Opinion Seeing with new eyes By Joseph Lapenta	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
初心を思い出させてくれたエッセー 日本に来て以来研究を重ねてきた生け花。いつしかマンネリを感じ始めていたときに、哲学者・西谷啓治のエッセーに出会い、 初めてこの芸術に接したころのことを思い出した。

I was at a dead end in my work. I had been studying and writing about ikebana for almost as long as I had been in Japan, and I had been teaching it for a while. But doing the art form I used to enjoy so much had become a stale routine.

In the past, when I found myself in the doldrums, I had gone to a concert or an exhibition, or taken a trip. I usually came back to my everyday life renewed and refreshed. Whatever it was, there had always been something to wake me up to the beauty around me.

Fortunately, while doing research for a book, I came across a short essay entitled "On Ikebana" (1953) by Keiji Nishitani (1900-90), one of Japan's few well-known philosophers. Nishitani was a member of the Kyoto school, and a follower of Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945). They were deeply influenced by Buddhist thought, and that tradition became the basis for their uniquely Japanese response to Western philosophy. They typically use concepts such as Nothingness (mu) and Emptiness (ku) that are very difficult to grasp, but his discussion of ikebana is straightforward.

Nishitani wrote his essay shortly after he returned from Europe where he had spent a number of years studying philosophy and art, and traveling as much as possible. He had been deeply impressed by the power and beauty of European art and architecture. However, when he returned to Japan, he experienced a kind of reverse culture shock. He saw many aspects of his native country as if for the first time, and one of them was ikebana.

It struck him that the most important difference between Japanese art and European art was a different attitude toward time. This was probably the result of different religious backgrounds. European art, Nishitani writes, is made with the intention of resisting the passage of time. The materials used are relatively permanent, like marble and oil paint on canvas. Even though they know that nothing will last forever, Europeans speak of "immortal" artists and "timeless" paintings and statues.

According to Nishitani, Japanese arts like ikebana and the attitude of Japanese artists are entirely different from the European approach. Instead of trying to stop time, ikebana embraces the passage of time. It shows us a kind of timeless beauty in the process of change itself.

Nishitani reminds us that in nature plants grow, wither and die. In ikebana, plants are cut, and removed from nature. They are arranged in containers according to formal rules, and enter the world of human art and culture. Despite being made from natural, ephemeral materials, beautiful works of ikebana seem to be beyond nature and time. According to Nishitani, this timeless quality gives us a brief glimpse of eternity.

There are many other insights in his essay and sometimes his explanations are very abstract and difficult to follow. But one result of reading Nishitani was to help me recall why I had started studying ikebana in the first place. Originally, it had had a very strong effect on me, and as I read Nishitani, I relived those first mysterious encounters. In a sense, he helped me to do what he himself had done. He helped me see a part of my familiar world with new eyes.

Shukan ST: Oct. 31, 2003

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