Aesthetic Life: Beauty and Art in Modern Japan by Miya Elise Mizuta Lippit (review)

Published by the Harvard-Yenching Institute HJAS 80.2 (2020): 539–544 our understanding of modern Korean Buddhism? Can we understand Korean Buddhists’ choreographing work with the colonial government without also addressing the political impact of their collaboration? Given the sensitivity of the issue, this book could have been more appealing if the author had taken more time to explain why Korean Buddhists’ choreographing work with the Japanese colonial state should be acceptable. One of the greatest values of this book, to me, is its nuanced explanation of how specific realities came to existence. What readers will find in this book is a well-crafted and well-researched report written in an eloquent storytelling style that makes reading pleasant and engaging. When a period is understood through a grand narrative of nationalism, colonialism, or even transnationalism, details of the people who actually lived those grand narratives can become obscured. This book definitely helps the reader understand seemingly familiar events, incidents, and history from different perspectives. I strongly recommend the book to anyone who is interested in Korean Buddhism, Buddhism, Buddhism and modernity, or in how historical events come into existence.