Shibui

[1] Like other Japanese aesthetics terms, such as iki and wabi-sabi, shibui can apply to a wide variety of subjects, not just art or fashion.

[2] Shibusa is an enriched, subdued appearance or experience of intrinsically fine quality with economy of form, line, and effort, producing a timeless tranquility.

They are adapted from the concepts authored by Dr. Yanagi Sōetsu (1898–1961), aesthetician and museum curator, published in the Japanese magazine Kōgei [ja] between 1930 and 1940.

Implicity allows depth of feeling to be visible through spare surface design thereby manifesting the invisible core that offers new meanings with each encounter.

The person of shibui modesty exalts excellence via taking time to learn, watch, read, understand, develop, think, and merges into understatement and silence concerning oneself.

Shibusa freedom is maintained in healthy roughness of texture and irregular asymmetrical form wherein the center lies beyond all particular things, in infinity.

Everydayness raises ordinary things to a place of honor, void of all artificial and unnecessary properties, thus imparting spiritual joy—for today is more auspicious than tomorrow.

All objects and experiences, both everyday and extraordinary, can have a beauty, a quiet purposeful intent, a cool, matter of fact underlying joy.

Expert singers, actors, potters, and artists of all other sorts were often said to be shibui; their expertise caused them to do things beautifully without making them excessive or gaudy.

The apparent effortlessness displayed by athletes such as tennis player Roger Federer and hockey great Wayne Gretzky are examples of shibumi in personal performance.

The people of Edo expressed their tastes in using this term to refer to anything from song to fashion to craftsmanship 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.

The Unknown Craftsman, a selection of art critic Yanagi Sōetsu's work translated by potter Bernard Leach, discusses shibumi.