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INTRODUCTION

Long ago a man out walking encountered a hungry tiger, which proceeded to chase and corner him at the edge of a small precipice. The man jumped to avoid the impending danger and in so doing managed to catch the limb of a tree growing from the small escarpment. While he hung there he became aware of a second tiger, this one at the foot of the precipice, waiting for him to fall. As his strength began to wane the man noticed a wild strawberry that was growing within his reach. He gently brought it to his lips in the full knowledge that it would be the last thing that he ever ate—how sweet it was.

WABI SABI is in many ways like the bittersweet taste of the last strawberry in this old Zen tale. It is an expression of the beauty that lies in the brief transition between the coming and going of life, both the joy and melancholy that make up our lot as humans.

Wabi sabi is an aesthetic ideal and philosophy that is best understood in terms of the Zen philosophy that has nurtured and molded its development over the last thousand years. Zen seeks artistic expression in forms that are as pure and sublime as the Zen tenets they manifest; it eschews intellectualism and pretense and instead aims to unearth and frame the beauty left by the flows of nature.

Wabi sabi embodies the Zen nihilist cosmic view and seeks beauty in the imperfections found as all things, in a constant state of flux, evolve from nothing and devolve back to nothing. Within this perpetual movement nature leaves arbitrary tracks for us to contemplate, and it is these random flaws and irregularities that offer a model for the modest and humble wabi sabi expression of beauty. Rooted firmly in Zen thought, wabi sabi art uses the evanescence of life to convey the sense of melancholic beauty that such an understanding brings.

As early as the thirteenth century Zen monks combined the worlds of art and philosophy into a symbiotic whole where the functions and goals of the two became almost inseparable. Since then, Japanese culture has been an unstoppable creative force whose influence on world culture and art rival that of any other country. The list of its distinctions—in nearly every sphere of the arts—is quite astounding for a country one thirtieth the size of the United States.

Wabi sabi’s influence on Japanese aesthetic values has inspired such arts as the tea ceremony, flower arranging, haiku, garden design, and No theater. It offers an aesthetic ideal that uses the uncompromising touch of mortality to focus the mind on the exquisite transient beauty to be found in all things impermanent. It can be found in the arrangement of a single flower, the expression of profound emotion in three lines of poetry, or in the perception of a mountain landscape in a single rock. Like Zen, its philosophical mentor, it is sublime in its subtlety.

The term wabi sabi suggests such qualities as impermanence, humility, asymmetry, and imperfection. These underlying principles are diametrically opposed to those of their Western counterparts, whose values are rooted in a Hellenic worldview that values permanence, grandeur, symmetry, and perfection.

Japanese art, infused with the spirit of wabi sabi, seeks beauty in the truths of the natural world, looking toward nature for its inspiration. It refrains from all forms of intellectual entanglement, self-regard, and affectation in order to discover the unadorned truth of nature. Since nature can be defined by its asymmetry and random imperfections, wabi sabi seeks the purity of natural imperfection.

The Japanese nurturing of this approach to art has created an artistic expression that resonates with a profound philosophical consistency—a consistency with great historical depth little affected by changing fads and fashions. From the woodblock prints that inspired impressionists like Monet and Van Gogh to the culinary arts that paved the way for nouvelle cuisine, from the many forms of martial arts to Kurosawa’s motion picture masterpiece Seven Samurai, from the haiku poetry that entranced Gary Snyder to the art of gardening that has captivated the world, Japan’s impact on the West has been prodigious—and there is little indication this influence is abating.

The message of wabi sabi, in view of the ever-encroaching materiality of Western society, is as relevant today as it was in thirteenth-century Japan. This ancient approach to life, which breathes new meaning into both the visual and decorative arts, is ambivalent toward modern Western culture, preferring instead a philosophy and design ethos more consistent with our flaws and organic nature.

This consistency between philosophy and design principles means that the message of wabi sabi still has relevance for many aspects of modern life.

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Note: The terms East and West, although based on very loose stereotypes, serve to show the broad differences in culture, values, and art between the two areas. As the book is primarily about the Japanese art and philosophy of wabi sabi, the term East will generally refer to that region. However, as the cultural history of the whole Far Eastern area is interlinked and much of the Japanese culture is based on the ideas imported from China and Korea, the term will to some extent also include those regions.