Nigh Magazine is launching a new project called “Nigh State.” 
We warmly invite you to visit the Nigh Magazine Pop-Up Store at TOKYO CULTUART by BEAMS on the 4th floor of BEAMS Japan Shinjuku, running from Friday, May 9th to Monday, May 19th, 2025.
Thoughtfully made in collaboration with Let LOOSE and Somewhere in Tokyo, Nigh State’s first items embrace quality over quantity.
Celebrate the launch with us on May 9th, 6:00–8:00 PM, with DJ sets by BOW (ZUNDOKO DISCO) and Soft Sun.






















































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Nigh Issue 9

Before Meaning

























Nigh for counterculture | Published from Tokyo


















Introduction
 
Issue 9:
Before Meaning

 
April, 2025
 








Emotions or insights fresh from the mind are undifferentiated, elusive, and not so easily put into words. And yet, each time there is a call for clarity, when being understood becomes what matters most, we search for “meaning” and begin to build concepts. But the moment we translate what we felt into words, ambiguity and nuance spill over, and we drift away from that faint warmth that was there in the beginning.

There are moments when we catch a glimpse of the origins of art—in expressions that give form, just as they are, to uncertain tremors and reasonless impulses that exist before meaning arises. In such moments, when we sense a beauty that doesn’t seek approval, and a sharpness that feels innocent and unfiltered, we find ourselves drawn in—moved by a quiet admiration, a sense of resonance.

Not all expression needs meaning. On the contrary, there are times when being free from meaning allows us to approach the true essence of things. There is nothing wrong with meaning emerging from the one who receives it.

After all, meaning so often arrives after the fact.






Nigh Magazine