Product Description

This extended essay in words and pictures universalizes the Japanese traditional rustic aesthetic of wabi-sabi that was developed over hundreds of years by Zen priests and teamasters. Wabi-sabi functions today as a prototypical "complete" aesthetic, nature-based and "soft" in contrast to the "hard" digital aesthetics of modern computer-age design. As such, it offers designers and other creative people a wealth of insight into materials and process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25528 in Books
• Published on: 1994-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Review
"Perfectly conveys the Zen simplicity and stillness." -NAPRA Review -- NAPRA Review

"Perfectly conveys the Zen simplicity and stillness." -NAPRA Review -- Review

About the Author
Trained as an artist and architect, Leonard Koren has written numerous books on aesthetics and design, including Undesigning the Bath, How to Take a Japanese Bath, and Gardens of Gravel and Sand. He lives in San Francisco and Tokyo.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty. It occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West. Wabi-sabi can in its fullest expression be a way of life. At the very least, it is a particular type of beauty. The closest English word to wabi-sabi is probably "rustic." Webster's defines "rustic" as "simple, artless, or unsophisticated . . . [with] surfaces rough or irregular." While "rustic" represents only a limited dimension of the wabi-sabi aesthetic, it is the initial impression many people have when they first see a wabi-sabi expression . . . Originally, the Japanese words "wabi" and "sabi" had quite different meanings. "Sabi" originally meant "chill," "lean," or "withered." "Wabi" originally meant the misery of living alone in nature, away from society, and suggested a discouraged, dispirited, cheerless emotional state. Around the 14th century, the meanings of both words began to evolve in the direction of more positive aesthetic values. The self-imposed isolation and voluntary poverty of the hermit and ascetic came to be considered opportunities for spiritual richness. For the poetically inclined, this kind of life fostered an appreciation of the minor details of everyday life and insights into the beauty of inconspicuous and overlooked aspects of nature. In turn, unprepossessing simplicity took on new meaning as the basis for a new, pure beauty.

Customer Reviews

Here's why it's for "artists and designers"
As a graphic designer, I was very intrigued by the title of this book, and the philosophies contained inside, so I decided to give the book a shot. This is the type of book you blaze through in about 30 minutes, but will most likely want to keep for a lifetime as inspiration. Reason? Because there simply isn't another book of it's tone or mission.

The essence of Wabi-Sabi is that true beauty, whether it comes from an object, architecture or visual art, doesn't reveal itself until the winds of time have had their say. A cracked pot, for example, has an essence that a perfectly round pot is lacking. Beauty is in the cracks, the worn spots, and the imperfect lines.

As a graphic designer, Wabi-Sabi is the antithesis of what I pursue every day -- perfection in my typography, layout, tight invisible Swiss inspired gridlines, etc. Mathematical symmetry is an unshakeable mission for many in my profession, and the ancient philosophies of Wabi-Sabi rip a hole in the side of it.

I enjoy owning the book as a reminder that nothing in life, or design, is perfect. The very essence of life, work, art and nature is free of right angles, and chaos reigns supreme.

Appreciation vs Creation
I agree with all the good things said about this book; it is a deceptively short, simple book with potent content.

However, I feel something should be mentioned. This is a book primarily about appreciating wabi-sabi (about finding it or seeing it out in the world), not so much about creating it. Koren describes wabi-sabi almost as a result of karma, or at least as a process in which the artist/designer has little impact. You can perhaps record it, but there's very little direct discussion of how to create wabi-sabi objects yourself (other than mention of sweaters made with randomly placed holes).

This certainly doesn't take away from the book or reduce its value to artists and designers (seeing wabi-sabi and appreciating it is key to understanding, which in turn helps you use the concepts in your own work). I just feel the book's title is a bit misleading.

What I would like to see (because I feel it is lacking in this book) is ideas on how artists might cultivate mistakes and accidents. Or take advantage of time and wear-n-tear. Or how artists use becoming/decaying metaphors. Just in general I would like to see more on wabi-sabi as it applies to the creation of things, rather than the appreciation of wabi-sabi in things that already exist.

So this is a great book, but I think there's another great book on this subject that needs to be made.

A Guideline for Living
I have studied Japanese tea ceremony in Kyoto for 23 years and during that time read almost everything published in English on the subject. This book is a real pearl, and covers in all its shortness the subject so well, that you hardly need any other information to transform your life into something more beautiful and meaningful.

It is a must for people directly involved with tea and Japanese aesthetics. It is a clear spring of sweet water that will quench the thirst of everyone. It is a source of inspiration, that can be integrated into any culture and be actively expressed in your own life style.

Read it and feel inspired to do something great and good, not only for yourself, but for all you know, for nature and our common future on this earth.