Asia

influence

island

isolation

Japan

modern art

museum

nationality

Japanese

occupation / innovator as

art critic

innovator in the field of

philosophy

scientific organization

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

curator

Nihon Bijutsuin

is one such that the difference among the asian nations were merely shining points of distinctness in an ocean of approximation.

Already in the now famous first line of this first book, Okakura accepts one of the main ideals of Asia-as-techne: the fundamental alterity of the East: 'Asia is One,' he wrote. And by 'One,' he meant the difference among the asian nations were merely shining points of distinctness in an ocean of approximation,' and that the 'Asiatic races' formed a 'single mighty web.' But if Asia was 'One' for Okakura, Japan was a rather special 'one' within that 'One.' It has been the 'great privilege of Japan,' he explains, 'to realize this unity-in-complexity with a special clearness' (IE, p.5). This distinction may have been due to geographical advantage or cultural openness, but regardless, he wrote, 'Japan is a museum of Asiatic civilization,' such that even 'Chinese scholars of the present day' look to Japan as 'the fountainhead of their own ancient knowledge' (p.38)

is a museum of asiatic civilization such that even chinese scholars of the present day (1903) look to Japanese as the fountainhead of their own ancient knowledge.

is, owing to its geographical isolation at the western extremity of Asia, the receptacle and repository of asiatic thought and culture that forever laps upon its shores.

This location and disposition will allow Japan to float in the 'same ocean of civilization, sail the same waves, and enjoy the fruits and endeavors of civilization. The eastern extremities of Japan's location also, in Okakura's view, bestowed upon Japan 'the unique blessing of unbroken Sovereignty, the proud ancestral ideas and instincts at the cost of expansion [and] made Japan the real repository of the trust of Asiatic thought and culture.' Japan is therefore the living museum of Asiatic civilization where the historic wealth of Asiatic culture can be studied through its treasured specimens. However, Japan is more than a museum 'because the singular genius of the race leads it to dwell on all phases of the ideals of the past, in the spirit of the living Advaitism which welcomes the new without losing the old. The history of Japanese art therefore becomes the history of asiatic ideals: 'the beach where each successive wave of Eastern thought has left its sand-ripple as it beat against the national consciousness.

is the reflection of our own times. In condemning it we but condemn ourselves.

The art of today is that which really belongs to us: it is our own reflection. In condemning it we but condemn ourselves. (Okakura, Kakuzo)

Tenshin Okakura

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Tenshin Okakura