What is 侘び寂び

I’ve been googling alot but results have been lackluster, maybe im just bad at googling in jp but still. More specifically, 季節のわびさび (that might be better worded as 自然観のわびさび) and 色のわびさび. replies in japanese are fine if it makes it it may be explained better. even links to articles and stuff that are more articulate.

2 comments
  1. When you are trying to read about terms used in cultural or artistic criticism, you are likely to get a better handle on them in reading about them in their native contexts. Since art criticism is always written in insular language/jargon at anything past an into level, then shoot for intro book on Japanese art in either language.

    Wikipedia quotes generously from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy in its article:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

    I will say trying to understand terms of Japanese cultural or artistic criticism, in context, without a rough understanding of the Japanese spin on Buddhism is hard to make sense of to me. Maybe you can start with specifics like Wabi-Sabi and work back to Japanese Buddhism, but I do not think so. Maybe you can connect wabi-sabi with hanami without Buddhism?

    Wabi-Sabi is *deeply* enmeshed in the Japanese ideas of Buddhism. Japanese people in general have no real concept of just how many of their cultural values flow directly from the framing worldview of Japanese Buddhism, even if they themselves are essentially secular humanists and know nothing about Buddhism themselve. The reverse is true: Americans (for instance) have no idea of just how many of their American cultural assumptions flow from, essentially Calvinist Christianity, even if they are Catholics or atheists in practice. The US prison system is a perfect example of something that is completely understandable from the framing of a Calvinist Christian mindset, and almost incomprehensible outside of it. Cultural values have a vast unspoken influence.

    I take you on this seeming tangent to make this point: you won’t get hanami or wabi-sabi as concepts unless you are already Japanese, or build a background understanding of the worldview of Japanese Buddhism, at least in the common view. Which is why when you study Japanese art as a major, you will be required to study Japanese Buddhism as well.

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like