Before one can analyze the transcendental style in Ozu’s films, one must make (or attempt to make) the crucial yet elusive distinction between transcendental art and the art of transcendental experience within Ozu’s work. Do Ozu’s films express the Transcendent, or do they express Ozu, Zen culture, and man’s experience of the Transcendent?

The first, immediate answer must be: “both, of course.” There is no static-free communication with the Holy, and any work which expresses the Transcendent must also express the personality and culture of its artist. Then comes the thorny problem of individual instances, of determining influences and effects. The distinction between transcendental art and the art of transcendental experience resolves into several incumbent questions: which influenced Ozu’s art more? His personality,* Zen culture, or the Transcendent? And which critical definition of style is best suited to uncover that influence? The personal, cultural, or Eliade-Wölfflin (transcendental style)?