Gullible's Travels: Shibui

Balboa Park is enjoyed by native San Diegans as well as visitors. Its parks, gardens, and museums team with activity in this usually nice year-round climate. I say 'usually' because San Diego was cold, wet, and gloomy. Yes, they desperately need the rain and the mayor has initiated a water rationing plan that will begin this summer. However, for the winter-weary it was disappointing.

Despite the weather I visited several museums and galleries in the park. The buildings, since replaced with studier replicas, were built for the 1918 World's Fair that was designed to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. Balboa 'discovered' the Pacific Ocean so who better to name the park after. The park is also home to the famous San Diego Zoo which I also visited. It was a second trip to the zoo, but the pandas had not been installed on my last visit. It was special to see them and the koalas.

My favorite museum was the Mingei International Museum which specializes in the presentation of contemporary folk art, craft, and design from world cultures. Not withstanding the ugly and misleading caricatures outside the building, the museum's collection is beautiful, thought provoking, and diverse. Of particular interest was the Japanese exhibit demonstrating the concept of Shibui.

According to WikiPedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibui "Shibui is a Japanese word which refers to a particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty...(that) can apply to a wide variety of subjects, not just art or fashion." Its original meaning, dating from the 14th century, suggested "astringent taste." Since the 17th century, the term defines anything "that was beautiful by being understated, or by being precisely what it was meant to be and not elaborated upon. Essentially, the aesthetic ideal of shibumi seeks out events, performances, people or objects that are beautiful in a direct and simple way, without being flashy." Shibui embraces the arts of the people.

The Museum exhibit enlarges on this definition. Shibui craftsmanship reflects a utilitarian and unadorned philosophy. The objects included in the collection are simple, everyday essentials of the common man. The exhibit includes dinnerware, chairs, clothes, and other everyday objects. Materials are natural and functional. Yet each is a work of art. Herein the paradox reveals itself.

Shibui translates well into European examples that are more familiar to me. What appears commonplace necessity, utilitarian, stripped of all non-essentials becomes rare and beautiful. Shibui is as elegant in its simplicity as the beautiful mathematical formula, epitomized in Einstein's equation E = mc². It is puissant in application, like a cosmic singularity. A shibui object is absolute potentiality veiled in functionality. The acerbic becomes a terrible beauty.

Both the haiku and an example of medieval Irish poetry demonstrate this concept in the language arts.

A splash of lightning sparks,
Forsythia;
Spring opening here today!
[Author unknown from The Haiku Anthology, n.d.]

The Sea

Look you out
northeastwards
over mighty ocean,
teaming with sea-life;
home of seals,
sporting, splendid,
its tide has reached
fullness.
[Medieval Irish Lyrics, translated by James Carney. Mount Rath Portlaoise, Ireland: Domen Press Ltd, c 1967, 1985, p. 41. The Irish poetry is elegant in the original Gaelic, but an English translation will have to do.]

In these comparisons and examples I realized that Shibui summons my memory of the essential Epicurean goal of ataraxia, which translates as tranquility, equanimity, and repose of mind. In this paradox the Epicurean becomes Stoic. The cold rain no longer causes irritation. Viewing the crafts of Japanese artisans helped banish the winter in my mind. I was exactly where I wanted to be, simple and unassuming.

We would do well to seek shibui/ataraxia in our daily lives, and more importantly, in our souls.