Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A Japanese aesthetic that derives from imperfection and transience

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Japanese わび・さび (wabi-sabi) or 侘・寂 (wabi-sabi)

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Examples

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  • "Wabi-sabi is the quintessential Japanese aesthetic. It is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete," wrote Leonard Koren in his book Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers. It is a beauty of things modest and humble, and of "things unconventional." Peripherally associated with Zen Buddhism, wabi-sabi values characteristics that are rustic, earthy, and unpretentious, involving natural materials which are used neither representationally nor symbolically. (From ArtLex)

    June 5, 2008

  • I'm ashamed to say this always makes me think of wasabi.

    January 2, 2009

  • Wabi-sabi on Wikipedia

    April 1, 2009

  • This concept has been written about and discussed a lot but essentially this means, “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.”

    https://thoughtcatalog.com/koty-neelis/2014/11/23-untranslatable-foreign-words-that-describe-love-better-than-you-ever-thought/

    January 15, 2018