Juniper is so reverential of the subject, and reluctant to commit an opinion to paper, that he spends 160 tepid pages avoiding doing so. An extract from the Preface says it all;
"Having opened a design gallery called Wabi Sabi in the United Kingdom, not surprisingly we are regularly asked to explain the concept. Yet every attempt to clarify its tenets usually resulted in a slow glazing of the listener's eyes and then silence. This inability to adequately explain wabi sabi continued for several years, until we were approached to write a book on the subject". Sadly, the book contract did nothing to improve Juniper's powers of articulation.