ABSTRACT
Mitate is acknowledged as a ubiquitous artistic and aesthetic principle in Japan. Mitate 見立 is a Chinese character compound with mi 見 (to see) and tachi 立 (to stand). Among the various semantics of the term mitate, its meaning of “viewing something [signifier] as something else [signified]” is relevant here. Simply put, mitate means “view as” (Haft 2013, 95). The signified can be a real or imaginative object—an animal, a fictitious or historical person, imagery described in classical texts or an imaginative entity such as a deity in Buddhism. Yet mitate is rarely an abstract notion such as time or justice, which is common in allegorical or symbolic use. Hence, if a round tray is viewed as the moon, this pattern is a mitate. But if a skull in a painting stands for allegorical vanity, or an image of a pigeon symbolises a message of peace, these patterns are not deemed as mitate.
