In this post I take a step beyond  the category of  blurriness  in modern western aesthetics towards  the Japanese aesthetic category of the indistinct (“In’ei”). This category  refers to  dim/murky light. 

My reason is that I  realise that I have been slowly moving towards photographing in low light situations  whilst using the Leica,   but I've been doing so without being conscious in an aesthetic sense. Until   I went walking in  Japanese   forests and I  started reading about pre-modern Japanese aesthetics upon my return.   

I did write about  the aesthetic category of  the indistinct (“In’ei”) on the thoughtfactory.com.au website after returning from walking in Japan, but as that website is gone, I've done  a summary over the leaf.

David E. Cooper says that  there are three visual modes of indistinct (“In’ei” ) as "shadowy depths" or "shaded areas", namely: 

1. there are phenomena that are themselves indistinct, in that they lack clear contours, precise location, or stable, determinate form. Examples would include wispy clouds, mists, and the dark, smoky patina on the surface of an unpolished silver kettle.

2. something may be indistinct because it is occluded, partly hidden by something else, such as  a moon half-hidden behind a cloud, a temple that is glimpsed, when cherry blossoms are falling between the trees.

3. something may be rendered indistinct by being ‘dimmed down’ – as when looked at through a veil or in a murky light.

I was interested in the murky light in No.3, given my experience of walking in dim  light in Japanese forests that was similar to photographing in dim light around Victor Harbor. 

The post explored the aesthetic category of the indistinct in relation to Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's 1933 book In Praise Of Shadows, with its distinction between modernity and tradition, the haunting of the old world against the brashness of the new. It is an  argument  for the difference in aesthetics regarding light, how the shadows and darkness  render value to light. and how modern western influence has diluted the Japanese love of shadows and low light.