from the simple lifestyles of the monks who lived a life of wabi, referred to as wabizumai. ( Wabi here means solitary and simple and zumai being a verb extension meaning to live.)

There was even, at one point, a narrowly defeated vote on whether the Japanese should keep their own language or switch to English. Fortunately, the language was kept, and it has continued to function as a link between the past and the present.

It was Prince Shotoku, second son of the emperor Yomei, whose work in founding monasteries has made his name synonymous with the founding of Buddhism in Japan, although it was to be many years before the Zen Buddhist movement gathered any real momentum.

Taoism has been described as “the art of being in the world,” and the main thrust of its teaching was opposed to the Confucian ideas of social order. Instead, it stressed that the individual should seek to flow with the watercourse way, the Tao. Lao-tzu described this mystical concept, which like Zen defies objective analysis, in the following way:

It refrains from all forms of intellectual entanglement, self-regard, and affectation in order to discover the unadorned truth of nature.

In medieval Japan, under the patronage of the Zen monasteries and the Kamakura shogunate, the prevailing preference for simplicity and modesty were slowly introduced into the styles of the ceramics produced.

Although one can get a feeling of wabi sabi from naturally occurring phenomena, it is usually the act of framing by an artist that brings the poignancy to the attention of others.

Design criteria: No harsh or strong colors Subdued lighting Colors and dyes from natural sources Diffuse and murky colors Matte colors that lack uniformity

although art for pure amusement may have its place in society, the art of wabi sabi usually has its sights set on the furthering of spiritual awareness and the enhancement of the environments we live in.