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Summary: Humble pie never tasted so good
Review: Soon after getting into custom furniture and cabinetmaking as a profession, I had come to that point where I began to tie my sense of self-worth to what other people thought of my work. Even worse, I began to feel that I was in a competition with my fellow woodworkers. Not only did I want their approval, but I thought I must strive to be better than them or I wouldn't achieve distinction (and therefore success). Then, via my explorations into Buddhism, I came across this book. It presented me with a heaping, much-needed serving of humble pie by telling me things like: "A beautiful work of art...is the work of a man who is not (bound to) either beauty and ugliness or even to himself." Yanagi was talking about the craftsman of Japan's past who, working with "total disengagement", created some of the most beautiful art objects the world has ever seen. This work was never signed because these were the products of craftsman who "made no effort to express their individuality through the medium of things; (instead) they produced things through the medium of man". As my understanding of Buddhism deepened, so didn't the import of these words. The bottom line was that I relaxed, I let myself enjoy the process and I let the objects I made speak for themselves. Humble pie never tasted so good.
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Summary: More photos! More essays!
Review: There is only so much that can be done inside of a few hundred pages, but this book does try. Many examples of Yanagi's writings have been pulled together along with photographs of actual objects in order to give the reader a small feel for the philosophy that Yanagi and others hammered out starting around the 1920's. For those unfamiliar with Yanagi Soetsu, he and other artists and thinkers of his time developed a philosophy called "Mingei" (folk-craft) in Japan. Similar to the arts and crafts movement in England and Europe, Mingei focuses on exploring the dimentions of beauty before something becomes "beautiful". A great deal of influence from people such as Bernard Leech and Suzuki Daisetsu went in to the creation of this "old yet new" way of looking at art and objects. His way of looking at the "unknown craftsman", in other words the artist who merely makes to make and sell his works, but does not comprimise because he wishes only to sell and sell quickly, will appear new to many, but there are many patronizing overtones in Yanagi's arguments. This comes close to devolving into a sort of "noble-savage" way of looking at crafts made in traditional ways, and is sometimes criticized as being arrogant if not contradictory. This book only scratched the surface of the world of Mingei, however, and an actual study would no doubt involve learning the Japanese language in order to follow not only Yanagi's essays, but also to be able to go and "experience" the art Yanagi devoted himself to inside of Japan. Yanagi's ideas, however, span much further than any one culture and many connected with Yanagi, particularly Hamada Shoji, came in contact with similar movements and ideas in their travels to mainland Asia, Europe, and North America. This book can be read, therefore, comfortably by most anyone interested in art and aesthetics.
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Summary: An Aesthetics Bible!
Review: Yanagi's words are so dense, packed, and rich with meaning. He has keen insights into what real 'seeing' is, and how necessary it is in discerning beauty. But Yanagi's words run beyond insight, and have some of that deep ring of eternal 'Truth' to them. I highly recommmend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about what true 'seeing' is, and how it relates to the perception of beauty.
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