What is a beautiful 'thing'?

The phrase 'beautiful thing' has always bothered me.

Why 'thing', I wondered.

Beautiful scenery.
Beautiful vessel.
Beautiful painting.
Beautiful design.

We have long been educated to treat 'beauty' as an object.

But recently, that very premise has begun to waver.

Perhaps beauty was not originally an attribute residing in 'things'.

Perhaps it was a way of engaging with the world itself.

I have come to think so.

I was watching a program on NHK about Ii Naosuke. It is said that the Ii family valued Noh. In modern terms, this is explained as 'samurai protecting culture.' In other words, the understanding is that martial arts and culture are separate genres, and that samurai, as the side holding power, supported the arts.

However, I felt a strong sense of discomfort with that explanation.

For them, martial arts and beauty should not have been separate operating systems.

The body that performs Noh.
The body that draws a sword.
The body that whisks tea.
The body that writes calligraphy.

These are not separate disciplines.

They arise from the same bodily sensation.

Modern people think of 'martial arts' and 'beauty' as completely separate.

Martial arts are for fighting.
Beauty is for appreciation.

However, it was different in the past.

You can see it if you watch Noh.

That is not just a theatrical performance.

'When to move'
'Where to stop'
'How long to sustain the pause'
'Where to place the center of gravity'

It is, in itself, the control of time by the body.

It is extremely close to swordsmanship.

Tea is the same.

When you enter a tea room, your stride changes.
Your gaze changes.
Your breathing changes.
Your vocal volume changes.

In other words, you are rewriting your body's OS through the space.

There, 'beauty' is not decoration.

It is the very form of connection with the world.

How to walk.
How to touch.
How to wait.
How to be silent.
How to look at others.

That 'way of engaging' itself was beauty.

Therefore, in traditional Japanese culture, beauty was not separated from daily life.

Gardens.
Vessels.
Calligraphy.
Incense.
Architecture.
Festivals.
Martial arts.
Noh.

These were less 'works of art' and more 'gestures of existence'.

In short, beauty was a 'form of living'.

However, since the Meiji era, Japan has largely severed that connection.

As Western modernity was introduced, the word 'bijutsu' (fine arts) was institutionalized.

Created as a translation for 'fine arts,' this term caused things that had previously been continuous to become separated.

Life and beauty.
Body and beauty.
Community and beauty.
Religion and beauty.

These were carved away, and 'beauty' transformed into something to be viewed.

In other words, beauty was stripped from the body and transported to museums.

But what is frightening is that we have been educated to believe that this state is 'natural'.

I was taught that beauty is not found in daily life, but rather that appreciating 'beautiful things' is what beauty is.

Therefore, in the modern era, 'art' has become a specialized domain separated from daily life.

Even in schools, art and crafts are being pushed to the periphery.

It is irrelevant to entrance exams.
It is difficult to quantify.
It is useless.

That is how it is treated.

But is it really because it is 'unnecessary'?

On the contrary, isn't it because it is difficult for the modern educational OS to handle?

What modern education emphasizes is:

Verbalization.
Quantification.
Standardization.
Efficiency.

That is what it is.

On the other hand, what art deals with is:

Presence.
Center of gravity.
Tactility.
Silence.
Space.
Relationships.
Ambiguity.

In other words, it is knowledge through the body regarding 'how to relate to the world'.

That is why art and crafts were never originally something as light as 'sensibility education'.

They were something much more fundamental.

Whittling wood.
Touching soil.
Mixing colors.
Looking at negative space.
Finding the center of gravity of a shape.

These were acts of teaching the body 'how to connect with the world'.

Calligraphy is the same.

Originally, calligraphy is not a 'technique for writing characters beautifully'.

Breathing.
Speed.
Center of gravity.
Negative space.

In short, it was the tuning of body and time.

Martial arts are the same.

It is not just for fighting.

How to exist.
How to stand in a space.
How to maintain distance from others.

The very way of positioning the body was beauty, ethics, and religion all at once.

Religion here does not mean 'faith' in the Western sense.

Much less is it about the 'afterlife'.

How to enter the mountains.
How to purify with water.
How to welcome the seasons.
How to be with the dead.

In other words, it is the very mode of connection with the world.

That is why in ancient Japan, 'sacred' and 'beauty' were not separated.

Clapping hands at a shrine.
Sweeping the garden.
Arranging flowers.
Burning incense.

These were all physical techniques for 'how to engage with the world'.

And what modern people have lost is likely not knowledge.

I believe it is this 'way of engaging' itself.

Right now, our connection to the world is...

Information.
Efficiency.
Consumption.
Self-expression.

too heavily skewed toward these.

However, humans inherently need to know 'how to be with the world'.

That is why things like Zen, folk crafts, body theory, and fermentation culture are resurfacing in fragments now.

Everyone is searching for the lost mode of connection.

And as we enter the AI era, this issue will become even greater.

Knowledge processing will be replaced by AI.

However,

What we feel is beautiful.
Where we sense something is amiss.
How we engage with the world.

That alone will remain with humans.

Therefore, what is truly needed from now on is not to increase the number of 'beautiful things'.

It is to engage with the world beautifully.

Originally, beauty was not about decoration.

Beauty was a way of engaging with the world.