侘寂 Wabi Sabi
Wabi-Sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of thing unconventional.
侘寂 Wabi Sabi
DEMYSTYFYING WABI-SABI While sitting beneath the cherry blossoms at a typical Hanami
history, often by those peddling mystical knowledge or items
(“flower viewing”) party in Japan it’s easy to forget that
claiming to imbue wabi-sabi qualities. The misconception
behind the alcohol-fueled revelry you’re actually taking
here is that wabi-sabi is not an intrinsic property of things,
place in a very particular form of appreciation centered on
but an “event”, or state of mind. In other words, the beauty
the acceptance of transience and imperfection. Nothing lasts,
of wabi-sabi “happens”, it does not reside in objects or
nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.
environments directly.
Aesthetic ideals are central to Japan’s cultural identity and the
The best text I’ve found on the subject is the short and concise
Japanese language has all sorts of fancy words for describing
book ‘Wabi-sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers
our feelings towards how we perceive the world but underlying
‘by Leonard Koren which breaks down the material and
them all is the notion of wabi-sabi.
philosophical
As it relates to notions of beauty, it’s a concept that has been misunderstood and intentionally obscured throughout
characteristics
of
wabi-sabi.
Below
I’ve
attempted to paraphrase some of the key points in the hope that it might be of some interest to anyone looking for a little more color than can be found on Wikipedia.
THE INTERPRETATION
Wabi-sabi can in its fullest expression be a way of life. At the very least, it is a particular type
art”, that is, objects that are earthy,
of beauty.
simple, unpretentious, and fashioned
The closest English word to wabi-
out of natural materials.
sabi is probably “rustic” — simple,
Wabi refers to a way of life, a spiritual
artless, or unsophisticated” — but,
path, the inward, the subjective,
while it is often the initial impression
a philosophical construct, spatial
many people have when they first see a
events (space).
wabi-sabi expression, this represents
Sabi refers to material objects, art and
only a limited dimension of the wabi-
literature, the outward, the objective,
sabi aesthetic. Wabi-sabi also shares
an aesthetic ideal, an aesthetic ideal,
some characteristics with “primitive
temporal events (time).
Histo
was
conceived
and
developed
amid a period of intense political and social
upheaval in Japan during the Sengoku era (c. 1466 – 1598) and is sometimes compared to Europe’s Dark Ages. The locus of invention was the tea room where, insulated from the hardships and concerns of the outside world, artistic and philosophical values independent of conventional society took root. The leaders of this artistic adventure were the tea masters who prepared and presented tea during carefully designed ceremonies noted for their originality and unpredictability.
ry
The most historically revered of all the tea masters was Sen no Rikyu (千利休).
千利休
W
abi-sabi
PRE
Rikyu
T
he
initial
inspirations
for
wabi-sabi’s
Japanese culture, reaching its zenith in the context of
principles come from ideas about simplicity,
the tea ceremony (茶の湯). The tea ceremony became
naturalness, and acceptance of reality found
a social art form combining architecture, interior
in Taoism and Chinese Zen Buddhism. It also absorbed
and garden design, flower arranging, painting, food
the ethereal ambience of Noh, a form Japanese musical
preparation, and performance.
performance, known as Yugen (profound grace and subtlety).
The first wabi-sabi tea master was Murata Shuko (村田 珠光), a Zen monk from Nara, who intentionally used
By the 16th-century the separate elements of wabi-
locally produced utensils instead of highly-decorated
sabi coalesced into an distinct aspect of sophisticated
foreign ones.
Rikyu Sen no Rikyu, the son of a merchant, brought wabi-sabi to its apotheosis in the late 16th-century by placing crude, anonymous, indigenous Japanese and Korean folk-craft on the same artistic level as slick Chinese treasures. In order to convey the meaning and significance of physical objects, environments and events, he created a new kind of tea room based on the form of a farmer’s hut made from rough mud walls, thatched roofs, and misshapen exposed wooden beams. He consciously juxtaposition the old with the new, smooth with rough, costly with expensive, complex with simple… For example, old chipped rice bowls might be lovingly repaired and repurposed as tea bowls. In other words, the imagery of genteel poverty was actively cultivated. His wealthy employer didn’t appreciate his aesthetic ideals and ordered Rikyu to commit ritual suicide at the age of seventy.
POST
Rikyu Like religious fundamentalists who claim their interpretation of doctrine to be “correct�, organized tea factions have been preoccupied with establishing their legitimacy based on the teachings of Rikyu since his death. In the process, personal judgement and imagination have been wrung out of the ceremony with even the most minute hand gestures being rigidly prescribed. This has led to institutionalized wabi-sabi becoming its opposite: slick, polished, and gorgeous — despite maintaining the consistency of the traditional forms. Wabi-sabi is no longer the true ideological or spiritual heart of tea, even though things that sound and look like wabi-sabi are still trotted out by the tea orthodoxy.
OBFUSCATION
Although almost every Japanese person will claim to understand the feeling of wabi-sabi — it is, after all, supposed to be one of the core concepts of Japanese culture — very few can articulate this feeling. Most Japanese never learned about
The iemoto system – Japanese cultural
wabi-sabi in intellectual terms since
arts such as the tea ceremony, flower
there are no books or teachers to
arranging, calligraphy, song and dance
learn about it from. This is not by
have traditionally been controlled by
accident. Throughout history a rational
groups of family businesses headed
understanding of wabi-sabi has been
up by a chief called the iemoto (家元).
intentionally thwarted by:
Information about “exotic” concepts
Zen Buddhism – Wabi-sabi has been peripherally
associated
with
Zen
Buddhism as it exemplified many of Zen’s
core
like wabi-sabi is often artfully obscured as a means of marketing bait used to tantalize potential customers.
spiritual-philosophical
Aesthetic obscurantism – a myth of
tenets. Essential knowledge, in Zen
inscrutability around wabi-sabi has
doctrine, can be transmitted only from
been fostered because, according to
mind to mind, not through written or
some Japanese critics, ineffability is a
spoken word. “Those who know don’t
part of its specialness. From this view
say; those who say don’t know “. As
point, missing of indefinable knowledge
a consequence, a clear definition has
is simply another aspect of wabi-sabi’s
been studiously avoided.
“incompleteness”. To fully explain the concept might, in fact, diminish it.
THE WABI-SABI UNIVERSE
Wabi-sabi can be called a “comprehensive” aesthetic system. Its world view, or universe, is self-referential. It provides an integrated approach to the ultimate
(materiality). The more systematic and clearly defined
nature of existence (metaphysics), sacred knowledge
the components of an aesthetic system are, the more
(spirituality), emotional well-being (state of mind),
useful it is.
behavior (morality), and the look and feel of things
METAPHYSICAL BASIS Things are either devolving toward, or evolving from,
who made it or those who are told of it. Wabi-sabi in its
nothingness – e.g. a simple grass hut may be fashioned
purest form is precisely about these delicate traces at the
from a bed of rushes and while the hut will eventually
borders of nothingness. Instead of being empty space,
disappear it will remain in the memory of the person
as in the West — nothingness is alive with possibilities.
SPIRITUAL VALUES
Truth comes from the observation of nature. All things are impermanent – the planets and
beauty as something monumental, spectacular,
stars, and even intangible things like family
and enduring, wabi-sabi is not found at moment
heritage, historical memory, scientific theorems,
of bloom and lushness, but in moments of
great art and literature all eventually fade into
inception or subsiding. It is about the minor and
oblivion and nonexistence.
the hidden, the tentative and the ephemeral:
All things are imperfect – even the sharp edge of a razor blade, when magnified reveals microscopic pits and chips. As things begin to
things so subtle and evanescent they are invisible to vulgar eyes. To experience wabi-sabi you need to slow down, be patient, and look very closely.
break down, they become even less perfect and
Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness – wabi-
more irregular.
sabi suggests that beauty is a dynamic event
All things are incomplete – including the universe itself, and in a constant state of becoming or dissolving. The notion of completion has no basis in wabi-sabi. “Greatness” exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked details – unlike the Western ideal of
that occurs between you and something else. It can occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context, or point of view. While a farmer’s hut is a lowly environment, in the proper context and with guidance, it can take on exceptional beauty.
STATE OF MIND Acceptance of the inevitable – as with the ruins of a splendid mansion, crumbled and overgrown with weeds, wabi-sabi forces us to contemplate our own mortality. This is mingled with the bittersweet comfort that all existence shares the same fate. This may be evoked through poetry or common sounds which suggest the sadbut-beautiful feelings of wabi-sabi. E.g. the mournful caws of crows or the forlorn bellowing of foghorns. Appreciation of the cosmic order – in the same way that medieval European
cathedrals
were
constructed
to
emotionally
elicit
transcendent feeling, the way rice paper transmits light in a diffuse glow, or the manner in which clay cracks as it dries, all represent the physical forces and deep structures that underlie our everyday world.
MORAL PRECEPTS Get rid of all that is unnecessary – wabi-sabi means treading lightly on the planet and knowing how the appreciate whatever is encountered, no matter how seemingly insignificant. It tells us to stop our preoccupation with success — wealth, status, power, and luxury — and enjoy the unencumbered life. This involves some tough decisions and acknowledging that it is just as important to know when to make choices, and when not to make choices: to let things be. We still live in a world of things and have to find a delicate balance between the pleasure we get from them and the pleasure we get from freedom from things. Focus on the intrinsic and ignore material hierarchy – the symbolic act of either bending or crawling to enter a tea room through a purposely low and small entrance invokes humility in an egalitarian atmosphere. Hierarchical thinking — “this is higher/better, that is lower/ worse” — is not acceptable. Everyone is equal. Similarly, the objects inside a tea room are not valued based on their maker or cost — mud, paper, and bamboo have more intrinsic wabi-sabi qualities than gold, silver, and diamonds. An object obtains the state of wabi-sabi only for the moment it is appreciated as such.
All around, no flowers in bloom Nor maple leaves in glare, A solitary fisherman’s hut alone On the twilight shore Of this autumn eve. Poem by Fujiwara no Teika
藤原定家 Fujiwara no Teika
Material Qualities
The suggestion of natural process – things wabisabi are expressions of time frozen. They are made of materials that are visibly vulnerable to the effects of weathering and human treatment. They record the sun, wind, rain, heat, and cold in a
secluded, and private environments than enhance one’s
language of discoloration, rust, tarnish, stain, warping,
capacity for metaphysical musings. Tea houses often
shrinking, shriveling, and cracking. Though things
have low ceilings, small windows, tiny entrances, and
wabi-sabi may be on the point of dematerialization (or
very subdued lighting. They are tranquil and calming,
materialization) — extremely faint, fragile, or desiccated
enveloping and womb-like. They are a world apart:
— they still possess an undiminished poise and strength
nowhere, anywhere, everywhere. Every single object
of character.
within seems to expand in importance in inverse
Irregular
–
things
wabi-sabi
are
indifferent
to
proportion to its actual size.
conventional good taste. As a result, things wabi-sabi
Unpretentious – things wabi-sabi are unstudied and
often appear odd, misshapen, awkward, or what many
inevitable looking. They do demand to be the center of
people would consider ugly (e.g. a broken bowl glued
attention. They are understated and unassuming, yet
back together).
now without presence or quiet authority. Things wabi-
Intimate – things wabi-sabi are usually small and compact, quiet and inward-orientated. They beckon: get close, touch, relate. Places wabi-sabi are small,
sabi coexist with the rest of their environment and are only appreciated during direct contact and use. They have no need for provenance — it is best if the creator is of no distinction, invisible, or anonymous.
Earthy – things wabi-sabi can appear coarse and unrefined. They are usually made from materials not far removed from their original condition and are rich in raw texture and rough tactile sensation. Their craftsmanship may be impossible to discern. Murky – things wabi-sabi have a vague, blurry, or attenuated quality — as things do as they approach nothingness (or come out of it). Things wabi-sabi come in an infinite spectrum of grays, browns, muted greens and off-whites. Simple – simplicity is at the core of all things wabi-sabi. Nothingness is the ultimate simplicity but the before and after are not so simple. To paraphrase Rikyu, the essence of wabi-sabi, as expressed in tea, is simplicity itself: fresh water, gather firewood, boil the water, prepare tea, and serve it to others. Further details are left to one’s own invention, but one must exercise restraint and avoid crossing over into ostentatious austerity. Things wabi-sabi are emotionally warm, never cold. This is achieved by: Paring down to the essence without removing the poetry, keeping things clean and unencumbered but not sterilized, and keeping conspicuous features to a minimum using a limited palette of materials.
COMPARISON WITH MODERNISM Modernism is another complex term that cuts
useful benchmark in 20th century industrialized
a wide path across art and design history,
society against which to compare what wabi-
attitudes, and philosophy but can serve as a
sabi is and isn’t.
THE DIFFERENCES
Modernism is expressed in the public domain,
Wabi-sabi is expressed in the private domain,
mass-produced/modular, expresses faith in
one-of-a-kind/variable, There is no progress,
progress, future-orientated, geometric form,
present-orientated,
Manmade materials, ostensibly slick, needs
materials, ostensibly crude, accommodates to
to be well-maintained generally light and
degradation and attrition, generally dark and
bright, function and utility are primary values,
dim, function and utility are not so important,
everlasting.
to everything there is a season.
organic
form,
natural
BEAUTY AT THE EDGE OF NOTHINGNESS
Wabi-sabi is the antithesis of the Classical Western idea of beauty as something perfect, enduring, and monumental. In other words, wabi-sabi is the exact opposite of what slick, seamless, massively marketed objects, like the latest iPhone, aesthetically represent. We often tacitly define beauty as perfection objectified. But somewhere buried in our psyches is the realization that being human fundamentally implies being imperfect. So, when someone suggests that imperfection may be just as beautiful—just as valuable—as perfection, it is a welcome acknowledgement.