One of the most important aesthetic notions of Japanese architecture is asymmetry. Since asymmetric elements make the viewer rearrange and rethink the relationships between the different elements in order to make a more comforting sense out of them, asymmetry is a deeply catalysing and engaging phenomenon. This is of course in relation to wabi. The subtle beauty of it entirely resides in the mind of the viewer, and in fact can only exist if the viewer brings it to life.
” From this point of view, asymmetry corresponds ideally to the idea of the tea ceremony, as a limited tea room is transformed into the infinite expanse of the universe during a tea gathering in the minds of the participants.” Wolfgang Fehrer, The Japanese Teahouse
Furthermore, asymmetry is the expression of the transience of all being, so important in everything we have said until now: asymmetry is the sign of life, of growth, change and interdependence. It is absolutely fundamental to Japanese thinking, and thus, architecture. Indeed, the architectural theorist Norman Carver considers the development of a formal system based on the perfection of asymmetry as Japan’s most important contribution to architecture history (Norman F. Carver, Form and Space in Japanese Architecture).
This instinct for asymmetry in chanoyu goes even so far for tea masters and guests as to never sit, or put down a bowl in the middle of a tatami during a tea ceremony. Indeed, truly accomplished tea masters even count the rows of straw weaves in the tatami in order to avoid at all cost any symmetry that might occur.
“The various objects for the decoration of a room should be so selected that no colour or design shall be repeated. […] In placing a vase or an incense burner on the tokonoma, care should be taken not to put it in the exact centre, lest it divide the space into equal halves. The pillar of the tokonoma should be of a different kind of wood from the other pillars, in order to break any suggestion of monotony in the room.” Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea
It is only obvious that Teaism perfected the notion of asymmetry. Everything perfect is rejected, simply because it can not grow and change, and therefore is no longer part of life. This can be found in the tea bowls as well, preferred as they are in their rough and natural form.
Asymmetry is, for once, a notion not inherited from China. Indeed, it is a distinctively Japanese notion, and has its roots in Taoism and Zen:
“Confucianism, with its deep-seated idea of dualism, and Northern Buddhism with its worship of a trinity, were in no way opposed to the expression of symmetry. As a matter of fact, if we study the ancient bronzes of China or the religious arts of the Tang dynasty and the Nara period, we shall recognise a constant striving after symmetry. […] The Taoist and Zen conception of perfection, however, was different. The dynamic nature of their philosophy laid more stress upon the process through which perfection was sought than upon perfection itself. True beauty could be discovered only by one who mentally completed the incomplete. The virility of life and art lay in its possibilities for growth. […] the art of the extreme Orient has purposely avoided the symmetrical as expressing not only completion, but repetition. Uniformity of design was considered as fatal to the freshness of imagination.” Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea