The Art of Wabi-sabi

 

'The question is not what you look at, but what you see.'  Henry David Thoreau

So, what is wabi-sabi?

'Broadly, wabi-sabi is everything that today’s sleek, mass-produced, technology-saturated culture isn’t. It’s flea markets, not shopping malls; aged wood, not swank floor coverings; one single morning glory, not a dozen red roses. Wabi-sabi understands the tender, raw beauty of a gray December landscape and the aching elegance of an abandoned building or shed. It celebrates cracks and crevices and rot and all the other marks that time and weather and use leave behind. To discover wabi-sabi is to see the singular beauty in something that may first look decrepit and ugly.



'According to Japanese legend, a young man named Sen no Rikyu sought to learn the elaborate set of customs known as the Way of Tea. He went to tea-master Takeeno Joo, who tested the younger man by asking him to tend the garden. Rikyu cleaned up debris and raked the ground until it was perfect, then scrutinized the immaculate garden. Before presenting his work to the master, he shook a cherry tree, causing a few flowers to spill randomly onto the ground.  To this day, the Japanese revere Rikyu as one who understood to his very core the deep cultural thread of wabi-sabi. Emerging in the 15th century as a reaction to the prevailing aesthetic of lavishness, ornamentation, and rich materials, wabi-sabi is the art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in earthiness, of revering authenticity above all....

 

'Wabi-sabi reminds us that we are all transient beings on this planet—that our bodies, as well as the material world around us, are in the process of returning to dust. Nature’s cycles of growth, decay, and erosion are embodied in frayed edges, rust, liver spots. Through wabi-sabi, we learn to embrace both the glory and the melancholy found in these marks of passing time.

 

'Bringing wabi-sabi into your life doesn’t require money, training, or special skills. It takes a mind quiet enough to appreciate muted beauty, courage not to fear bareness, willingness to accept things as they are—without ornamentation. It depends on the ability to slow down, to shift the balance from doing to being, to appreciating rather than perfecting.

 

'You might ignite your appreciation of wabi-sabi with a single item from the back of a closet: a chipped vase, a faded piece of cloth. Look deeply for the minute details that give it character; explore it with your hands. You don’t have to understand why you’re drawn to it, but you do have to accept it as it is.

 

Whatever it is, it can’t be bought. Wabi-sabi is a state of mind, a way of being. It’s the subtle art of being at peace with yourself and your surroundings."

 

 

Robyn Griggs Lawrence is editor-in-chief of Natural Home, the magazine of earth-inspired living. Now in its second year of publication, it keeps getting better with age. Covering subjects that range from choosing non-toxic paints, to building labyrinths, to designing a straw-bale greenhouse, Natural Home is a practical and elegant guide for people who want to make their homes more beautiful, earthy, and environmentally friendly. This article is from the May/June 2001 issue. Subscriptions: $24.95/yr. (6 issues) from Box 552, Mt. Morris, IL 61054-0552.

Quoted from Robyn Griggs Lawrence, editor-in-chief of Natural Home, the magazine of earth-inspired living.  With thanks to Alys Brazendale, who showed me there exists a name and a concept for the way I try to live.