« From Rilke | Main | Thankyou »
February 14, 2010
Wabi-Sabi
When a customer at the bookshop the other day enquired whether we had anything on Wabi-Sabi, my brain hurriedly scanned for every similar-sounding word it knew. Wasabi (Japanese horseradish to go with your sushi) and Wahhabi (Islamic fundamentalist sect) was all it came up with. I tried both on the customer and failed both times.
I love learning new words, but that day I learned a whole new concept.
Wabi-Sabi is a quintessential Japanese (I was close there!) worldview based on the idea of transience. The key words are impermanence, imperfection, incompletness, i.e. nothing lasts, nothing is perfect, nothing is finished. So you better grow up and accept it. As such it is a close relative of Zen.
As well as the beauty of simplicity, authenticity, imperfection (Wabi), it also implies things touched by the patina of time, things that aged beautifully (Sabi).
Equipped with this new knowledge I was delighted to discover that some of the things I owned and loved - The Chinese medicine cabinet from Portobello (all aged wood and not a single nail), the old sepia-toned photographs on my walls, the worn and faded Persian rug - could all be described as Wabi-Sabi.
To be a Wabi person means to be simple, unmaterialistic, graceful, dignified, humble by choice and in tune with nature. A sixteen-century master said that Wabi person is someone who is not dissatisfied even though he hasn't the right utensils to conduct the tea ceremony.
Phew! Wabi-Sabi might be just another label, but as labels go, it's not a bad one to aspire to..
Posted by Marzena at February 14, 2010 10:56 PM