Wabi-sabi and Its Influences

What is wabi-sabi? The answer to this question is more complicated than most would assume. Arising in the 15th century as a response to the predominant aesthetic of extravagance, embellishment, and opulence, wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive system of Japanese aesthetics centered on the acceptance of transience and natural imperfection. This essay will attempt to explore the meaning and purpose of wabi-sabi as well as its philosophical origins in Zen Buddhism. As with most Japanese concepts, there is no direct translation for wabi-sabi. This makes it difficult to explain the meaning of wabi-sabi to a Western thinker, especially when considering how the ideas and values of wabi-sabi are so profoundly rooted in the Eastern way of thought. Thus, in order to fully understand wabi-sabi , one must first understand the Eastern world view.

The Eastern world view is in many ways the polar opposite of the Western world view, particularly in their view of art and aesthetics. It can be said that observing a culture’s aesthetic values reflects its world view. Many non-Western civilizations do not even have a word for “art” and make no distinctions between art and culture. For example, because they were mostly isolated from the world, the Japanese made no distinction between fine arts and crafts prior to the introduction of such ideas by Europeans in the 1870’s. Even today, the Japanese word that best translates the meaning of “art” is katachi , which literally means “form and design,” implying that art is synonymous with living and functional purpose. Every civilization has its own way of perceiving the world, and thus a different ideal of beauty. Western culture is the product of Greco-Roman, Hellenistic, Judeo-Christian, and Hebraic traditions and beliefs. Beliefs and ideas that Greek philosophers proposed centuries ago are still firmly accepted today, whether we realize it or not. Ideas such as that rationality is the ultimate source of knowledge and the world should be understood in terms of natural explanations, that the world is governed by a rational set of laws (called “logos”) and there is always an underlying order in the universe, and the idea that the mind is capable of understanding the world. Whereas in the Eastern worldview, influenced by religious beliefs such as those of Buddhism and Taoism, it is understood that everything is relative, the universe lacks order and humans have no control over it, and the world is too chaotic and complex to for the human mind to understand. With such contradictory mindsets, it is expected that the aesthetic ideals of the East and West must be antithetical as well. In the West, the concept of imperfection is frowned upon. Even a diamond would be considered less beautiful and less valuable if it contains an imperfection. The West typically values that which is perfect as that which is closer to God. According to the Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, “Perfection” is a term meaning “completeness”, in which sense it is only absolutely appropriate to God…” Interestingly enough, there is no entry in this dictionary for “imperfection.” Evidently, this term is not recognized as a religious concept or a relation to divinity. During the Enlightenment, Europe turned to the study of nature in hopes of revealing God. Europeans expected nature to be “the most perfect manifestation of the perfect mind of God.” Yet the more scientists studied nature, the more disappointed they were in their search for perfection. On a rational level, nature was not so perfect as they would have liked to believe. The essence of Darwin’s theory of “progress toward perfection” was not an orderly design, but a series of mutations filled with numerous imperfections before a suitable form was found. Thus, it is evident that perfection is not inherent in nature, but perhaps merely an ideal invented by man. While the West seeks to dominate nature while praising aesthetics that are symmetrical, perfect, and immortal, the Eastern mind accepts that the world is out of our control, embraces nature’s flaws, and finds beauty in what is natural, imperfect, and ephemeral. This is where wabi-sabi comes in.