Shibui and its related terms of WABI and SABI are more generally understood in the East, if not as formal terms, certainly in their emotional and reactive senses in everyday practice. In observation of the practical aspects of the concept of shibui, it seems generally to involve a lack of clutter and to be concerned with plain backgrounds and planar surfaces. There is involved a numerology of reservation - a use of uneven numbers and lower rather than higher denominations. Singularity itself is a reserved state from the concept of the numerous. Revelation of a subject may involve either completeness or incompleteness of the subject.
Surfaces tend to be undecorated with a subtlety of suggestion rather than an overt one.
Forms tend toward roundness or an absence of corners with a constant return to the subject. An old proverb relates to the use of color - an artist needs only to understand the function of white, black and vermilion as one color. All other usages of color, including the lowering of intensity or graying of hues, will occur naturally with this understanding. The effect of this is seen in oriental ink painting where the one vermilion accent is the signature block of the painter.