Japanese people place importance on mutually connected overall harmony by means of consideration paid to others. Accordingly, expression is judged on the basis of the reaction it is likely to provoke in the mind of the recipient. Expression of beauty and strength of artistic impression are not things that need to be stressed; the idea is that efforts should be made so that such reactions are forthcoming from within the minds of the people who come into contact with the work in question.

No work of art is necessarily interpreted by the recipient in accordance with the intentions of the artist. The recipient interprets the work in the light of his own beliefs and mood. This can be regarded as the way in which the recipient takes part in the very creation of the work. The important matter lies on the side of the thoughts and feelings generated in the mind of the person who comes into contact with the work.

In this way, it is precisely by suppressing and concealing the main point of a work that it becomes possible for the recipient to play his own spontaneous part in the creative process. What happens as a result is that the form of expression becomes vaguer rather than clear, the work stimulates the recipient’s imagination, and it becomes depicted under the effect of the autonomously exerted imaginative power of the recipient. Zeami’s famous maxim Hi sureba hana (“The flower emerges through concealment) refers to this process.

(Zeami: A celebrated playwright and theoretician of the Noh theatre, author of the aesthetic treatise on the Noh theater entitled Fushi-kaden, who was born around the middle of the 14th century.)

	The interiors of traditional Japanese houses are spaces created with lavish materials from which all superfluities are rigorously excluded. The partitions known as sudare break up space in a vague manner and have a sparkling sense of mystery similar to being caught up in mist.
	This shows a typical interior space of a Japanese traditional house. In the background can be seen the outer wall made of movable wood and paper known as akari-shoji. The things and people seen reflected on the wall look beautiful against the light. The floor also shines against the light, creating a lavish interior space.
	This is a watch designed by Masayuki Kurokawa. While pursuing the limits of simplification, it also shows evidence of intricate detail, evoked especially by the sense of mistiness generated by the vague frosted glass and the mirror face.