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Wabi-Sabi. Do you find beauty in imperfection?

The idea of Wabi-Sabi is deeply engrained in Japanese culture. It is the concept of finding beauty in imperfection and embracing the natural world, as it is.

Take a broken bowl or piece of pottery, for instance. The Japanese repair this with gold and it becomes even more beautiful than the original.

"Broadly, wabi-sabi is everything that today’s sleek, mass-produced, technology-saturated culture isn’t. It’s flea markets, not shopping malls; aged wood, not swank floor coverings; one single morning glory, not a dozen red roses. Wabi-sabi understands the tender, raw beauty of a gray December landscape and the aching elegance of an abandoned building or shed. It celebrates cracks and crevices and rot and all the other marks that time and weather and use leave behind. To discover wabi-sabi is to see the singular beauty in something that may first look decrepit and ugly."

Do you find beauty in imperfection, also?

silvereyes 8 Feb 6
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28 comments (26 - 28)

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1

I had never heard of wabi-sabi before. Thank you for posting this. Is it always reflected in, say, a repaired item, or can be in a beginner's attempt at a bowl on a potter's wheel, or the first few quilts made by a neophyte quilter?

1

There's no such thing as perfection. If it's made by a human hand it's not perfect. If it's made by nature, and no two dogs, cats, leaves, grass blades, etc., are the same, which one is the perfect one?

1

Quite a cool concept, thank you for sharing.

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