Nearly every spread includes a classic Japanese haiku in Japanese writing from either Basho or Shiki a closing spread offers more information on their history and provides English translation. Though some spreads draw more attention to the intricacy of their construction than to their overall artistic picture, there’s plenty to marvel at in the visuals. Young’s mixed-media art is the real draw here, with the vertical layout across spreads lending a tranquil feeling through its compressed movement: collage predominates in a dazzling array of textures, patterns, and sources, with touches of the illustrator’s hallmark smoky charcoal at times. This is an interesting and artistic project, but unfortunately the story is on the thin side and the evocations of the wabi sabi concept frustratingly coy and confusing the English-language haiku embedded in the story are variable, with some providing vivid images and other merely expository. While taking tea with Kosho, she beings to understand the paradoxical beauty of plainness and returns home to a new appreciation of her simple surroundings and herself. She receives answers that don’t help from a cat friend and a dog neighbor, so she journeys to Mount Hiei to ask her question of wise Kosho the monkey. Wabi Sabi is the name of a cat and the name of a concept, and when Wabi Sabi the cat becomes curious about the meaning of her name, she begins to ask for an explanation.
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