Early Impressions of Japan

 

First impressions are sometimes difficult to ascertain. Not necessarily because we do not know what we are thinking all the time, but rather, we do not always understand what we are seeing. Can I really tell you when I was first introduced to Japanese culture? Did I even know then what I was seeing? Should I consider only the first time I studied Japan academically, or perhaps the first time I came to study in Japan? Or do I opt for my most recent introduction, to a slightly more familiar, slightly less alien Japan? … Let us go back to my first visit to Japan.

Aesthetics, the conceptions of sensory perception, have rich traditions and histories in Japanese society. These ideas – entombed in such alien terms as shibusa, wabi-sabi, yugen, miyabi, aware, etc. – are at once both cryptic and revealing: Cryptic to the untrained initiate, barely able to recognize more than a pretty scene. Powerfully revealing to the culturally trained, existing as a form of visual haiku that evokes emotion, meaning and connection between viewer and craftsman, of which nature itself is often the greatest such craftsman.

Armed with only my rudimentary understanding of Japanese aesthetics, a smattering of lectures on language, art, history and anthropology, I quickly realized just how little I knew when I first visited Japan to study at Ryukoku University. Although I could see the influences of the past, traditional style houses, historical locations and temple gardens, I found myself lost in the intricate details contained in the ideas so foreign to me. I was not alone, though, as I noted many of my new Japanese friends were also initiates to the subtleties of traditional aesthetics. Japan was alluring with its natural beauty and aesthetic traditions, yet the layers of meaning were not all visible to me, as most were barely even known to me.