WABI SABI, JAPANESE PHILOSOPHY

In today’s world, it’s not something easy to live. Influenced by tv, social media and magazines, we want the perfect picture (photoshop), the perfect face (botox), the perfect body (bigger boobs) the perfect hair (bold, the new trend?) the perfect home; we want everything fast and right now!

Consequently, we are always desiring something else and unhappy with our own lives. In Japan, ‘wabi sabi’ is the art and philosophy of imperfect beauty; accepting the natural cycle of growth and decay. Flawed and scarred materials and surfaces, the enigma of time passing…

According to wabi sabi; when we learn to find beauty in the simplest things, in the imperfections, appreciating nature, family and all that we already have, that is the way to a truly happy life. Afterall, the most beautiful things in life aren’t ’things’… But have a look at some wabi sabi ’things’, a moment of silence…

SHUNMYO MASUNO

Come and see one of Japan’s finest and most daring contemporary zen stone gardens, high above the hussling and buzzing traffic of the city-center Aoyama-dori Avenue. Its designer, a living legend, Shunmyo Masuno (born 28 February 1953) is a Japanese monk and landscape designer. Take the elevator that ascends to the fourth floor of the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo’s well-heeled Aoyama-Itchome district…

GARDEN DESIGN 

Shunmyo Masuno is head priest of the Sōtō Zen temple Kenkō-ji, professor at Tama Art University, and president of a design firm that has completed numerous projects in Japan and overseas. He is arguably the only Buddhist priest still practicing garden design in the tradition of the original, itinerant ishi-tate-so (stone-setting priests) of whom there were famously many during the time of the Kamakura Shogunate (1192-1333). His work include traditional as well as strikingly contemporary designs…

KENGO KUMA

A topographical landscape of stone and water at an installation in Milan. Created by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Kengo Kuma’s Naturescape was designed as an interpretation of a traditional Japanese Zen garden…

TOSHIYA OGINO

Open space showroom, integrates an interior garden in Kobe, Japan. It brings nature inside and make people going to the showroom feel relaxed in an environment that encourages that. Landscape designer Toshiya Ogino in collaboration with Nagayama & Associates.