In Praise of Shadows is a very classic book about Japanese aesthetics, and shadows in Japan also have a saying, called 侘び寂び(wabisabi), 侘び and 寂び are two different words, 寂び usually refers erosion, dirt and incompleteness on things will produce a unique sense of beauty after years. On the other hand, 侘び is the mentality that can appreciate this beauty. In short, 寂び refers to the beauty on the surface, but 侘び refers to the inner attitude towards this beauty.
In the book, I am infected by the author’s beautiful words from time to time, and immersed in the mysterious and quiet interior style. What impressed me the most was the description of traditional Japanese toilets.The stereotyped impression that the toilet is dirty and dark, there will always be black cockroaches crawling over the corner, but the Japanese toilet design is unique, and people can even eat in the bathroom.The traditional toilet sand is also very nature, even using moth wings as toilet sand.
These dry moth wings contain golden light, as thin as mica fragments.
The toilet is very suitable for insects, bird sounds, and also suitable for moonlit nights. It is the ideal place to taste the changes of the four seasons and the taste of everything.
Japanese-style houses attach great importance to the coordination of spatial layout and shadows. The right spatial layout can maximize the visual effect of shadows, and they also attach great importance to the dialogue between the house and nature. In the book, huge paper windows and removable paper doors are important parts of the house.
The concavities and convexities beside the closet, the depth of the crossrail, and the height of the frame are all to set off and enrich the main space. In order to make this weak, silent and illusory light into the walls of the hall, the Japanese deliberately painted them into a light and soft sand wall, enjoying the slender light. The color of the walls in each room has to be slightly different to bring different tones to the shadows. This is similar to the traditional Chinese indoor space. The Japanese don’t like bright halls because the brilliant incandescent lamp has taken away the rich shadow changes.There is only a humdrum bright feeling, which deprives the space of depth and mystery.
And I found instead of resisting nature and deliberately leaving man-made traces and doing some symmetrical and extremely complicated art,Japanese architectural design pays more attention to the original state of the material, and embraces warmth and commits itself to nature. This point also emphasized everywhere by the author in “In Praise of Shadows“. Such as the writer only use wooden toilet rather than cement, and paper window must be attached even it costs more. Meanwhile, Japan’s awe of nature in architecture is particularly strong.
“Western tableware is also made of silver, steel and nickel, polished to a dazzling brilliance, but we dislike that light. Some of our kettles, tea cups, and wine chops are also made of silver, but they are not polished very much. On the contrary, we like things that disappear, have a sense of the times, which become dull and dim. “