Pathway to Japanese Literature

The Beauty of Miscellaneous Utensils

Preface

Though he might have been uneducated and poor, he was a devout lay believer.
Why he believed, and even what he believed in, he could never fully articulate.
Yet within those simple words flashed astonishing spiritual experience.
In his hands lay nothing tangible.
Yet through them he grasped faith's very essence.
Though he himself did not seize it, God made him hold fast.
Thus he gained unshakable strength.

I found myself uttering similar words about the plate before my eyes.
It stood as nothing but a scorned object of crude craftsmanship.
No pretentious elegance adorned it; no gaudy colors masked its form.
The artisan who shaped it understood little of ceramic theory or aesthetic principles.
Like devotees reciting nembutsu invocations through rote repetition, he spun identical shapes on his wheel time after time.
Patterns repeated themselves; glazing followed set routines.
What constituted beauty? What defined ceramic art?
Such wisdom lay beyond his ken.
Yet his hands moved with swift assurance despite this ignorance.
As the nembutsu chant becomes Buddha's voice through repetition, so too might we say the potter's hands became Nature's instruments rather than his own.
Though he sought no beauty consciously, Nature safeguarded it through him.
Every trace of deliberate artistry had been surrendered.

Just as faith emerges from selfless devotion, so too does beauty well up spontaneously in vessels.
I gazed endlessly at that plate.

I

To speak of the beauty of Miscellaneous Utensils might make one appear as someone who seeks the bizarre.
Or perhaps it might be taken as praising such things through mere reactionary impulse.
But to dispel these misleading associations, I must first provide several clarifications.
Here by "Miscellaneous Utensils," I naturally mean the various implements used by ordinary people.
Since they are daily utensils employed by all, one might call them folk tools.
They are utterly commonplace objects—everyday implements that anyone buys and handles.
The money exchanged amounts to trifling sums.
Moreover, they remain items easily procured anywhere at any time.
They denote what people call "things close at hand," "constant-use items," or "kitchenware."
These are not objects displayed in alcoves to adorn rooms, but rather tools kept in kitchens and scattered about living areas.
Plates, trays, chests, garments—most being for household use.
Each exists solely to meet daily needs.
They hold nothing rare or novel.
All know these objects through intimate familiarity.

II

Yet how strange it was.
Throughout a lifetime they were the things that met the eye most frequently, yet their very existence passed by without ever being truly seen.
It must have been because everyone thought of them merely as crude things.
It even appeared as though there was not a single beautiful thing among them.
Even historians who ought to have chronicled them made no attempt to have them enter into history's narrative.
Yet I now took up anew those very things lying at people’s feet that they had come to know so thoroughly.
I did not doubt that a new chapter of beauty would be added to history from that day forth.
People might have found it strange, but that light would swiftly dispel the clouds of doubt.

However, why was its beauty abandoned for so long?
Those accustomed to living in gardens are said to be unaware of their fragrance.
Because they became too accustomed to seeing them, they did not make a particular effort to look.
When they sank into habit, reflection vanished.
All the more would their sense of wonder vanish.
It took until today, through many long years, for the beauty latent in those objects to be recognized.
We cannot entirely condemn this.
Because until now, it was not a time to step back and reflect on those objects; they were still creating them and living amidst them.
Recognition always requires temporal distance between eras.
History is recollection; criticism is retrospection.

Now the era abruptly shifted its course.
There may never again be a time when all things flow away as busily as they do today.
Time, mind, and even objects flowed swiftly into the past.
The burden of convention was cast off.
Before us, everything turned anew.
The future is new, and the past too is new.

Even the familiar world had now become a world of wonder.
In our eyes，all things were profoundly re-examined anew.
It was akin to a polished mirror.
Everything was reflected anew with vivid clarity.
Both good and bad things could not disguise their forms before this clarity.
Which of these things were beautiful?
The time had come to discern that.
Now was an era of criticism and an era of consciousness.
The fortune of being good judges had been granted to us.
We must not squander it as the blessing of our time.

From dark places buried in dust has here been unfolded a single new world of beauty.
It is a world that everyone knows yet no one has truly seen.
I must speak about the beauty of Miscellaneous Utensils.
Moreover，I intend to speak of what can be learned from that beauty.

III

Since they were utensils handled daily, they had to truly endure. Weak things, showy things, intricate things—such qualities found no place here. Sturdy things, robust things, sound things—these became vessels suited to daily life. They needed to withstand rough handling, intense heat and cold—all such trials borne willingly. Frailty was forbidden. Ostentation was forbidden. They required strong and upright qualities. Readiness was demanded—to serve anyone in any manner. Pretense proved impossible; deception found no quarter. For trials never ceased. Those rejecting honesty’s virtue could never become worthy vessels. In miscellaneous utensils, craftsmanship shed every mask. This was the World of Utility—never straying from practicality’s path. Vessels existed solely for service’s sake. Yet practicality’s mantle brought error if deemed mere materiality—who could claim these lacked spirit? Did patience’s fortitude, soundness’ vigor, honesty’s truth—did these virtues not beat within each vessel’s heart? They remained inextricably bound to earth’s rhythms.

But upon those who live righteously upon the earth, heaven bestows its blessings.
Good utility and good beauty are not opposing realms.
Can we not call this the oneness of matter and spirit?

They live humbly and simply, for theirs is a life of service.
Yet within this existence lies visible contentment.
Do they not greet each dawn and dusk in steadfast vigor?
In neglected corners, handled roughly yet without complaint, they persist in innocent simplicity.
Is there not beauty that remains unshaken?
In their delicacy—trembling at the barest touch—resides a beauty that calls to the heart.
Yet in forms unyielding even under violent blows, one beholds beauty still more astounding.
And does this beauty not grow greater with each passing day?
Utensils do not become beautiful unless used.
Through use they gain beauty, and through beauty they invite ever greater use.
Between people and utensils exists a covenant of mutual devotion.
Utensils heighten their beauty through service; masters deepen their love through employing them.

People cannot pass their days without those things.
Utensils are, so to speak, daily companions.
They are faithful friends that assist our lives.
Everyone spends their days relying on them.
Is there not a sincere beauty in their forms?
Is there not the virtue of humility manifesting itself?
In this present age when all things tend toward frailty, to behold the beauty of health within them is both a blessing and a joy.

IV

There was particularly neither coloring nor decoration there.
The purest form; two or three patterns—those too executed through simple techniques.
They did not boast of knowledge, nor indulge in ostentation.
They contained not a trace of artifice aiming for strangeness or intimidation.
They lacked any challenging or ostentatious manner, always remaining calm and quiet.
At times, they even appeared to bear a guileless, unadorned, and modest countenance.
Not once did that beauty attempt to impose itself upon us.
In this age that flaunts beauty, we found ourselves especially yearning for those modest creations.

Many of these grow in nameless rural villages of the remote countryside.
Or they emerge from dust-choked workshops in back alleys.
They are crafted by the weathered hands of the poor.
Flawless tools and coarse materials.
The places where they are sold are cramped shops or roadside mats.
The places where they are used are scattered and worn-out rooms.
But providence works in mysterious ways.
These very circumstances guarantee the beauty of utensils.
This is akin to faith.
Does religion not seek the virtue of poverty and admonish those arrogant in intellect?
It is in simple utensils that astonishing beauty makes its home.

Creation was desireless.
They existed to serve, not to make names.
It was precisely as laborers do not inscribe their names upon the beautiful roads they create.
The creator did not attempt to write his name anywhere.
All were creations of nameless people.
How this desireless heart must have purified the beauty of utensils.
Nearly all artisans had been people without learning.
Why they were made, what gave birth to beauty—they possessed no understanding of these matters.
Inheriting transmitted techniques exactly as received, they created and recreated without confusion.
What theory could there possibly have been?
How much less room could there have been for sentimentality?

The beauty of miscellaneous utensils is the beauty of selflessness.

Because they are nameless creations, we cannot chronicle the history of their makers.
The makers are not a select few exceptional individuals but those multitudes called ordinary people.
What does it mean that such astonishing beauty in vessels arose from the masses?
Once beauty belonged to all as common property, never held by individuals alone.
We must commemorate these labors in our nation's name and our era's name.
Though lacking in knowledge, these people excel in creation.
Now only individuals thrive while eras wane—yet once eras flourished as individuals effaced themselves.
Beauty does not spring from a few creators; multitudes of creators lived through beauty.
Miscellaneous utensils are Folk Crafts.

V

What should be noted was the material.
Good craftsmanship dwelt upon sound natural foundations.
It was nature that safeguarded the richness of quality.
Rather than asserting that vessels selected their materials, one should say materials summoned forth their vessels.

Does not every folk craft inherently possess its native soil? In that land lie the raw materials from which folk craft arises. The materials blessed by nature are its mother giving birth. Climate and terrain must never be separated from materials and production—these three become one body through their union—for when united thusly do crafts attain their true nature through nature’s support.

Should raw materials vanish from that land rather must its workshops close their doors; when materials bear unnatural strain vessels incur nature’s reproach; how indeed could artisans produce abundantly secure affordability or fashion robust wares without ready access to local resources? Behind each utensil lie concealed particular temperatures geological conditions and substances—local essence regional hues precisely these imbue crafts with countless qualities enhancing their character while those obedient unto nature receive nature’s affection; lacking this necessity vessels lose vigor beauty fades; rich quality seen in miscellaneous utensils remains nature’s gift; beholding such beauty people see themselves reflected therein.

Not only this—we ought to say that all shapes and patterns too are summoned forth by the materials. Between them, an inevitable bond is always forged. True adornment is not something applied to the body, but rather something that follows the body’s natural form. Do not consider materials to be mere supplies. There lies a manifestation of nature’s will. That will commands us what form and pattern they should possess. No one can defy nature’s will and create a good vessel. A good artisan likely desires nothing beyond what nature itself desires.

Is this not an invaluable lesson? When they come to know themselves as God's children—does not faith's flame kindle? So too when man becomes nature's child—is he not then robed in beauty? For this beauty stands ultimately under nature's surety.The deeper one sinks into that maternal embrace—the more intensely beauty glows with warmth.I cannot but discern shining proofs of this truth within humble zakki vessels.

VI

Because they were daily utensils, they were neither rare nor specially prepared—always available in public spaces.
Even when broken, another of the same would replace them.
Thus their production became voluminous and inexpensive.
One might dismiss this as mere matters of quantity, yet this very fact cast a wondrous influence upon craftsmanship’s beauty.
At times mass production risked lapsing into coarseness.
Yet without this very process, the beauty of miscellaneous utensils could never have arisen.

Repetition is the mother of mastery.
Great demand summoned abundant supply; mass production demanded endless repetition.
Repetition ultimately guided technique to completion’s realm.
When shifting to divided labor, artisans particularly excelled in singular techniques.
The same shape, the same pattern—this monotonous cycle constituted nearly their life’s work.
Those who perfected their technique transcended awareness of technique.
There they achieved receptivity—returning to nothingness, abandoning contrivance, forgetting exertion.
He conversed and laughed while performing his labor.
What astonished was its speed.
No—were it not swift, he could not have secured his daily bread.
Thousands upon thousands.
Through this repetition his hands attained perfect freedom.
All creation born from that freedom.

With my heart leaping, I gazed upon this wondrous craft.
Was he not placing complete trust in his hands?
There was not even a trace of doubt there.
That astonishing flow of the brush, the dynamism of form, that natural and unrestrained character.
It was no longer he who was using his hands, but some force that moved them.
Therefore, natural beauty could not help but be born.
Mass production was inevitable; they received the destiny of becoming beautiful vessels.

They were astonishingly consummate works.
Behind those utensils called miscellaneous utensils lay the perfection of technique brought by long years, much sweat, and endless repetition—there was freedom attained.
It was not so much that people made them as that nature should be said to bring them forth.
"Look at the plate called 'Horse's Eye'," he urged; no painter could have rendered that simple spiral with such effortless freedom.
That was truly a marvel.

In the near future when all is handed over to machines, it will become difficult even to believe what miracles human hands once achieved.

VII

Folk Crafts are inevitably handicraft.

Excluding God, could there be a creator more astonishing than hands? From this free movement arose all wondrous beauty. No mechanical force possessed freedom before handicraft. Hands were the finest tools that nature bestowed. What beauty could possibly arise from rebelling against this given blessing?

Unfortunately compelled by economic circumstances, nearly all things were now entrusted to machine labor.
Even from this process, a certain beauty might emerge.
We must not utterly despise it.
Yet there were limits to such beauty.
People must not wield this power without restraint or consideration.
It would forever remain bound to predetermined beauty.
Mere established rules amounted only to beauty's suffocation.
When machines subjugated people, their creations turned cold and shallow.
Flavor and luster—these qualities remained entrusted to human hands.
The surface variations that birth elegance and vitalize vessels—the marks of carving, the brush's dash, the blade's keenness—how could machines ever produce such elements?
Machines held only resolution, never creation.
Should present conditions persist, they would ultimately strip labor of its freedom and pilfer its joy.
There was a time when people commanded tools.
When master and servant kept their rightful stations, beauty found warmth and exaltation.

In this age when handicraft nears its end, the Miscellaneous Utensils created by ancestors are precisely the precious legacy.
The era when Folk Crafts were handicrafts is now passing into the past.
Difficult circumstances are preventing the revival of such things.
Under today’s irrational momentum, once they decline, the days when they flourished as Folk Crafts will likely never return.
Only those regions that continue preserving traditions still tread the rightful path of handicraft.
And thus, a few individuals are striving to assist it.
However, the cry “Return to handicraft!” will always be repeated.
For it is precisely there that the true freedom of labor exists most abundantly, and the true beauty of craft is permitted.
Thus, the day will undoubtedly come when folk utensils up to this day—bearing the mark of handicraft—will be looked upon with love.
Even as history declines, its beauty does not decline.
With time, that light will only grow brighter.

VIII

When entering this world, the mind that creates, the objects created, and the methods employed are all of utmost purity.
This simplicity is precisely what was required of the vessel's nature.
One must not replace this word with 'coarseness'.
It is precisely in this nature that beauty finds its guarantee.
Could there exist fine art that lacks simplicity?
Or are there numerous instances where complexity has produced beauty?
There is no true beauty apart from simplicity.
Though objects are termed Miscellaneous Utensils, it is in their unadulterated form that beauty's essence truly resides.
To learn art's laws, one must rather come to this ordinary realm known to all.

Those who attain enlightenment are unfettered.
These works entrusted to nature thrive within freedom's realm.
Before true handicraft, mere precepts hold no dominion.
Responding to materials and heeding intuition, all flows through surrendered hands.
Every contour, hue, and pattern lies unveiled before them.
No ordained law dictates their choices.
What beauty might emerge—such concerns never shackle their minds.
Yet no error mars their course.
For his choices spring not from whim, but from yielding to nature's selective grace.

This very freedom was the mother of creation.
The extremely rich variety and changes seen in Miscellaneous Utensils vividly attest to this fact.
Change is not born of artifice.
Artifice itself is constraint.
When all was entrusted to nature, astonishing creation began.
How could the artifice of technique possibly produce that unrestrained flavor?
Or could it possibly give rise to such abundant variation?
Here there was no futile repetition, no mere imitation.
There was always the opening to a new, vivid world.

Look upon that vessel called the sake cup.
On its small surface, the variations of painted patterns would indeed reach even hundreds of types.
And who could possibly deny the exquisite brushwork?
Even with commonplace striped designs, one would find it surprisingly difficult to discover identical ones.
Folk Crafts are a world of astonishing freedom and a realm of creation.

IX

As they were objects of daily use, they were treated carelessly, leaving scarcely any remaining from the distant past.
Even where fragments endured, their variety proved meager.

In Japan, it was during the last two or three centuries that crafts became particularly diverse.
Lacquerware and woodwork—not to mention metalwork, dyeing and weaving, extending even to ceramics.
They were adapted to various interior elements.
It was around the mid-Meiji period that the noble history of Miscellaneous Utensils finally began to decline and proper handicraft neared its end.
But in remote regions, there remained many where traditions of technique and style continued to be upheld, preserving their ancient dignity.
Since many of the Miscellaneous Utensils remaining at that time were from the Edo period, there was both variety and no lack in quantity.

Tokugawa culture belonged to the common people.
This held true in literature, and in painting as well.
The surviving Miscellaneous Utensils too formed an admirable part of the culture preserved by the populace.
Yet these do not represent urbanized refinements like ukiyo-e.
They possess a simple, steadfast provincial dignity.
Though lacking graceful form, they stand as utterly dependable companions.
Were one to live with them, familiarity would deepen day by day.
When these objects are near, one truly knows the ease of dwelling at home.

Generally speaking, the history of beauty was in decline. New things that could rival the past were likely rare. As eras waned, technique accumulated useless complexity. Handicraft struggled under this burden until vitality gradually faded away. They might have possessed traits like meticulousness and exquisite craftsmanship—yet beauty’s essence cloaked in simplicity had been slain. Trust in nature lay trampled beneath artificial methods; beauty showed clear signs of decay. But woven through this mournful chronicle alone remained untainted—the lineage of Miscellaneous Utensils. Here festered few maladies of excess. Perhaps because exiled beyond art’s borders did their makers escape beauty’s tyrannical self-awareness? If we seek wholesome beauty even now at time’s twilight—to this realm we must come! Their forms may lack opulence—yet arrayed amidst any splendor their steadfast presence remains unbroken! Take up one ceramic piece—turn it over! Only here within such utensils dwells strength matching those robust bases gracing Chinese and Korean wares! In this world weakness finds no quarter—no! What frailty exists cannot withstand daily service!

X

However, this strength does not end here. Through it is represented the existence of a distinctive Japan. Of course, in painting and sculpture there may be many works that proclaim Japan's own glory. Yet generally speaking, few have succeeded in casting off the legacy of China, and scarce are those that have escaped Korea's influence. Indeed, we must say that works possessing power and depth sufficient to rival theirs are rare. Before the greatness of China and the elegance of Korea, we cannot boldly present our own art.

However, when one entered the realm of Miscellaneous Utensils, one arrived at one of those rare exceptions.
There lay a unique Japan.
Ample certainty, ample freedom, and ample originality were discovered there.
This was not imitation; this was not subservience.
Standing alongside the world's creations, one could decisively declare that here lay Japan.
It was an unerring manifestation of the homeland's nature and climate, and of emotion and understanding.
It was truly a creation of distinct class.
Might one feel hesitant to speak of a unique Japan through what were called Miscellaneous Utensils?
Never must one think so.
We should take pride precisely in the fact that such works were born from the broad Japanese populace.
Moreover, we had to rejoice together in having had those utensils as our daily companions.
The glory belonged not to individuals, but was shared by the people.
Was there any fact more powerful than that Japan’s beauty was found in folk crafts?
If there had been no foundation of beauty in the lives of the people, how anxiously we would have served.

For the honor of the Japanese people too, I must take up the Miscellaneous Utensils from beneath the accumulated dust.

XI

Things made by uneducated artisans, transported from distant hamlets, used by all people of that era; called lowly goods and employed for daily chores, utilized in dim back rooms; lacking ornamentation and simple in their poverty, numerous in quantity and cheap in price—what divine ordinance allowed such lofty beauty to dwell within these lowly vessels?
In that guileless infant’s mind; in hearts possessing nothing; among those who spurn knowledge; those who measure words; people delighting in pure poverty—how mysteriously profound this truth: that God made His abode within them.
Is not that very teaching legible in vibrant script upon those very utensils?

And yet that beauty enveloped the entire existence of those modest utensils—ones surrendering their lives to service; self-offering ones fulfilling daily duties; untiring laborers in the real world; those spending days in health and contentment; aspirants seeking to bestow happiness upon all lives—was this not an astonishing matter? And yet when they were well-used and acquired patina, what divine will ordained that their beauty indeed increased? Was not a life of faith also a life of sacrifice and a lifetime of service? Was not the form of those pious individuals who served God and served others while forgetting themselves also visible in vessels serving the Lord? That in what adhered to reality, beauty transcending reality was most vividly revealed—what a subtle design this was!

That extraordinary beauty should emerge from those who know not beauty themselves; from those empty of self; from those unboastful of name; from those entrusting all to nature’s course; from those born of necessity—what a profound teaching this is! Does not the same depth that resides in believers who act solely in the name of God lie concealed there? “Those vessels once labeled ‘the poor in spirit,’ ‘the humble ones,’ and ‘miscellaneous utensils’—precisely these should be called ‘the blessed’ and ‘the luminous.’” Heaven—beauty—is already the possession of those very things.

Postscript

In past eras, it was the first-generation tea masters who recognized the beauty of such Miscellaneous Utensils.
They possessed eyes of uncommon discernment.
People have likely forgotten, but those tea utensils now commanding fortunes—the so-called *Daimyōgu*—are, in most cases, nothing more than Miscellaneous Utensils.
Their elegance—so natural, so unrestrained—can be said to arise precisely because they are Miscellaneous Utensils.
If they had not been Miscellaneous Utensils, they could never have become *Daimyōgu*.
People reflect on that *Ido* tea bowl and say it has seven points of appreciation.
Later, it finally came to be considered as nothing less than a covenant of beauty.
But were the original creators to hear this, how utterly perplexed would they be?
It is no wonder that among later imitative works created according to that convention, there are scarcely any outstanding pieces.
This is because they have already departed from the essence of Miscellaneous Utensils, being nothing more than works devised as art objects.
People must never forget that those deeply austere tea utensils were originally unpretentious Miscellaneous Utensils.

Nowadays, even when building tea rooms they lavish aesthetic refinements upon them, but their dignified style likely stems from humble homes.
Country houses remain beautiful even now.
The tea room savored the virtue of austere poverty.
Nowadays, they boast of wealth and status in tea rooms, but this merely speaks to the errors of a decadent age.
Now, the true meaning of the tea ceremony had come to be forgotten.
The beauty of tea was the beauty of artless simplicity.
It was the beauty of austere poverty.

Historians too praised those *Daimyōgu*.
But they did not speak at all about other Miscellaneous Utensils.
They considered them as if nothing else existed.
But tea bowls and tea caddies were merely one or two types among countless Miscellaneous Utensils.
The sisters of those that sat upon beauty’s throne still lay buried beneath endless dust.
Their failure to recognize beauty in such Miscellaneous Utensils likely stemmed from their own lack of understanding regarding the beauty inherent in tea utensils themselves.

If I may be permitted, I shall take up Miscellaneous Utensils shrouded in dust within a forgotten rural dwelling in some remote countryside and prepare fresh tea.
Now is the time to return to the essence of the Way, when I will be able to commune fully with the first-generation tea masters.

(1926)