Art

Japanese: Kunst
Art

...a general term for one of the activities unique to humans that seeks to create unique value. The Japanese word with this meaning began as a translation around 1887, and has become completely established today, but the Western equivalents are art (English, French), Kunst (German), arte (Italian, Spanish), and even further back, ars (Latin) and technē (Greek). Therefore, when considering the meaning of art, it is more important to value the development of the Western view of art than to trace the meaning of the correct characters of art, 'gei' and 'jutsu', in the cultural history of China and Japan.

From 【Art】

…In this period, attempts were made to define beauty as a sensory value, and a clear distinction was made between natural beauty and artistic beauty, with the latter being praised as the product of the human spirit (GWF Hegel). Pure art that has no other purpose than the expression of beauty, or so-called "art for art's sake" (named by V. Cousin), was considered to be true art. The concept of art here actually emerged around this time, and the words ars (Latin), art (French, English), arte (Italian), and Kunst (German) that had been used since the Middle Ages were used as they were, but were given new meanings. In other words, since the Middle Ages, this word had been used to mean "technique" or "skillful finishing," but it was given a new meaning as the art of expressing beauty (what we call art today), and to further clarify this, the word "beautiful" was added, and the word "fine art" (Beaux-Arts, etc.) was born. …

*Some of the terminology explanations that mention "Kunst" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

Japanese:

…独自の価値を創造しようとする人間固有の活動の一つを総称する語。このような意の日本語としては明治20年前後に翻訳語として始まり,今日では完全に定着したが,この語にあたる西欧語はアート,アールart(英語,フランス語),クンストKunst(ドイツ語),アルテarte(イタリア語,スペイン語),さかのぼってはアルスars(ラテン語),テクネーtechnē(ギリシア語)である。それゆえ芸術の意味を考えるには,芸の正字〈芸〉や〈術〉の語義を中国および日本の文化史に追いもとめる以上に,西洋における芸術観の展開を重んじることになる。…

【美術】より

…この時代には,感覚的価値としての美の定義が試みられ,自然美と芸術美が峻別されて両者のうち後者が人間精神の所産として優位にあるものとしてたたえられ(G.W.F.ヘーゲル),美の表現以外のものを目的としない純粋な芸術いわゆる〈芸術のための芸術l’art pour l’art〉(V.クーザンが命名)こそ真の芸術であるとされた。ここでいう芸術という概念も実はこのころ発生したのであり,語としては中世以来のアルスars(ラテン語),アール,アートart(フランス語,英語),アルテarte(イタリア語),クンストKunst(ドイツ語)がそのまま用いられて,それに新しい意味づけがされたのである。つまり中世以来,この語は〈技術〉〈巧みな仕上げ〉などの意味で用いられてきたが,それに新たに美を表現する術という意味づけがされ(今日でいう芸術),さらにこれを明確にするために〈美しい〉という語を加えて〈美術〉(ボーザールほか)という語が生まれたのである。…

※「Kunst」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典|株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第2版について | 情報

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