Wabi sort of

Wabi sabi is a Japanese aesthetic of transience. Rather than valuing new things, wabi sabi reveres the old, the worn, the used. Wabi sabi accepts imperfections and patina. It underscores the temporal nature of existence. This idea is very attractive because of the rich way in which it articulates an aesthetic of simplicity.

But wabi sabi is not unproblematic. It is an excrutiatingly refined philosophy, one that asks us to make minute, connoiseur-like discriminations sometimes divorced from important daily concerns. Like many ontological belief systems, wabi sabi seems to exist outside of ethics. The Silver Pavillion (dry garden shown above) is sometimes thought of as an example of wabi sabi. Yet, created as a retreat during a time of war, it was built on the backs of many people. Even today, its expressed simplicity requires an extraordinary amount of maintenance. Its very essence lies in its transitory construction, something that cannot be solidified in concrete, but must be tended to carefully by hand.