Discussing Kintsugi is challenging because, on one hand, I don’t want to downplay the importance of this art form. On the other, I don’t wish to exaggerate its significance, as others do. Kintsugi is hugely successful here in Europe. In Japan, it’s a traditional art like many others—neither particularly important nor influential. That’s my point: the surprise and high regard for this art are primarily European creations.
Now, what lies behind Kintsugi? Behind Kintsugi is Zen aesthetics—the very Zen aesthetics I’ve already described. So, I’ll paste it here:
Zen Aesthetics
Zen aesthetics is one of the most fascinating, simple, yet complex themes in Japanese culture. It’s also one of the best documents for understanding this people and their mentality, so distant from ours—in love with intuition and perpetually wary of reason. This article must be read and understood with the gut, not the mind.
It shouldn’t be grasped through reason, which the Japanese are reluctant to use for things they deem important. As a rationalist, I’m forced to admit that, as you’ll see, the intuitive approach undeniably works for certain things.
Zen aesthetics is a philosophy of beauty deeply rooted in Japanese Zen, manifesting not only in visual arts but also in daily life, architecture, tea ceremony, and even garden design. This aesthetic is heavily influenced by Buddhist principles, Japanese animism, and interaction with nature. But beware: Zen’s “nature” isn’t the nature. It’s a heavily interpreted, anthropomorphized nature.
Here are the key principles defining Zen aesthetics:
1. Wabi-Sabi (侘寂)
• Description: This concept celebrates imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete beauty. “Wabi” refers to rustic simplicity and austerity, while “Sabi” evokes beauty emerging with age and patina. I don’t see the relationship between the first concept and the others. The first seems fundamental to me, though I couldn’t say why.
A moss garden that, after multiple visits, reveals time’s inevitable passage.
• Examples: Ceramic objects with visible cracks repaired via kintsugi (gold-mending), or moss gardens showing time’s passage. The point is finding beauty in imperfection. Once, a Chinese acquaintance of mine quipped that a Japanese potter might work all day producing hundreds of perfect ceramics—only to fall in love with the single slightly misshapen piece—something very true.
2. Kanso (簡素) – Simplicity
My house
• Description: Essentiality and simplicity are fundamental. Every superfluous element is eliminated to highlight an object’s or space’s essence. An unused room is empty and beautiful for this reason.
• Examples: Japanese-style homes with minimalist interiors, tatami mats, and clean lines.
3. Shibumi (渋味) – Refined Subtlety
• Description: The allure of the unostentatious—beauty that doesn’t seek attention but reveals itself only to an attentive observer. These chopsticks are an example of shibumi, but also I think of wabi-sabi. They’re conspicuously imperfect but obviously chosen precisely for this. Note how reason plays no role in all this.
• Examples: A Zen garden (枯山水) with stones arranged seemingly randomly, yet studied in minute detail—caring for hidden parts as much as visible ones.
4. Yūgen (幽玄) – Profound Mystery
• Description: Evoking the sublime and mysterious without fully revealing it. The goal is to suggest rather than explain.
• Examples: Mist enveloping mountains in a Japanese painting, or soft lighting in a temple.
5. Seijaku (静寂) – Tranquility
• Description: Serenity and silence that foster contemplation and introspection.
• Examples: The calm atmosphere of a Zen garden or the silent pause in tea ceremony.
6. Ma (間) – Empty Space
• Description: The importance of void between objects, allowing the eye to rest and the mind to reflect.
• Examples: Minimalist room arrangements or the use of silence in traditional Japanese music.
7. Mono no Aware (物の哀れ) – Awareness of Impermanence
• Description: A melancholic appreciation for life’s transience and ephemeral beauty.
• Examples: Falling cherry blossoms (sakura) symbolizing life’s brevity.
It is essential, in the case of cherry blossoms, to remember that for Zen they symbolize decay and the mortality of things. Conversely, for Japanese animism, they embody the opposite: nature’s rebirth, cyclicity, first fruits, new beginnings, discovery, and fortune. And it is precisely this vision that is celebrated every year in April.
Zen aesthetics is not merely an art form, but a spiritual and cultural approach. It invites us to live simply, respect nature, and find beauty in the humble, imperfect, and transient. This lifestyle has profoundly shaped Japanese culture and continues to inspire the world, though I personally doubt a foreigner can truly make use of it.
