Yūgen is usually translated as “mysterious profundity.” Yūgen 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. Yūgen is a sense not to enjoy the superficial beauty of an object, which is in front of our eyes but to enhance the beauty more impressive by imagining its latent beauty. For example, we think a flower is beautiful when we see it. This beauty is the superficial beauty. The flower has a past of withstanding wind, rain, and snow until now, and will someday wither, however beautiful it is now. Although the beautiful flower itself impresses us, the beauty will be more impressive than the superficial beauty, when we can imagine its past and future.
“Smashed Ink Landscape”, Sessü
If you conceptualize Yūgen as a suggestiveness, lingering memory, aftertaste, or implication, you can more easily understand Yūgen. Imagination is essential for feeling Yūgen, so many artists have, since ancient times in Japan, developed a method to encourage their viewers to exercise their imagination. Unpainted blank space, simplification, asymmetry, irregularity, imperfection, quiet colors, composition, gold paint – these are examples, in the Japanese-style.
“Cairn III”
We cannot experience Yūgen if we don’t take the time to slow down…
The Japanese concept of Ma has been described as a pause in time, an interval or emptiness in space. Ma is the time and space life needs to breath, to feel and connect. If we have no time, if our space is restricted, we cannot grow. This universal principle applies to every aspect of life.
Together, these concepts guide my latest work.