Keene Aesthetics
The tea ceremony was part of a medieval discipline known as the Sabi. It was affirmed by the tea master Rikyu in the 15th century. He founded a school for the tea ceremonies that used to take place in Japan. The Sabi concepts means that something is rusted, old, or aged, and it is ripe with insight and experience. It is also represented in simplicity because people of the old medieval ages used tea ceremonies to bring simplicity to the way the Japanese people used to live. However, in the current tea ceremonies in Japan, most people see it as a perversion of the aesthetics and ideals that were used to embody the culture of tea ceremonies. Hence, the Japanese use a lot of money and expensive things to make the ceremonies look simple and follow the ideals of the old tea ceremonies to help in the medieval ages in Japan. Hence, the tea ceremony is considered as an art and tradition that was started centuries ago, which is still upheld by the Japanese in the current generation (Keene, 1969).
The flower arrangement or art is from ancient Japan, whereby flowers are arranged in ways that represent beauty, peace, and harmony. According to Keene, most of the flower arranging activities are done by Japanese young women taught in schools. However, the medieval aesthetics are different from the current aesthetics of how the flowers are arranged and what they represent. However, the ikebana principles have remained the same throughout the centuries, even though different schools teach their styles and flairs of how the ikebana ceremony should be performed (Keene, 1969). Flower arranging is an art from the medieval ages that have not been abandoned by the Japanese people since it is still considered a spiritual process used to merge the outdoors and indoors, thus connecting nature with flowers to develop their representation peace, beauty, or harmony. They also embody the traditional values of the Japanese.
Reference
Keene, D. (1969). Japanese aesthetics. Philosophy East and West, 19(3), 293-306.