Wabi Sabi. Andrew Juniper
whose upheaval was no doubt a considerable factor in the spawning of so many creative ideas, was followed by the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1867). After Tokugawa Ieyasu had succeeded in bringing together all the separate warring factions under one ruling government, the complexion of life in Japan changed dramatically. The Christian influence, which had managed to gain an incredible following in just a few decades, was seen as a direct threat to life in feudal Japan, and so the shogunate decided to close Japan’s boarders to all but the most minimal of foreign exchange. This policy was known as sakoku (literally “closed country”). Trade was limited to Nagasaki, and only the Dutch, Koreans, and Chinese were tolerated. Any attempts to preach Christian ideals were met with the death penalty. The Japanese had entered their most settled period and it was a time of consolidation of the arts and culture that had been forged during the more volatile Muromachi period.
It was within this sheltered environment that the government’s support of Buddhism, along with that given by the more affluent ruling classes, provided a fertile environment for the furtherance of spiritual learning. It was also a time of creativity for the Zen monks, who pioneered much of the art created during the Edo period (1603–1867).
However, the true spirit of Zen was very often compromised by the balance of power between those with the wealth and those providing the spiritual guidance. This was not at all dissimilar to the divisions between the church and the ruling classes in Europe during the same period. Yet despite this clash of interests between the different sects vying for political and economic favor, the religious and artistic focus still remained strong, and there was a maturation and refinement of earlier artistic ideas.
The foundations for wabi sabi art forms, like the tea ceremony and flower arranging, were laid in the Muromachi period by exponents such as Sen no Rikyu (1522–1591), and it was these early innovations that provided the artistic momentum for the ensuing centuries. As time passed, the arts that had been inspired mainly for the benefit of the ruling elite slowly found their way into the lives of the lower classes. In so doing, the ideals of Zen and its artistic companion, wabi sabi, found greater influence and support across a broad spectrum of Japanese society. After the passing of Sen no Rikyu, the baton was taken up by other cultural icons such as Hakuin (1686–1769) and Sengai (1751–1837), whose enlightened views of the world pervaded all aspects of their voluminous works and continued to stimulate the artistic movement in Japan—a movement that was becoming ripe for an overseas audience.
Japan eventually reopened her borders. And after more than 250 years of isolation, the world was quick to see the value and depth of Japan’s unique artistry, and it was not long before European impressionists like Monet were collecting large quantities of woodblock prints and other treasures of Japanese craftsmanship. But, because of the large gap that existed between the philosophical views of the world, the ideas behind wabi sabi were not as quickly seized upon, as were the more immediately impressive artworks such as the silk kimonos, elaborate screens, and swords. The West’s appreciation of things wabi sabi took more time to develop as a deeper understanding of its meaning and significance began to slowly seep into the Western consciousness.
Over the last century, in the advent of Japan’s intense integration with the West, there has been a vast sharing of ideas and philosophies, with the West being as stimulated by Zen as the Japanese have been influenced by the Western lifestyle. However, the changing aspirations of people in the modern world have taken their toll on the spirit of Zen, and especially in Japan, its relevance and ability to influence the lives of the Japanese has been steadily subsiding over the last few decades. Oddly, however, as the Japanese seem to be abandoning their religious heritage for the material hedonism preached by the West, there is a growing interest in the West for the spiritual values found in Zen. Ironically, the future survival of Zen and its artistic representative, wabi sabi, may well lie outside Japan, and it is the West’s growing disillusionment with the empty promises of materialism that may provide the necessary impetus for the widespread adoption of Zen’s wisdom. The West, who arguably started the undermining of Zen thought, may well hold the key to its future survival.
THE TEA CEREMONY
“Tea has become more than an idealisation of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life. The beverage grew to be an excuse for the worship of purity and refinement, a sacred function at which the host and guest joined to produce for that occasion the utmost beatitude of the mundane.”
—Okakura Tenshin, The Book of Tea
AS THE GUIDING FORCE behind wabi sabi aesthetics, a look at the tea ceremony will throw light on the reasons for its development and the figures who formed the ideas that remain to this day.
The tearoom is to wabi sabi what the church is to Christianity.
Both enshrine their ideals and philosophies and cultivate an atmosphere appropriate for the intended religious goals. In a church there is a sense of reverence for the deity of God and his son Jesus Christ; within the vaulted ceilings and the magnificent stained-glass images there is a glorification of the greatness and omnipotence of God. In the tearoom there is a sober veneration for unadorned rusticity, for the greatness to be found in the most restrained expression of the humble and simple. The idea of venues being switched invites some interesting imagery.
The tea ceremony, which is usually held in a secluded and intimate tearoom, has been one of the focal points for advocates of wabi sabi.
It was through this semireligious ritual that the tea masters, well versed in the philosophy of Zen, gave full voice to their love of art rich in wabi sabi expression. They developed their shrines in the same way church clergy have created ecclesiastic designs. Both are guided by their spiritual beliefs.
The tea ceremony, where the art and philosophy of wabi sabi cemented its foundations, can trace its roots back to twelfth-century China with the drinking of tea by Zen monks who gathered before the image of Bodhidharma and drank the beverage as a part of the ritual. Like its guiding philosophy, Zen, the appreciation of tea found its way to Japan through the Zen monks. But unlike China, whose refined culture was decimated in the thirteenth century by the Mongol invasion, Japan was able to continue the refinement of tea drinking until, under the patronage of the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa, it became an independent secular ceremony.
The nobility in Japan took great interest in tea and it was not too long before it had established itself as a cultured beverage to be enjoyed in a refined atmosphere. Through the Kamakura period (1185–1333), the formalization of the tea ceremony began to emerge, and certain rules and etiquette surrounding its consumption were observed. The tea ceremony was promoted along with the teachings of Zen and the two cultures developed hand in hand throughout Japan. With the Zen belief of greatness in the smallest things, immense emphasis was put on all the small details of life, and with the attention to detail came care, and with the care came the meditative qualities of the tea ceremony. The intense concentration needed to perform a tea ceremony was both a discipline and a purification, for through the focusing of the mind on the microcosm of the tearoom, the rest of life’s concerns would melt away.
In the troubled Muromachi period, when the warring clans were all seeking to establish greater strength in their power bases, the samurai and warrior classes found great solace in the sublime world of tea. In entering the small room, they were existentially removed from their roles and responsibilities, from the hardships of combat, and taken to a place of harmony and peace where the world might make sense again. As with the development of many great artistic achievements through history, it was the upheaval of the Muromachi period that brought the Herculean leap in the arts of Japan. Ironically, it was under the greatest stress that the best art was produced, and it was during this time that the foundations for the tea ceremony, along with many other peculiarly Japanese art forms, were laid.
The Zen monk Ikkyu (1394–1481), whose life straddled an era of great political instability, was a pivotal figure both in Zen and in the development of a wabi