“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” — Albert Einstein

The term “wabi-sabi” originated from Zen and Buddhist monks during the medieval period. It represented a set of ideals that sprang from humble origins and depravation, as monks lived a lonely, quiet life, with a deep sense of appreciation of the changing seasons. With a direct connection to nature, they sought solace and contemplation in simplicity, purity, and humility.

Wabi is now viewed as the Japanese ideal of beauty: simplicity and elegance. Traditional Japanese architecture appears simple because of empty space and lack of ornamentation, with quiet and subdued colors. These qualities also extend to art and literature.

Sabi represents the beauty of silence, quietude, antiquity: the poetic ideal.

Together “wabi-sabi” emphasizes contemplation and enlightening of the spirit through simple, natural surroundings. Details are left unsaid or “empty,” thus allowing the mind to create and fill in the space. There is a refined sense of recognizing the “unseen” or “mysterious” qualities that exist in an object, a place, a work of art. This quality is a personal philosophy, an internal recognition. It simply is a search for the sublime.