What is the essence of wabi-sabi - a Japanese worldview that teaches us to value imperfections

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

And how is such a view of the world useful to every person.

BBC journalist Lily Crossley-Baxter spoke about her own experience with the aesthetics of "humble simplicity" and the search for beauty in flaws.

Reluctantly, I remove my hands from the slowly rotating bowl on the potter's wheel and watch as its uneven sides gradually stop. I would like to tweak them a little more. I am in the ancient ceramics city of Hagi in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Although I trust the master who convinced me to leave the bowl as it is, I cannot say that I understand his motives. He says with a smile: "She has wabi-sabi." And sends my bowl to burn. And I sit, reflecting on the lack of symmetry, and trying to figure out what he meant.

As it turned out, misunderstanding of this phrase is quite common. Wabi-sabi is a key idea of Japanese aesthetics, ancient ideals that still govern the norms of taste and beauty in this country. This expression is not only impossible to translate into other languages - it is considered in the Japanese culture to be indefinable. It is often pronounced in cases of deep admiration and almost always added muri (impossible) when asking for more details. In short, the expression "wabi sabi" describes an unusual view of the world.

The expression originated in Taoism during the existence of the Chinese Song Empire (960–1279), then fell into Zen Buddhism and was initially perceived as a restrained form of admiration. Today, it reflects a more relaxed acceptance of fragility, nature and melancholy, an approval of imperfection and incompleteness in everything from architecture to ceramics and floristry.

Wabi roughly means "the elegant beauty of unassuming simplicity", and sabi means "the passage of time and the resulting decay." Together they represent a feeling unique to Japan and central to the culture of that country. But such a description is very superficial, it brings us little closer to understanding. Buddhist monks generally believe that words are his enemy.

According to Professor Tanehisa Otabe of the University of Tokyo, it is good to start acquaintance with wabi-sabi by studying the ancient art of wabi-cha - a type of tea ceremony that arose in the 15th-16th centuries. The tea makers who founded it favored Japanese ceramics over the then-popular, perfectly executed Chinese. It was a challenge to the then norms of beauty. Their tea utensils did not have the usual symbols of beauty (bright colors and intricate painting), and guests were invited to consider discreet colors and textures. These craftsmen chose imperfect, crude objects, because "wabi-sabi suggests something incomplete or incomplete, leaving room for imagination."

Interacting with something that counts as wabi-sabi gives:

• awareness of the natural forces involved in the creation of an object;
• acceptance of natural strength;
• rejection of dualism - the belief that we are separate from our environment.

Together, these impressions help the beholder see himself as a part of the natural world and feel that he is not separated from it, but is at the mercy of the natural passage of time.

Hamana applies in her work the concept of the mutual creation of man and nature, which is important for wabi-sabi. “At first I think about the design a little, but clay is a natural material, it changes. I don't want to fight with nature, so I follow the form of clay, I accept it,”he says.

Sometimes nature also becomes the background on which he exhibits his products. For example, he left several jobs in an overgrown bamboo forest around his home. Over the years, they have been overgrown with shrubs, and unique patterns have appeared on them from temperature changes, chips and surrounding plants. But this only adds to the beauty of each object, and the cracks expand its history.

Wabi-sabi is also often associated with the art of kintsugi, a method of restoring broken pottery using varnish and gold powder. This approach emphasizes, rather than hides, cracks by making them part of the subject.

When Hamana's daughter accidentally broke some of his pottery, he left the shards outside for several years for nature to give them color and shape. When the local kintsugi specialist glued them together, the color difference was so subtle and uneven that it would never have been intentionally recreated.

The acceptance of natural effects and the reflection of family history creates a unique value for an item that in many cultures would be considered useless and thrown away.

The pursuit of perfection, so widespread in the West, sets unattainable standards that are only misleading. In Taoism, the ideal is equated with death, because it does not imply further growth. By striving to create flawless things, and then trying to keep them in that state, we deny their very purpose. As a result, we lose the joy of change and development.

At first glance, this concept seems abstract, but admiration for short-lived beauty is at the heart of the simplest Japanese pleasures. For example, in hanami - the annual ceremony of admiring flowers. During the cherry blossom season, parties and picnics are thrown, boating and participating in festivals, although the petals of this tree quickly begin to fall. The patterns they form on the ground are considered to be as beautiful as the blossoms on trees.

This acceptance of fleeting beauty is inspiring. Although it is tinged with melancholy, it teaches you to enjoy every moment that comes without expecting anything.

The dents and scratches we all have are reminiscent of our experiences, and to erase them is to ignore the difficulties of life. When a few months later I received a bowl made by me in Hagi, its uneven edges no longer seemed like a disadvantage to me. Instead, I saw in them a welcome reminder that life is not ideal and there is no need to try to make it that way.