My subject is to show a special way of conceiving and evaluating the human creation, especially of art. The intransitive notion of creation is opposed to the transitive. The basic opposition between them consists in the fact that the one emphasizes the forming activity of the subject-agent, while the other finds the mark of true creativity in the absence of particularly active intervention of the agent. 
Western aesthetics does not ignore the intransitivity: apart from the ancient theory of inspiration, we find its strong versions in Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty among others. However, Japanese poetics is essentially determined in this orientation through its grammar. It concerns the peculiarity of Japanese verb which consists in the identification of the effectiveness of doing with intransitivity. I find the most typical example in the intransitive verb "dekiru". We can use this verb to say "be able to do something". But it literally means "(something) is done/made by itself" or "(something)appears". The transitive ability is identified here with the intransitivity. With this system of verb, Japanese favors the poetics of intransitivity: the true creativity is to be found in the thing that seems to be made as if by itself, without human intervention.

特集 : 論集 美学・芸術学 : 美・芸術・感性をめぐる知のスパイラル(旋回)