Tag: wabi-sabi
All the articles with the tag "wabi-sabi".
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Ikebana (生け花): The Japanese Art of Flowers and Empty Space
By K. YamaUpdated:Ikebana isn't a fancy bouquet. It's the Japanese 'way of flowers,' built on line, asymmetry, and empty space — and the emptiness is the point.
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Japanese Aesthetics Glossary: 14 Terms Every Japan Lover Should Know
By K. YamaUpdated:A clear, accurate glossary of 14 Japanese aesthetic terms — wabi-sabi, ikigai, ma, yūgen, mono no aware, kintsugi, and more — with the myths corrected.
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Japanese Tea Ceremony (茶道): What Sadō Is Really About
By K. YamaThe Japanese tea ceremony (sadō) was never really about the tea. What chanoyu actually is: a discipline of hospitality, impermanence, and one unrepeatable meeting.
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Kintsugi: The Japanese Art of Golden Repair (Not Gold Glue)
By K. YamaUpdated:Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold — slow lacquer craft, not gold glue. How it's really done, and what the seams mean.
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Mottainai: The Japanese Idea That's More Than 'Don't Waste'
By K. YamaUpdated:Mottainai is usually flattened to 'don't waste.' It really means the intrinsic worth of a thing is being lost — closer to grief than to thrift. Explained.
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Shibui (渋い): Understated Beauty, and Why It's Not Wabi-Sabi
By K. YamaUpdated:Shibui is Japan's understated, refined beauty — related to wabi-sabi but not the same thing. The difference, and why the word began as a sour taste.
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Wabi-Sabi: The Japanese Art of Imperfect Beauty
By K. YamaUpdated:Wabi-sabi is Japan's aesthetic of imperfect, impermanent beauty — and the West mostly gets it wrong. What it really means, from tea room to brush.
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Zen Garden (枯山水): What a Japanese Rock Garden Really Is
By K. YamaUpdated:A Zen garden isn't a desktop stress toy. Karesansui is a dry landscape of raked gravel and stone, built for contemplation — water with no water in it.
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Bonsai (盆栽): The Real Meaning of Japan's Miniature Trees
By K. YamaBonsai means 'planted in a tray' — ordinary trees kept small by patient cultivation, some tended for centuries. The real art behind the miniature tree.
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