The Beauty of Imperfection

Spring is here, and the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. Walking through the park, I couldn’t help but admire the delicate pink petals drifting to the ground. I picked up a few fallen sakura flowers and gently scattered them across one of my favorite desktop zen gardens—a simple tray of sand and stones together with a large cherry tree sitting on a seiryu rock. The randomness of their placement felt oddly satisfying, as if their imperfection made them even more beautiful.

This moment reminded me of a famous story about Sen no Rikyū, the legendary 16th-century tea master who shaped the philosophy of wabi-sabi—the art of finding beauty in impermanence and imperfection.