Lorenzo Marinucci - panel 6 ENOJP Brussels
Channel: European Network of Japanese Philosophy
Date: 2017-10-30

"Sabi, fūga and Irony: the Aesthic Inquiry of Ōnishi Yoshinori"
Lorenzo Marinucci
(University of Rome, Tor Vergata)

Ōnishi Yoshinori (1888-1859) has been a major figure in the field of philosophical aesthetics in Japan, although his work is almost untranslated and addressed by few Western studies (Marra 2001). Ōnishi’s most particular contribution to this field lies in his refection about specifically Japanese aesthetic categories such as yūgen, aware, and fūga. His work however does not stress the uniqueness of the Asian Japanese conscious ness: these concepts are observed in their general validity, and as necessary addition to Western discourse on beauty. While this universalism too exposes itself to possible criticism, it shapes an attempt of intellectual unity that directly contrasts with the other contemporary forms of alleged “Japanese exceptionalism.” Ōnishi’s Aesthetics is conceived as a field were opposite moments are gathered in a particular unity, first internally (in the complementary relationship of feeling and intellectual reflection) and ultimately in intercultural terms. This presentation will examine Ōnishi’s treatment of sabi
(“rust,” “loneliness”) and fūga (“wind-grace”), in particular as it is presented in the essay Fūgaron – sabi no kenkyū 風雅論ー寂の研究 (1939). How does the apparently negative experience of solitude and the progressive withering of things assume a positive aesthetic connotation, and how is the category of sabi connected by Bashō’s school to the wider Asian notion of “wind-grace” (風雅)? In dealing with sabi within haikai, that is “comic poetry,” Ōnishi also consider it as a counterpart to Western irony. The apparent contrast between these two notions is resolved in the realization of their common insight into the “fragile” (O. Becker) character of manifestation, that is first grasped aesthetically, and acquires an existential and metaphysical relevance within this field. Both laugh and sadness are aesthetical realizations of this empty (that is, relational) quality of reality, and thus the Asian notions of “wind beauty” (風流・風雅) cover these two extremes as a contradictory unity. Hardly an isolated attempt to consider the premodern tradition of Japanese aesthetics in philosophical terms, Ōnishi’s analysis of sabi and fūga can be fruitfully compared with those of Kuki, Watsuji, Okazaki and others: what appears in such a comparison, and makes Ōnishi’s effort particularly relevant in a European perspective, is his willingness to consider together Western and Eastern ideas – a fruitful approach, given the increasing challenge of thinking particularity in a culturally globalized world.

This talk took place at the Second annual conference of the European Network of Japanese Philosophy [ENOJP] 7–10 December 2016, Université libre de Bruxelles [ULB].

For more informations:
http://enojp.org/
http://chisokudopublications.com/

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