One of my most treasured objects is a hand-thrown tea bowl that I bought from Japan. What delights me about it is the fact that there is a slight dip in the otherwise perfect rim – almost imperceptible, but there nonetheless.
You see, years ago I had read that Japanese master artists and artisans, who were clearly more than capable of producing flawless work, often deliberately left an imperfection in whatever they were creating.
This morning I came across a blog post by Tai Carmen, blogger of Parallax Journal, that caught my eye and my interest. I’ve re-blogged it here so that others who may not have seen her blog can enjoy it too. Here it is:
By Tai Carmen
“Wabi-Sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent & incomplete.” ~ Leonard Koren
“Wabi is the beauty that springs from the creative energy that flows in all things, animate or not. It’s a beauty that, like nature itself, can appear with dark and light, sad and joyful, rough and gentle.” ~ Makoto Ueda
“Beauty is radiant and tactile, not airbrushed.” ~ Joe Hefferon
The term Wabi-Sabi represents a Japanese aesthetic philosophy that embraces authenticity over perfection.
Characterized by asymmetry, irregularity, simplicity, economy, austerity—modesty & intimacy—wabi-sabi values natural objects & processes as emblems of our transitory existence. Rust, woodgrain, freckles—the texture of life.
Developed in the 15th century in reaction to the lavish, ostentatious ornamentation of the aristocracy, wabi-sabi centers around three principals: “nothing is perfect, nothing lasts, and nothing is finished.”
“The initial inspiration for wabi-sabi’s metaphysical, spiritual, and moral principles come from ideas about simplicity…
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Susannah Hay 