And yet the image on this site is TD or CC on a sand pro, endlessly shaping a green contour to get just the right amount of "random" while the Lester George, Jeff Brauer and Mike Youngs would be thoroughly trashed for approving a green quickly. At least, IMHO. It would seem if you are hell bent on avoiding perfection as a design rule, you would tend to approve things more quickly, not take more time.
I looked for my gca book by Kato, but couldn't find it, to see if he had anything to say on the subject. Would be interesting.
I also found myself wondering if Waba sabi was a direct conflict with the more Western "form follows function.?"
Lastly, the story of preferring cruder Japanese bowls over more perfect Chinese ones, simply struck me as wanting to form their own nationalistic architectural/art style, not unlike American architects (Wright, others) trying to have a true American original style rather than the imposing Beaux Arts style from Europe.
Or maybe even Pete Dye trying to be different than RTJ, or TD and CC striving to be different from both RTJ and Dye?
Of course, that would be western (and probably my personal style) of trying to break down mystical ideas into more scientific ones. In some ways, we just can't help it.
Anyway, nice topic. I enjoy the philosophical ones, despite my first, somewhat snarky comments
. Not being able to resist, apparently, to Ian's comments about Donald Ross, maybe he was the inspiration for Obama's famous tag line "You didn't build that." In Ross's case, he didn't. Or, many other golden agers who just couldn't be on site to make every critical decision as it is sometimes possible to do today.