Wabi sabi, as a product of the Zen mind, can find its earliest roots in Zen’s forerunner, Taoism, and we will explore in these pages its development from its first inklings in China to the cultural icon that it became in Japan.

Inspired by the Confucian philosophy of the original nature of goodness and the Zen techniques of stilling the mind, a synthesis of the three philosophies—Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism—was reached. This form of Taoism is found in the teachings of two major Taoist sects today: the Complete Reality School (Ch’üan-chen) and the Earlier Heaven Way

The most beautiful Shinto shrines are usually in the middle of woods, surrounded by trees, forming part of nature.

It was not until the monks Eisai (1141–1215) and Dogen (1200–1253) returned from their pilgrimages to temples in China that Zen started to catch the imagination of the Japanese.