Japanese Aesthetic Ma

Unlike most western aesthetics which recognize aesthetic pleasure independent of other values truth and falsity good and evil as the primary value of aesthetic experience the various japanese aesthetics recognize a range of objectives and effects that is more complex.

Japanese aesthetic ma. First there is a wider range of types of aesthetic pleasure. Ma is the emptiness full of possibilities like a promise yet to be fulfilled. Ma is described as an interval in time and or space thus referring to empty spaces vagueness or abstraction. Though commonly used to refer to literal visible negative.

Decisions are carefully thought out never rushed. The modern study of japanese aesthetics only started a little over two hundred years ago in the west. Contemplative time and space is always considered. Those best known and most influential in the west.

As the japanese lifestyle site wawaza explains ma is like a holder within which things can exist stand out and have meaning. In traditional japanese arts and culture ma refers to the artistic interpretation of an empty space often holding as much importance as the rest of an artwork and focusing the viewer on the intention of negative space in an art piece. Compared with western painting these sino japanese art forms involve large unpainted areas. These ideals and others underpin much of japanese cultural and aesthetic norms on what is considered.

The realm of art. Aesthetic values are deeply rooted in the mind set of the people as a culture interwoven throughout daily life. Ma lit gap space pause is the term for a specific japanese concept of negative space. Ma a japanese aesthetic principle in my three bird drawings i d like to show three paintings in which i have incorporated ma a japanese aesthetic principle.

The japanese aesthetic is a set of ancient ideals that include wabi transient and stark beauty sabi the beauty of natural patina and aging and yūgen profound grace and subtlety. Nowhere is ma more apparent than in japan after all the japanese saw fit to create a name for the concept. Ma ga warui or its opposite ma ga umai is often used an aesthetic judgment of japanese calligraphy or sumi e painting.