Learning, Play, and Creativity: Asobi, Suzuki Harunobu, and the Creative Practice

How was creativity understood in the distinctive artistic practices of eighteenth-century Japan? Twentieth-century Western theorists have posited chance, connection making, risk taking, rule breaking, or “task appropriateness” as common characteristics of creativity. While accepting and embracing these qualities, this paper suggests the central role of play, or asobi, in the construction of and engagement with creative practices in the “floating-world” pictorial arts of Edo. Citing the oeuvre of Suzuki Harunobu as a representative example, this paper explores the incidence of asobi as a creative force in the development of mitate-e “allusion pictures;” fūryū “fashionable” or “up-to-date” elegance, or fūryū yatsushi “stylishly informal” sensibility; risk-taking inventive play with the nishiki-e “brocade picture” woodblock print medium; and the urbane and playfully provocative sensibility of iki “chic” refinement. Asobi provided the underpinning ethos of these conventional practices and established the common ground within which artist and viewer could engage in experiences of playfully creative aesthetic exchange. It lent license to risk-taking innovation and open-ended appreciations, and its interface of conventional means, tsū sophistication, lightly playful engagement, and poignant elegance together defined the creative experience and the “floating-world” sensibility of Edo.