Wabi-sabi

So back to my comment on shifting our aesthetic perspective for human beauty from a Roman-Greco foundation (western) to a more eastern vision…
I would not pretend to be a Buddhist but if I were to have to pick a religion, it would be the closest ideology that I relate to.  I am not and do not pretend to be even close to an authority in the sect.

My interest in this minimalist aesthetic and culture layered with subtleties was nurtured from an early age vicariously via my penpal, Emiko, from whom I received much anticipated, overseas letters;  tissue paper, folded carefully twice, baring neat cursive inked sentences that were not entirely grammatically correct but none the less, vividly understood.

I studied Japanese Anthropology once during my very liberal, liberal arts education. I was repeatedly frustrated by the professor’s too frequent response to inquisitive minds that there were just no words to describe all the intricacies of the philosophy.  This simply fuelled the notion of aesthetic obscurantism; that there was a need to maintain its mysterious and elusive qualities. Not very user friendly in my books!

Years later in my artistic journey, I tripped over the term wabi-sabi.  It was one of those revelatory moments in life; an ah ha moment. I was no longer alone in my search for a foundation to describe my artistic motivation.  I probably would have made the discovery years ago had if I paid more attention in art history class but I wasn’t there artistically….
Wikipedia condenses it well enough historically:

​After centuries of incorporating artistic and Buddhist influences from China, wabi-sabi eventually evolved into a distinctly Japanese ideal. Over time, the meanings of wabi and sabi shifted to become more lighthearted and hopeful. Around 700 years ago, particularly among the Japanese nobility, understanding emptiness and imperfection was honored as tantamount to the first step to satori, or enlightenment. In today's Japan, the meaning of wabi-sabi is often condensed to "wisdom in natural simplicity." In art books, it is typically defined as "flawed beauty."[6]

I would recommend Leonard Koren’s deceptively meagre book “Wabi-Sabi for Designers, Poets and Philosophers”( 1994; Stone Bridge Press). I think he does an excellent job condensing this complex concept.

Briefly put, Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.  It is a beauty of things modest and humble.  It is a beauty of things unconventional (ibid. page 7).

Traditionally, it pertained to inanimate objects and nature.  But this is how I see our elders If we could embrace the spiritual qualities of wabi-sabi, I think we would have a much deeper and holistic understanding of life overall: all things are impermanent; all things are imperfect; all things are incomplete (ibid. p. 48-9).

If we learned to appreciate such a philosophy, could we be more accepting of our mortality and in so doing, embrace and appreciate the beauty of impermanence and imperfection that becomes so obvious with ageing?