Reduction, elaboration and Yugen: The Garden of Saiho-ji

To Zeami Motokiyu (1363-1443), a medieval Noh actor and theorist, the theatre was a vehicle to achieve the revelation of yu-gen. A term evading exact definition in Japanese as well as English, yu-gen suggests a sense of mystery, depth; "elegance, calm, profundity, mixed with a feeling of mutability". The Noh actor, masked and controlled, conjured the feeling of yu-gen through his understanding nature and existence. Zeami used the metaphor of the landscape gardener to explain how the actor portrays the essence of a phenomenon: the gardener sees and understands the river and recreates its spirit in the garden, though he does not replicate its exact form. Like the gardener, says Zeami, the Noh writer puts forth the "garden within his soul", in words and in movement.