Iki (aesthetics)

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Iki (粋/いき, roughly "chic, stylish") is a Japanese aesthetical ideal of subdued displays of taste and/or wealth, with an emphasis on belying, on first glance, the efforts taken to appear stylish. It is thought to have originated amongst the merchant classes of Edo (modern-day Tokyo) in Edo period Japan, subverting class through an expression of material wealth that formed an aesthetic language specifically aimed at one's peers. Sometimes misunderstood in the West as the archetypal or stereotypical aesthetics of Japanese culture, Iki is instead a cornerstone of traditional Japanese aesthetic appeal and thought. Both geisha and kimono, amongst other cultural aspects, are thought to have been influenced by and developed through iki, and remain largely influenced by it to this day.

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