In the Japanese traditional culture, there is a principle of aesthetics describing beauty as being imperfect and incomplete… That’s the wabi-sabi (侘寂) aesthetic, a uniquely Japanese point of view that can be applied in many art forms, from poetry and music to garden design and pottery.

A wabi-sabi tea bowl is simple, rough, modest, with asperities and imperfect shapes, but nonetheless beautiful, like the one in today’s photo…

Tea bowl, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Ueno

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Yesterday’s Japan Photo: Kumamoto Castle’s passage of darkness