What is wabi sabi? Seen through a tea bowl
By Mio.KShare
Wabi sabi is usually translated as "the beauty of imperfection," and that is close enough to start with. But the two words began as something sadder. Wabi comes from a verb meaning to be disheartened, to find things not as you wished. Sabi comes from a verb meaning to grow old, to fade. The Japanese idea is that these feelings, quiet, a little lonely, faded by time, can be beautiful in themselves.
The short answer: wabi sabi is the Japanese taste for things that are quiet, plain and changed by time. Wabi began as the feeling of things not going as you wished; sabi as the sense of something growing old and fading. In the tea ceremony and in haiku, both turned into words of praise. You see it best in a tea bowl: an uneven hand-shaped rim, bare clay at the foot, a glaze that has slowly darkened with years of tea.
I study tea in Tokyo, in the Urasenke school, and wabi sabi is less a philosophy in the tea room than a way of looking. Here is where the words came from, and what they look like in a bowl.
Where the two words come from
| Word | From the verb | Its first meaning | What it came to mean |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wabi (侘び) | wabu | To be disheartened; to find things not as you wished | The quiet of a simple life, and the beauty of having little |
| Sabi (寂び) | sabu | To grow old; to fade | The beauty of things worn and softened by time |
Both started as words for unwelcome feelings. What is unusual is that Japanese culture came to value them. The ground was laid in court poetry from the Heian period onward, where quiet, spare, faded scenes became a kind of beauty. Then the tea ceremony and haiku took the words up as praise.
How it entered the tea ceremony
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the fashionable way to drink tea was at lively gatherings full of expensive utensils from China. Against that, a few tea men began to use plain Japanese wares alongside them and to look for beauty in what was simple and incomplete. That style is called wabi-cha, and it is the tea ceremony as we know it. I tell that story in where the tea ceremony came from.
Okakura Kakuzō, writing about tea in English in 1906, put it this way: "It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life." I read that less as a rule than as permission: a bowl of tea does not need to be perfect to be worth making well.
What wabi sabi looks like in a tea bowl
- A rim that is not quite round. Raku bowls are shaped by hand rather than thrown on a wheel, so each one is a little uneven, and that is the point.
- Bare clay at the foot. Many bowls leave the foot ring unglazed, so you see the clay itself when you turn the bowl over. On the Mino-yaki bowl I sell, the black glaze stops above the foot and the pale clay shows below.
- Color that changes with use. Hagi bowls have a thin glaze, and tea slowly seeps into them over the years and darkens the color. Tea people call this the seven changes of Hagi.
- Quiet color. Black, brown, ash and cream rather than bright decoration, so that the green of the tea is what you notice.
The parts of a bowl and the kinds of ceramic are in what is a chawan.
Wabi sabi at home
You do not need old or expensive things. It is more a habit of attention: choosing a plain bowl over a showy one, using it every day until it softens, and noticing when a whisk has worn into a shape that is yours. The bamboo of a whisk darkens with use and its tines begin to curl; that is sabi, quite literally. When it is worn out, you replace it, and the new one starts the same slow change.
Another phrase from the tea room sits beside this one: ichigo ichie, the idea that each gathering happens only once.
Questions I get asked
What does wabi sabi mean?
It is the Japanese taste for things that are quiet, plain and changed by time. Wabi first meant the feeling of things not going as you wished; sabi meant growing old and fading. Both became words of praise.
Is wabi sabi the same as "beauty in imperfection"?
That is a fair short version, but it leaves out the quiet and the passing of time that the Japanese words carry.
What is wabi sabi in the tea ceremony?
The style called wabi-cha, which grew in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, prized plain, simple utensils and a quiet room over lavish display.
What is a wabi sabi tea bowl?
A plain bowl whose making and use show: a hand-shaped, slightly uneven rim, bare clay at the foot, or a glaze that changes color with years of tea.
Is wabi sabi a Zen idea?
It grew up alongside Zen and the tea ceremony, but the words themselves come from Japanese poetry and everyday language. I go into tea and religion in is the tea ceremony religious.
Where this fits
If you want a bowl to start with, the black Mino-yaki chawan is plain, matte, and leaves the clay bare at the foot. How to choose a matcha bowl covers the rest.
Written by Mio.K, who chooses everything in this shop by hand in Japan.