leading to] insight).
Poetic
creativity
was
thought
to
necessarily
entail "a kind of
mystical
fusion
of the
poet
and his materials achieved
by
intense concentration" in which the
poet sought
an immediate intuitive
aesthetic/religious grasp
of the essence
(hon'i)
and
depth (fukami)
of the
subject
at hand.7
Thus,
in this
important
formative
period (Heian)
of the artistic
Way ideal,
the connection between artistic
creativity
and
spiritual processes
is
securely
made. As Robert Brower and Earl Miner
say:
The
adaptation
of a
religious
ideal to
poetic practice may
seem
remarkable,
yet
it is
hardly surprising
in this
strongly religious age,
when the art of
poetry
was
regarded
as a
way
of life and
just
as
surely
a means to ultimate truth as
the sermons of the Buddha.8
Similarly
for the thirteenth
century,
this
religious understanding
of the artistic
(poetic) process continues,
as is
suggested by
the
following
characterization of
the
poetic Way
as "a means to
religious
realization ... and ...
(as
having)
the
virtue of
serenity
and
peace,
of
putting
a
stop
to the distractions and undis-
ciplined
movements of the mind .... And should it
embody
the
spirit
of the
Buddha's
Law,
there can be no doubt that it will be a dharani
(Buddhist
sacred
word
formula)."9
The artistic
Way
as
finds
another, although
much
later,
expression
in Basho
(1644-94).
For
Bash6,
who emulates the
poet Saigyo
(1118-1190)
before
him,
the
poetic Way
finds its
controlling metaphor
in
pilgrimage.
Like the
pilgrim, though
not
quite
so
literally,
Basho sees the
poetic
Way
as a
journey
into the
spirit-a process
of
coming
ever closer to what it
means to be
truly
real and authentic as a human
being,
and of
striving
toward
spiritual awakening. Perhaps
this is what Basho is
pointing
to when he
says:
288
Pilgrim
"each
day
is a
journey
and the
journey
itself
home;"
or "what a
pilgrimage
to
far
places
calls for:
willingness
to let the world
go,
its
momentariness,
to die
on the
road,
human
destiny,
which lifted
spirit
a
little,
finding
foot
again
here
and
there, crossing
the Okido Barrier in Date."10 In this
journey,
which is
finally
a
spiritual journey, poetry
is the
particular discipline
and form within
which and
through
which he matures.
True,
he
finally
senses that that
very
poetry
and
poetic
sense
may
hold him back from a final
spiritual enlightenment,
but Basho does attain
(or
at least
expresses)
a kind of
spiritual
fulfillment
for,
as Izutsu
says
of Bash6's
"unremitting pursuit
of
poetic
truthfulness":
"(It)
means
precisely
man's effort to come ever closer to the true
reality
of human
existence in the face of Nature and to the true
reality
of all
phenomenal things
standing against
the
background
of
Nothingness.
Haiku is a
peculiar type
of
poetry
which aims at
realizing
and
expressing
the truth of
things
thus com-
prehended."
1
Finally
and most
generally,
the artistic
Way
as
spiritual discipline might
be
understood in
Japan
as
shugyo
or ascetic
discipline.
For the martial
arts,
for
example, shugyo
is that level of
training through
which the
Way
in fulfilled.
Shugyo
is a
"seeking
a
way
out of a
dilemma;"
an
absolutely
dedicated and
concentrated
discipline
of
body
and mind
through
some
particular practice,
with the
purpose
of
breaking through
to a
spiritual
fulfillment.
Kishimoto
suggests
that
shugyo
is a
key
to
understanding many
of the arts
and activities of the
Japanese,
all the
way
from mountain
climbing
to
Zen,
and
certainly including
the arts.12 The dedicated ascetic
striving suggested by
shugyo might
be best characterized as
"spiritual exercises",
and-while it
might
seem most
appropriate
in the martial and related arts-it
may
be
by
extension a central
way
for
understanding
artistic
discipline
as
spiritual.
We turn now to a consideration of the
goal
of artistic fulfillment inasmuch
as it
suggests-at
the same time-a human
spiritual
fulfillment. In the dis-
cussion that
follows,
the
attempt
is made
briefly
to
single
out some of the
important categories
in the arts which
suggest special spiritual insight
on the
part
of the artist. As
such,
the
categories
below differ from the
categories
of
yuigen
and sabi dealt with in the second
part
of this
article,
for
they
are not
thought
of as
aesthetic, stylistic
criteria in the art form itself.
Rather, they
refer to
particular
states of mind and awareness on the
part
of the
truly
creative
artist himself which we can
only
describe as
religious.
One
way
of
talking
about this is to
point
to that
part
of the tradition which
seeks to discover and
express
the "essence"
(hon'i)
of the
particular thing being
dealt with in the artistic form. This
tendency
in the tradition
speaks
of artistic
fulfillment in terms of the
ability
to
grasp
or
express
the
underlying principle,
reality,
or
mystery
of
things. Especially important
to the Heian
poets,
but also
true of later artists like
Zeami,
the concern for essence
suggests
an
attempt
to
probe
to the
very depths
of
reality
and
experience
to
express
what we
might
refer to as the numinal dimension of
things.
As Brower and Miner
speak
of it
289
for Heian
ideals,
it is based on a
"mystical
identification."
3
As Zeami thinks
of
it,
hon'i is the actor's
being
in true
unity
with the essential
spirit
and
reality
of the character
being portrayed.14
In
summarizing
this
aspect
for the whole
of the
Way
art
tradition,
Izutsu
says:
It is characteristic of
every
art of do that a
description
of an
object
is in itself
a
self-expression
of the
subject,
while a
self-expression
of the
subject
in the
presence
of and in accordance with an
object
discloses the
object
itself as he
has seen it with his inner
eye. By
dint of this
characteristic,
the
gap
between
the
subject
and
object,
between 'I' and the external
world, appears
to be
bridged.15
There is also a sense in which the Buddhist
categories
of
Nothingness (mu)
or
Emptiness (ki)
have been used to denote that essence which one seeks to
express
via the aesthetic mode. It is hinted at in such
things
as Zeami's concern
to
give
visible form to the "Void essence"
(kitai)
of all
things,16
or
Shuichi
Kato's statement that wabi reflects an aesthetic sensuous
expression
of the
awareness of the "Void."17
Along
these same
lines,
it is
interesting
to note
Izutsu's thesis that much of the artistic tradition in
Japan
has been an
attempt
to
express
the "true
reality
of all
phenomenal things standing against
the
background
of
Nothingness,"
or "eternal
silence," "empty
locus of all
things,"
"immovable
immutability," "eternally existent,"
which stands in and "behind"
all
phenomenal being.18
While it is difficult to follow Izutsu into all the
places
he
presses
this
understanding,
it does seem to
capture
one
part
of what the
Way
arts in
Japan
have
sought
to do and
express,
that
is,
an
experience
of the
core of all
Reality
in and
through phenomenal
existence as
aesthetically
apprehended.
However,
after the Heian
period,
and as
perhaps
one indication of the
deepening
Buddhist and Zen influence on these
matters,
the
understanding
of
the
deepest spiritual
attainment of the artist shifts from the
discovery
of essences
in
things
more
directly
to the
quality
of
mind/spirit
of the artist himself. A
good example
of this is Zeami's sense of the
underlying spiritual power
of the
true master's kokoro
(mind/spirit/heart),
which
includes,
but is not defined
by,
the Buddhist notion of no-mind
(mushin). Although
kokoro means
many
different
things
to
Zeami,19
in various
places throughout
his
writings
it
clearly
becomes related to an inner
spiritual power,
which is then the basis for true
creativity.
He
speaks
of
it,
for
example,
as the essential
"spiritual power"
(shinriki)
for true
artistry,
the "bone"
(kotsu)
and "essence"
(tai)
of
performing,
or the "inner
spirit" (naishin)
which links all one's artistic
powers.20
This
kokoro thus seems to be
spiritual/mental/emotional
wholeness that arises out
of and
expresses
the
very depths
of the
truly
creative self.
A similar holistic
spiritual
base for
creativity
is in the idea of the
development
of the hara in and
through
the arts.
Perhaps
best described as the seat or source
of
psychic/spiritual energy
and force
(in
the lower abdominal
area),
to fulfill
or live based in hara is to live
authentically, holistically, integratively.
It is a
290
Pilgrim
"liberation from the domination of an
'I',"
an
"anchoring
in the
ground
of
Being,"
a "self which manifests
Being,"
and a
"transformation, expansion,
deepening
and
intensifying
of the whole
personality."21
It is
tranquility
and
control in the midst of
action, and,
of
particular importance
to
us,
its attainment
and function is fulfilled most
definitively
in the hara arts
(haragei),
or
Way
arts.
As Diirckheim
says:
'Self-consciousness' anchored in Hara is consciousness of a self
larger
than the
mere I
and,
therefore not
necessarily
affected where the little I is touched or
hurt. It
is,
at the same
time,
wider and
capable
of
doing
more than the little
I can achieve....
(In
this
connection) haragei
is
every activity
made
perfect
through
Hara. Thus it includes
every
form of art. Perfect art can flower
only
in one who has attained wholeness.
And,
in the
concept
of
haragei
the Hara-
consciousness of the
Japanese
reaches its
peak.
He who has mastered
haragei
has in a measure achieve 'that.' All the
'Ways'
...
are',
in the
ideal,
and in their
highest
form
haragei.22
Yet another
category
that
appears frequently
to
suggest
a
particular
state of
mind is mushin
(no-mind,
or
mu-mind).
Whatever this term's
meaning
within
a
strictly
Zen
context,23
in the arts the word
represents
the
unintending,
un-
conscious, nonattached, spontaneous
mind. Suzuki describes it this
way:
Mere technical
knowledge
of an art is not
enough
to make a man
really
its
master,
he
ought
to have delved
deeply
into the inner
spirit
of it. This
spirit
is
grasped only
when his mind is in
complete harmony
with the
principle
of life
itself,
that
is,
when he attains to a certain state of mind known as
mushin,
"no-mind." In Buddhist
phraseology,
it means
going beyond
the dualism of
all forms of life and
death, good
and
evil, being
and
non-being.
This is where
all arts
merge
into Zen.24
The term
appears
in
many
of the
Way arts, especially
those
coming
under
the influence of Zen in the Muromachi
period
and later. To
multiply examples
would serve little
purpose
here.
However,
it is
important
to
suggest
that
mushin,
in the
arts,
is
probably
related in its nature to the
tranquil,
detached
but aware mind that
people
like
Rikyu (1522-1591) point
to when
they say:
The essential intention of wabi is to manifest the Buddhaland of
purity
free
from defilements. In this
garden path
and in this thatched
hut, every speck
of
dust is cleared out. When master and visitor
together
commune direct from
the
heart,
no
ordinary
measures of
proportion
or ceremonial rules are followed.
A fire is
made,
water is
boiled,
and tea is drunk-that is all! For here we
experience
the disclosure of Buddhamind.25
Mushin in the arts
may
well be related also to Bash6's
fga (orfuryi).
For
Basho,
this
represents
the
truly
sensitive refined
person
whose
mind/spirit
is
a combination of the
tranquil
detachment from self and
world,
and the sense
of absolute
unity
with nature and cosmos. As Basho himself seems to
indicate,
it is
nothing
less than that
spirit
which transcends
any particular
art form and
is the common
ground
of
creativity
for all the arts. As he
says:
291
After all
this,
he
(the poet; himself)
is now an
ignoramus
with no
accomplish-
ments whatever
except
that he holds
steadily
to the
pursuit
of one line
only,
which is in truth the line
uniformly
followed
by Saigy6
in his
waka, by Sogi
in
his
renga, by
Sesshu in his
paintings,
and
by Rikyu
in his art of tea. One
spirit
activates all their works. It is the
spirit
of
fJga;
he who cherishes it
accepts
Nature and becomes a friend of the four seasons. Whatever
objects
he sees are
referred to the
flowers;
whatever
thoughts
he conceives are related to the
moon.26
By relating
this
spirit
to
Saigy6
and
others,
he
suggests
one
important
and
continuous theme in the
Way arts,
and that is an aesthetic
sensitivity
to nature
which has
spiritual depth
and
meaning
and is the true
ground
of
creativity
in
the arts. In this
way, too,
he
suggests
that
religio-aesthetic
tradition that
Ienaga
points
to earlier in this article-a tradition in which a kind of
'tranquil-mind-
in-nature' takes on soteric
religious
value as well as aesthetic artistic value.
Perhaps
Zeami summarizes it all for us when he
says:
The universe is a vessel
producing
the various
things,
each in its own season:
the flowers and
leaves,
the snow and the
moon,
the mountains and
seas,
the
seedlings
and
trees,
the animate and the inanimate.
By making
these
things
the essence of
your
artistic
vision, by becoming
one with the universal
vessel,
and
securing your
vessel in the
great
mu
style
of the
Way
of
Emptiness (kudo),
you
will attain the ineffable flowers
(myoka)
of this art.27
While Zeami's
particular understanding
and
expression
of this
might
be
uniquely his,
the
general
sense of artistic
discipline
and
fulfillment,
understood
as
importantly
related to
and
fulfillment,
is
present.
The
Way
arts as manifestations of the
religio-aesthetic
tradition are founded on
such ideals.
II. THE MASTER'S ART: CONSIDERATIONS OF YUGEN AND SABI AS
RELIGIO-AESTHETIC CATEGORIES
Within the
Way arts,
or the
religio-aesthetic
tradition as we have
sought
to
delimit
it,
the terms
yugen
and sabi stand as
among
the most
important
in
establishing
the
highest
criteria for artistic
quality.
The contention of the
following
is that these
categories may,
in
many
instances of their use and
meaning,28
be
regarded
as
primary
or
exemplary
models of the
unity
of
aesthetic and
religious experience
and
meaning
in the
Japanese
artistic tradi-
tion.
They represent
a
point
at which aesthetic
style
and
experience
become
vehicles or carriers of
religious meaning,
as the latter
suggests
some mode of
apprehending
whatever is taken to be
sacred, real, deep, ultimate,
and so forth.
The
argument
that these
categories
are
religious
is both
explicit
and
implicit
in all that has
preceded concerning
the
religious
ideals of the
Way arts,
and
remains so in the discussion that follows.
However,
the focus of the
following
is more
particularly
how
they
are
religious
(as
well as
aesthetic).
In this
case,
the contention is that
yigen
and
sabi,
when
isolating
them in their
religio-
aesthetic
usages
and
meanings,
reveal two distinct modes or
types
of the
292
Pilgrim
religio-aesthetic experience
and
expression.
On the one
hand, yugen
tends to
be a kind of
beauty
and aesthetic
experience pointing beyond
itself to a numinal
dimension; while,
on the other
hand,
sabi is a kind of immediate aesthetic
apprehension
of the Real.
Before
arguing
further in
light
of the
Japanese religio-aesthetic tradition,
one more clarification on the
general
nature of these
categories
seems
impor-
tant. Whether considered aesthetic or
religious,
or
both,
these and other
similar
categories
have a rather consistent
pair
of referents which we must
keep
in mind
throughout.
On the one
hand,
these
categories
refer to a
relatively
distinct, particular,
and delimitable cluster of
images, symbols, metaphors,
styles,
and forms
(verbal
or
otherwise),
which constitute their
"objective"
character as
particular stylistic/aesthetic
criteria in
any
art form reflective of
yugen
or sabi. Thus
images
of an autumn
evening
haze over a barren field
might
be one
objective
criterion for the
presence
of
yiigen. Or, images
of old
weathered huts
might
serve a similar function for sabi.
On the other
hand,
and of course
closely
related to the
above,
is the "sub-
jective"-or better-experiential
referent. In this
case,
it is
important
to
understand that these
categories
refer also to a
particular quality
or kind of
feeling
or
experience, hopefully
functional for both artist and audience.
Yuigen
and
sabi, therefore, express
and evoke
particular feelings
which are often
referred to as the
mood, feeling-tone,
or
atmosphere
of the art and its aesthetic
content. Thus
might yfigen
evoke a
slight feeling
of
melancholy
and
ineffability
or
mystery;
or
sabi,
a
feeling
of
tranquil
solitariness.
As we shall see
later,
an
empathy
with this
"feeling-tone"
of a work of art is
not
only important
for the audience's
perception
of the
art,
but is also im-
portant
in the
interpretation
of the
meaning
of
yzugen
and sabi. It is at this
point, perhaps,
that the
interpreter's
abilities to
"imaginatively
enter" and be
empathetic
is crucial to the
quality
of
interpretation,
and also
suggestive
of
where a "science" of
interpretation
leaves off and an "art" of
interpretation
begins.
Be that as it
may,
it is in and
through
both this
"objective"
and
"subjective"
element that the aesthetic and the
religious
character are to be understood.
We shall do this in the
following
with, first,
a concern for
yigen
and sabi in
Heian
poetry
and
poetics
and, second,
an
analysis
of
yfigen
in Zeami
(1363-
1444),
and sabi in Basho
(1644-1694).
A. Considerations
of yfgen
and sabi in Heian
poetry
and
poetics
The
suggestion, though
it
goes
little
beyond that,
that
yigen
and sabi reflect
two distinct traditions of
meaning
can be found in a
variety
of
places.
It resides
by implication
in
Ienaga's analysis
of and distinction between two views of the
religious meaning
of nature in
Japan:
one which
perceives
the
mysterious
etherial transcendent in and
through
the
impermanence
of
nature,
and the
other more affirmative of nature and
phenomenal reality
as itself the locus of
293
salvation.29 Of these
two,
the
yigen
of the late Heian
poets
Shunzei
(1114-
1204)
and Teika
(1162-1241) represents
the
former,
while the sabi of the Heian
poet Saigyo (1118-1190) represents
the latter.
Also
by implication,
the distinction
might
be seen in Brower and Miners'
comment that: "one cannot
pursue
one's
study
of the esthetic ideals of Zeami
or Basho
very
far without
returning
to Shunzei's ideal of
yigen
or
Saigyo's
poetry
of sabi."30
More
explicitly, though
more
historically generalized,
it is also indicated in
a comment
by
Van Meter Ames: "There is a
bipolar
tension between the
depth
of
yigen
and the
everydayness
of
sabi,
between the
mysterious
sense of
more than is there and
delight
in what is
right
there."31
In
looking
more
closely
at
yigen
and
sabi,
one finds that these
suggestions
generally
hold true and are
by
no means limited to the
appearance
of these
terms in the later
(Muromachi
and
Tokugawa)
tradition.
Rather,
the
very
foundations both of the
religious
character of these terms and of their dis-
tinctive nature are to be found in the latter Heian and
early
Kamakura
periods.
In the hands of such
people
as Shunzei and
Teika,
for
example, yigen
seems
to
carry
a
fairly
distinct
meaning
which
clearly
reflects a
religious
as well as
aesthetic character. The core of this character is
yugen
as a
style/experience
which draws one into a sense of the
sublime, mysterious, ineffable,
hidden
Reality
or Essence which is revealed in and
through yigen
as
'through
a
glass
darkly.'
The context for
understanding
this core of
meaning
as
religious
is
threefold:
1. The influence of Heian Buddhism as it
suggests,
at least to these
poets
and
their
circle,
the Real as
having
receded one
step beyond
the
immediately
sensed
phenomenal
world,
with the latter now seen as
mujo
or
impermanent
2. The
continuing
influence of their own
unique Japanese
sense of nature and
the refined emotions as
primary
loci for the revelation of whatever
Reality
might
be
3. The whole
Way
art ideal as a
religious ideal-especially
as it
applies
to
Heian
poetry
and is related to such
things
as Tendai Buddhist meditation
(shikan),
and the search for essences
(hon'i)
and the
depth (fukami)
in and
through poetry.
Coming together
in
yfgen,
these various influences
help
create an aesthetic
style/experience
in and
through
which the
mysterious profundity
of the numinal
is
fleetingly
felt in and
through
the
impermanent phenomenal
world. The
poem
which Shunzei himself
singles
out as most
exemplary
of this is:
Yu sareba As
evening falls,
Nobe no akikaze From
along
the moors the autumn wind
Mi ni shimete Blows chill into the
heart,
Uzura naku nari And the
quails
raise their
plaintive cry
Fukakusa no sato. In the
deep grass
of secluded Fukakusa.32
The
religio-aesthetic meaning
of this
poem
lies in its
ability
via a
particular
style
and
atmosphere
to draw one into a sense of the "more than" character
294
Pilgrim
of one's
experience
of
reality.
To do
this,
of
course, depends
in
great degree
on
ability
and readiness of the
reader/hearer
to be drawn in and let the
poem
work its effect on him.
However,
it would be
my
contention that such is both
the intention of the
artist,
and the intention
thereby
of the
poem
and
yugen.
It is
perhaps finally only through
the
sensitivity
to this element that one could
perceive yugen
in its core
meaning
as "the ideal of an artistic effect both
mysterious
and
ineffable,"
or as
something
concerned with life and
destiny,
not with matter and
form;
with the
changeless
and
permanent,
not the
changing
and
passing.33
Perhaps
another
helpful way
to understand
yuigen
as a
religio-aesthetic
category
is to look
briefly
at the
closely
allied term
yoen ("etherial beauty").
Though
subtle distinctions between these terms
may
well
exist,
for our
pur-
poses,
their
similarity helps
us to understand a kind of aesthetic which seeks
to
point beyond
itself to a sense of
something beyond any
form-however
aesthetically organized
or
perceived.
As Brower and Miner describe
it,
and as
they perceptively analyze
a
poem suggestive
of
it, yoen
is an etherial dreamlike
beauty
"not of this world" that serves to
bridge
the
seeming gulf
between time
and timelessness and between the dreamlike character of the
phenomenal
world and the Real.34
Like
yoen, yuigen
functions as a
scrim, haze,
or dream
through
which the
numinal is
vaguely
sensed. Whether the numinal is described
(more
buddhis-
tically)
as
Emptiness (ku)
or
Nothingness (mu);
or
(more generally)
the Univer-
sal,
the
timeless,
the 'other
world',
the
Real,
the
Essence,
and so
forth;
the
intent to
point
to it or evoke it seems clear. Earl Miner
suggests,
in this
context,
that dream is a central
metaphor
for the
phenomenal
world in Heian
poetics
and,
though
he
goes
on to discuss this in relation to a different
theme,35
we
might say
that that
dream, apprehended
in and
through yuigen, points beyond
itself to a sense of
Reality
veiled
by,
and not confined
to,
the
phenomenal
world. Shunzei himself
speaks
of
yigen
as follows:
It is not
necessary
that a
poem always express
some novel
conception
or treat
an idea
exhaustively,
but ... it should somehow ...
produce
an effect both of
charm and of
mystery
and
depth (yiugen).
If it is a
good poem,
it will
possess
a kind of
atmosphere
that is distinct from its words and their
configuration
and
yet accompanies
them. The
atmosphere
hovers over the
poem,
as it
were,
like
the haze that trails over the
cherry
blossoms in
spring,
like the
cry
of the deer
heard
against
the autumn
moon,
like the
fragrance
of
spring
in the
flowering
plum by
the
garden fence,
like the autumn drizzle that drifts down
upon
the
crimson
foliage
on some mountain
peak.
As I have so often said
before,
there
is an undefinable
beauty
in such lines as 'What now is
real?/This moon,
this
spring
are
altered/From
their former
being
...' and 'Like
my cupped
hands/
Spilling drops
back into the mountain
pool/And clouding
its
pure
water.'36
It is
precisely
this
atmosphere,
which is related to but distinct from the
'words and their
configuration',
that we have discussed earlier as the
experiential
dimension of
yugen,
and it is
finally through
this
atmosphere
as a dreamlike
295
scrim and haze that the
'good poem'
serves its
religio-aesthetic
function of
pointing beyond
itself to the Real.
The
very
nature of the Real at this
point
makes such a dreamlike scrim
necessary.
In this
complex
Heian matrix of
Sino/Japo/Buddho
influences,
perhaps
the most one can
say
is that what is
experienced
as Real is neither
clear nor consistent. The transient
phenomenal world, aesthetically perceived,
may
be the
place
to "see" the
Real,
but the
"seeing"
and the "seen" is unclear
-indeed,
as
suggested
in the root
meaning
of the
gen
in
yugen,
it is like
seeing
through
the 'color of the
universe';
that
is,
a
deep
black.37
Therefore,
the
overriding
sense of
yfigen,
considered as a
religio-aesthetic category,
is as a
vehicle
through
which a
larger Reality
is
dimly perceived.
It is thus that
'through
a
glass darkly'
becomes an
appropriate way
of
suggesting
its
meaning.
Although
in
many ways quite
similar to
yugen,
the term sabi
(also, sabishisa,
"loneliness")
is another
important religio-aesthetic category
of the later Heian
period, having
its own distinctive character as both aesthetic and
religious.
While sabi in its
religio-aesthetic meaning may
not have as
widespread
a use
in the Heian times as
yiugen,
it is
important
to focus on here not
only
for its
place
and
meaning
in late Heian and in contrast to
yigen,
but as
background
for
understanding
its later use in Basho and others.
As with
yfigen,
sabi has its own
history
and
complex
of
meanings.
Without
doing
an
injustice
to this
complexity,
the
attempt
here is to
quickly
isolate
those instances of use and
meaning
which reflect the
religio-aesthetic
intention.
This can be done most
concisely
here
by suggesting
that while sabi indeed can
mean loneliness as a
personal
and
painful feeling
of
separation
from
others,
in the hands of
Saigyo
and
Shunzei,
that
very
loneliness is
valorized, becoming
precisely
that
style/experience
in and
through
which the Real can be
directly
expressed
and
experienced.
Like
yugen,
this sabi means both a
particular style
and a
particular experience
or
atmosphere.
Like
yugen also,
this sabi carries both aesthetic and
religious
meaning-the
latter influenced
by
the same threefold influences mentioned
earlier for
yugen except
for a more
distinctly
Buddhist influence. Unlike
yugen,
however,
sabi has its own distinctive
style, experiential content,
and sense of
the Real.
Since it is true that in some instances sabi bears a resemblance to
yugen,38
it
might
be best if we further isolate a distinctive sabi
by suggesting
its
important
relation to the recluse ideal that is
growing
in this
period
under the influence of
Buddhism. Insofar as
Saigyo
is the clearest
representative
of this distinctive
religio-aesthetic sabi,
and insofar as the
very
foundation of much of his
poetry
and
poetic
is his
experience
as a detached recluse and
pilgrim,
it is
important
to
suggest
this as an
important ingredient
in the
meaning
of sabi. As
Ienaga
in
part suggests,
the recluse ideal of the latter Heian
period suggests
both a
Buddhist ideal of detachment from civilization and from self as
ego,
and a
valorization of nature and the loneliness found there as in and
of
themselves
296
Pilgrim
the locus and
meaning
of Buddhahood.39 In this
connection, Ienaga says,
concerning
the mountain retreat
(yamazato)
or recluse
ideal,
that the recluse
finds himself torn between the need for human
companionship
and the desire
for recluse
status,
and ...
At this
point
he reaches an insoluble
difficulty. However,
this contradiction is
broken not
by neutralizing
it but rather
by
a
seeming paradoxical accepting
the contradiction as a contradiction in a
higher
frame of mind. That is to
say,
an absolute contradiction causes the self to
open up through
absolute
negation.
To
explain
more
concretely,
a
special
frame of mind
opens up
in which the
loneliness
(sabishisa)
of the
yamazato
in its loneliness itself is
conversely
the
highest joy
and becomes the salvation of the
spirit.40
Translated into
poetic
and aesthetic
expression,
this valorized sabi
appears
in these
poems by Saigy6
and Teika:41
Tou hito mo
Omoitaetaru
Yamazato no
Sabishisa nakuba
Sumuikaramashi
Kokoro naki
Mi ni mo aware wa
Shirarekeri
Shigi
tatsu sawa no
Aki no
yuigure.
Mizu no oto wa
sabishiki io no
tomo nare
ya
mine no arashi no
taema taema ni.
Miwateseba
Hana mo
momiji
mo
Nakarikeri
Ura no
tomaya
no
Aki no
yiigure.
I
hope
no more
That a friend will come to visit
This
village
in the
hills,
And if it were not for
loneliness,
This would be a wretched
place
to live.
(Saigy6)
While
denying
his heart
Even a
priest
cannot but know
The
depths
of a sad
beauty:
From the marsh a
long
bill
Flies off in the autumn dusk.
(Saigyo)
This storm's wet
fury
Hurls down from the
peaks
to
my (lonely) hut;
But it's water itself
That
right
now is
my only
friend:
Drops dripping
in the
gaps
and
pauses.
(Saigyo)
As I look about
What need is there for
cherry
flowers
Or crimson leaves?
The inlet with its
grass-thatched
huts
Clustered in the
growing
autumn dusk.
(Teika)
In each
case,
a situation of aloneness is
presented,
but the reader is
quickly
drawn
beyond any
sense of
personal
sadness into an
impersonal atmosphere
or
feeling-tone
of affirmed solitariness in nature
by
the
particular images
of
in these cases-retreat
huts,
autumn
dusk, dripping water,
a bird
flying
off into
the
twilight,
and so forth. Both these
particular images,
and this
experience
or
feeling
into which one is
drawn,
are the content of sabi-a content related to
but distinct from
yugen
in its
emphasis
on
detachment,
on man midst a some-
what less transient dreamlike
phenomenal
world
(especially, here, nature),
and
an affirmation of the resultant loneliness itself as the
primary experiential
297
content, having
both aesthetic and
religious meaning.
Whereas the
governing
metaphor
for
yfigen
is dream and
haze,
or
"through
a
glass darkly,"
sabi
performs
more as a detached
tranquil
wakefulness in the
phenomenal
world
(especially nature),
which is itself the "numinal."
Similarly,
while the color
of
yugen might
be
deep black,
the color of sabi
might
be
thought
of as rust42
especially
as rust
suggests
the
worn, withered, abandoned, detached,
and
lonely-but-beautiful-in-its-loneliness.
In other
words,
the sense of the Real as well as the
particular
characteristics
of the term are distinct and different from
yugen. Especially
if we are to consider
Saigy6
as a
model,
and
especially
if we follow La Fleur's
analysis
of
Saigyo's
valorization of nature as itself soteric and
Buddha,
the Real is in the mind-at-
one-with-nature-as-Buddha,
and this oneness with nature-as-Buddha can be
experienced
in and
expressed through
sabi as a
religio-aesthetic category-
especially expressed
and
experienced
here in
poetry.
The Real thus is not
hidden and
veiled,
nor is it
beyond
or behind the
phenomenal world,
but
rather is that
very "higher
frame of
mind,"
in and
through
which the
phenom-
enal world is
absolutely
valorized and
experienced
in
detached, impersonal
tranquil
solitariness,
Here, beauty directly represents
truth and is not
just
a
vehicle for it.
Perhaps
what we have here is a
uniquely Japanized
aestheticized
form of Buddha-mind.
B. Considerations
of yugen
and sabi in Zeami and Basho
In
many ways,
and
certainly
here
including
sabi and
yfigen
as distinct and
important religio-aesthetic categories,
the Heian
period lays
the foundation
for
things
to come. As others have
suggested,
while certain
changes
and
fluctuations do take
place
in these terms after Heian
times,
the core of their
meaning
remains rather constant. It is
my contention,
in the
following,
that
this is indeed the case and that this basic
continuity
includes the distinctions
between sabi and
yfigen.
Of
course,
this is an
admittedly
selective
continuity
insofar as we shall focus
only
on Zeami and Basho as
exemplary
models.
However,
both these artists have often been
singled
out as
highwater
marks in
the
tradition,
and in a
representation
if
yuigen
and sabi. As
such,
one
might
use
them as
exemplary
models of the later fulfillment of the ideal
meanings
of these
terms for the
Japanese.
Keeping
in mind the discussion in
part
I as an
important
context for what
follows,
let us turn to Zeami and
yugen.
In
doing so,
it must be admitted
quickly
that Zeami reflects almost all the
variety
of
meanings
that
yigen might
have-all the
way
from more
superficial
characteristics of an outer charm and
elegance
to a more
profound, mysterious,
ineffable
beauty pointing beyond
itself to the numinal. To some
extent,
this
spectrum
is reflective of his own
maturing
in the
art,
with the more
superficial yiigen being
stressed in his
early
(1400) work, Kadensho,
and the more
profound
one
being expressed
in his
later
(ca 1419-1430) works, though
still not
excluding
the earlier sense too.
298
Pilgrim
Within this
spectrum,
Zeami does come to a
general
sense and "definition"
of
yfigen
as an aesthetic
category.
The clearest
description
of this is in his
Kakyo
of 1424.43 Here it becomes clear that the
stylistic
nature of
yuigen
has
shifted to
images primarily
of refinement and
elegance, yet tinged
with a
certain
melancholy
and
reflecting tranquility. Shifting
also from the Heian
times, yfigen
now is
present
not
only
in
words,
but in
music, dance,
and chant.
Generally speaking, yigen
is for Zeami the
key
aesthetic
category
and thus
may
be
equated
with what he calls the "flowers"
(hana)
of the art of the No.
As
such,
in
general yugen
has little
necessary
or
strong
sense of
religious
meaning. However,
it takes this
meaning
on as it becomes
applied
to or
spoken
about in terms of the
highest
levels of the art-the art of the master actor.
Here, yugen
becomes more
directly
related to the
spiritual
ideals of the
art,
and the
nature, style,
and effect of such an art. Thus
yugen
takes on a
deeper
and
deeper meaning
in direct
proportion
to the levels of
ability,
and the
"spiri-
tual
strength" (shinriki)
that
develops
therewith. This is nowhere more
clearly
seen than in Zeami's
Kyui'i
shidai
(1427),
in which the
upper
ranks of the art
carry
with them both an
increasing profundity
and
spiritual depth,
and in
which
yugen
remains the
primary
aesthetic criterion. In the
upper
three
ranks,
for
example,
the "flower" of the art
(now relating
this
closely
with
yfigen)
is
described as
stillness, supreme profundity, profound mystery,
and the miracu-
lous. In
short, yugen
is a versatile aesthetic
category
that can now be used to
express
the
profound mysterious
art of the master. As Zeami
says: "Thus,
in
the art of the
No,
before the
yugen
of a master-actor all
praise fails,
admiration
transcends the
comprehension
of the
mind,
and all
attempts
at classification
and
grading
are made
impossible."44
To isolate and describe this
highest
form of
yugen
more
precisely,
it is
helpful
to talk about it in relation to the term
myo ("marvelous," "miraculous").45
Zeami
speaks
about
myo
(and
yuigen)
as follows:
The
myo aspect
transcends verbal
expression
and defeats the devices of the
ordinary
mind
(shingyo)....
At the
top
of the nine
ranks,
the
myo
flower is
called the flower with the essence of
gold.
In the instant that the intuitive
vision
style (of
the
actor) impresses
the
spiritual/inner
ear
(shinni) (of
the
audience),
the audience
responds
without
thinking,
this is the
myo
flower.46
Concerning myo:
The term
my6
denotes the
mysteriously
wondrous. That which I call
myo
is
an
appearance
devoid of form. This absence of form is the essence of
myo.
In
N6,
that which is called
myo may
be found in the two elements of
singing
and
dancing,
and also in other areas of
acting. However,
it cannot be
clearly
pointed
out and identified. The actor
expressing myo
will be one who has
reached the
very highest
level.
However, through
natural
talent,
some
may
have indications of
myo
from the
beginning (of
their
career). Though
the actor
may
not be conscious of
it,
it
may appear
to the
practiced eye
of the
watching
expert.
Of
course,
to the
general audience,
it
may appear
as a
style revealing
a
fascinating
effect.
Although
the true master actor is aware that he
possesses
299
the
myo style,
he is not conscious that he is
performing
it at this moment or
that. This non-awareness is characteristic of the essence of
myo,
as is the
impossibility
of
identifying
or
clearly pointing
it out.
However,
when con-
sidering
this
well,
can it not be seen that this
myo
is
something very
close to
the effect which is
produced
when one masters all the
styles
of
No,
reaches the
level of
mastery,
enters the
security
of the
highest
rank
and,
in no matter what
area of the
art,
attains the levels of the mushin mu
style?
Can it not also be
said that the
attaining
of the
highest degree
of the
yugen style approaches
myo?
Consider this well.47
In all of
this,
it becomes clear that
yfigen,
as related to the
highest
ideals of
the
art,
takes on a character of
myo
as a
mysterious, ineffable,
marvelous
beauty pointing beyond
itself to a
spiritual
dimension which-for Zeami I
believe-is at once the mu and mushin reflective of Zen's
general
influence on
the Muromachi
arts,
and
yet
also a much more
generalized underlying
"essence"
hidden in the veil of this
profound mystery.
The sense of the Real
being
ex-
pressed
here
is,
in
short,
even more
complicated
than that of the Heian
yugen,
including
as it does now both the more
clearly
Buddhistic
Mind-language
(mu, mushin,
and so
forth),
and
yet
still the sense of the
mysterious
sacred
numinal
Reality beyond
the
phenomenal
world.48
Thus while some
changes
in the
meaning
and nature of
yuigen
have taken
place by
and in Zeami's
usage,
and while
yfigen
has a
variety
of
meanings
even within
Zeami,
it is our contention here that at the
highest
levels of Zeami's
art, yuigen
carries a
fundamentally
similar
religio-aesthetic meaning.
The
governing metaphor may
shift from autumn haze or dream to a somewhat
cold and distant
veil,49
and the color of
yugen may
shift from
deep
black to
a
pure white, silver,
or
gold,
but the basic
meaning
of an aesthetic
style/
atmosphere
of ineffable
mystery
and
beauty, pointing beyond
itself to numinal
dimensions,
remains.
Similarly
for
sabi,
while
changes
do occur in the
particular
aesthetic
style
and
experience,50
there is an
important continuity
in the central nature and
meaning
of the term-at least as used
by Basho,
but as also evidenced in the
sabi/wabi constellation of
meanings
in the tea
ceremony.51
This
continuity
is
related to and evidenced in three
important
considerations over and above
simply
his
general participation
in the
religio-aesthetic
tradition and the
Way
ideal to which that is related.
1. As discussed in
part I,
Bash6 stands within a kind of recluse or
yamazato
tradition,
which idealizes the detachment from
ego-self
and civilization as a
necessary
condition for
experiencing
Buddha-mind or
"tranquility
of
spirit."
While there are
any
number of evidences in Bash6's own work for
this, perhaps
this comment
by Ienaga
most
concisely captures
this
continuity
and its relation
to sabi: "So
finally
the decisive reason that Basho is the true heir of the
yamazato
spirit
is that he
experiences
an unlimited
religious ecstasy
in the loneliness
(sabishisa)....
and that
sphere
of
paradoxical
salvation of the
yamazato
actually
finds in him its most
typical,
even its most
thorough expression."52
300
Pilgrim
2.
Bash5,
like
Saigyo,
is more
distinctly
and
completely
Buddhist than
those
through
whom we have seen
yugen.
While
Saigyo's
Buddhism
may
be
in
many respects
more
closely
allied with Heian Buddhism and Basho's with
Zen,
the sense of the Real as reflected
through
sabi is
finally very
similar. This
latter
point
will be shown more
fully
in what follows.
3.
By
Basho's own
admission, Saigyo
stands both as a model for him and
one with whom he identifies at the
very
core of what it means to be a
poet.
As
he
says,
and as we
quoted
and discussed in
part I,
he sees himself in common
with
Saigyo, Sogi, Sesshu,
and
Rikyu
as
creating
out of a
mind/spirit
of
figa
or a combination of sensitive
refinement, tranquil
detachment and a sense of
unity
with nature and the whole cosmos.
Perhaps
we
might say
here
that,
like
Saigyo,
Basho reflects in the ideal of
fuga
that same
Japanized
aestheticized
understanding
of Buddha-mind.
Of
course,
these three
considerations,
of
themselves,
do not
necessarily
prove anything
about the
continuity
of the nature and
meaning
of sabi as a
religio-aesthetic category.
However,
when seen in
conjunction
with an
analysis
of Basho's
sabi, they
become
important supportive
evidence and reasons for
the
continuity.
Turning
more
directly
to Basho's
sabi,
we find
that-except
for
general
changes
noted above53-the basic nature of sabi as an aesthetic
category
is
the same as discussed earlier for
Saigyo.
In this
connection,
Brower and Miner
say:
"Under the influence of Zen
Buddhism,
the haiku
poets
of the seventeenth
century, especially
the
great Basho, developed
the
concept
of a
corroded,
moss-covered, "rusty" beauty
into
perhaps
their most
important
esthetic
ideal,
and Basho
quite rightly acknowledged Saigyo
and Shunzei as his master."54
There are
any
number of
explicit
and
implicit descriptions,
discussions,
and
examples
of sabi in Basho's work. In one comment on
sabi,
for
example,
Basho shows the
flexibility
of the
images
and situations which can be used to
express sabi,
as well as
something
about the nature of sabi itself:
Sabi is in the colour of a
poem.
It does not
necessarily
refer to the
poem
that
describes a
lonely
scene. If a man
goes
to war
wearing
a stout armor or to a
party
dressed
up
in
gay clothes,
and if this man
happens
to be an old
man,
there is
something lonely
about him. Sabi is
something
like that. It is in the
poem regardless
of the scene it describes-whether
lonely
or
gay.55
Although
this is
helpful
in
showing
the
variety
of situations in which sabi
might
be
present,
and for
seeing
sabi as reflective of that which is
"lonely"
in
its
singularity, uniqueness,
or break with a "normal"
context, perhaps
the
following
is more
directly helpful
on the
style
and mood of sabi:
Sixteenth, sky clearing,
decided to
gather
small
shells,
sailed
along
Iro beach.
Altogether
seven li. One
Tenya so-and-so,
with
carefully-packed warigo
and
sasae, etc., taking
servants
along
for the
ride, enjoying
tailwinds arrived in
good
time.
Only
a few fisherman's huts
along
beach and
bedraggled
Hokke
temple nearby.
Here drank
tea,
hot
sake,
much moved
by
the
pervading
sense
of isolatedness
(sabishisa)
at
nightfall.
301
isolation
(sabishisa)
more
overwhelming
than Suma
beach's fall
between wave and wave
mingling
small shells
hagi
dust.56
Or,
as
implicitly expressed
and
present
in the
following:
In the Demesne of
Yamagata
the mountain
temple
called
Ryishakuji.
Founded
by
Jikaku
Daishi, unusually well-kept quiet place.
'You must
go
and see it,'
people urged;
from
here,
off back towards
Obanazawa,
about seven li. Sun not
down
yet.
Reserved
space
at the
dormitory
at
bottom,
then climbed to
temple
on
ridge.
This mountain one of
rocky steeps,
ancient
pines
and
cypresses,
old
earth and stone and smooth
moss,
and on the rocks
temple-doors
locked,
no
sound. Climbed
along edges
of and
crept
over boulders, worshipped
at
temples,
penetrating
scene, profound quietness, heart/mind open
clear.
quiet
into rock
absorbing
cicada sounds57
These
quotes
have been
given
at some
length because,
while the
poems
themselves
express sabi,
the
prose
sections before them
paint
a situation and
environment out of which the
poems
come and to which
they
are related in their
sabishisa. In
short,
the
presence
of
sabi,
both as
particular images
but even
more
importantly
as a
particular experience,
is revealed in both the
poem
and
its context.
In these
cases,
both this
style
and
experience
bear a
striking
resemblance to
Saigyo;
that
is,
similar kinds of
images
such as retreat and
detachment, evening
time,
deserted old
buildings, aloneness, quietness, solitary
sounds and
sights
of
nature,
and so
forth,
and a similar
experiential atmosphere
of
affirmed,
tranquil, impersonal
solitariness. Basho's cicada
cry penetrating
the rocks and
the
deep silence,
for
example,
serves
just
about
exactly
the same aesthetic
(and
religious)
function as
Saigy6's longbill flying
off from a marsh into the autumn
dusk.
As to the
religious meaning,
or the sense of the Real active
here, again
the
similarity
with
Saigy6's
sabi and the contrast with
yugen
holds true. As the
term
fuga suggests,
and as the discussion earlier of
Saigyo
tried to
show,
the
Real here is rather
distinctly
Buddhist and thus best referred to as a
particular
quality
of
mind,
whether
spoken
of as
Buddha-mind,
mu
("Nothingness"),
ku
("Emptiness"
or
"Void"), tranquility,
or detachment. While neither we
nor,
I
think,
Basho want to claim
enlightenment
for
him,
and while we must
be
prepared
to admit that Bash6
probably
did not
always
create out of Buddha-
mind,
such ideals are
definitely
and
self-consciously there,
striven
for,
and
often attained.
In contrast to
yugen,
with which sabi no doubt has some affinities, the Real
is in no
way
external to
Mind-in-the-world,
nor is it
beyond, supernatural,
302
Pilgrim
mysterious, numinous,
or veiled. Rather,
it is more the kind of
beauty (style
and
experience) expressive
and evocative of the Buddhist sense of "form is
Emptiness, Emptiness
is
form,"
or the "suchness"
(tathata)
of
things.
It is not
symbolic
in the sense of
pointing beyond itself,
but is a direct
expression
of
egoless
Mind-at-one-with-all. Thus does it take on its
"impersonal" character,
and its
strong
sense of a
particular
kind of
experience
of
reality.
In
fact,
one
might appropriately say
of Basho and his
poetry
of sabi and
fuga
that: 'Basho
disappears
into the
experience-and suddenly
there is
poetry.' Or,
as Basho
says
it: "We should transcened self and learn.... To learn means to
submerge
oneself into the
object
until its intrinsic nature becomes
apparent, stimulating
poetic impulse."58
A
good analogy
to this
might
be
Dogen's (the great
thirteenth-
century
Zen
master) oft-quoted
comment that: "To
study
Buddhism is to
study
the self. To
study
the self is to
forget
the self. To
forget
the self is to
forget
even
one's attachment to the
goal. Doing that,
one discovers oneself in all
things
and enters actual
society."
Basho
forgets self,
discovers self in all
things,
and
"enters
society"
via artistic
creativity
and
poetic expression. Sabi,
in this
case,
becomes the
primary
aesthetic
category
both
expressing
this and
seeking
in
some
way
to evoke it too. At this
point,
one
might again
invoke the tea master
Rikyu,
with whom Basho feels a
commonality,
and whose wabi comes
very
close to sabi as a
religio-aesthetic category. Rikyui expresses
it this
way:
The essential intention
(hon'i)
of wabi is to manifest the Buddhaland of
purity
free from defilements. In this
garden path
and in this thatched
hut, every
speck
of dust is cleared out. When master and visitor
together
commune direct
from the
heart,
no
ordinary
measures of
proportion
or ceremonial rules are
followed. A fire is
made,
water is
boiled,
and tea is drunk-that is all! For
here we
experience
the disclosure of Buddha-mind
(busshin).59
Of
course,
whatever the
particular
character of sabi as
religious,
and how-
ever distinct from
yugen,
we wish to reassert that both these
important
aesthetic
categories
in the
Japanese
tradition
carry religious meaning
in their ideal
expression
and
exemplary
use. In these
cases,
the
religious meaning
is carried
precisely
in their aesthetic
nature,
and
they
thus become
paradigmatic examples
of
religio-aesthetic categories
and the
religio-aesthetic
tradition in
Japan.
NOTES
1. "Some
Japanese
Cultural Traits and
Religions,"
in The
Japanese Mind,
ed.
by
C. A. Moore
(Honolulu:
East-West Center
Press, 1967), p.
118.
2. From his Nihon shisoshi ni okeru
shukyoteki
shizenkan no tenkai
(Tokyo, 1944), p. 85;
as
quoted
and translated in William La
Fleur, "Saigy6
and the Buddhist Value of
Nature,"
in
History
of Religions 13,
no. 3
(1974):
232f.
(cf.
Robert
Bellah, "Ienaga
Saburo and the Search for
Meaning
in Modem
Japan,"
in
Changing Japan:
Attitudes Toward
Modernization,
ed. M. B. Jansen
[Princeton,
N. J.: Princeton
University Press, 1965], p. 393.)
3. "Far Eastern Existentialism: Haiku and the Man of
Wabi," Philosophical
Forum
4,
no. 2
(1973):
53 f.
303
4. In Rand Castile, The
Way of
Tea
(New
York:
Weatherhill, 1971), pp.
82f.
5.
Paraphrased
from his
Tsurezuregusa,
translated
by
Donald
Keene, Essays
in Idleness
(New
York: Columbia
University Press, 1967), pp.
134f.
6. See
especially
Zeami's
Kyu'i
shidai in which this
ranking
is
explained.
See also
my
elaboration
of this
system
in "Zeami and the
Way
of No," History of
Religions 12,
no. 2
(1972):
136-48.
7. Robert H. Brower and Earl
Miner, Japanese
Court Poetry
(Stanford,
California: Stanford
University
Press, 1961), p.
257.
8. Brower and
Miner, Japanese
Court Poetry, confer
pp. 33, 234, 312, 361.
9. A statement
by Muju
Ichien
(1226-1312)
as
quoted
and translated in Robert
Morrell, "Muju
Ichien's Shinto-Buddhist
Syncretism:
Shasekishu Book
I,"
Monumenta
Nipponica 28,
no. 4
(1973):
453.
10. From Basho's Oku no
hosomichi,
translated
by
Cid Corman and Kamaike
Susumu,
Back
Roads to Far Towns
(New
York: Grossman
Publishers, 1968), pp. 15,
61.
11. Izutsu, "Far Eastern
Existentialism," pp.
59f.
12.
Kishimoto, "Some
Japanese
Cultural
Traits," p.
118; cf. D.
Draeger,
Classical Budo
(New
York:
Weatherhill, 1973), p. 50;
and Daisetz
Suzuki,
Zen and
Japanese
Culture
(New
York:
Pantheon Books, 1959), p.
157.
13. Brower and
Miner, Japanese
Court
Poetry, p.
257.
14.
See, for
example,
Zeami's
understanding
of hon'i as discussed in Makoto Ueda, Literary
and Art Theories
of Japan (Cleveland,
Ohio: Western Reserve
University
Press, 1967), pp.
57f.
15. Izutsu, "Far Eastern Existentialism," p.
62.
16. See Zeami's
Yiugaku
shido
kempusho,
in Zeami Juroku-bushu
hyoshaku,
ed.
by
Nose
Asaji
(Tokyo:
Iwannmi
Shoten, 1949),
Vol.
1, pp.
535f.
17. From
Style Tradition.
Reflections
on
Japanese
Art and
Society (Berkeley
and Los
Angeles:
University
of California
Press, 1971), p.
154.
18. Izutsu, "Far Eastern Existentialism," pp. 57,
59f.
19. See
my
discussion of this in "Some
Aspects
of Kokoro in
Zeami," Monumenta
Nipponica
24, no. 4
(1969).
20. Zeami's
Yugaku
shfdo
kempusho,
and
Kaky5
are
particularly important
sources for these
ideas. See Nose, Zeami
Juroku-bushu, 1:536, 449-472,
and 306-380,
respectively.
Note also the
translation of an
important
section of the
Kakyo
in William de
Bary,
ed., Sources
of Japanese
Tradition,
2 vols.
(New
York: Columbia
University
Press, 1964), 1:285-286,
290-297.
21. Karlfried Diirckheim, Hara. The Vital Centre
of
Man
(London: George
Allen &
Unwin,
1962), pp. 33-37,
56.
22.
Diirckheim, Hara,
p.
55.
23. Shin'ichi
Hisamatsu,
in his article "Zen in the Various
Acts," Chicago
Review 12, no. 2
(1958):23-28,
calls into
question
a too
easy equation
of mushin in the arts with the Zen sense of
enlightenment.
He
argues
that mushin in the arts is a
temporary
self- and mind-transcendence and
not a
permanent
Buddhist
enlightenment.
24.
Suzuki,
Zen and
Japanese Culture, p.
94.
25. As translated in Theodore
Ludwig,
"The
Way
of Tea: A
Religio-aesthetic
Mode of
Life,"
History of Religions 14, no. 1
(1974):48.
26. From his Oi no kobumi as translated in
Suzuki,
Zen and
Japanese Culture, p.
258.
27.
My
translation of a section in
Yugaku
shudo
kempusho.
See
Nose,
Zeami
Juroku-bushu,
1:575f.
28. This whole discussion
presupposes
that the
meanings
and uses of these and other similar
categories
are
complex
and multivalent-not
only
as
they may
be used outside the
arts,
but within
the context of the arts as well. As
such,
the discussion seeks to isolate and
interpret only
one strand
of these
meanings;
that
is,
that strand which reveals the
point
at which the aesthetic and the
religious
meet.
29. See the discussion of
lenaga's view,
and the relation of this to
Saigyo,
in La
Fleur,
"Saigyo
Nature," pp.
229-233.
30. Brower and
Miner, Japanese
Court
Poetry, p.
420.
31. Van Meter Ames, "Aesthetics in Recent
Japanese
Novels," Journal
of
Aesthetic and Art
Criticism
44,
no. 1
(Fall, 1965):
29.
Compare
similar statements in de
Bary,
Sources
of
Japanese
304
Pilgrim
Tradition, 1:281;
and
Ueda, Literary
and Art Theories in
Japan, p.
94.
32. As translated in Brower and
Miner, Japanese
Court
Poetry, p.
266.
33. Brower and
Miner, Japanese
Court
Poetry, p. 265;
and
Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai, eds.,
Haikai and
Haiku, (Tokyo: Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai, 1958), p.
164.
34. Brower and
Miner, Japanese
Court
Poetry, pp.
262ff.
35. Earl
Miner, Japanese
Poetic Diaries
(Berkeley
and Los
Angeles: University
of California
Press, 1969), p.
30.
36. From Shunzei's Jichin osho
jikaawase,
translated in Brower and
Miner, Japanese
Court
Poetry, p.
266.
37. For a review of the root
meanings
of the Chinese characters in
yiugen,
see Hilda
Kato,
"The
Mumyosho
of Kamo no
Chomei,"
Monumenta
Nipponica 23,
nos. 3-4
(1968):p. 406,
n. 249.
38.
Note, for
example,
the
suggestion
in Haikai and Haiku
(p. 168)
that Shunzei's sabi is
really
"the content of
yugen."
39. See
Ienaga
as discussed in
Bellah, "Ienaga Saburo," pp.
388-394
confer, "Saigyo
and the
Buddhist Value of
Nature,"
La
Fleur, pp.
228-233. In this
general connection,
see Kamo no
Ch6mei's
(1154-1216) Hojoki
as a rather sustained
expression
of the Buddhist recluse ideal. See
Sadler's translation in The Ten Foot
Square
Hut
(Rutland, Vt.,
Charles E. Tuttle:
1972).
40.
Ienaga
in
Bellah, "Ienaga Saburo," p.
392.
41. The
first, second,
and fourth
poems
are as translated in
Miner,
An Introduction to
Japanese
Court
Poetry (Stanford,
California: Stanford
University Press, 1968), pp. 103, 104, 111;
and the
third is as translated in La
Fleur, "Saigyo
Nature," p.
242.
(The
word
in
parentheses
in the latter translation is
my addition.)
42. On sabi as rust
colored,
see Brower and
Miner, Japanese
Court
Poetry, pp.
261f.
43.. See
Nose,
Zeami
Juroku-bushu, 1, especially pp. 358-368;
and the translation of this section
in de
Bary,
Sources
of
Japanese Tradition,
1:282-285.
44. From
Kyfi'i shidai,
translation in de
Bary,
Sources
of Japanese Tradition, p.
287.
45. Like other terms dealt
with,
this has a
complex history
and set of
meanings
both in China
and in
Japan. Perhaps
it is
enough
here to indicate its
important
connection to Buddhism as an
expression
of the
wondrous,
marvelous
Law, Truth, teachings, enlightenment,
and so forth.
Zeami,
in
fact,
claims his
usage
comes from Tendai Buddhism's
myoshaku (wondrous explanation).
See his
Yfigaku geifu goi
in
Nose,
Zeami Juroku-bushu
1, pp.
703f. The
term, however,
also has an
important
connection to the art and aesthetic traditions of China and
Japan generally. (Confer.
Suzuki,
Zen and
Japanese Culture, p. 142.)
46.
My
translation of a section from Zeami's
Shugyoka
tokka. See Nishio
Minoru, ed.,
Nihon
koten
bungaku
taikei
(Tokyo, 1961),
Vol.
65, p.
485f. The whole
passage
is translated in
my
"Zeami
and the
Way
of
No," p.
148.
47.
My
translation of a section from
Kakyo.
See
Nose,
Zeami
Juroku-bushu, pp.
383f;
and
my
"Zeami and the
Way
of
No," p.
148.
48. For a fuller discussion of
yfigen
as it relates to
myo
and mu and
mushin,
see Hisamatsu
Shin'ichi
"Yugen
ron" in his book Zen no ronko
(Tokyo: Iwanami, 1949), pp.
247-289. The
thrust of this
piece
is to tie
yuigen
rather
closely
to a strict Zen
understanding
of mu and mushin-
perhaps
more
closely
than we can. In this
connection,
it is worth
noting
that while Zeami uses
categories from,
and is influenced
generally by
Zen
Buddhism,
it is
highly questionable
that that
influence is as
all-pervading
and
directly
Zen in his
thinking
and art
as,
for
example,
in Basho's.
49.
Images
and terms
suggestive
of "cold" as an aesthetic criterion
appear increasingly
in
Zeami's work. Note the term hie
("chillness")
used
by
Zeami in
Kakyo (Nose,
Zeami
Juroku-bushu,
p. 396f)
to describe a
style
of No acted out of the kokoro
(heart/mind/spirit),
and related to what
he calls the mushin
style.
50. Notable
among
these
changes
would be:
(1)
The
greatly expanded
kinds of
images
available
to the
poet-images
not as
exclusively
oriented to
nature,
and
images
which would have been
considered common and
vulgar by
Heian standards. Basho himself
suggests
this when
discussing
his reaction to a worn and rather
plain wine-cup:
"A
Kyoto gentleman
would have found such a
cup
in
deplorable
taste and refused even to touch
it,
but I felt
surprisingly
elated. ... no doubt
because it suited the
place." (From Basho's Sarashina
kiko,
as translated in Donald
Keene,
Landscapes
and Portraits
(Tokyo:
Kodanasha
International, 1971), p.
118.
(2)
The clearer Zen
305
influence as it tends to take
away
what remnants in
Saigyb's
sabi there
might
be of
personal
emotion,
and
puts
a
greater
self-conscious
emphasis
on the
process
of
creativity
as a
"spontaneous" expres-
sion on the mushin kind of
experience.
Note here Basho's comment that: "Like the
(Zen)
monk
of old
(Kuang-wen, 1189-1263)
I 'entered the realm of no-mind
(Mushin)
under the moon after
midnight'." (From
his Kasshi
ginko
as translated in
Keene, Landscapes
and
Portraits, p. 96.)
51. See
Rikyu
on wabi/sabi
in,
for
example, Ludwig,
"The
Way
of
Tea," pp.
48f
(note 25,
herein).
52. As
quoted
in
Bellah, "lenaga Saburo," p.
393.
53. See note
50,
herein.
54. Brower and
Miner, Japanese
Court
Poetry, pp.
261f
(confer, p. 420).
55. From
Basho,
as
spoken through
his
disciple Kyorai (1651-1704),
in Kyorai sho, as
quoted
in
Nobuyuki Yuasa,
The Narrow Road to the
Deep
North and Other Travel Sketches
(Baltimore,
Md.:
Penguin Books, 1966), p.
42.
56. From Oku no hosomichi in Corman and
Susumu,
Back Roads to Far
Towns, p.
147.
57. "Oku no
Hosomichi,"
Corman and
Susumu,
Back Roads to Far
Towns, p.
99.
58. As
quoted
in Haikai and
Haiku, p.
xvii.
59. See note
25,
herein.

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The Artistic Way and the Religio-Aesthetic Tradition in Japan

Author(s): Richard B. Pilgrim

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