# Japanese Minimalism — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Japanese Minimalism**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: none yet.
> 10 sources attached.

## How to use this

Paste this file into your agent as context before asking it to design or build something in this visual language. It states what is established, what is our interpretation, and what nobody has established. Treat all three differently.

**The most important section is "Not researched yet".** Its purpose is to stop you and your agent inventing rules that sound right and are not recorded anywhere.

## What this language is

**Defining:** Emptiness around a single subject, a withheld message, space left for the viewer to fill

**Recognise it by:** A near-empty field around a single subject, with the message withheld so the viewer can fill it. The proportion of empty to occupied area is the signal; restraint alone identifies nothing. Very small type and off-centre placement are Aesthetary's reading, seen in one campaign image (Horizon, 2003); another documented campaign image is centred, so neither is a defining trait.

**Family:** Minimal & Ordered
**Era:** contemporary
**Native medium:** print_poster, print

**Scope:** The 'emptiness' (空) communication Kenya Hara has art-directed for MUJI since 2003, with his writing on white (白). Aesthetary keeps the name 'Japanese Minimalism' because it is the term people search for this look, and says plainly that the term is an outsider's: minimalism is not a general or essential characteristic of Japanese design (Tsuzuki's Tokyo Style; Alt), Hara says MUJI's path is different from simplicity, and MUJI's founding art director Ikko Tanaka worked in a highly decorated, colourful register. It is not the 1960s US art movement Minimalism.

## What it is arguing

Empty area is content, not the absence of content. The message is withheld and the field left open so the viewer completes it; the emptiness does the work that a stated message does elsewhere.

**It refuses:** Refuses the assumption that unused area is wasted area.

## What it is not

Commonly confused with these. Getting the difference right matters more than getting the surface right:

- Scandinavian Minimalism
- Wabi-Sabi
- Ukiyo-e & Edo Graphic — Composition and vertical setting are structural; seals carry real meaning
- Shan Shui Ink — Negative space as mist is structural, not stylistic

**What separates this language:** Emptiness is an active compositional element, not leftover space

_This is the record's own distinguishing line, not a comparison against any one neighbour. Where a per-neighbour difference is recorded it appears beside that name above; where it is absent, nobody has written it._

## Found in research

What research established from sources Aesthetary opened and checked. Each line names its area, how it is known, and where it is scoped. "Seen in the work" means the source documents particular works or products rather than the Aesthetic as a whole.

- **Layout** — In the practitioner's theory, unpainted or unprinted area is treated as carrying meaning, not as leftover.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:layout-1` · Covers Hara's book White, quoted in a review; a stated theory, not a layout specification.
- **Layout** — One craft-media editor writes that MUJI attracts people overseas with designs that take full advantage of blank space.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:layout-4` · Covers specialist craft-media commentary.
- **Layout** — The 2003 campaign's visuals feature only the Earth and people.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:layout-2` · Covers Horizon, MUJI corporate campaign 2003 (AD Kenya Hara; observed from the archive reproduction at S6).
- **Typography** — Hara describes MUJI package design as deliberately ordinary.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-3` · Covers packaging, not ads.
- **Typography** — The corporate ads are intended not to spell out MUJI's philosophy or business details, but to raise questions.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:typography-2` · Covers MUJI corporate campaign 2003–2025.
- **Color** — Hara's own work moved away from bright, vivid colour toward subtler natural hues.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:color-2` · Covers reviewer's summary of Hara's account in White.
- **Color** — In Hara's writing 'white' is a concept tied to emptiness, not a colour specification.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:color-1`
- **Imagery** — The practitioner avoids fixing the viewer's image with one over-determined picture.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:imagery-3`
- **Imagery** — Imagery shows only the Earth and people, chosen so viewers can project their own meanings.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:imagery-1` · Covers MUJI corporate campaign from 2003.
- **Imagery** — A 2005 companion campaign, MUJI and the Teahouse, features a white ceramic teabowl as a creative interpretation of a Japanese aesthetic concept.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:imagery-2` · Covers MUJI and the Teahouse, 2005.
- **Surface** — Hara compares paper to the principle of itoshiroshi, a charged whiteness full of potential.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-1` · Covers reviewer's summary of White.
- **Surface** — MUJI makes material a visible surface choice: unbleached pulp gives a light beige paper used for its notebooks, packaging and labels.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:w2-surface-1` · Covers MUJI only.
- **Surface** — MUJI lists selection of materials alongside streamlining of processes and simplification of packaging.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:w2-surface-2` · Covers MUJI only.
- **Surface** — Kenya Hara + Nippon Design Center directed HAPTIC, Takeo's 2004 paper show focused on the sense of touch, which did not take a nostalgic approach to the feel of paper.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:w2-surface-3` · Covers Hara's practice; not a statement about posters.
- **Motif** — Ornament and marking are refused: products carry no logos and 'su' (plain, unadorned) is a stated principle.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motif-1` · Covers MUJI products and brand.
- **Technique** — For Horizon the team travelled to the locations and photographed them.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:technique-1` · Covers Horizon, 2003.
- **Hierarchy** — The corporate ads are intended to raise questions rather than spell out corporate philosophy or business details.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:hierarchy-1` · Covers MUJI corporate campaign.
- **Density** — Emptiness is framed as receptiveness rather than simplification of form.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:density-2`

## Positions by area

The overall position recorded for each area. "No overall position recorded" means rules exist for the area but no position above them; the rules still apply. It is not the same as "Not established", which means nobody has researched the area.

- **Layout** — Specified
- **Typography** — Specified
- **Color** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Motif** — Ruled out
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Interface** — Outside this language. The area does not apply; this is not a gap in the research.

## Design grammar — web primitives

A starting grammar for a website in the manner of Kenya Hara's emptiness for MUJI: a near-empty field around one subject, the message withheld so the viewer can fill it, natural hues on unbleached paper, and no ornament or marking. "Japanese Minimalism" is the name people search for, not a claim about Japanese design.

Three kinds of line: **On the record** names a rule this record holds (its wording is under Established rules) and states what it becomes on the web. **Web translation** is Aesthetary's choice for the web, derived from the rules it cites; change it if you have a reason, keep the cited rule. **Not specified by the source** means the research reached this but the sources say nothing about it; **Not researched yet** means the research has not reached it yet. Either way, follow the instruction and do not invent a rule. Structured version: `designGrammar` in data/japanese-minimalism.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| paper | `#F7F5F0` | — | The field. Most of every screen. | Web translation |
| ink | `#1C1C1A` | 16.1:1 | Text and the few lines there are. | Web translation |
| grey | `#6F6C66` | 4.8:1 | Labels and quiet text. | Web translation |
| interval | `#EEEBE3` | — | The one field an image or object sits in. | Web translation |

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:color-2` → Move away from bright, vivid colour toward subtler natural hues.
- **On the record · Seen in the work** · `claim:kcc:color-1` → Treat white as a concept tied to emptiness, not a colour specification.
- **Web translation** — Use an unbleached paper tone for the ground, not a screen white. _Why:_ MUJI makes unbleached pulp a visible surface choice; the ground is a paper, not a pixel white. (`claim:kcc:w2-surface-1`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources give no palette values. _Instead:_ Stay with natural, subdued hues; do not import a "Japanese" accent colour.

### Typography

Family: a Mincho-style serif for text (ours); Zen Kaku Gothic New for labels. Stack: `"Shippori JM", "Hiragino Mincho ProN", Georgia, serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| heading | 1.375rem | 400 | 1.4 | not specified | 0.08em | — | The one line a screen leads with. |
| body | 0.9375rem | 400 | 1.9 | not specified | not specified | 30em | Short text. |
| label | 0.75rem | 500 | 1.7 | uppercase | 0.22em | — | Labels, in the sans. |

- **On the record · Seen in the work** · `claim:kcc:typography-2` → Say less: the ads are meant to raise questions, not spell out the philosophy.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-3` → Keep the setting deliberately ordinary.
- **Web translation** — Set text in a Mincho-style serif with a plain sans for labels. _Why:_ Neither face is on the record; both are ordinary text faces, which is what the packaging is described as. (`claim:kcc:typography-3`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify a type size. Very small type is our reading of one campaign image. _Instead:_ Size type for reading. Do not shrink it to signal the look.

### Grid and layout

No column grid: a near-empty field around one subject. The empty area is the content, and the proportion of empty to occupied is the signal.

Tokens: void-min `100vh` · block-max `26rem`

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:layout-1` → Treat unprinted area as carrying meaning, not as leftover.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:idr:gestalt` → Leave a near-empty field around a single subject.
- **Web translation** — Give each block a screen-height of empty field. _Why:_ The proportion of empty to occupied area is the signal; on a scrolling page the screen is the field. (`claim:idr:gestalt`, `claim:dcc:intent`)
- **Not specified by the source** — Placement is not a rule: one documented image is off-centre, another is centred. _Instead:_ Place the subject where the composition needs it; do not default to off-centre as a signature.

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius `0` · shadow `none` · hairline `1px solid #D9D5CC`

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:motif-1` → No ornament and no marking: products carry no logos; su, plain and unadorned, is a stated principle.
- **Web translation** — radius 0, no shadow, lines only as 1px hairlines. _Why:_ Plain and unadorned, applied to screen furniture. (`claim:kcc:motif-1`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · Seen in the work** · `claim:kcc:imagery-1` → Show only the Earth and people, so viewers can project their own meanings.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:imagery-3` → Do not fix the viewer's image with one over-determined picture.
- **On the record · Seen in the work** · `claim:kcc:imagery-2` → A single object can stand for an idea: the 2005 Teahouse campaign used a white ceramic teabowl.
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources describe the images, but we hold none we may show. _Instead:_ Use real photographs made for the purpose (the Horizon team travelled and photographed the places); never a stock "zen" image.

### Withholding

The message is left unsaid so the viewer completes it. This is the emptiness Hara describes: receptive, not simplified.

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:density-2` → Frame emptiness as receptiveness, not simplification of form.
- **Web translation** — Write the one line as a question or an unfinished statement where the content allows. _Why:_ The ads raise questions rather than spell out the philosophy. (`claim:kcc:hierarchy-1`, `claim:dcc:intent`)

### The name

The name is an outside label. Minimalism is not a general or essential characteristic of Japanese design.

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:idr:name`, `claim:kcc:w2-boundary-1` → Do not present minimalism as a trait of Japanese design.

### Components

Anatomy, tokens and states below are Web translation: Aesthetary's specification for the screen. Each value line after them says whether it restates a rule this record holds.

#### Button

A plain word with a hairline under it, and room around it: the action is there when wanted, not pressed on the viewer.

- Anatomy: label in the text face; 1px hairline beneath; generous empty area around, no fill, no frame
- Tokens: border `bottom 1px hair` · background `transparent` · radius `0` · padding `12px 0`
- State, default: Ink label on paper, hairline beneath.
- State, hover: The hairline darkens to ink.
- State, focus: 1px ink outline, 6px outside the label.
- State, active: The label moves nowhere; the hairline stays ink.
- State, disabled: Grey label, no hairline, and the label says it is unavailable.
- Accessibility: Ink on paper is about 16:1.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall, though it reads as one line of text.
- **Web translation** — Make the button a word with a hairline, not a filled block. _Why:_ Ornament and marking are refused and packaging is deliberately ordinary; a filled, badged button would be marking. (`claim:kcc:motif-1`, `claim:kcc:typography-3`)

#### Card

An empty field on unbleached paper with one subject in it and a short line that asks rather than tells.

- Anatomy: a light paper field, no border; one image or one object; one short line or question; no badge, no logo
- Tokens: background `interval #EEEBE3` · border `none` · radius `0`
- State, default: Field, subject, line.
- State, hover: The line underlines; nothing else moves.
- State, focus: 1px ink outline, 6px outside the field.
- Accessibility: The line is the link name; the image carries alt text.
- Accessibility: A question as the line still says where the link goes.
- **Web translation** — One subject in a near-empty field. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:idr:gestalt`)
- **Web translation** — Raise a question rather than spell out the message. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:hierarchy-1`)
- **Web translation** — Set the card on a light unbleached paper tone, not white. _Why:_ MUJI makes unbleached pulp a visible surface; the interval tone stands in for it. (`claim:kcc:w2-surface-1`)

#### Input

A single hairline to write on, the label above it in small spaced capitals.

- Anatomy: label above; hairline beneath the field; no box, no fill
- Tokens: border `bottom 1px hair` · focus `bottom 1px ink` · radius `0`
- State, default: Hairline.
- State, focus: The hairline turns ink; 1px outline outside.
- State, error: An "Error:" sentence beneath in ink.
- State, disabled: Grey label and line.
- Accessibility: A visible label on every field.
- Accessibility: Errors are written, not coloured.
- **Web translation** — Draw the field as one hairline, not a box. _Why:_ Unused area is not wasted; the field is left open rather than enclosed. (`claim:intent-negation`, `claim:kcc:layout-1`)

#### Navigation

Three or four words in a row with wide space between them; the current one in ink, the rest in grey.

- Anatomy: a short list of plain words; wide gaps; current item in ink
- Tokens: gap `2.5rem` · current `ink` · rest `grey #6F6C66`
- State, default: Grey words.
- State, hover: Ink.
- State, focus: 1px ink outline.
- State, current: Ink, with aria-current.
- Accessibility: Grey on paper is about 4.8:1.
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current page.
- **Web translation** — Keep the navigation to a few plain words with space between. _Why:_ Emptiness is framed as receptiveness; a short list leaves the viewer room. (`claim:kcc:density-2`)

### Motion

- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not describe motion: motion work exists in the campaign, but no opened source says how it moves. _Instead:_ Add none. If a state must change, change it without animation.

### Deliberately not added

- **Type size** (typography): Very small type is our reading of one image, not a rule.
- **Placement** (gridLayout): One documented image is off-centre, another centred.
- **Motion** (motion): Motion work exists in the campaign, but no opened source describes how it moves.
- **Interface conventions** (components): The research record does not establish them. The four components are contemporary translations of documented rules.

## Not researched yet

Nobody has established a position for this language on:

- Motion
- Form

**Do not fill these in.** An absent position is absent research, not permission and not a blank for you to complete. If the work needs a decision in one of these areas, make it on other grounds and do not attribute it to this language.

## Grade your own work

6 checks: 0 mechanically testable, 3 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 3 with no recorded position. Scores do not add up. A failure against a required rule and a departure from something we invented are not the same result, and no total should let them cancel.

### Recognition — does this read as the intended Aesthetic?

- **[visual_human · recognition signature · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Strip every logo, word and borrowed image out of your work, then show it to someone who knows the collection. Do they land on this Aesthetic? The signature to hold is: A near-empty field around a single subject, with the message withheld so the viewer can fill it. The proportion of empty to occupied area is the signal; restraint alone identifies nothing. Very small type and off-centre placement are Aesthetary's reading, seen in one campaign image (Horizon, 2003); another documented campaign image is centred, so neither is a defining trait.
  - _If it fails:_ The work may be competent and still read as a different Aesthetic, or as none. Nothing below matters until this passes.

### Fidelity — are its defining rules present?

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Nothing is recorded as a requirement of this Aesthetic. There is no rule here that your work must hold — which means nothing you do can fail this dimension, and nothing you do can satisfy it either. That is missing research, not freedom.
  - _If it fails:_ Not applicable. An empty dimension is an absence of research, never a pass and never a failure.

### Implementation — were those rules translated appropriately into this medium?

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Nothing is recorded for this Aesthetic on: were those rules translated appropriately into this medium?
  - _If it fails:_ Not applicable. An empty dimension is an absence of research, never a pass and never a failure.

### Avoidance — known failure modes, neighbour drift, cloning

- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Ukiyo-e & Edo Graphic? That language is: Composition and vertical setting are structural; seals carry real meaning
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Ukiyo-e & Edo Graphic than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Shan Shui Ink? That language is: Negative space as mist is structural, not stylistic
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Shan Shui Ink than to this Aesthetic.

### Accessibility — the Aesthetic preserved without its inaccessible practice

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Does this Aesthetic conflict with any usability floor? Nobody has recorded one for it.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing — and that is the problem. An unrecorded conflict is not an absent one. Hold AA on reading matter and decide the rest on other grounds.

## Rules for the agent

1. Do not invent rules for any area listed under **Not researched yet**.
2. Do not treat an absent position as permission to do anything you like — say that the language has no position, and decide on other grounds.
3. Keep our interpretations separable from the language's own requirements. If asked to justify a choice, cite which kind of claim it came from.
4. If you need something this record does not contain, say so rather than producing a confident answer from the aesthetic's name.
5. When you self-score against "Grade your own work", score only checks marked `mechanical`. Declare `visual_human` and `evidence_dependent` checks unjudged rather than guessing, and never score an `unassessable` one.
6. Evidence "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) is never a failure. It means nobody researched the dimension, so departing from what is written there costs nothing and must not be reported as a defect. "No grade recorded" is not a grade either: do not treat it as our decision or as an outside source.
7. In **Design grammar**, a "Web translation" line is our choice for the web and may be changed with a reason; the rules it cites may not. Never present a translation as a property of the language.

## Provenance

- Record: `japanese-minimalism` · status `draft` · research `not_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/japanese-minimalism.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/japanese-minimalism.html
- This file is a snapshot. The record may have changed since; check the page above.

_Aesthetary is an alpha. Where a page says nothing, nobody has done the work yet._