When I worked the first time with a bonsai master who had spent some time in Japan,he tried to explain to me the importance of wabi sabi.First I thought like Ric but found out quickley that it was not what my teacher meant.
Since that master saw big questionmarks in my eyes he simply stated to look out for wabi sabi whenever someone would mention or talk about it and I would eventually understand the c o n c e p t.
This is all I knew,that it was a concept.As I thought it might have to do with religion or so I did not question him any longer.
From what I picked up in the last years and from further research I came to this conclusion:
Wabi sabi to me seem's to be a rather unconventional way to perceive beauty
which is held together by ethic and values.It is not a complicated concept,rather simple and innocent.
The very old woman in the alps with weatherd skin and white hair,smiling and you know she must be very wise.It is raining,a bit windy,she is holding an umbrella in her hands and an old fashioned rather big key.She is moving towards a hut.
For some reason this is what I had in mind instantly when Chris posted his thread.
Or the yamadori in the mountains,like the one Chris photographed,and a squirrel next to it looking for food.A little flower growing in front of the yamadori.
Some words to me to describe'Wabi Sabi' I found on the internet were:
Humble and simple-new and unfinished-imperfect for'wabi'
and Rusty and weathered-aged and wise for'sabi'
I also liked:
Quote
'Wabi-Sabi Pared down to its barest essence, wabi-sabi is the Japanese art of finding beauty in imperfection and profundity in nature, of accepting the natural cycle of growth, decay, and death. It's simple, slow, and uncluttered-and it reveres authenticity above all. For the Japanese, it's the difference between kirei - merely "pretty" - and omoshiroi, the interestingness that kicks something into the realm of beautiful. Wabi stems from the root wa, which refers to harmony, peace, tranquillity, and balance. Generally speaking, wabi had the original meaning of sad, desolate, and lonely, but poetically it has come to mean simple, unmaterialistic, humble by choice, and in tune with nature. Someone who is perfectly herself and never craves to be anything else would be described as wabi. Sabi by itself means "the bloom of time." It connotes natural progression-tarnish, hoariness, rust-the extinguished gloss of that which once sparkled. It's the understanding that beauty is fleeting. The word's meaning has changed over time, from its ancient definition, "to be desolate," to the more neutral "to grow old." By the thirteenth century, sabi's meaning had evolved into taking pleasure in things that were old and faded. A proverb emerged: "Time is kind to things, but unkind to man." Sabi things carry the burden of their years with dignity and grace.'
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End of quote
Interesting discussion.Perhaps wabi sabi has to be lived to be really understood.
-dorothy