The first English translation of a remarkable book on modern aesthetics that clarifies a distinctively plebeian Japanese sensibility based on a unique category of taste, iki. The work anticipates directions in postwar thought, structuralism in particular, through its opposition of high and low culture. The only version of Kuki's text - including those in Japanese - to provide full interpretive notes (many based on Kuki's own sources and manuscripts), this book is essential reading for studies in Japanese culture.