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.
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.
Source: Wikipedia "Iki (aesthetics)" · CC BY-SA 4.0
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