Wabi-sabi is an aesthetic concept that I've been interested in for a while now and I want to try and figure out what it exactly means. This is by no means an essay where I tell you all I have to know about wabi-sabi because I'm learning as well. Researching wabi-sabi also brought up other extremely specific japanse descriptions of ethetics, such as ikebana flower arranging. Then you get into Buddhist philosophies like the 3 marks of existance and your brain implodes. Fun!
"Wabi-sabi (侘寂) represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".
Wabi: referred to the loneliness of living in nature, remote from society
Sabi: "chill", "lean" or "withered," beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in its patina and wear, or in any visible repairs.
Wabi-sabi stems from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence
- 三 impermanence
- 法 suffering (dukkha)
- 印 emptiness or absence of self-nature (sunyata)
Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, asperity (roughness or irregularity), simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes."
"if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi."
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