page_title: Japanese aesthetics
section_title: Yūgen
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese aesthetics / Yūgen
caption_attribution_description: English: Dragon flying over Mount Fuji. Japanese Ukiyo-E artist en:Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849, generally famous for his 36 Views of Mount Fuji). 1849 Français&#160;: Fujigoshi Ryū Zu. (Dragon volant au dessus du Mont Fuji). Ère Kaei, premier mois de l'an II (1849). Kakemono, kempon, H. 95,5 x L. 36,2 cm. Obuse, The Hokusai Museum.
context_page_description: The modern study of Japanese aesthetics only started a little over two hundred years ago in the West. The Japanese aesthetic is a set of ancient ideals that include wabi, sabi, and yūgen. These ideals, and others, underpin much of Japanese cultural and aesthetic norms on what is considered tasteful or beautiful. Thus, while seen as a philosophy in Western societies, the concept of aesthetics in Japan is seen as an integral part of daily life. Japanese aesthetics now encompass a variety of ideals; some of these are traditional while others are modern and sometimes influenced by other cultures.
context_section_description: 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).
  Yūgen suggests that which is beyond what can be said, but it is not an allusion to another world. It is about this world, this experience. All of these are portals to yūgen:
  "To watch the sun sink behind a flower clad hill.
  To wander on in a huge forest without thought of return.
  To stand upon the shore and gaze after a boat that disappears behind distant islands.
  To contemplate the flight of wild geese seen and lost among the clouds.
  
  And, subtle shadows of bamboo on bamboo." Zeami Motokiyo
  Zeami was the originator of the dramatic art form Noh theatre and wrote the classic book on dramatic theory (Kadensho). He uses images of nature as a constant metaphor. For example, "snow in a silver bowl" represents "the Flower of Tranquility". Yūgen is said to mean "a profound, mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe ... and the sad beauty of human suffering". It is used to refer to Zeami's interpretation of "refined elegance" in the performance of Noh.
caption: The Dragon of Smoke Escaping from Mt Fuji, painting by Katsushika Hokusai
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