"In Praise of Shadows" Quotes
"In Praise of Shadows" is an essay exploring the beauty of traditional Japanese aesthetics and the appreciation of darkness and shadows.
nonfiction | 56 pages | Published in NaN
Quotes
We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates.
In darkness, immutable tranquility holds sway.
We Orientals find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and darkness which that thing provides.
For in the architecture of Japan we find no such living beauty.
The quality that we call beauty, however, must always grow from the realities of life, and our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows towards beauty's end.
The gentle and the ordinary now seemed to us to possess a quiet beauty.
This was the most exquisite and beautiful sight imaginable.
We were constantly amazed by the beauty of the shadows.
A few rooms were almost empty, and that made them all the more breathtakingly beautiful.
Every morning the white walls and shoji would be bathed in a golden light.
