This work examines how the aesthetics of Japanese actor and playwright Zeami Motokiyo (1346-1443) offers insight into the value of the unseen elements in art, specifically in the art of acting. What acting makes appear is likened to a vessel, which creates an empty space of what doesn?t appear. This non-appearing element is at the same time what gives the vessel its function. N? theater is described as an art of suggesting, giving a background to Zeami?s theories.