Wabi Sabi

Nice book

This is an excellent book. It is an excellent companion to Leonard Koren's book. In this book, Andrew Juniper starts by giving us a superb historical context. He also related Wabi-Sabi to the original philosophy of Tao.From there, he went on to the spiritual concepts and then on to design.He ended the book well, by giving us an example of an old African shawl, stating that the African embodied the philosophy of Wabi-Sabi more than some modern Japanese do.Overall, an excellent book that weaves the practical with the spiritual, and some warnings.

I have had a brief understanding and affiliation with Wabi Sabi for some time, but felt I needed more, but this book has pushed me into the next level of understanding. Truly amazing. Everything I wanted to know and more, and I immediately bought a book on Haiku to help me better use my new understanding. Buy it.

If you are looking for a book on wabi sabi that is elegantly written, stylish, easily understood and eminently readable, this is the one. Before I bought it I read the other reviews carefully, and (as always) there were some rather scathing ones, but I chalk those up to the nature of complainers. It's a fantastic read and speaks very directly to the complex nature of wabi wabi and what it means, both to Japanese and to westerners. Highly recommended.

I've read three books on wabi sabi specifically as research for my degree dissertation. I've given this one 5 stars though I'd really give it 4 and a half. It's good. The Leonard Koren one didn't really do it for me. And Wabi Sabi Simple was better than I thought it would be. This was the best of the three for me.

Starts off okay but seems to drift off into repetitive tangents. Not sure about some of the Statements allegedly representative of the Buddhist view and certainly do not equate Buddhism to nihilism, it is after all the middle way. Life story of Ikkyu was almost ad verbatim from John Stevens book 'three zen masters'. Overall it could have been a pamphlet rather than a book and is priced appropriately (99p).

very interesting book for those who wish to understand Japanest aesthetics and the Japanese soul. The book is historically well-researched and inspiring. a good read for anyone interested in the traditional Japanese arts, such as pottery, flower arrangement and gardening...