"Wabi-sabi," which is two words combined, represents in abbreviated form an elusive concept that is key to the understanding of traditional Japanese aesthetics. Indeed, rather than a single concept, it is a cluster of ideas that permeate artistic practice in Japan, or at least did so in the past. Now, as the titles of these books indicate, it is gaining currency abroad.
The portmanteau term unites two separate but related notions: wabi means what is desolate or wretched, while sabi suggests the lonesome or melancholy. Taken together, they evoke an autumnal or even wintry feeling, an unaffected rusticity, a sense of which was keenly developed by the tea ceremony master, Sen no Rikyu (1522-1591) and came to inform other arts as well.
That the term has a variety of applications is suggested by the title of Leonard Koren's book, which itself partakes of the aesthetic. The subdued cover of the book is a quiet brown, with a picture of a single autumn leaf, but not the author's name. It appeared first in 1994, and this new edition from another publisher is essentially unchanged, except that the paper has a slightly different feel, and the black-and-white illustrations are more sharply realized.