--- Bud <bud@rajah.com> wrote:
> Ah, I for one could really benefit from a discussion of these general
> aesthetic concepts, like SHIBUI and HADE .... could someone please
> explain
> (with examples?) thanks!
Words like Shibui, Wabi-sabi, and so on, are indeed hard to define, but
I find it helpful to look at the concrete meanings of the words, or
even the etymology of the characters. The character for shibui has been
simplified in modern Japanese, but the older form has the water radical
and three of the character for "to stop" (in the modern form the bottom
two have been simplified to two strokes each). Originally it referred
to a blockage of water, and was and still is used to describe the taste
of an unripe persimmon. If you've ever bitten into an unripe persimmon
you'll see the rationale as the taste is astringent in the extreme. So
perhaps the closest English "aesthetic code-word" would be austere--the
idea anyway, I think, is the opposite of rococo, or perhaps the taste
of a very ripe, sweet fruit (or a double fudge sundae). I think it's a
concept whose time has come in this double fudge sundae culture.
Hade is an interesting compliment to shibui. It means something that
stands out, like bright, fancy clothing, or very extroverted behavior.
A few months ago I was preparing to play the Kinko version of Sagariha
in a competition, and my teacher recommended that I play the Dokyoku
version of Tsuru no Sugomori instead because it was much more hade. So
think of that peice, or Yamagoe, or Daha. Ha by the way is the second
character in ryuha, as in Kimpu-ryu Nezasa-ha, and means a stream or
the branching of a river. De is te--hand. As for why they mean what
they do together? No idea! But for me looking at these concrete
meanings really imparts a strong sense of the word; I get a feeling
like I do when reading Shakespeare, with the analogies he draws between
natural processes and social phenomena.
Peter Hill
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