When I described the aesthetic of wabi-sabi to the (local Maine) carpenter who was helping build my teahouse-type building, he listened carefully, then said he thought it sounded like an excuse for doing sloppy work. Another carpenter remarked innocently (upon finding me loading precious bark-covered cedar branches into my truck) "Going to the dump?"

Wabi and sabi were once separate terms, but now they are generally used together. The wabi-sabi aesthetic became important when tea gardens arrived, around 1500.

Leonard Koren wrote a reputable book called "Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers" which I think tells the whole story quite well.

Lee

Sukiya was originally, I believe, an attempt to express the concept of wabi-sabi in architecture. Wabi-sabi is humble, rustic, incomplete, imperfect, impermanent, etc.

Over the years, however, the Sukiya style has undergone more and more refinement. Now a Sukiya style building looks simple but not really rustic, and its imperfections are perfected to the "Nth" degree. It costs a fortune to build and can only be built by highly skilled craftsmen.

In my own Japanese garden structures I've been trying to get back to the original wabi-sabi aesthetic ("Neo Sukiya"?), which has the advantages of being achievable for an amateur builder (guided by aesthetic sensitivity) and much more affordable. It's actually truer to the intentions of the original teahouse builders, too, I think.

A connection between Zen and wabi-sabi is more indirect. The tea ceremony was a Zen practice. Wabi-sabi gained prominence as an aesthetic value in connection with the practice of tea and the building of teahouses and their (originally very minimalist) gardens.

Lee

"The Japanese words wabi and sabi are essential concepts behind the creation of Japanese gardens and were related to gardening by the Tea-master Sen-no Rikyu, who wanted to induce a frame of mind that would appreciate quiet elegance. "Wabi" may be interpreted as rustic simplicity and an appreciation of simple frugality. "Sabi" is an appreciation of surfaces and textures that reflect age and usage, such as those on natural, unpainted wood, weathered stone, moss-covered rocks and dried bamboo."

Even more interesting, apropos Japanese culture in general, it then comments -

"The Japanese adjective "shibui" and its noun "shibusa" describe a discriminating taste that is as applicable to gardens as it is to other things in art and behaviour. It may be interpreted as a dislike of ostentation, and an admiration of a refined, cultured, and unassuming demeanour....."

That seems to suggest that both put-downs and attempts to demonstrate superiority are in poor taste does it not?

Herb

I know you asked if anyone would like to describe wabi-sabi....I don't feel fully qualified to do that, but I humbly offer these worn links...with outstreached sunburned hands, upon wrinkled leaves, in the fog...

http://www.hermitary.com/house/aesthetics.html
http://pweb.sophia.ac.jp/~britto/deekid/task17/aine17.html

does wabi-sabi have currency?,...you bet!
Have you checked the investment value of antiques lately?

faked patina isn't.

best,

sabi

"The first recorded wabi-sabi tea master was Murata Shuko (a.k.a. Murata Juko, 1423-1502), a Zen monk from Nara. Around this time in secular society, tea had become an elite pastime indulged in, in no small part, because of the prestige associated with ownership of elegant foreign-made tea-related objects. Shuko, in opposition to this fashion, used intentionally understated, locally produced utensils whenever possible. This was the beginning of the wabi-sabi aesthetic in tea."

Another really good book which gives a detailed description of the history of the tea ceremony is "The Tea Ceremony" by Sen'o Tanaka and Sendo Tanaka.

Lee

Lots of word pairings to describe it in that book too. Think uniqueness/authenticity and your not far wrong.
Aesthetic/patina is another good pair. But a solid definition? Not from me...

Conversely, I suggest that a garden where wabi-sabi is less evident would be the Adachi Museum garden. I've never been there and am judging only from photographs, but from them and from the descriptions I've read of it, while it's a wonderful work of art, it's just a bit too perfect. What do you think?

Interesting to be challenged to link garden names to wabi-sabi. I only think of elements associated with gardens that I respect for this trait. From my Western soul's eye, I consider the weathered icons, such as worn lanterns in Katsura detached palace, giant floor planks of Byodoin Temple, the worn bronze hinges and caps of Nijo and mountainside temples, even the water itself of Kiro-misu shrine in Kyoto!

Even here in San Antonio, there is a garden named as a Japanese Tea Garden, with little resemblance to most ideas of that garden style. Still, it has such elements as its steps of stone, worn after only 70 years to show the provocative indentataion of so many soles ( or to wabi-sabi, would it be souls?). Thinking of how it has progressed through wars that impacted its designers, cartakers, and visitors, is it the worn stone, or the experience of the stone that so captures we that hunger for such?

You see a tree branch that represents a spirit or ideal - the carpenter thinks you are taking it to the dump. I see a stone on a beach that holds the image of Buddha, you may not. Perhaps, as individuals, we attain a personal knowledge of wabi-sabi. That is, we come to know it on our own plane. Maybe that is why it is so hard to describe it to each other? We can only grow by continuing to share. Thanks.

We know wabi-sabi may also refer to "things recycled" such as the mill stone step or the pier stone base, and the lantern used in the garden when no longer useful for the temple (Eureka again!).

And, as I hold a treasured tea bowl, with its unique irregularities and history, I see wabi-sabi flash in the eyes of the tea master, letting me know it would be appreciated if I would use both hands!

Looking into the garden from where I sit tonight, and not considering favorite stones or special plants, I would pick out the small, old, iron lantern that sits on the basin, its fat candle reflecting the subtle ripples of the water surface, as my example of wabi-sabi.

It would be interesting to hear what other's feel is their particular piece of wabi-sabi. So desu ne?

Scott: two hundred years is a good beginning for a timeless look, neh?

We value antique furnitures,books, objects, even try to imitate the look on new pieces with holes drilled, paint faded or scratched.

My treasured, antique tea cap (sorry, no bowl)is from my father, on Sunday special visits when we talked for hours drinking tea, he always chose the one with the hairline crack, because "the imperfect is closer to the heart" he explained, and never forgot to add - with a wink " you are my favorite off my three daughters".

Andrea

And Andrea, if being cracked is a requisite for good wabi/sabi, then I must have it in abundance...