Wabi-Sabi
Wabi Sabi (Japanese侘 寂) is a Japanese aesthetic concept (concept of perception of beauty ). Closely related to Zen Buddhism, it is an analogue to the first of the Buddhist Four Noble Truths, Dukkha.
Importance
Originally Wabi means to feel miserable, lonely and lost. This was transformed to the delight of the astringency of loneliness breastfeeding. But only in conjunction with Sabi, be old, patina show have maturity, was not actually the term translatable unit, which forms the scale of Japanese art review. Not the obvious beauty is the highest, but the cloaked, not in the immediate glare of the sun, but the broken of the moon. The mossy rock, the grass-covered thatched roof, the knotty pine, slightly russet kettle, and the like are the symbols of this ideal of beauty. It is about the sovereignty that is hidden in the shell of the inconspicuous, the austere simplicity that nevertheless reveal the interpretive all the charms of beauty. ( Wilhelm Gundert )
In the woods over there, deep under the weight of snow, last night a plum branch blossomed.
In this famous verse reads man of understanding the Sabi and Wabi.
History
The term wabi-sabi was introduced in the 16th century by the Japanese tea master and Zen monk Sen no Rikyu. The appropriate way of thinking, however, was already all over the Japanese Middle Ages (ie from about the 12th century ) widespread. Even in ancient times, Japanese ( 7th to 11th century ), there are already some approaches in this direction, but had to be adjacent to other ideals which.
Wabi -sabi in Japanese art
Many Japanese art movements in the last 1000 years have been influenced by Zen, particularly acceptance and contemplation of the imperfection of constant flux and impermanence of all things. Such arts can exemplify the aesthetic of wabi-sabi. These include, for example:
- Japanese Gardens
- Bonsai
- Ikebana
- Japanese Tea Ceremony
- Japanese poetry, especially haiku
- Japanese Ceramics
- Honkyoku (traditional shakuhachi music of wandering Zen monks )
Quotes
According to Leonard Koren Wabi -sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of traditional Japanese beauty. It " occupies about the same position in the pantheon of Japanese aesthetic values , such as the ideals of ancient Greece of beauty and perfection do so in the West. " Andrew Juniper said: " If an object or expression in us a feeling of deep melancholy and. of a spiritual longing causes, then you can say, this object is wabi-sabi " Richard R. Powell summarizes Wabi Sabi as follows:" it nourishes everything is authentic, because it recognizes three simple truths: nothing remains, nothing is finished and nothing is perfect. "
" Limit on all the essentials, but do not remove the poetry. Holding things clean and unencumbered, but do not let them be sterile. "