ERIC Number: ED312184
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1989-Apr
Pages: 12
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Aesthetics in a Post-Modern Education: The Japanese Concept of Shibusa.
Sawada, Daiyo
Even though the presence of Japanese products and technology has become commonplace in North America, the Japanese aesthetic has made little impact on North American society. Know as Shibusa, this aesthetic includes an openness to nature, an appreciation of the irregularities of form, a naturalness of daily life, and is seen in a great variety of forms, from the architecture of the Katsura Palace near Kyoto to an ikebana flower arrangement on a downtown Tokyo street corner. Shibusa may be described as having seven qualities: simplicity, implicitness, modesty, silence, naturalness, roughness, and normalcy. These qualities are each discussed with regard to their possible manifestations in an educational system. The Shibusa, in having no mechanical regularity or quantitative precision, invites participation by the observer because it suggests rather than commands; it opens up new possibilities because it is inherently unfinished. The principle of the unfinished can be contrasted with an opposite principle in traditional pedagogy in which anything left unfinished is seen as a weakness or a deficiency. The shibui sense of the unfinished is seen as a call to participate, an invitation to become; not a cause for reprimand. Shibui beauty is not a beauty displayed by the creator for the viewer to appreciate. Creation here means making a piece that will lead the viewer to draw beauty out of the piece for her/himself, and makes an artist of the viewer. A list of 13 references is given. (PPB)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Information Analyses; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Japan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A