Voice 1
Hello and welcome to Spotlight. I'm Ruby Jones.
Voice 2
And I'm Marina Santee. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
Tokyo's National Museum. It is the oldest and largest museum in Japan. Walk inside this huge building. You will see many wonderful works of art. There are more than 100,000 objects in the museum. These include some Japanese national treasures! The museum holds objects of great beauty and worth. But the objects in one part of a room are very different from the others. In a large glass case stand some dark green and brown objects. They look like containers gone wrong! Some are a funny shape. Some of them look like their creator made a mistake! Others look broken. They look like they could have been dug up directly from the earth! They do not look very costly - or very beautiful! They do not really seem to fit in this museum with the other wonderful objects. So what are they doing here? This is not a mistake! These objects are here for a reason. They represent an ancient Japanese idea that we will discuss in today's programme. The objects represent ‘wabi-sabi.'
Voice 3
‘What is wabi sabi? It is difficult to explain. You cannot just find it.'
Voice 4
‘It is a way of life.'
Voice 5
‘Wabi sabi? It is the Japanese heart.'
Voice 4
Wabi Sabi is to enjoy a quiet and peaceful life.
Voice 3
‘It cannot be described. If it could, it would not be wabi sabi.'
Voice 1
Wabi sabi sounds like a simple term but it has a complex meaning. This is because it relates to a whole way of looking at life! Some people describe it as a beauty that is not complete, or not perfect. One way to define ‘wabi' is ‘to make things simple.' And a way to define ‘sabi' is ‘change', or the passing of time. Wabi sabi is now becoming known in the West. But its origins are in Japan. It is a way of looking at life in all its forms - especially nature, art and culture.
Voice 2
The idea of wabi sabi entered art in the sixteenth century. It came from the Japanese tea ceremony! You may remember an earlier Spotlight programme about Japanese tea ceremonies. It described how in Japan, making tea is a great form of art and skill. The people who lead tea ceremonies are called tea masters. It was the tea masters that helped to bring the idea of wabi sabi to art. The tea masters looked for beauty in simple forms. At that time, this was unusual. People had more traditional ideas of beauty. They saw beauty in great designs, in costly objects. However, wabi sabi brought in the opposite idea. It said that beautiful art did not have to be perfect, costly, or even complex. Art could be simple, even broken, and be beautiful. And that is why you can see the unusual, imperfect containers in the Tokyo museum.
An employee of the museum described the process of wabi sabi in art:
Voice 6
‘A new art form developed that found beauty in stillness. The tea masters began to look for beauty in these simple forms. I am not sure if the makers of these objects found them beautiful! But the people who did the tea ceremony loved these objects - even if the objects were technically failures.'
Voice 1
So what does wabi sabi have to do with everyday life - and is it only for Japanese people? Richard Powell does not think so. He is an Canadian writer. He says that wabi sabi is becoming increasingly popular in the West. He explained why:
Voice 7
‘I think people have wanted to have a simpler life. But when they tried living simply they found it was too difficult to do all the time. You have to earn money and keep going with life. The reason wabi sabi is popular, is that it is something you can include in everyday life. You can look for wabi sabi all around you and change the environment right where you are.'
Voice 2
It is popular in the west to look to the east for answers about life and spirituality. The roots of wabi sabi lie in the eastern religion of Zen Buddhism. But many people interested in wabi sabi are not Buddhist. Richard Powell is a Christian. Richard says some people find it strange that he connects wabi sabi with his Christian life. He says:
Voice 7
‘A lot of my Christian friends have asked me about the connection. They think wabi sabi is some strange Eastern theory. But as soon as you talk to people about it they say, " Oh I know exactly what you are talking about. It is just that we did not have the words or the language to describe it."'
‘For me, truth is truth, no matter where you find it. Beauty is beautiful no matter where you find it.'
Voice 2
Richard told how he sees wabi sabi in his life:
Voice 7
‘Wabi sabi is about making time to be thankful for nature, that is the first part of it, making that time. Then I found lots of things. I could be sitting in a business meeting - but I would notice the birds outside the window. Or in another place I notice a child playing, or I notice an older woman resting on her stick. You start to be thankful for things that are in your life that you did not see before. You find that you recognize and value beauty in places you would not expect'
Voice 1
John Breck is a Christian priest. He suggests that we can also see wabi sabi in basic Christian belief. That belief states that the beauty and order of God's creation has been damaged by human wrong-doing, but that God reaches out to bring people back to full life. Breck says:
Voice 8
‘Under the false sense of order that we try to force on the world, there is a natural beauty. That beauty can only be seen by some people - people who can see past the way things look on the outside. Such people can see the inner quality and value of things - and of persons.'
Voice 2
What are your thoughts about wabi sabi? Does it only work in Eastern art and culture, or can its ideas truly work in a material world? Is Richard right? Is truth truth - wherever it is found? Write and tell us your thoughts! Our email address is Radio @ English . net.
|