The beauty of Bizen ware, or Bizen yaki, is strongly related to its rough texture and sober color. Its beauty was discovered at the end of the 16th century as the Japanese established their world-renowned tea ceremony. When the tea ceremony began to embrace ultimate simplicity, tea masters gradually favored Bizen yaki. They preferred Bizen yaki because of the simplicity. The aesthetics of beauty in simplicity and incompleteness, which was developed during the evolution of the tea ceremony, is called sabi. (Sabi will be described further in a subsequent post.)

John, a pottery artist who was apprenticed to a renowned Japanese Bizen yaki master Michiaki Kaneshige in the early 1980s says the beauty of Bizen yaki is something you extract from

At first glance, you may be confused as to why Japanese people consider Bizen-style pottery very beautiful and one of their most valued cultural arts. Because its color does not seem to be something special, the shape looks ordinary. You could pick up a Bizen-style pottery by the roadside without realizing its beauty. But if you were to take it home and display it in a tokonoma alcove, you will appreciate its beauty.

Bizen yaki, or Bizen ware is said to have originated in the 5th century, as sueki (or sue ware). It was then used by upper-class people. Only around the beginning of the 14th century did Bizen yaki become popular nationwide due to its robustness. The name is derived

Bonsai is a miniature tree in a small container, but more than that. Bonsai is an art to create majestic scenery inside the container. Unlike pictures or sculptures, it is a living art and the time plays an important role. You’d easily find more than 80 years old but only 40 cm high bonsai in a garden. Time plays important role to make beautiful shape as the bonsai owner intend. In Japan, Bonsai is regarded a hobby for elderly men, however, it is better to start as early as possible if you are looking for your own idealistic bonsai.

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In a Japanese garden, green moss is one of the most important components. It is a symbol of smallness of a human being in contrast to the great nature and the flow of time, as it takes long period of time for moss to cover the entire rocks or ground. Therefore grown moss tells us the shortness of a human life and is a good sign to correct the arrogance of human beings.

As you may know, values of Japanese are strongly related with Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto, the oldest Japanese religion, worships the great nature and does not intend to control the nature. Buddhism, which also deeply influences on our way of thinking, tells that