Syndicated from The Black Renaissance
Any visit to Japan is an otherworldly experience: a country where design and a fanatical focus to detail are part and parcel to this East Asian culture. It’s also a place where modernity meets tradition, a country that pays homage to simplicity, as it does to the zany Harajuku aesthetic. Within all of these contrasts, one of Japan’s most signature trademarks is its ability to create beautifully minimalistic products. Any visit to international franchises such as Muji, Francfranc and Uniqlo will show this longstanding homage to simplicity. In fact, this design aesthetic has deep roots in the Japanese culture. The Japanese have a term for this: Wabi Sabi. In his book, “Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence”, Andrew Juniper provides a framework for foreigners to understand Wabi Sabi, and its far-reaching presence in Zen philosophy, tea ceremonies, spirituality and culture. Wabi Sabi is not a trend; in fact it’s far from it. Rather it is a design philosophy that captures “the sentiments of impermanence… poems of longing, the haunting call of distant bagpipes, and the solitary Muslim call to morning prayer… —a beauty without need for splendor.”
The book opens with Juniper’s appreciation for Wabi Sabi- specifically a time he bartered for an old oven pot in a Turkish restaurant. “The small dark bowl that had so caught my attention had no real design to speak of… and yet there was something about it that was captivatingly attractive.” The author acknowledges that to capture the essence of Wabi Sabi (not only as an outsider to Japan, but also as to do so precariously through words) is an impossible task. That said, he still does a marvelous job of trying elucidating what cannot be spoken. Free of academic rhetoric or intellectual posturing, this book illustrates the sheer complexity, simplicity and pithiness of Wabi Sabi. With this, he moves between the different spheres in Japanese culture: history, art, language, religion and aesthetics to explain its all-encompassing rpesence.
Juniper’s book starts with understanding the origins of Wabi Sabi: Taoism. He recounts its journey through China’s Song dynasty and how it makes its way into the hallowed temples of Zen buddhist monks. As Juniper notes,:
…one of the first real movements toward an appreciation of physical objects that have a humble and rustic appeal came at a time when Buddhist monks, whose temples were often under funded, had to entertain guests. As they did not own any high-quality art, they had to use what was available to them to produce an aesthetically pleasing effect, and to this end objects of nature such as bamboo and wildflowers were used in place of more ornate artifacts such as Chinese porcelain.
This most explains the quietude and stillness one feels when experiencing a Wabi Sabi design.
Perhaps why such a traditional aesthetic is more important than ever lies with what is happening right now with modern society. The world’s growing concern with sustainability and a desire for ethical long-term solutions begs us to ask: do we need more? Wabi Sabi doesn’t rely on ephemeral trends, nor is it defined by a specific time. But rather like the light that flickers through the bamboo forest, Wabi Sabi is ephemeral as it is eternally presence. Hopefully this book will leave a legacy of the wise Zen monks of old, providing new perspectives on the spirituality of art in a world moving rapidly toward unrestrained materialism.
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Image Source: Flickr, Amazon
To purchase Wabi Sabi, please click here.