Yugen

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Yūgen (幽玄) is an important concept in traditional Japanese aesthetics.

The exact translation of the word depends on the context. In the Chinese philosophical texts the term was taken from, yūgen meant "dim", "deep" or "mysterious". In the criticism of Japanese waka poetry, it was used to describe the subtle profundity of things that are only vaguely suggested by the poems, and was also the name of a style of poetry (one of the ten orthodox styles delineated by Fujiwara no Teika in his treatises). In the treatises on the Noh theatre by Zeami Motokiyo it refers to the grace and elegance of the dress and behaviour of court ladies.

In theatre, this refers to Zeami’s interpretation of “refined elegance” in the performance of Noh. Also extended to mean “a profound, mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe… and the sad beauty of human suffering” (Ortolani, 325). Ortolani, Benito. The Japanese Theatre. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1995.

[edit] References

• Yamazaki, Masakazu, J. Thomas Rimer (1984). On the Art of the No Drama : The Major Treatises of Zeami. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10154-X.