Title: Cultural fusion at its garbled worst.
Product review: As a student of Japanese culture, this book depressed me. The contents bear no more relation to the true spirit of "wabi" and "sabi" than does a chrome Sony Diskman. The book's core sensibility is mediocre, middle-American interior design thinly coated with a layer of Japanese cliches. What made me very sad was the complete misuse/misundertanding of the important aesthetic terms "wabi" and "sabi." The tipoff is in the title. Wabi and sabi can never be a "style" in the Martha Stewart home decorating sense. (Although I'm sure Martha Stewart would have at least made a beautiful, if not intellectually honest, book.) Wabi-sabi is NOT a style or, as the authors maintain, something akin to feng shui. This book is an example of cultural fusion at its worst. Not recommended.
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