ABSTRACT
Yūgen 幽玄 (Jpn.; Chi. you xuan; Sino-Japanese glyphs yū: “profound, faint, subdued, graceful, hidden” and gen: “dark, profound, quiet”) is a Sino-Japanese noun or nominal adjective that describes (1) a profound and subtle truth that is beyond human knowledge and understanding; (2) a dark and indistinct quality; (3) the other world, the beyond, the spirit world; (4) a medieval Japanese aesthetic ideal characterized by an implicitly felt mood or impression of depth or profundity; or (5) an allusion to sexuality. In the performing arts, Zeami 世阿弥 (1363?–1443?) was the first to draw on the word’s meanings in aristocratic poetics and find ways to embody it onstage. While his goal was to make performances appealing to an audience of warriors enamoured of this aristocratic ideal, his son-in-law and heir, Komparu Zenchiku 金春禅竹 (1405–70), saw the potential for yūgen in all things, developing it into an extended “pan-yūgenism” with overt connotations of sexuality, which might have contributed to fading interests in the aesthetic.
