Sharawadgi

The Gardens of Perfect Brightness (yuan ming yuan) at the Old Summer Palace represented the naturalistic style which was reported by western visitors to China. This was from the later 18th century understood as sharawaggi.

Sharawadgi or sharawaggi is a style of landscape gardening or architecture in which rigid lines and symmetry are avoided to give the scene an organic, naturalistic appearance. This concept was influential in English landscape gardening in the 18th century, starting with the reports from China of the Jesuit missionary, Father Attiret, and Sir William Temple's Upon the gardens of Epicurus. The style indicates a certain irregularity in landscape design or town planning. Sharawadgi was defined in the 1980s as an "artful irregularity in garden design and, more recently, in town planning."[1]

Etymology

The original word for Sharawadgi has been a matter of debate. Some scholars claim that it originates from the Japanese term shara'aji or share'aji (洒落味、しゃれ味) used for symbolism in design.[2] Others claim that it originates from the Japanese term sorowaji（揃わじ）, which means asymmetry, irregular.[3] Others claim that the term sharawaggi (more frequently spelled sharawadgi) which Walpole associates in this passage with irregularity, asymmetry, and freedom from the rigid conventions of classical design, was introduced by Sir William Temple in his 1692 essay Upon the Gardens of Epicurus and by the time of Walpole's letter had become a common term in the lexicon of eighteenth-century aesthetic theory. Derived from the Chinese phrase "sa luo wei qi," literally meaning careless grace employed for an impressive and surprising effect, it typically referred to the principle of planned naturalness of appearance in garden design.[4][5][6]

History

Merchants from the Dutch East India Company brought the term to Europe at the end of the seventeenth century together with lacquer cabinets and screens acquired by King William III of England and Queen Mary II of England.[7] Sharawadgi as a term in written discourse was introduced in England by Sir William Temple (1628–1699) in his essay Upon the Gardens of Epicurus written in 1685 and published in 1690.[8] Temple was an English ambassador residing in The Hague and associating with the King and Queen.

He took the exotic, non-symmetric landscapes depicted on such imported art work as supporting his personal preference for irregular landscape scenery. He had seen such irregularity in Dutch gardens where a discourse was on about naturalness in landscapes, planned or not.[9] As a result of his introducing of sharawadgi, Temple is considered as one of the persons that introduced the basic ideas that lead to the development of the English landscape garden movement.[10]

Joseph Addison took up this discourse (1712), without direct reference to sharawadgi whence the original meaning got lost. In England the term reappears with Alexander Pope (1724) and Horace Walpole (1750), to be picked up again by Nikolaus Pevsner, who brought sharawadgi to the field of town planning.

Other meanings

In the meantime in Japan share'aji continued to be used in kimono fashion critique where it refers to the symbolism of motifs featured in kimono dress and matching the motifs to time, place and occasion.[11]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ↑ John Fleming, Hugh Honour, Nikolaus Pevsner. The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture. 1980, p. 296
  2. ↑ KUITERT, Wybe (2014). "Japanese Art, Aesthetics, and a European Discourse: Unraveling Sharawadgi" (PDF). Japan Review 27: 77–101.
  3. ↑ Murray, Ciaran (1998). "Sharawadgi Resolved". Garden History (Garden History Society) 26 (2): 208–213. doi:10.2307/1587204.
  4. ↑ [Murray, Ciaran (1998), Sharawadgi: The Romantic Return to Nature, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 9781573093293]
  5. ↑ [David Porter (1999), From Chinese to Goth:Walpole and the Gothic Repudiation of Chinoiserie, Eighteenth-Century Life 23.1 (1999) 46-58, The Johns Hopkins University Press]
  6. ↑ [Yu Liu (2008), Seeds of a Different Eden: Chinese gardening ideas and a new English aesthetic ideal, University of South Carolina Press, ISBN 9781570037696]
  7. ↑ See Wybe Kuitert "Japanese Art, Aesthetics, and a European discourse – unraveling Sharawadgi" Japan Review 2014 ISSN 0915-0986 (Vol.27)
  8. ↑ William Temple. "Upon the Gardens of Epicurus; or Of Gardening in the Year 1685." In Miscellanea, the Second Part, in Four Essays. Simpson, 1690
  9. ↑ see Wybe Kuitert "Japanese Robes, Sharawadgi, and the landscape discourse of Sir William Temple and Constantijn Huygens" Garden History, 41, 2: (2013) pp. 157–176, Plates II–VI ISSN 0307-1243
  10. ↑ See:Geoffrey Jellicoe (ed.) The Oxford Companion to Gardens, Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 513
  11. ↑ See Wybe Kuitert "Japanese Art, Aesthetics, and a European discourse – unraveling Sharawadgi" Japan Review 2014 ISSN 0915-0986 (Vol. 27) pp. 85–86

Sources

  • Kuitert, Wybe (2014), "Japanese Art, Aesthetics, and a European discourse – unraveling Sharawadgi" (PDF), publications.nichibun.ac.jp/en/item/jare/2014-08-29/pub (Japan Review (2014) Vol. 27), pp. 77–101 
  • Kuitert, Wybe (2013), Japanese Robes, Sharawadgi, and the landscape discourse of Sir William Temple and Constantijn Huygens, Garden History Vol. 41/2: pp. 157–176, Plates II–VI 
  • Murray, Ciaran (1998), Sharawadgi: The Romantic Return to Nature, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 9781573093293 
  • Yu Liu (2008), Seeds of a Different Eden: Chinese gardening ideas and a new English aesthetic ideal, University of South Carolina Press, ISBN 9781570037696 
  • David Porter (1999), From Chinese to Goth: Walpole and the Gothic Repudiation of Chinoiserie, Eighteenth-Century Life 23.1 (1999) 46-58, The Johns Hopkins University Press 
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