According to Shintoist, a type of animism, the world is dominated by a myriad of native gods. All things which exist; humans, animals, plants, small stones, and huge mountains are believed to have been created by Gods and are reminders of those Gods. The belief that each facet of nature corresponds to a God gives the supreme joy that human can coexist with Gods. A mythological outlook regarding nature as God brings paradise to the earthly world.
Furthermore, the seasonal climate of Japan brings extraordinary beauty. It is natural for Japanese culture to consider "beauty" as the highest priority. While the word "miyabi" points to a world of gorgeous magnificence, the aesthetic variant "miyabi" describes a drawing technique "yamatoe" of the Heian era. Gold and silver were used for the background in "yamatoe" to express a feeling of happiness in a world wrapped in sunlight. Yamatoe reached its peak in the Edo era through the rise of the "Rimpa" school, represented by artists including Korin Ogata and Soutatsu Tawaraya.
Shinto has an additional representative feature, its view of a "Pure world". Shintoism shuns impurity. A pure thing (e.g. the color white) is valued. From China Zen and other Buddhist sects arrived in Shintoist Japan where purification had been symbolized by the color white.
Shintoism's white-based "pure world" leads to the beauty of "wabi", "sab", "horobi" (ruination), "yugen" (profound subtlety) and "mono-no-aware." At the same time, the ideas "mu" (void) and "ku" (empty), seen in Zen and Heart Sutra, demand austere minimalism. The sumi-ink landscape painting contains many unpainted areas. These white areas indicate the art of "mu" (void), and this technique resonates with the unique Japanese "pure world" idea. Furthermore, Zen's idea "muga" (selflessness) pursues nonsubjective unification between nature and human kind. The selfless Zen world view was expressed by the sumi-ink landscape painting technique which describes a stylized landscape world in black on a white background.
The Ryoan Temple is famous for this stylized landscape expressionism rendering sea against vast white sand. This mechanism helps us image the wide spread of the world. Thus, traditional Japanese beauty has essential sympathy with nature and acquaintance with flowers, birds, wind, moon, snow, and so on. The opposing aesthetics of "miyabi", ''wabi" and "sab" make up Shintoism. However, both aesthetic fundamentals are based on the animistic belief that the Gods' souls dwe1l in everything. Teruko Hiramatsu's work reflects this idea as one of its main themes.