Haraga

Combining two Japanese roots – hara (腹), the traditional energy center of the body in the martial arts and medical traditions, and ga (画), picture – haraga means painting created from the hara, i.e., with very high Life Energy and a strong sense of Higher Purpose. By extension, also any such higher creative act, eg, music, poetry, etc. In this extended sense, the term is synonymous with Diamond’s capitalized use of the word Creativity (Capitalization, Use of*).

Commentary: Diamond’s neologism follows the convention of naming different types of Japanese painting using the -ga suffix, e.g. kacho-ga (flower and bird painting), bijin-ga (paintings of beautiful women), and suiboku-ga (ink-wash painting).

Timeline: 2018 on.