Wabi Sabi Lesson

By:

Carolyn Locke: Journey to the Interior Participant July 2009

Objectives:

At the end of this lesson students will be able to:

  1. Define the concept of wabi sabi
  2. Identify wabi sabi qualities in a variety of objects and art forms
  3. Explain the connection between Zen Buddhism and wabi sabi
  4. Demonstrate an understanding of how the qualities of wabi sabi shape and reflect Japanese culture
  5. Reflect on how an appreciation of wabi sabi might affect their lives

Guiding questions:

How can an understanding of wabi sabi help us to better understand Japanese culture and values? What effect might an appreciation for wabi sabi have on our lives?

Standards addressed:

  • Social Studies (http://www.ncss.org/standards/strands/)
  • I. Culture Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity.
    Human beings create, learn, and adapt culture. Culture helps us to understand ourselves as both individuals and members of various groups. Human cultures exhibit both similarities and differences. We all, for example, have systems of beliefs, knowledge, values, and traditions. Each system also is unique. In a democratic and multicultural society, students need to understand multiple perspectives that derive from different cultural vantage points. This understanding will allow them to relate to people in our nation and throughout the world.

    Cultures are dynamic and ever-changing. The study of culture prepares students to ask and answer questions such as: What are the common characteristics of different cultures? How do belief systems, such as religion or political ideals of the culture, influence the other parts of the culture? How does the culture change to accommodate different ideas and beliefs? What does language tell us about the culture? In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with geography, history, and anthropology, as well as multicultural topics across the curriculum. 
  • Language Arts (http://www.ncte.org/standards/) Standard #2:
    Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
  • Art (http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/educators/standards)
  • Visual Arts Content Standard #4: Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures:
  • Students differentiate among a variety of historical and cultural contexts in terms of characteristics and purposes of works of art
  • Students describe the function and explore the meaning of specific art objects within varied cultures, times, and places

Notes:

Focus of Lesson/Unit

This lesson encourages students to explore and appreciate Japanese culture and aesthetics through the lens of wabi sabi. Rooted in the beliefs of Zen Buddhism, this aesthetic ideal and philosophy finds beauty in the ordinary while recognizing the impermanence of all things. The focus of this lesson is to introduce students to this complex concept through readings from Andrew Juniper's book Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence; an examination of wabi sabi qualities in a variety of art forms, objects, and images; the creation of their own wabi sabi art; and a final reflection on what wabi sabi reveals about Japanese culture and values and how an appreciation of wabi sabi might affect their own lives.

Grade level: 11-12

Subject area(s): Social Studies and Art

Featured student skills:

See student objectives above.

Suggested time: 3-4 eighty-minute class periods

Advance preparation:

In advance of the lesson, teachers need to familiarize themselves with the concept of wabi sabi by reading Andrew Juniper's book Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence and The Master Haiku Poet: Matsuo Basho by Makoto Ueda (particularly pages 52-68), and conducting any additional research online which would further develop their understanding. It might be helpful to begin collecting artifacts and haiku which seem to have wabi sabi qualities for use in the classroom. Teachers unfamiliar with haiku might want to read Higginson's and Harter's The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku. (See Bibliography)

Background information

Wabi sabi is many things. It originates from the Japanese words wabi, meaning austere, refined beauty, and sabi, meaning aged, mellow beauty with overtones of isolation and loneliness. The combined terms refer to an art style, a philosophy, a way of life. It is rooted in the beliefs of Zen Buddhism, and yet its influence extends far beyond the temples and is at the heart of Japanese aesthetics and culture. Juniper's definition gives voice to what is, in many ways, inexpressible in words:

Wabi sabi is an intuitive appreciation of a transient beauty in the

physical world that reflects the irreversible flow of life in the spiritual

world. It is an understated beauty that exists in the modest, rustic,

imperfect, or even decayed, an aesthetic sensibility that finds

melancholic beauty in the impermanence of all things(51).

Juniper further defines the four tenets of wabi sabi as follows:

  • Everything in the universe is in flux, coming from or returning to nothing.
  • Wabi sabi art is able to embody and suggest this essential truism of impermanence.
  • Experiencing wabi sabi expressions can engender a peaceful contemplation of the transience of all things.
  • By appreciating this transience a new and more holistic perspective can be brought to bear on our lives (27).

In spite of the changes brought to Japan by the West at the end of the Tokugawa era, this wabi sabi concept of beauty and spirituality continues to influence Japanese culture and has spread to Western cultures as well. Many would agree with Juniper's statement in his introduction that, “The message of wabi sabi, in view of the ever-encroaching materialism of Western society, is as relevant today as it was in thirteenth century Japan” (3).

Materials:

  1. Wabi Sabi: What Is It? (PDF attached)
  2. Wabi Sabi: What Is It? (Handout attached)
  3. Keeping a Wabi Sabi Journal (Handout attached)
  4. Wabi Sabi Art Project and Final Reflection (Handout attached)
  5. Photocopied pages from Andrew Juniper's Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence (not attached)
  6. Additional objects and photographs collected by the teacher as needed

Plan for Assessment:

  1. Wabi Sabi Journal: have students keep a journal for a week in which they record their thoughts about class discussion, walks in search of wabi sabi, and classwork on wabi sabi haiku. (see attached handout for guidelines)
  2. Original wabi sabi art: allow students to select the art form through which they can best express the feelings of wabi sabi (for example: drawing, painting, sculpture, haiku, photography, music)*
  3. Final Reflection on wabi sabi, what it reveals about Japanese culture and values, and how an appreciation of wabi sabi might affect their own lives.*

* See attached handout for guidelines

Implementation:

  1. Begin the lesson by providing students with the handout “Wabi Sabi: What is it?” and showing the accompanying Power Point presentation with the same title. It is important to stop periodically or to go back and review parts of the slide show to discuss which of the wabi sabi qualities are exhibited by the images presented and how, particularly on the slides without text. Allowing students to discuss in pairs is a good way to engage all students before discussing as a full class. For homework ask students to read pages 1-14 of Andrew Juniper's book, and to complete the Day 1 journal entry as outlined on the handout. In addition, ask them to bring an object or picture to class which they believe has wabi sabi qualities. (Depending on the class, you might want to have some extras in case some students don't bring something)
  2. In this second class period, divide students into groups of three or four and have them share the objects they brought to class and the reasons they selected them. Ask each group to share briefly with the class before the next activity. Next, review the haiku by Basho in the Power Point Presentation (or provide students with other examples of wabi sabi haiku) and then ask students to write their own wabi sabi haiku using the object or picture which they brought to class (or those of another student if they prefer)
    End the period with a round robin reading of their haiku without comment.
    Ask students to complete their Day 2 journals for homework, using the guidelines on the handout. In addition, ask them to read and highlight the main ideas in the chapter “Wabi Sabi in the Art of Zen” (pages 15-30) in Juniper's book, perhaps also providing them with the main categories to be discussed in the carousel during the next day's class.
  3. Begin the third class by having students move in groups through a carousel exercise in which they move in small groups and record on chart paper what they learned from their readings using the following headings :
    • The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism
    • The connection between Zen Buddhism and Taoism
    • Japanese arts in Zen Temples
    • The influence of Zen art on Japanese aesthetic ideals
  4. After a class review of the carousel ideas, ask students to read (or read out loud as a class), the chapter “Wabi Sabi and the Japanese Character” (pages 53-57 in the Juniper book) looking for ideas about how wabi sabi can be seen in the values of Japanese culture.
    For homework, have students complete the Day 3 Journal entry using the guidelines. In addition, hand out the final art project handout and have them begin thinking about their final project.
  5. Future use of class time for the final project is up to teacher discretion, but students should have ample time to reflect before final completion is expected. Through informal journaling (which should be collected along with the final project), class activities, and independent work, students should be able to demonstrate that they have achieved the student objectives.

Extensions and Cross-Curricular Ideas:

This lesson could be used as an introduction to a larger unit in which students research a Japanese art of their choice, looking for evidence of wabi sabi as one of several characteristics of traditional Japanese arts. Students might prepare a written paper and/or an oral presentation on their research which would offer students in the class a wide range of experiences with Japanese arts. This work might be used in a social studies class in which Japanese history and geography are studied in order to give students a larger cultural context in which to view Japan. It might also be a part of an art or art history class.

Resources and References:

Texts

Higginson, William J., and Penny Harter. The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku. NY: Kodansha America, 1985.

Juniper, Andrew. Wabi Sabi: The Japanese Art of Impermanence. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2003.

Ueda, Makoto. The Master Haiku Poet: Matsuo Basho. New York: Kodansha International, 1982.