Pages RAIN September/October 1984 $39.95 cloth from: Abbeville Press, 505 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022). Indeed, Sherman Lee argues that the major difference between Chinese and Japanese art is the unequalled Japanese sense of design. Lee backs up his argument with an extensive portfolio of examples in The Genius of Japanese Design (1981, 203 pp., $39.95 cloth from: Kodan- sha International, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022). According to Lee, the elements of Japanese design consist of asymmetry, intuitive placement, subtle shades and combinations of colors, and the dominance of pattern and motif. His introductory essay comprises the first 30 pages of the book; the rest consists of photographs in color and black and white. A more affordable introduction to Japanese design is Japanese Decorative Style, by Sherman Lee (1972,161 pp., $5.95 from: Harper and Row, 49 East 33rd Street, New York, NY 10016). An excellent source book on Japanese design—and one RAIN has used extensively—is Japanese Design Motifs: 4,260 Illustrations of Heraldic Crests (compiled by the Matsuya Piece-Goods Store, translated by Fumie Adachi, 1913,1972, 216 pp., $6.50 from: Dover Publications, 180 Varick Street, New York, NY 10014). The book consists of the logos of Japanese families, arranged by motif. The design of the motifs attests to Japanese expertise in design. Folk arts and crafts in Japan are called mingei. These are objects that were necessary in the everyday lives of common people, but were not singled out for their aesthetic value until Soetsu Yanagi (1889-1961) focused on them. Yanagi believed: "To me the greatest thing is to live beauty in our daily life and to crowd every moment with things of beauty. It is then, and only then, that the art of the people as a whole is endowed with its richest significance. For its products are those made by a great many craftsmen for the mass of the people, and the moment this art declines the life of the entire nation is removed far away from beauty. So long as beauty abides in only a few articles created by a few geniuses, the Kingdom of Beauty is nowhere near realization." Bernard Leach has translated Yanagi's essays in Soetsu Yanagi, The Unknown Craftsman: A Japanese Insight into Beauty (1972, 230 pp., $12.95 from: Kodansha International, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022). Contrary to William Morris' beliefs that the vision of each individual craftsman was different, Yanagi believed that "the craftsman is essentially a communal worker; when individualism arises, the paths of 'artist' and 'craftsman' diverge.... Most beauty is related to laws thaf transcend the individual." According to Yanagi, the difference between the crafts and the arts is that "People hang their pictures high up on walls, but they place their objects for everday use close to them and take them in their hands." Folk crafts are "unself-consciously handmade and unsigned for the people by the people. Traditional Japanese family crests cheaply and in quantity, as for example, the Gothic crafts, the best work done under the Medieval guild system." Yanagi also admired Sung Chinese crafts, and he claimed that he never saw "even a single bad fifth century Egyptian Coptic or ancient Peruvian textile. Every piece is very beautiful." Yanagi saw not only beauty but also deeper meanings in traditional arts: "I would like to believe that beauty is of deep import to our modern age.. .. might not beauty, and the love of the beautiful, perhaps bring peace and harmony? Could it not carry us forward to new concepts of life's meaning? Would it not establish a fresh concept of culture? Would it not be a dove of peace between the various cultures of mankind?" A good survey of the popular, utilitarian arts in Japan is Folk Arts and Crafts ofJapan (volume 26 in the Heibon- sha Survey of Japanese Art; 1967,1973,164 pp., $17.50 cloth from: Weatherhill/Heibonsha, 149 Madison Avnue, New York, NY 10016). The photos of everyday objects used in Japan bear out the claim of their beauty. The best affordable collection of photos of specific categories of everyday objects is Kodansha's "Form and Function" series, focusing on the beauty of everyday objects. Titles include Japanese Brushes, Japanese Spoons and Ladles, Japanese Teapots, and Japanese Bamboo Baskets (1979,1980,1981, about 80 pp. each, $8.95 each from: Kodansha International, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022). The introduction to the series states: "The aim of this series is to make the reader approach practical objects as a fresh experience and know the profound satisfaction to be had from owning and frequently using well-crafted things, the successful marriage of form and function. When exposure to shoddy, mass-produced, ill-designed objects reaches some critical point, then people come to appreciate the forms and qualities of common things crafted and shaped through generations of human experience. These books focus upon objects hitherto either taken for granted or disregarded as commonplace." Another interesting source of information on mingei is Mingei: Japan's Enduring Folk Arts (by Amaury St.- Gilles, 1983, 260 pp., $12.95 from: Heian International, PO Box 2402, South San Francisco, CA 94083). St.-Gilles profiles 116 folk arts, indexed by place of origin, and tells stories or anecdotes about the uses or events associated with the use of each folk art. A good presentation of the steps in making traditional Japanese crafts today is Japanese Crafts (by John Lowe, 1983,175 pp., $25.50 cloth from: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 135 West 50th Street, New York, NY 10020). Lowe examines 14 traditional crafts that are practiced today, and shows craftsmen at work. There are more examples of art in everyday life—this attitude of doing things as well as you can. In this preliminary exploration, I have pointed to a mere handful of examples I've come upon in my reading. Instances of art in everyday life as a cultural phenomenon—particularly in traditional cultures—could fill volumes. In fact, I plan to expand this exploration into a book. □ □ © 1984 Tanya Kucak
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