Why we should view our lives like Japanese art
The word is wabi-sabi. It describes an ancient Japanese aesthetic principle that imperfections should be highlighted and not hidden as a means of celebrating beauty and idiosyncrasies. The evolution of wabi-sabi was intimately linked with the buddhist aphorism that wisdom comes from making peace with our imperfect and transitory natures. Academic Richard R. Powell explains, ‘Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.’
‘Wabi' came to connote rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness, and can be applied to the world as an expression of understated elegance. It can also be used to refer to the quirks and anomalies that arise from the process of making something, which are seen to add uniqueness and elegance to the finished object. 'Sabi' refers to the beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the impermanence of objects are shown by its signs of wear and repair.
Many traditional Japanese artistic endeavours display the concept's rich influence. The Japanese artistic floral arrangement known as Ikebana combines natural inspirations and a neutral palette with an acknowledgement of the beauty in the imperfection of daily life. Unlike minimalism, which seeks to eliminate excess, wabi-sabi celebrates the random shapes of the wood, the unusual shape of flowers and wrinkles in the linen.
In Bonsai, a typical design features wood with a rough texture, pieces of deadwood, and trees with hollow trunks, all intended to highlight the passage of time and nature. There is a responsibility of those who grow bonsai to be diligent and carry on the work through generations — as a means for adaptation and growth over time.
In Japanese pottery, imperfections are encouraged not hidden. Cracks and asymmetries are beautiful. When something breaks, the tradition holds that artisans do not attempt to cover the break but highlight it and leave the fix obvious to the eye. Wabi-sabi can change our perception of the world in the same way that a chip or crack in a vase makes it more interesting and suggests good use. ‘Kintsugi’ is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with elegance and gratitude. There should be no attempt to hide the damage, but rather ensure it is carefully fixed and preserved. This tradition may teach us more so how to handle the tribulations of our own life — learn and grow.
In Kyoto, 1488, Murata Jukō in a letter to a student outlined the foundations of what would become the traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Frustrated with the illustrious settings and exuberant tea cups imported from china, he set out the delicate philosophy of wabi-sabi as a foundational pillar of the ceremony. His ‘Wabi-cha’ style of tea ceremony primarily emphasised simplicity at its core. Sen no Rikyū developed the ‘Wabi-cha’ ideal and went further in stripping everything non-essential from the tea ceremony.
In life we deep down wish for perfection in so many areas. We dream of securing a harmonious relationship, deeply fulfilling work, a happy family life and the respect of others. But life has a habit of dealing us a range of blows and leaving nothing much of this array of dreams in our near sights. It is however, at these precise moments of disillusion that we should turn to wabi-sabi. The efforts to repair our faults and failures should encourage us to respect what is damaged and appreciate our own idiosyncrasies every day. Sometimes we may ourselves be even more fragile than even a piece of pottery. Instead of pushing back against this fragility, we should accept the inevitable breaks and tears that come with living a rich life. We should know that the fragility is not a weakness but an inevitability and a means of developing and coming back even stronger. Just like the pottery wears its cracks proudly, you should too. Ride the vicissitudes of life and accept the imperfections of constantly unstable, chaotic and uncertain world.