The Japanese have a concept known as shibumi. (Also shibui.) I find it exemplifies the best aspects of Japanese esthetics: a simple, refined and elegant, yet paradoxical, path I believe we in the West could benefit from walking along even a short distance.

“…shibumi has to do with great refinement underlying commonplace appearances. It is a statement so correct that it does not have to be bold, so poignant it does not have to be pretty, so true it does not have to be real. Shibumi is understanding, rather than knowledge. Eloquent silence. In demeanor, it is modesty without prudency. In art, where the spirit of shibumi takes the form of sabi, it is elegant simplicity, articulate brevity. In philosophy, where shibumi emerges as wabi, it is spiritual tranquility that is not passive; it is being without the angst of becoming… One does not achieve it, one… discovers it.”

From the novel Shibumi by Trevanian.