TIL about Wabi-sabi, the Japanese aesthetic worldview of accepting the simple, imperfect, and transient things in the world. Similar to kintsugi (repairing broken pottery with golden paste), it's abou
In America we say "it is what it is" or "good enough for government work" to communicate a similar vibe. Sounds sophisticated when you say it in Japanese tho
Did it, though? My 90 year old mother used it in the same way since her childhood. I think it's always been sarcastic, probably from use by lowly soldiers. In the phrase, she pronounces and spells it as "gummint work" even though she would normally say "government."