[4K] Yugen / Concept of Japan　幽玄・日本のコンセプト

“Yugen” is a basic concept which influences various Japanese arts such as literature, painting, the performing arts, and architecture. The word originated in China and was used in Chinese schools of thought like Buddhism as well as that of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Then from the late Heian period to the early Kamakura period, the famous Japanese poet, Fujiwara no Toshinari, began using the word, Yugen, in his criticisms of Waka poetry. Over a period of time, it became a major word used in treatises on Waka poetry. During the medieval period, it began to gradually influence other Japanese arts such as Noh Drama, Zen, Renga (linked verse), Sadō (tea ceremony), and Haiku (a type of amusing and playful Waka). Eventually, it began being used as a general word in Japanese culture. Yugen is usually translated as “mysterious profundity.” Yugen means the beauty that we can feel sense into an object, even though the beauty doesn’t exist in the literal sense of the word and cannot be seen directly. Yugen is a sens