Mono no aware - Wikipedia Mono no aware From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Japanese concept of empathy towards things For the organization, see Mono No Aware (organization). Mono no aware (物の哀れ, もののあはれ[1]), literally "the pathos of things", and also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese term for the awareness of impermanence (無常, mujō), or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life. "Mono-no aware: the ephemeral nature of beauty – the quietly elated, bittersweet feeling of having been witness to the dazzling circus of life – knowing that none of it can last. It’s basically about being both saddened by and appreciative of transience – and also about the relationship between life and death. In Japan, there are four very distinct seasons, and you really become aware of life and mortality and transience. You become aware of how significant those moments are.”[2] Contents 1 Origins 2 Etymology 3 In contemporary culture 4 See also 5 References 6 External links Origins[edit] The term comes from Heian period literature, but was picked up and used by 18th century Edo period Japanese cultural scholar Motoori Norinaga in his literary criticism of The Tale of Genji, and later to other seminal Japanese works including the Man'yōshū. It became central to his philosophy of literature and eventually to Japanese cultural tradition. Etymology[edit] The phrase is derived from the Japanese word mono (物), which means "thing", and aware (哀れ), which was a Heian period expression of measured surprise (similar to "ah" or "oh"), translating roughly as "pathos", "poignancy", "deep feeling", "sensitivity", or "awareness". Thus, mono no aware has frequently been translated as "the 'ahh-ness' of things", life, and love. Awareness of the transience of all things heightens appreciation of their beauty, and evokes a gentle sadness at their passing. In his criticism of The Tale of Genji Motoori noted that mono no aware is the crucial emotion that moves readers. Its scope was not limited to Japanese literature, and became associated with Japanese cultural tradition (see also sakura).[3] In contemporary culture[edit] Notable manga artists who use mono no aware–style storytelling include Hitoshi Ashinano, Kozue Amano, and Kaoru Mori. In anime, both Only Yesterday by Isao Takahata and Mai Mai Miracle by Sunao Katabuchi emphasize the passing of time in gentle notes and by presenting the main plot against a parallel one from the past. The Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu was well known for creating a sense of mono no aware, frequently climaxing with a character very understatedly saying "Ii tenki desu ne?" (いい天気ですね, "Fine weather, isn't it?"), after a familial and societal paradigm shift, such as a daughter being married off, against the backdrop of a swiftly changing Japan. Ozu has often expressed feelings by showing the faces of objects rather than the face of an actor. Some examples include two fathers contemplating the rocks in a "dry landscape" garden, and a mirror reflecting the absence of the daughter who has just left home after getting married. These images exemplified mono no aware as powerfully as the expression on the greatest actor's face.[4] In his book about courtly life in ancient Japan, The World of the Shining Prince, Ivan Morris compares mono no aware to Virgil's term lacrimae rerum, Latin for "tears of things".[5] Science fiction author Ken Liu's short story, "Mono no Aware", won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.[6] Inspired by works like the science fiction manga Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō, Liu sought to evoke an "aesthetic primarily oriented towards creating in the reader an empathy towards the inevitable passing of all things", and to acknowledge "the importance of memory and continuity with the past".[7] Nobel- and Booker Prize-winning British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro ends many of his novels without any sense of resolution. The issues his characters confront are buried in the past and remain unresolved. Thus Ishiguro ends many of his novels on a note of melancholic resignation. His characters accept their past and who they have become, typically discovering that this realization brings comfort and an ending to mental anguish. This can be seen as a literary reflection of the Japanese idea of mono no aware. Films like Alain Resnais's Hiroshima Mon Amour, Shohei Imamura's Black Rain and Akira Kurosawa's I Live in Fear have all been associated with the term.[8] One of the most well-known examples of mono no aware in contemporary Japan is the traditional love of cherry blossoms, found throughout Japanese art and perpetuated by the large masses of people that travel annually to view and picnic under cherry trees. The trees are not considered to be of special value in terms of their beauty in relation to other trees, such as apple or pear trees. Cherry tree blossoms are valued because of their transience, normally associated with the fact that the blossoms fall from the tree after only a week or so after first budding. It is the evanescence of the beauty of the cherry blossom that evokes the weary perspective of mono no aware in the viewer.[4] In 2016, an Ad Council PSA entitled "The Extraordinary Life and Times of Strawberry" (directed by Martin Stirling) used mono no aware-style storytelling to depict the life of a strawberry.[9] The phrase is the motto of synthwave music duo The Midnight, whose style and mood of music seeks to capture a nostalgic feeling. The genre of synthwave is inspired by 1980s synth-pop mixed with more modern electronic influences. In 2019, the Seattle-based indie rock band, Great Grandpa, released "Mono No Aware". The 2020 video game Ghost of Tsushima rewards players for completing the main story with a digital trophy titled "Mono No Aware".[10] See also[edit] Melancholia This too shall pass, a Middle-Eastern adage regarding ephemerality Media and written works: In Search of Lost Time Ballade des dames du temps jadis Lost in Translation Sans Soleil Last Life in the Universe Samurai Jack Related terms with no direct translation in English: Han Lacrimae rerum Memento mori Mottainai Nine Changes Wabi-sabi Ubi sunt Weltschmerz Sehnsucht Saudade References[edit] ^ Historical kana orthography ^ Macdonald, Fiona. "Seven words that can help us be a little calmer". bbc.com. Retrieved 14 July 2019. ^ Choy Lee, Khoon. Japan: Between Myth and Reality. 1995, page 142. ^ a b "2. Mono no aware: the Pathos of Things". plato.stanford.edu. 10 October 2011. Retrieved 29 November 2018. ^ Morris, Ivan I. The World of the Shining Prince: Court Life in Ancient Japan. 1994, page 197. ^ "2013 Hugo Awards". Archived from the original on 2015-09-06. ^ Mamatas, Nick. "Q/A With Ken Liu (and the return of Intern Kathleen)". Haikasoru. Archived from the original on 30 May 2013. Retrieved 7 April 2013. ^ "BLACK RAIN: Reflections on Hiroshima and Nuclear War in Japanese Film". www.crosscurrents.org. Archived from the original on 30 October 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2018. ^ Gianatasio|April 20, David; 2016 .st0{fill:#F7EC13}.st1{clip-path:url}.st2{clip-path:url;fill:#020100}. "Follow a Strawberry From Birth to Grave in This Oddly Emotional Ad About Food Waste". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2019-09-06.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) ^ https://collider.com/ghost-of-tsushima-trophies-explained/ External links[edit] "Lecture notes". Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. from a Japanese culture class at Ohio State University v t e Emotions (list) Emotions Acceptance Adoration Aesthetic emotions Affection Agitation Agony Amusement Anger Angst Anguish Annoyance Anticipation Anxiety Apathy Arousal Attraction Awe Boredom Calmness Compassion Confidence Contempt Contentment Courage Cruelty Curiosity Defeat Depression Desire Despair Disappointment Disgust Distrust Ecstasy Embarrassment Vicarious Empathy Enthrallment Enthusiasm Envy Euphoria Excitement Fear Flow (psychology) Frustration Gratification Gratitude Greed Grief Guilt Happiness Hatred Hiraeth Homesickness Hope Horror Hostility Humiliation Hygge Hysteria Indulgence Infatuation Insecurity Inspiration Interest Irritation Isolation Jealousy Joy Kindness Loneliness Longing Love Limerence Lust Mono no aware Neglect Nostalgia Outrage Panic Passion Pity Self-pity Pleasure Pride Grandiosity Hubris Insult Vanity Rage Regret Social connection Rejection Remorse Resentment Sadness Melancholy Saudade Schadenfreude Sehnsucht Self-confidence Sentimentality Shame Shock Shyness Sorrow Spite Stress Suffering Surprise Sympathy Tenseness Trust Wonder Worry World views Cynicism Defeatism Nihilism Optimism Pessimism Reclusion Weltschmerz Related Affect consciousness in education measures in psychology Affective computing forecasting neuroscience science spectrum Affectivity positive negative Appeal to emotion Emotion and art and memory and music and sex classification evolution expressed functional accounts group homeostatic perception recognition in conversation in animals regulation interpersonal work Emotional aperture bias blackmail competence conflict contagion detachment dysregulation eating exhaustion expression intelligence and bullying intimacy isolation lability labor lateralization literacy prosody reasoning responsivity security selection symbiosis well-being Emotionality bounded Emotions and culture in decision-making in the workplace in virtual communication history moral self-conscious social social sharing sociology Feeling Gender and emotional expression Group affective tone Interactions between the emotional and executive brain systems Meta-emotion Pathognomy Pathos Social emotional development Stoic passions Theory affect appraisal discrete emotion somatic marker constructed emotion v t e Death and mortality in art Themes Carpe diem Consolatio Danse Macabre Death and the Maiden Lamentation of Christ Macabre Memento mori Mono no aware Sic transit gloria mundi Ubi sunt Personifications of death Vanitas Forms Death mask Elegy Funerary art Funerary text Lament Memorial Post-mortem photography Requiem Tomb Tragedy Wreath Artwork Architecture Capuchin Crypt Catacombs of Paris Sedlec Ossuary Film (category) The Seventh Seal Literature Ars moriendi Bardo Thodol Book of Job Book of the Dead Hamlet's soliloquy The Masque of the Red Death Music (category) Danse macabre Der Erlkönig Der Tod und das Mädchen Totentanz Painting (category) Et in Arcadia ego Death and Fire Death and Life Death and the Maiden Death and the Miser Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May La Calavera Catrina Plague Pyramid of Skulls Roman Widow Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette Sleep and his Half-brother Death The Ambassadors The Garden of Death The Shadow of Death The Three Ages of Man and Death The Triumph of Death Poetry (category) And death shall have no dominion Because I could not stop for Death Der Erlkönig Do not go gentle into that good night v t e Japanese social concepts and values Sociocultural values Honne and tatemae Wa Miai Yamato-damashii Ishin-denshin Isagiyosa Hansei Amae Kotodama Ichi-go ichi-e Japanese political values Aesthetics Shibui Iki Yabo Mono no aware Wabi-sabi Yūgen Ensō Miyabi Kawaii Yawaragi (ja:和らぎ) Ma Jo-ha-kyū Obligation Gimu (ja:義務) Giri Giri choco Honmei choco Ninjō Types of people Sensei Senpai and kōhai Chūnibyō Freeter Kyōiku mama Reki-jo Net cafe refugee Parasite single Herbivore men NEET Hikikomori Jouhatsu Salaryman Office lady Kyariaūman Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mono_no_aware&oldid=992683747" Categories: Concepts in aesthetics Concepts in epistemology Concepts in metaphilosophy Concepts in metaphysics Concepts in the philosophy of mind Emotions History of ideas History of philosophy Japanese aesthetics Japanese literary terminology Japanese philosophy Japanese words and phrases Melancholia Metaphysical theories Philosophical concepts Philosophy of life Philosophy of mind Words and phrases with no direct English translation Hidden categories: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Articles containing Japanese-language text Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents 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