Beautiful Town: Stories and Essays

The Joy of the Artist and Other Critical Selections

The Joy of the Artist and Other Critical Selections1 The Joy of the Artist Geijutsuka No Yorokobi, 1920 What is the joy of the artist? To begin with, the joy of the artist is not the making of good art. Nor the glorification of the art he creates. It lies not in being understood by the critic or in being read with pleasure by the reader. All these are less than secondary for the true artist. What, then, is the joy of the true artist? It lies just in the true satisfaction of the artist himself. No, it is rather in the joy of creation. In the moment of creation the artist can enjoy the joy of the gods. He sees a sudden birth rising out of chaos. The deeper the chaos, the greater the birth he sees. Art is no more or less than the pursuit of that condition. The joy of the artist is no more than that. As art is its own objective, the joy of creation is simply to create. In all the highest of human activities, there is no other aim but that. To think there is a further aim for the highest of human activities would be like thinking there is another divinity above divinity. Everything with any aim but this itself is but secondary in significance. That is what I believe. So I pray only that I may taste deeply of those moments of creation. The Joy of the Artist and Other Selections 245 Artists with other thoughts than these (and to my shame I sometimes find myself with such ideas) I would consider to be inferior artists. Not artists at all, I think. When I work thinking of the critic, when I work thinking of my craftsmanship, when I work with thoughts of my readers, when I work thinking of my editor and his deadline, when I work thinking of fame, when I work to establish some principles , when I work thinking of my own skill, when I work thinking of any other aim or result, I feel I have lost the joy of creation. I feel I have lost that highest joy that I myself am with the gods. When the artist works under any restraints whatsoever, he is no longer a creative person. If you ask why, there is something over him, something placing restraints on him. The restraining person above is the creative one. The artist must feel he is working under that restrainer, who is the creative one. The artist, then, is not the creative one; he is like the artisan working on commission with no choice of his own. Whatever aims and restraints he may have started from, the great artist is, I think, liberated from all those aims and restraints through his work. In his unrestricted and utmost efforts he is sure to become absorbed solely in the joy of creation. When he has tasted that joy of creation to the fullest, his good work of art remains to commemorate that joy. What about you? For me, as of now, that has too often failed to be the case. Don’t be ashamed for nothing. Just hope. Creativity Creativity is a divinity revealed in humans. It is the first child of the highest ability and the highest will. There anguish is joy, toil is play. There are days of internal struggle and days of festivity. . . . How sad it is. I have only the haziest dreams of that state. I can speak of it only in the haziest way. I am shamed that I can speak only as it were a whitened graveyard. Play and Hard Work Does the word “play” mean joyful play? Do the words “hard work” mean agonizing work? Then who said play is ignoble and hard work 246 Essays noble? The slave dreams that when he plays, the master will whip him; when he suffers, the master will praise him. If the master doesn’t, then it’s a paradox the master has taught the slave he oppresses. The person who is free to love his independence will choose what pleases him for his lifework. . . . Haven’t all artists chosen the arts because they despise the conventional occupations? Let’s make hard work as enjoyable as play. Let’s make hardship into the greatest pleasure. Let hard work be the highest joy. Only the true artist knows that state, knows the...