ABSTRACT
The insect-hearing festival is a picturesque rite which has come down from feudal days. This poetic and sentimental pastime is usually held on late August and September evenings in temple and shrine precincts, public parks, and in many gardens, when the “seven grasses of autumn” are in full bloom. The aesthetic tastes of the Japanese are evidenced in the Cha-no-yu or Tea Ceremony, in their annual moon-viewing parties, in flower arrangement, in their bonsai and bonkei creations, their insect-hearing and incense-smelling parties and in many other ways—those mentioned being described on Fujiya Hotel menu cards. The color of ashes, unpolished silver and gold, and other colors, constitutes factors for producing a subdued and tranquil effect in an art object and it is the artistic employment of such colors or combinations of colors that imparts to Japanese art an indescribable shibui effect.
