vocabulary 2

Question 1

collapse of Heian

Answer 1

• wars
• new religious sects and successive disasters -> capital fell
• tale of heike was written

Question 2

miyabi

Answer 2

• new era
• intensifying and a darkening of the Heian ideals
• they didnt neglect old themes -> use of the old means in search for new ends

Question 3

yugen

Answer 3

• poetry, drama, painting gardens, tea ceremony during this period
• highest beauty in art
• most difficult to understand
• profound, remote, mysterious
• in western terms- symbolism
• suggestive indefiniteness of vague and therefore of spiritual effect
• can be comprehended but not written in words
• discovered in art (theatre especially)
• yugen by using heian aesthetic means and not by denying them
• yugen is used in beautiful forms -> guided by the heian principle of miyabi
• mark of supreme attainment in art and accomplishments
• need to attain mushin first
• lies in true state of beutry and gentleness
• even the most casual utterance will be graceful

Question 4

aware vs yugen

Answer 4

• poet feels aware when he saw wrinkles reflected in the mirror and realized that time was passing by and the years of his youth vanished
• when a actor slowly raises his hand in a play it corresponds not only to the text which he is performing but must also suggests something behind the mere representation -> symbol of eternal region of eternal silence

Question 5

no action

Answer 5

• no gestures
• suggest the eternity beyond gestures
• unconsciously revealed spiritual strength of the actor
• no action is the best action
• idea of mushin
• the action limits you -> playing a note limits the note -> best note is to not play a note
• acting is easier
• display acting without acting -> difficult

Question 6

sabi

Answer 6

• old
• taking pleasure in that which was old, faded, lonely
• imperfection
• does not necessarily find symbols of remoter eternities in objects (yugen does)
• differs from gently melancholy of aware

Question 7

yugen x sabi

Answer 7

• tea ceremony
• tea hut is bare
• imperfect pottery
• single flower
• rusty kettle
• these objects may be imperfect (sabi) but they do not have a gloomy or shabby tone -> it is harmony and peace -> watching is experience of yugen
• love of imperfection

Question 8

9 stages of No

Answer 8

• higher 3 stages:
  1. the flower of the miraculous at midnight in silla the sun is bright
  2. the flower of supreme profundity
• 3. flower of stillness
• middle 3 stages:
  1. flower of truth
  2. art of versatility and exactness
  3. the art of untutored beauty
• lower 3 stages:
  1. art of strength and delicacy
  2. the art of strength and crudity
  3. the art of crudity and inexactness
• actor begins with middle stages then the upper and then the lower three
• practicing dancing and singing -> stage of untutored beauty
• constantly improvising until he reaches stage of versatility and exactness -> until full competence
• people who move from the middle (versatility and exactness) straight to lower will only be capable of parts which call for strength with delicacy or crudity
• must go in order to be the best!