Wabi-sabi for artists, architects, and designers: Japan’s philosophy of modesty
Leonard Koren
An illustrated essay on the Japanese aesthetic of imperfection and transience. “Wabi-sabi” is characterized by simplicity and the renunciation of external pomp in favor of inner values.
Wabi-Sabi: Further Thoughts
Leonard Koren
More than twenty years after the initial publication of Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets, and Philosophers, Leonard Koren returns with further insights into this groundbreaking aesthetic paradigm. An essential book for art and design theorists and other thoughtful creators.
Japan und der Westen: Die erfüllte Leere und der moderne Minimalismus (German)
Reduction and minimalism, alongside the departure from representational design—abstraction—are key features of avant-garde and Western modernist aesthetics. In Japanese culture, emptiness and simplicity have been central design principles for several hundred years as part of the spiritually based Zen philosophy.
Forms of Japan
Michael Kenna
Michael Kenna is considered one of the most renowned landscape photographers of our time. His meditative, starkly reduced black-and-white photographs possess an unmistakable formal simplicity. Kenna poetically stages mostly just a few elements—a lone tree, a mountain silhouette, or an island in the distance. In his masterful images, Kenna succeeds in capturing the simple beauty of Japanese forms. The book offers fascinating insights into the aesthetic sensibility of Japanese culture.
The Soul of a Tree: A Master Woodworker’s Reflections
George Nakashima
A master woodworker, George Nakashima shares his experiences, techniques, and devotion to wood. On a farm near New Hope, Pennsylvania, George Nakashima, his family, and other woodworkers craft exquisite furniture. Tables, desks, The portrait of an artisan who strives to find the ideal use for each board in order to “create an object of utility for people and, when nature smiles, an object of enduring beauty.”
Lob des Schattens: Entwurf einer japanischen Ästhetik (German)
Junichiro Tanizaki
Using the example of how light and shadow are handled, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro succeeds in creating a fascinating outline of Japanese aesthetics. His essay skillfully and effortlessly explores the roots of Far Eastern beauty. Whether gardens, houses, or everyday objects—the key to understanding Japanese aesthetics lies in how light and shadow are handled. Written at the dawn of modernity, Tanizaki’s famous essay became “Japan’s aesthetic testament” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung).
Isamu Nogushi, East and West
Dore Ashton
A portrait of sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi (1904–88). Ashton traces Noguchi’s artistic quest in detail, following the development of his work and explaining how he drew inspiration from countless sources—from antiquity and modernity, from Americans and Japanese, including Buckminster Fuller, Constantin Brancui, and William Blake; from Martha Graham’s dance, Noh drama, and the temples and gardens of Kyoto.
Zen und die westliche Kunst (German)
Hans Günter
The book accompanying the exhibition of the same name at the Museum Bochum. A must-have for anyone interested in the subject. This exhibition documents the history of Zen’s influence and reception in Europe and America, right up to the most recent contemporary art and the influence of Japanese aesthetics and Zen Buddhist philosophy in European and American art, whereby very few of the artists shown practiced or undertook a mere adaptation of the Zen world view, which in turn is related to the fundamental openness of Zen, as outlined by Daisetz T. Suzuki: “The characteristic difference between Zen and all other teachings of a religious, philosophical, or mystical nature is the fact that it never disappears from our daily lives and yet, for all its practical applicability and concreteness, it contains something that sets it apart from the spectacle of worldly defilement and restlessness.”
Katsura Imperial Villa: Edited by Arata Isozaki. Essays by Francesco Dal Co, Walter Gropius, Arata Isozaki, Manfred Speidel
This book contains a detailed history of Katsura, the seventeenth-century imperial palace in Kyoto, a seminal work of Japanese architecture often referred to as “the quintessence of Japanese taste.” When Katsura was introduced to the modern architectural world in the early twentieth century by German architect Bruno Taut, it astonished and delighted the Western architectural scene. Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius, pillars of the modernist establishment, were fascinated by Katsura’s “modernity.” They saw clear parallels to contemporary modernism in its orthogonal, modular, and unadorned spaces, even going so far as to declare Katsura a “historic” example of modernism.
Living in Japan
von Alex Kerr, Kathy Arlyn Sokol, Angelika Taschen, Reto Guntli
Die traditionelle japanische Baukunst zeugt von einer solchen Sicherheit der Proportionen und Feinheit in den Details, dass sie sich eigentlich kaum noch verbessern lässt. Dennoch finden zeitgenössische japanische Designer und Architekten immer wieder zu verblüffenden Neuinterpretationen überlieferter Bauformen und Entwürfen von hohem ästhetischen Wert für die Bewohner wie für den Betrachter.
Ryokan: Zu Gast im traditionellen Japan (German)
von Gabriele Fahr-Becker, Narimi Hatano, Klaus Frahm
Traditional Japanese architecture demonstrates such confidence in its proportions and refinement in its details that it would be difficult to improve upon. Nevertheless, contemporary Japanese designers and architects continue to come up with astonishing reinterpretations of traditional building forms and designs that are of great aesthetic value to both residents and observers.
Die Gärten Japans (German)
Teiji Itoh
This book examines the origins, history, and various types of Japanese gardens that have developed over time, as well as the evolution of the modern garden and the materials used in its design. It also introduces the author’s favorite gardens, both modern and ancient.
Das Japanische Teehaus: Architektur und Zeremonie (German)
Wolfgang Fehrer
Japanese culture and architecture have always held a great fascination for the Western world. The Japanese tea house is a very special traditional building type with a complex architecture, representing the intersection of diverse currents in Japanese philosophy, art, and aesthetics. It is a very private place of meditation, a space in which a host communicates with his guests through the medium of tea as part of a strictly regulated ceremony. The author presents the philosophical and religious background as well as the aesthetic and spatial principles.
A Japanese Touch for Your Home
Koji Yagi
This book shows how to incorporate Japanese design elements into Western homes, including tatami flooring, shoji screens, and even a Japanese-style bathroom.
Haiku: Japanische Gedichte (German)
Dietrich Krusche
One hundred and fifty wonderfully translated haiku. Three-line poems, developed in Japan in the 16th and 17th centuries and still handed down there today in a living tradition. Influenced by Zen, which finds its literary expression in haiku. The clear poetry and the only seemingly simple message are sensually immediately comprehensible—if you allow yourself to be drawn in.
Zen Mind- Beginners Mind
Shunryu Suzuki
Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind consists of lectures transcribed and edited by Shunryu Suzuki’s students. It is one of the best-known books in the West for anyone interested in Zen Buddhism.
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
Paul Reps
This collection of Zen stories and koans truly captures the essence of Zen. A wonderful collection of short stories that illustrate the essence of Zen—one of the best and most direct introductions to Zen.
When Zen Flesh, Zen Bones was published in 1957, it was an instant sensation for a whole generation of readers who were just beginning to experiment with Zen. Over the years, it has inspired leading American Zen teachers, students, and practitioners. Its popularity is as great today as ever.