SOURCE: "Zeami on Art: A Chapter for the History of Japanese Aesthetics," in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. XX, No. 1, Fall, 1961, pp. 73-9.

In the following essay, Ueda delineates Zeami's views on the nature and technique of Nō, particularly the concept of yūgen, or "elegance, calm, profundity, mixed with the feeling of mutability.

Due to the increasing interest in Japanese theater in recent years, Zeami Motokiyo (1363-1443) is now a well-known figure in the West as a great writer of the Nō drama; yet few people know that he is the author of some twenty essays which mark one of the highest peaks in the development of Japanese aesthetics. He was a most gifted performer of the Nō whose fame overwhe lmed the contemporary court circles already early in his career, but he was also a very self-conscious artist who constantly endeavored to explore...