Ikigai & Other Japanese Words to Live By

This thought-provoking book delves into the beauty of Japanese culture through hard-to-translate concepts like Ikigai and wabi-sabi. It is enhanced with beautiful images by internationally acclaimed photographer, Michael Kenna and traditional haiku to aid reflection. Mari Fujimoto explains meditations on Japanese concepts such as beauty, community, time and nature. From the wistful mono-no-aware, asking us to recognise the bittersweet transience of all things, to the quiet harmony of wa, which knits together all of society’s structures. The photographers used for Ikigai’s beautiful photography include Michael Kenner, one of the world’s leading landscape photographers, and Tokyo-based artist, David Buchler. Ikigai provides meditations on beauty, harmony, nature, mindfulness, gratitude, respect and time, with a haiku by master poet of the seventeenth century, Matsuo Bashō.