What exactly is Japanese minimalism, and how does it differ from the Scandinavian version? Despite having many similarities—a passion for organizing, a love of simple functionality, and a dedication to sustainability—it also bears many differences.
The equivalent Japanese philosophy to the Scandinavian hygge is wabi-sabi. Wabi-sabi is notoriously difficult to define, much like the concept of hygge. Domino here calls it “the acceptance of transience and imperfections as a beautiful attribute, not a flaw.”
Taking inspiration from this, there’s an emphasis on materials that patina over time: oxidized copper, aged wood, clay, and linen. Where in the hygge aesthetic the emphasis is on objets petits a, b, and c; wabi-sabi focuses on the negative space of a room: what it is that’s not there.
What’s meant by interior design is organizing and designing your own environment. We all make choices, and there are many correct choices. From wabi-sabi philosophy we can draw the inference that it’s not making the correct choice that matters, it’s the act of making a choice at all.
