Wabi Sabi

in a "Shambala Sun" article on Wabi Sabi, Elizabeth Farley focuses on "imperfect beauty," from the Japanese notion "the beauty lies in what is flawed." In a world that prizes cheap goods, machine made and mass produced, she has dealt with examples as wide ranging as the "Wall-E" robot in the movie of the same name (eco-fable) to neighborhoods of Venice, Italy, where tourists are invited to see the aging, deteriorating canal walls and structures as fragile beauty.

In a recent radio program a man described finding a precious, small, wooden box, which he purchased (thinking it might be an antique?). And then found to be mass replica, (probably made in China or Indonesia). At first he was a little miffed, but then decided that the box had its' own authenticity, that it needn't have the approval of the "Antique Roadshow" on PBS to have a "time worn" authenticity. Can its replication be said to have the imperfect beauty described by Farley? I guess, but it would probably not appeal to the originator of wabi sabi, Murata Shuko, a fifteenth century Zen monk and tea master from Nara.