Liberal Arts Blog — Japanese Aesthetics: Mono No Aware, Wabi Sabi, Kintsugi, Sakura, Bonsai, Ichi-go, Ichi-e, Hanami
Liberal Arts Blog: Friday is the Joy of Art, Architecture, Design, Film, Fashion, and All Things Visual Day
Today’s Topic: Japanese Aesthetics: Mono No Aware, Wabi Sabi, Kintsugi, Sakura, Bonsai, Ichi-go, Ichi-e, Hanami
Mono No Aware celebrates the ephemeral nature of beauty. Wabi Sabi celebrates imperfection.
Kintsugi is the “art of repairing broken pottery by mending the cracks with lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. Instead of disguising the damage, kintsugi highlights the repair, transforming the broken object into a unique piece with a beautiful golden ‘scar.’ It’s a metaphor for embracing imperfections and finding beauty in the flawed, reflecting a philosophy of resilience and acceptance.”
The classic symbol of the ephemeral nature of beauty is the cherry blossom. A perfect metaphor for the aging human body is the bonsai tree.
Have you ever practiced “hanami”? That is, picnicking under a flowering cherry tree in the spring?
What do you know about Japanese aesthetics that the rest of us may not but would delight to learn?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
KINTSUGI — Using lacquer mixed with gold, silver, platinum to repair broken pottery
1. “Nothing lasts. Nothing is finished. Nothing is perfect.” (Powell)
2. “If an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi.”
3. Theological analogy — we are all sinners. But lovable still.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE EXAMPLE OF KINTSUGI?
THE BONSAI TREE IS A PERFECT METAPHOR FOR THE HUMAN BODY AS IT AGES
1. The tea ceremony is the perfect metaphor for making the most of each moment.
2. The Japanese term is “ichi-go ichi-e.” Each moment is one chance in a lifetime.
3. Each breath you take is a chance to become a better you.
THE MOST BELOVED JAPANESE SONG OF ALL TIME CELEBRATES THE EPHEMERAL BEAUTY OF THE CHERRY BLOSSOM
1. Sakura, sakura, yayoi no sora wa, miwatasu kagiri, kasumi ka, kumo ka, nioi zo izuru. Iza ya, Iza ya, mini yukan.”
2. “ Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms, Across the spring sky, As far as the eye can see. Is it mist, or clouds? Fragrant in the air. Come now, come now, Let’s go and see them.”
3. What is your favorite Japanese print of cherry blossoms?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonsai
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
Updating PDFs: 2023 — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned recently or ever related to art, sculpture, design, architecture, film, or anything visual.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to cement in your own memory something cool or important you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than you otherwise would about something that is close to your heart.
