Japanese inspirations: notes from the Lab

My connection to Japan isn’t just about aesthetics; it seems like something is coming “from the beginning”. As a child, I literally ate every book, every movie, every picture coming from Japan. To my yang mind, these stories and visuals felt more than foreign, they felt “extra terrestrial”, like from the world that understood a frequency I was only just beginning to tune into.

I was always looking for the bridges between Lithuanian and Japanese cultures despite evident differences. Actually, I find lots of similarities in folk art, like “Sodai” (straw gardens), some crochet patterns. No surprise, that art (music and paintings) of Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis found its audience in Japan. It’s probably because of his ability “to paint music”… And that deep haunting symbolism of Lithuanian fairy tails (if you read “Gyvasis vanduo” you will never be the same any more:), creating the same feeling for me like watching animation of Hayao Miyazaki.

A few years ago, I was invited to come to Japan to exchange my ceramic techniques and learn something new. Just like a dream coming to life. But then, the world stopped. COVID 19 didn’t just cancelled a trip, it took life of the person who invited me.

That loss added a layer of melancholy to my inspiration. Japan remains, for now, a “ghost destination” - a place I know through spirit and art, yet have never touched.

Today, I just sometimes create “modern” haiku and always feel some specific influence of Japanese “things” while working with clay.

Below - my first ever haiku attempts (sometime I follow classic (5-7-5) structure, sometimes not). I don’t look for perfection here, the main thing is to catch a special feeling.

Pasejo pauksciai meile rudeni I Issaugojo per ziema I Prazys pavasari… (LIT)

Birds sowed love in autumn I Kept it through the winter I To bloom in spring…(ENG)

Now I can see that these lines also mirrors my artistic process - not only that it describes the process, where the Winter is Laboratory where the transformation is happening, and the Spring is final production, but it also says, that psyche is being held in the dark and finally blooms into something tangible. The birds are always the Messengers.

Siela pagrobia vejas I Kad prazystu ziedais nulauzta saka I Dieviski mainai (LIT)

The soul drifts away I Sacred blooms rise from the break I The divine exchange (ENG)

These lines will supplement my sculptural composition “The Soul Stolen by the Wind”.

“Lazy summer dream” (literally from my dream while sleeping:):

Septynios siamukes I Aptingusios sauletam sleny I Sapnas ar svajone? (LIT)

Seven Siamese rest I Lazy in the warm sun I Was it a vision? (ENG)

Main Japanese aesthetics concepts I follow:

SETSUNAI: it’s difficult to translate directly into a single another language word as it describes a complex, mixed emotion. It’s often translated as “painful”, “heart breaking”, “trying” or “oppressive”. The true essence of Setsunai is a mix of sadness, longing and wistful nostalgia, often described as bittersweet. The first kanji character (setsu or ki) means “cut” or “to cut”. This evokes the image of an emotional event cutting someone to its core, a sharp tender ache. The feeling involves holding both sorrow and joy at once, often related to something that is beautiful precisely because it is fleeting or unattainable. It could be wistful longing: a deep yearning for something or someone, often a person, a past moment, or a future that will never be realized. Bittersweetness: the sadness comes from a loss or a knowledge of impermanence, but the feeling also holds the sweetness of the memory or the beauty of the present moment. Impermanence (Mono no Aware): setsunai is strongly linked to the Japanese aesthetic concept of mono no aware, which is gentle sadness or awareness of the transience of things. For example, the beauty of cherry blossom is intensified by the knowledge that they will be soon fall.

WABI-SABI: the beauty of the imperfect, the impermanent and the incomplete.

YUGEN: an awareness of the universe that triggers emotional response too deep and powerful for words; the subtle grace of the hidden. The profound shadow. It’s often translated as “mysterious grace” or “subtle profundity”. The feeling: it is the sun setting behind a flower-clad hill, or the silhouette of a ship lost in the mist. It is not about “darkness” in a scary sense, but about the depth of the unknown.

MIYABI: best translated as “elegance”, “refinement”, or “courtliness”. It was the defining aesthetic of the Heian Period, an era dominated by the Imperial Court aristocracy. Key characteristics: refinement and grace - the core idea of Miyabi was the elimination of anything vulgar, crude, or coarse. It demanded the highest grace in manners, language and artistic expression. Art and poetry were expected to be polished, subtle, and sophisticated. Aristocratic ideal - Miyabi was a marker of class and sensitivity. It was believed that only the nobility could truly appreciate or create art conforming to this elevated standard. Connection to nature - while refined, Miyabi still value a deep, sensitive appreciation for beauty in nature. This appreciation was often subtle, focusing on the refined pleasure of viewing a beautiful kimono or contemplating a rare flower, rather than the rustic beauty of Wabi-Sabi (beauty in imperfection, austerity and natural aging). As Setsunai, Miyabi is often linked with the Mono no Aware, meaning “the pathos of things” or a bittersweet awareness of the transient nature of beauty and life. A sense of Miyabi can be found in a cherry blossom exquisite colour (elegance), while the ache in watching it fall away embodies Mono no Aware (poignancy).

MA - the powerful space between things (gap, space, pause). In art, it is not only focus on the thing, but also the space around them is important.

Japonisme is the term used to describe influence of Japanese art on Western culture - specifically Europe - starting in the mid-19th century.

In 1854, Japan ended over 200 years of isolation (Sakoku). Suddenly, Japanese goods flooded into Europe. Interestingly, many of the first Japanese woodblock prints (Ukiyo-e) arrived in France as “wrapping paper” for ceramics. Artists, like Monet, Degas, and Van Gogh saw this “wrapping paper” stunned.

Japonism provided Western artists with a new set of “symbols” for space and form. Japanese prints didn’t use the “vanishing point” of the Renaissance, so painting could be just a symbolic surface. The Japanese concept of Fukinsei (balance through inequality): instead of putting the subject in the centre, they placed it off to the side, leaving “empty space” (Ma). In symbolism, emptiness is a powerful sign of silence, loneliness, or the infinite. The “bird’s eye” view: looking down on a scene from an impossible angle, which feels more like a “map” of a memory than a literal view. Bold outlines: the use of “Cloisonnism” - thick dark lines around shapes. This made objects look more like icons or emblems.

Many artists were obsessed with Japonisme. Van Gogh once said: “All my work is based to some extent on Japanese art.” For him, Japanese style was a way to paint emotions rather than objects. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec: he used the flat colours and silhouettes of Ukiyo-e to turn the nightlife of Paris into a series of graphic symbols. James Whistler: he called his paintings “Nocturnes” and “Symphonies”, focusing on the feeling of a colour (like a blue-grey fog) rather than the literal details of an object, like bridge.

Victorian aesthetics in Japanese Subculture. In the late 1970s and 80s, Japan begin to reinterpret the Victorian and Edwardian eras not as a historic period, but as a visual language of rebellion. This birthed the Lolita subculture, which specifically focuses on the silhouette of innocence: using the crinolines, petticoats and lace of the Victorian era to create a doll-like, “cupcake” silhouette. This was a direct protest against the hyper-sexualized modern world, reclaiming the sense of “eternal girlhood”. The mourning aesthetics: the Victorian obsession with death (mourning jewelry, black lace, funeral veils) was adopted by the Gothic Lolita. Dandysm: the “Ouji” (Prince) style pulled from Victorian menswear - knickerbockers, waistcoats, and top hats.