Wabi-sabi in everyday balance

It seems that in every facet of life, the Japanese devote themselves to bringing about that sense of peace and harmony, of warmth and comfort, which they feel to be an essential part of beauty and balance. The intense feeling of texture, colour, form and space is intended to satisfy the spectator’s need for emotional assurance and calm. Appreciation of the such subtleties lead us to the enjoyment and understanding of japanese culture in general, what I believe is relevant as anthropologists and of its arts which in particular, brings very interesting quotes for me as a graphic design student.

Japanese art is often focussed on nuances of emotion, and works tend to be so charged with tension that altering the position of any part would drastically change the overall effect. Based on aesthetic conception, from the roots of zen-budhism, the appreciation of wabi-sabi remains the beauty of invisible, impermanent and incomplete.



Wabi connotes rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness, and can be applied to both natural and human-made objects, imperfect quality or understated elegance. Sabi is imperfect reliability, beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in its patina and wear, or in any visible repairs. In this sense, wabi-sabi it is an understated beauty that exists in the modest, rustic, imperfect, or even decayed, an aesthetic sensibility that finds a melancholic beauty in the impermanence of all things. Wabi-sabi demotes the role of the intellect and promotes an intuitive feel for life where relationships between people and their environments should be harmonious.



Stepping-stones, for example, slow the visitor’s pace. In a temple interior, a feeling of calm is generated by the asymmetry of the space and the warm hues and textures of the surfaces; the essence of the potting processes with quirks and accidents such as finger prints remark uniqueness; the sumi-e prints, which follows the mood of its brush strokes enhance the natureless. The perception of the inter-relationship of human being and objects which permeates japanese life, and which causes their “worship of the imperfect”. Indeed, there is no nervousness about symmetry or glossy surfaces; actually there is a relaxed sophistication often lacking in the arts of the ruling classes.