Japanese art from zen to otaku culture and its assessment in the context of emptiness

The aim of this thesis is to deeply analyse some specific areas inside the immensely heterogenic structure of Japanese art, to show the interlaced relationship of some concepts that essentially seem to be apart, and to make a reading of Japanese art in a context such as emptiness which can gain many different roles. While chronologically progressing the starting point of the researches and the basic of the including ideas is Zen, the framework is limited to a look from the eperspective of manga, otaku, and superflat as a result of them, in addition all these subjects are examined in the context of emptiness which is somehow the common point of them. Inside this framework and this context, starting from the point of Zen; the structure of this thesis is made from the Japanese comics 'manga', 'otaku' who are obsessive fanatics who devote their lives to some subcultures, persons, heroes or objects, and superflat, a contemporary art movement inspired from all those. Emptiness starts its journey as the main factor of Zen idea, and transforms to a concept used in the analysis of an art movement, to flat areas without a form, and lack of meaning. Therefore, 'emptiness' which is very important in Japanese culture in both art practice and theories, appears as a physical, spiritual, religious and also psychologic and sociologic concept, and becomes the context that keeps together different subjects organised in a certain chronology. Keywords: zen, zen art, emptiness, manga, otaku, superflat, Takashi Murakami.Japanese ar