Juniper - Wabi Sabi: the Japanese Art of Impermanence

W ABI S ABI

First published in the United States in 2003 by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, Vermont 05759.

Copyright 2003 Andrew Juniper

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Juniper, Andrew, 1967-

Wabi sabi: the Japanese art of impermanence / Andrew Juniper. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p.).

ISBN 978-1-4629-0161-6 (ebook)

1. Art, Japanese. 2. Wabi. 3. Sabi. 4. Art and philosophy. I. Title.

N7350.J77 2003

701.170952dc21

2003054049

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

WHEN I FOUND MYSELF bartering for an old oven pot in a Turkish restaurant, I realized that the years spent in Japan had radically and irreversibly changed my perspectives on both art and beauty. The small dark bowl that had so caught my attention had no real design to speak of, its surface was rough and impregnated with years of Turkish cuisine... and yet there was something about it that was captivatingly attractive. The glazed surface had become rich with visual nuance and its simple unrefined form was pure and unaffected by artistic considerationsit was one of a thousand similar bowls, but its rusticity and artlessness were extraordinarily expressive and resonated with the imperfections and impermanence of life. The pot we so admired had what the Japanese refer to as wabi sabi .

The Turkish restaurateurs who were asked to part with their bowl for a price far greater than that of a replacement thought we were a little strange, to say the least, but happily accepted our eccentricity and payment. Explaining wabi sabi to an English-speaking audience is a challenge, but with a ten-word vocabulary of Turkish it was not a realistic proposition.

Having opened a design gallery called Wabi Sabi in the United Kingdom, not surprisingly we are regularly asked to explain the concept.

Yet every attempt to clarify its tenets usually resulted in a slow glazing of the listeners eyes and then silence. This inability to adequately explain wabi sabi continued for several years, until we were approached to write a book on the subjectsomething most Japanese would consider unwise to even attempt. Wabi sabi is an aesthetic philosophy so intangible and so shrouded in centuries of mystery that even the most ambitious Japanese scholars would give it a wide berth and uphold the Japanese tradition of talking about it only in the most poetic terms. The Japanese have an admirable tendency to leave the unexplainable unexplained, as is the case with Zen, whose most profound teachings cannot be communicated by verbal explanations.

Zen believes words are the fundamental obstacle to clear understanding. The monks seek to reach their goal of enlightenment not through learning but by the unlearning of all preconceived notions of life and reality.

However, for those in the West who are interested in things Japanese, there needs to be some form of entry into the Japanese worldview and a way to share their aesthetic ideals. This book then is an attempt to clarify and illustrate some of the ideas that form the foundation for wabi sabi art. As Zen and Christianity differ profoundly, so do the philosophies that have guided the development of art under the two cultural banners.

Zen monks lead a simple and austere life constantly aware of their mortality. Wabi sabi art is a distillation of their humble efforts to try and express, in a physical form, their love of life balanced against the sense of serene sadness that is lifes inevitable passing. As the artistic mouthpiece of the Zen movement, wabi sabi art embodies the lives of the monks and is built on the precepts of simplicity, humility, restraint, naturalness, joy, and melancholy as well as the defining element of impermanence. Wabi sabi art challenges us to unlearn our views of beauty and to rediscover the intimate beauty to be found in the smallest details of natures artistry.

Wabi sabi does not yield easily to a definitive, one-line interpretation, but the author hopes that through the pages of this book the legacy left by the wise Zen monks of old will offer some new perspectives on the spirituality of art in a world moving rapidly toward unrestrained materialism.

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 atehow 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.