What is the essence of wabi-sabi - the Japanese philosophy that teaches the value of imperfection

BBC journalist Lily Crossley-Baxter He told about their own experiences with the aesthetics of "modest simplicity" and the search for beauty in the flaws.

I'm reluctant to take your hands from the slowly rotating bowl on a potter's wheel and watch as its uneven sides gradually stop. That would be a little bit more to correct them. I am in the ancient city of ceramics Hagi in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Although I trust the master, who convinced me to leave a bowl of how to eat, I can not say that I understand his motives. He says with a smile: "It has a wabi-sabi." And send my bowl in the firing. I'm reflecting on the lack of symmetry, and try to understand what exactly he meant.

As it turned out, a lack of understanding of this phrase - it is quite a common phenomenon. Wabi-sabi - the key idea of ​​Japanese aesthetics, ancient ideals, which still govern the rules of taste and beauty in this country. This expression is not only impossible to translate into other languages ​​- and it is in

Japanese culture It is considered to be indefinable. It is often pronounced in the case of deep admiration and almost always add muri (impossible), when asked to explain in more detail. In short, the term "wabi-sabi" describes an unusual view of the world.

The expression originated in Taoism during the existence of the Chinese Song Empire (960-1279), then got into Zen Buddhism and initially perceived as a form of restrained admiration. Today, it represents more relaxed acceptance of fragility and melancholy nature, the imperfections of approval and incompleteness in everything - from architecture to pottery and flower arranging.

Vabi roughly means "elegant beauty lowly simplicity" and sabi - "for a time and thereby coming decay". Together they represent a sense unique to Japan, and is central to the culture of this country. But this description is very superficial, it is little moves us closer to understanding. Buddhist monks generally believed that words - his enemy.

According to Professor Tanehisha Otabe (Tanehisa Otabe) from the University of Tokyo, to begin acquaintance with wabi-sabi well with the study of ancient art of wabi-cha - kind of tea ceremony, emerged in XV-XVI centuries. Founded his tea master preferred the Japanese ceramics, not popular at the time perfectly executed Chinese. It was a challenge to the then standards of beauty. Their tea service was not the usual beauty characters (bright colors and intricate painting), and guests were asked to consider discreet colors and texture. These artists chose imperfect, rough objects, because "wabi-sabi suggests something unfinished or incomplete, leaving room for the imagination."

Interaction with something that is considered to be wabi-sabi, provides:

• awareness of the natural forces involved in the creation of the object;
• acceptance of natural forces;
• rejection of dualism - the belief that we are separated from our environment.

Together, these experiences help viewer to see themselves as part of the natural world and feel that he is not separated from it, and is dominated by the natural course of time.

Sherbinki and irregularities are not perceived as an error, and as a manifestation of the creative forces of nature - just like moss growing on a rough wall or bent tree in the wind.

"The principles of wabi-sabi opened our eyes to everyday life and created an unusual, aesthetic approach to the perception of the ordinary"- said Professor Otobaya, particularly stressing the importance of taking in the Japanese culture. In her company regularly forced to deal with disasters. Instead of proclaiming the nature of a dangerous destructive force, wabi-sabi helps to imagine it as a source of beauty that is worth to appreciate even the smallest manifestations. It becomes a place where born colors, shapes, patterns and inspiration, the force with which you can not only fight, but also to cooperate.

But the main key to the understanding of wabi-sabi - the inevitability of death, prisoners in nature. Themselves around us forms are just beautiful. But awareness of transience, emphasizes our own fragility, making them significantly.

It reminded me of the story of a Japanese colleague about her children's trip to Kyoto. Then she hurriedly went through the area around the wooden temple Ginkaku-ji, hurrying to see more famous gilded Kinkaku-ji Temple, overlooking the lake. He was bright and effective and impressed so much more than its simple and traditional counterpart.

She again visited there a few decades. Although the golden temple is still evident, she noted that in addition to the rapid pleasure from the contemplation of gold in it there is nothing else. But in the Ginkaku-ji, she found a new fascination: the old tree has many shades and textures, rock gardens emphasize the diversity of natural forms. She could not assess this as a child, but with age began to perceive the ravages of time as a source of beauty - is much more significant than the glitter of gold.

I was intrigued by this and decided to contact the ceramist Kazunori Haman (Kazunori Hamana), whose work often find elements of wabi-sabi. He also stressed the importance of aging.

"When you're young, you have a different feeling - all the new sounds good, you begin to see the development of history, - he explains. - When you grow up, you see a lot of stories in my family and in nature: everything grows and dies, and you better understand this concept, than a child. "

Such an attitude to the time stamp - the main feature of the work of Hama, which he exhibited in abandoned farmhouses. He explains that the door jambs, blackened over the years from the chimney smoke, and began crumbling mud walls - story house. They create a suitable background for its work and help to avoid cold duality impersonal space white galleries.

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Haman uses in his work is important for the wabi-sabi concept of vzaimotvorchestve man and nature. "At first I was a little pondering the design, but the clay - a natural material, it changes. I do not want to fight with nature, so the following forms of clay, accept it, "- he said.

Sometimes nature becomes more and the background on which it puts its products. For example, he left a few works in the overgrown bamboo forest in the area around his home. Over the years they have overgrown bushes, and they were unique patterns of temperature changes, chips and surrounding plants. But it only complements the beauty of each object, and the cracks widen its history.

Since wabi-sabi also often associated art kintsugi - Method of restoration of broken pottery using lacquer and gold powder. This approach emphasizes rather than hides the cracks, making them part of the subject.

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When the daughter Hamana accidentally broke some of his ceramics, he has a few years left debris on the street to the nature gave them color and shape. When a local specialist kintsugi glued them color difference was so thin and irregular that it never would deliberately failed to recreate.

The adoption of natural effects and reflection of family history create a unique value of the object, which in many cultures would be considered useless and thrown away.

desire for perfectionSo widespread in the West, it sets unattainable standards that are only misleading. In Taoism ideal it is equivalent to death, because it does not involve further growth. In an effort to create perfect things and then trying to keep them in such a state, we deny their very goal. As a result, we lose the joy of change and development.

At first glance this seems to be an abstract concept, but admiration for the short-lived beauty is the basis of the simple pleasures of the Japanese. For example, in hanami - the annual ceremony of admiring flowers. During the cherry blossom throw parties and picnics, boating and participate in festivals, but this tree petals begin to fall rapidly. Patterns they form on earth, considered as beautiful as the blossoms on the trees.

Such acceptance fleeting beauty inspires. Although it is painted melancholy, but learns to enjoy every moment coming, not expecting anything.

Dents and scratches that we all have, reminiscent of the experience gained, and to wipe them - to ignore the complexity of life. When a few months later I got a bowl of made me Hagee, its rough edges no longer seemed to me to lack. Instead, I saw in them a welcome reminder that life is not perfect and does not need to try to make it so.