Do not forget your original intentions
In his well-known commentary entitled, “The Flowering Spirit,” Zeami Motokiyo, the 15th Century aesthete, offered a somewhat cautionary tale as to the nature of the arts. Although open to numerous interpretations, generally speaking, what he wrote may be construed as it being a positive to cast off whatever recollections are tied to the period of one’s own innocence. However, as to my own thoughts, I am “wary of the evil designs, conceit, and callowness of youth” as depicted in what he wrote.
On the topic thus raised, I should mention that I cursorily gave some thought to Zeami’s ideas as a result of them being featured in a book that I read in my early 20s. The backstory there is that, at around the same time, I was in the practice of attending a series of impromptu study sessions that attracted a variety of people from various backgrounds. The venue was a restaurant that was run by a classmate of mine. We who participated gathered so as to discuss a diverse range of topics, whose breadth stretched from Japanese cuisine, the tea ceremony, flower arrangement, the Noh and Kabuki theaters, through to even wine and sake, etc. Through such exchanges I must admit that I personally learned much about the rigor and psychology of the Noh form.
Likewise, I became aware as to the “inexperience of all concerned” in that, until that point, our mindset was to reflect on ones’ own lives as various milestones were achieved, and what invariably happened then was some thought was given to whether or not there were any evil designs displayed, any hint of ambition or conceit, or any mistakes made in whatever choices presented themselves as future possibilities. Next, after some admonition as to our own immaturity, the flow of the exchange among the group would quickly proceed to a new topic of discussion.
As to the nature of the arts, I sense that, without there having been an ongoing and conscious buy-in at the time, what would have happened is that unknowingly the tension that underpinned our endeavors would have waned. Meanwhile, concerning those participants who we somewhat irreverently called “old farts,” it was not the case that they had become all dried out in their ideas while still relatively young. Rather, they turned up with a confidence that stemmed from a certain ongoing self-centered cautiousness.
Concerning those in our coterie who were referred to as old, if anything, they possessed more confidence in that they had lived much more than the rest of us. Although there exists a difference between self-reflection and caution, now I feel the need to undertake the former each morning. In that, I aspire to become a low-key elder of society.
