Abstract

In this paper I study the thread connecting the western world and Japan in terms of the images and inspiration at the heart of a shared appreciation of beauty. Keeping in mind the spirit of seduction by which these two worlds, though distant from each other, glow through their respective myths of human action and representation, which is ultimately expressed in daily life, I examine these mirror images as they are described by European and Japanese scholars. My reflections are aimed at establishing an intriguing reciprocity of gazes, thereby initiating a discussion on the ideas and the art of the Land of the Rising Sun taking into consideration not only European reception of these but also Japanese reception of European cultural aesthetics. In this context, the finite and the infinite vie for domination in the images evoked.