George Breeden Blog 7

Outside Reading: Richard Pilgrim. “Zeami and the Way of Nō.”

Do arts as religious discipline

Pilgrim writes the Do arts that: “More specifically, the artistic Way, not unlike any other Way, implies a spiritual journey which has a particular structure and a particular progression. This structure and progression, again not unlike many other spiritual disciplines, involves (a) the control and discipline of the body, (b) the control and discipline of the mind, and (c) the breakthrough or transformation into a new and more real mode of being with the creation, out of this discipline, of a new and uniquely religious art.” (Pilgrim 137) What he is presenting here is the idea that the Do arts of Japan are not only closely linked with religion, but that they are the essential disciplines that help individuals to have a relation to the divine. I am not sure if this idea of art as religious disciple would fit into the different modern and primitive mindsets that Van Der Leeuw describes in his book. My guess is that it would be more a primitive interaction, but really more study would be required. Nevertheless it is interesting that such a conception exists in such a powerful form to this day.