From a paper read by T . Takemura at the Fiftieth Anniversary Meeting of Friends in Japan . Silent worship is the expression of Quakers' attitude to life. Simplicity in the outward appearance of the meeting, which nevertheless produces on the communicants a deep sense of devoutness, is characteristic of the Quaker manner of life.
Simplicity is no lack of aesthetic sense.
In this sense of beauty the early Quakers seemed to have much in common with Japanese. The beauty of the highest grade is found mostly in objects most simple. The haiku or hokku , a sort of sonnet, regarded as the most refined literature in Japan, is the simplest and shortest of all the world's literary forms, comprising only 17 syllables. Again, the sumi-e is a picture of Chinese origin, painted in black only, and with the lightest touch of the brush. It ranks as the highest art.