Since wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic system, it is difficult to explain precisely in western terms. According to Leonard Koren, in his book
Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers, wabi-sabi is the most conspicuous and characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty and it "occupies roughly the same position in the Japanese pantheon of aesthetic values as do the Greek ideals of beauty and perfection in the West."
The concepts of wabi-sabi correlate with the concepts of Zen Buddhism, as the first Japanese involved with wabi-sabi were tea masters, priests, and monks who practiced Zen. Zen Buddhism originated in India, traveled to China in the 6th century, and was first introduced in Japan around the 12th century. Zen emphasizes "direct, intuitive insight into transcendental truth beyond all intellectual conception." At the core of wabi-sabi is the importance of transcending ways of looking and thinking about things/existence.
Material characteristics of wabi-sabi (again from Koren's book):
Robert Pauli: Missed explanation of each word separately. From http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WabiSabi (and maybe also a quote
from Koren's book, but I'm not sure):
It is also two separate words, with related but different meanings.
Wabi is the kind of perfect beauty that is seemingly-paradoxically caused by just the right kind of imperfection, such as an asymmetry in a ceramic bowl which reflects the handmade craftsmanship, as opposed to another bowl which is perfect, but soul-less and machine-made.
Sabi is the kind of beauty that can come only with age, such as the patina on a very old bronze statue.
For more about wabi-sabi, see