yugen

Yugen is a Japanese aesthetic concept often associated with a profound sense of beauty and mystery. As the other concepts of Japanese aesthetics, this is again a subjective and subtle experience.

It’s the imagined latent beauty, ineffable and allusive. Yugen encourages the viewer to imaginatively experience the beauty of the normal / usual.  It goes beyond the surface and invites contemplation.

Have you stood in awe, absorbing the beauty of an early morning, looking at the dim glow of the dawn? That moment, the experience, the transcendence into the mysticism of the usual, could describe yugen.

I experienced it in the mystic fog of a very early morning recently. And when I drive on the highways, a comfortable long ride, and settle in that moment of calm, focussed stress-free on the road while absorbing the lateral views passing by. Nothing unusually striking but you are zoned in that experience. It’s the calm experienced in those fleeting moments that evokes a sense of Yugen. Yugen is a concept that is deeply personal and may vary from person to person. 

It’s in how you perceive a usual moment profoundly. An insight of the value of here and now.