A Comparative Analysis of the Aesthetic Appreciation of Traditional Crafts by Young Korea and Japanese : A Basic Study on the Relationship between Form and Image(1)

Abstract

Korean and Japanese subjects of younger generation made aesthetic judgments for 24 different kinds of traditional crafts using a rating scale. The results show that for most subjects aesthetic appreciation is specific to their nationality: Their attitude with respect to aesthetic appreciation is found to highly correlate with their location and culture. Factor analysis applied to the results reveal that 3 main factors in Korean image construction are "elaborate-simple", "pleasant-unpleasant", "bold-plain", whereas 3 main factors for Japanese are "quiet-gay", "graceful-unstylish", and "light-heavy".