Which Of Your Tsubas Best Embodies The Wabi-Sabi Aesthetic?

[lotus]

As the subject states, I have been trying to study up on this and find examples very helpful...

[Curran]

Pictures?

[lotus]

Yes, pictures were what I was looking for and descriptions if you feel like it. My hope is to learn

[FlorianB]

I went in for Japanese aesthetic principles like wabi-sabi, kire or mono-no-aware frequently.

Someone could read a lot about wabi-sabi but has not the slightest idea what the term means. There must be an individual understanding. It’s rather an expierience that can’t be explained.

Also I think that pictures of Tsuba which claim to have wabi-sabi aren’t sufficient. You must study those in hand to get a feeling for it.

Yours,
Florian
 

[ROKUJURO]

Patrick,

as Florian wrote, it is a combination of design, material/surface, and execution of a TSUBA, that can create a personal feeling, when you hold it. I find that in many early TSUBA with simple, but well balanced design. The respective TSUBA has to kind of 'talk' to you. 


By the way, Japanese nouns do not have a plural form. So it is always TSUBA, regardless how many.

[C0D]

Many of my tsuba have a wabi-sabi feeling since i mainly study pre-Edo pieces.
Here's two good examples, one is most likely a Saotome tsuba of early Edo and shows a more "classic" feeling, while the second a Nobuie utsushi by Naoaki shows a more refined taste.

[lotus]

A couple from shibuiswords.com that are described as wabi-sabi.

[Steve Waszak]

These terms ---wabi and sabi --- are just two of dozens employed in expressing aesthetic sensibilities in Japanese culture.  It is useful to familiarize oneself with at least some of the others to get a more balanced view of how the Japanese see and describe different facets of beauty.  Donald Richie's book, A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics, is an excellent introduction to this arcane world. 

 

Florian stated that, "omeone could read a lot about wabi-sabi but has not the slightest idea what the term means. There must be an individual understanding. It’s rather an expierience that can’t be explained."

 

While I agree in part with what Florian says here, I think it is more accurate to say that we can fairly easily get a general idea of what wabi and sabi mean, in the same way we can have a pretty good understanding of what the abstract term "beauty" means.  What I think Florian is getting at is the specific application of wabi or sabi to a particular object, environment, action, etc... That is, in the same way we all understand what beauty is/means abstractly, we won't agree on what counts/qualifies as beautiful.  And just as it can be difficult to explain why this particular landscape is more beautiful in our eyes than another, it can be hard to articulate why this tsuba expresses wabi more powerfully than that one.  So when Florian says that "[t]here must be an individual understanding," this seems right to me, just as we all have our individual understandings of what counts as beautiful.  This doesn't mean we can't argue for what counts, though! 

 

Incidentally, the joining of the two terms, wabi and sabi, is way over-used, especially outside of Japan.  These are two separate aesthetic principles.  They can work together, but so can sabi and mono-no-aware, and so can wabi and haki, or shibusa and sabi, etc...  So we shouldn't automatically be linking these two as though they must go together.

 

Here is a tsuba that I would see as expressing both sabi (a sense of loneliness and the melancholy that accompanies it) and wabi (an abiding sense of exquisite "poverty" borne of the impact of time and conditions, creating a state of deep wear, and thus, "imperfection").  As I see it, the motif of the birds, the reeds, and what looks to be a hanging fishing net expresses sabi.  It likely alludes to a specific season (as Japanese artworks so often do), which connotes (for the Japanese) certain emotions.  In this case, that emotion is melancholy, perhaps in recognition of the inevitable transience of things (the constant passing of seasons will amplify this recognition).  The working of the plate --- the tsuchime and yakite kusarashi utilized by the tsubako (Hoan) --- carries a wabi sensibility.  The one value (wabi) interacts with the other (sabi) to create a subtly powerful work.  All IMHO of course.

 

Cheers,

 

Steve

[Jean]

Here are two Yamakichibei tsuba which gives me wabi-sabi feeling. I think that give someone wabi-sabi feeling is better than described something being wabi-sabi as it is a personnel feeling and that a tsuba may be wabi-sabi for somebody but not for another one.

 

Wabi-sabi is all the more difficult to describe that it is a combination of two concepts, combination which much appeal to someone, I mean by this that both concepts wabi and sabi must appeal to somebody to be named wabi-sabi. Even much more complicated to define than art.

[Andi B.]

...I don't know much about wabi and sabi...

But I like this piece, BECAUSE it it has no decoration and is a simple plain Tsuba with an aged surface...it FEELS good in hand...

[Stephen]

This wabis my sabi but sure it dont in your world

 

 

and

 

[Ray Singer]

https://markussesko.com/2014/10/11/historic-overview-of-aesthetic-requirements-for-a-tsuba-part-ii/

[FlorianB]

To Steve:

Thank You for explaining my own words!

That’s exactly what I meant though I tried to say it as short as possible. Probably too short...

To all:
I think It would be a good idea to get engaged with tea culture and tea aesthetics. This could help in understanding wabi-sabi.
I'd like to recommend a book by Soetsu Yanagi: “The unknown craftsman. A Japanese insight to beauty.” - it deals with pottery only but it's very enlightning.

 

Florian

[Jacques]

This is also wabi sabi 

 

 

[vajo]

Wabi means miserable, lonely and lost. But only in connection with Sabi, to be old, to show patina, to have maturity, was the actually untranslatable conceptual unity.

 

[Michael 101]

These are my personal candidates.

 

A first master Kanshiro Iron sukashi and a first master Shimizu Jinbei in soft metal.

 

The Kanshiro is unsymmetrical and carved with a masters confidence and freedom.

 

The Shimizu has a weathered appearance with the soft metal worked in a very similar way to his iron works. The colour and patina is perfect. If you look closely you will see many cracks and faults from the time it was produced.

 

Each example is in my view equally, but beautifully, imperfect and have the atmosphere and estetics of early Edo tea culture Japan.

 

Hope you like them.

 

Kindest regards

 

Michael

[Pete Klein]

Michael - any time you get tired of that Shimizu you've got my address   

 

(methinks it will be a very - long - wait...)!  LOL

[Brian]

The Shimizu does it for me too.

[DirkO]

Love Michaels tsuba, mine pale in comparison. @Curran - no nice Hazama with sahari inlay?

[Curran]

Hi Dirk,

 

I am guessing you are referring to that Matsukawa Mushroom Hazama (Hozon)?

The use of the diamond hard sahari inlay does originally come from korean pottery. More durable than the iron, some of the Hazama and Kunitomo tsuba with iron loss are quite dramatic.

 

I guess I can throw that one up as an example.

My favorite part of that was the mimi, with the design wrapping over the mimi onto the backside.  Hefty tsuba too.

You'll probably need to click on the images to get the wabi-sabi feel of the tsuba. Sahari inlay work had quite the distinct feel to it. I know modern makers claim they can do it, but it never has the warbled age marble craggy feel of the earlier pieces.

 

______________________________________________________________________________

I'd been thinking more of an Ono examples I have, that is sort of over the top Wabi-Sabi...   I'm not sure if I have images of that one on this computer.

Steve has a much better sense of Wabi-Sabi than I do.

[Pete Klein]

I am going to take a bit of a liberty as this of course is not a tsuba but to me it has a definite 'mono no aware' quality to it:

 

[Steve Waszak]

Curran,

 

Great tsuba.  To me, that is a good example of several aesthetic values/principles joining together.  There are wabi (the weather-beaten look of the sahari) and sabi (mushrooms, which grow so incredibly quickly, allude to the transience of things).  But there are also haki (the way the mushroom is rendered is very powerful/bold) and shibusa (sahari is not glitzy and gaudy; it is a much more subtle contrast with the iron).  Love this piece. 

 

Pete,

 

And this kozuka:  mono-no-aware, yes, I absolutely agree.  But it, too, also expresses sabi and shibusa, IMO.  The placing of the moon on the reverse, rather than on the front along with the birds, achieves a beautifully shibui effect.  And the birds together with that silvery moon...practically aches with sabi.  I imagine an allusion here to deep autumn. Wonderful kozuka.

[Brian]

Pete, that was a seriously great purchase.

[vajo]

This is my favorite wabi sabi.

 

 

 

[Curran]

Pete, that was a seriously great purchase.

 

Yes, I envy that one.

In the last year or two, I've come to the conclusion that the patina on Otsuki pieces is ALWAYS better than in the photos.

Given the white light and matte mat behind the kozuka, I suspect it is much richer in color than the photo Pete shared.

 

Back on topic....

[Stephen]

Ok i guess I concede what i thought was sabi my wabi turned out to be gass....

[Gunome]

Hello,

 

This is mine

[kissakai]

I may miss the mark but here goes

As an earlier post said 'it is how it feels in your hand or what it invokes

 

Simple but a nice feeling every time I handle it and because it is simple a lot of people will not give it a second look

That makes me smile

 

 

This one that is may be just organic but you wonder what was in the mind of the maker and again always a joy to handle

 

 

 

Grev

 

Edit as a wrong image was selected!

 

[lotus]

Great stuff guys. I have lots to learn and this thread has helped me a lot. Besides the 2 books mentioned above are there others that show paintings in this style we are talking about. I know that Ford has posted some examples in the past but is there a nice book with lots of examples?

 

I am hoping to have a Tsuba sent to me (thanks again Steve) that I am hoping might have this "hard to describe" aesthetic. Will post pics then.

[Curran]

Simple but a nice feeling every time I handle it and because it is simple a lot of people will not give it a second look

That makes me smile

 

T143 (1).JPG

 

 

I like this one. Nice, simple, clean, and the design makes me think of the 3 or 4 prong stands for tea kettles.

It is the sort of tsuba that I have a hard time resisting, as the simple design has a contemplative relaxed trance inducing effect for me.

 

I'll stop at that, before I sound too much like I've joined Elon Musk on the Rogan show.