Norinaga MotooriThinkers

Mono no aware is a 'pathos' between subject and object so intimate that no real difference could exist between the two.

Mono no aware is a feeling which encounters the meaning of all things, discovers it, draws it into itself and, thus, understands true elegance.

Mono no aware is a matter for humans because humans are possessed intentions capable of being clarified. They were in a position to be profoundly stimulated by things that touched them, and to be moved by them more frequently.

Mono no aware is a mode of knowing whereby poetry, a human construction inspired by the natural world of things, reveals the spark of divinity.

Mono no aware is a mode of representation immanent in cognition, which made it possible to control the meaning of such terms as 'things as they are,' the 'real situation,' and the 'basic circumstances' in poetic theory.

Mono no aware is based on the fact that the true heart, however much one may want to deny it, is closer to silly womanly, childlike, or qualities as opposed to manly traits of resolution, strength, and detachment.

Mono no aware is identified with the skill to give form to natural objects in vocalized sound, which other voices, such as those of insects, failed to produce.

Mono no aware is representative of a theory of knowledge based on the exercise of feeling for concrete things rather than the acquisition of abstract learning.

Mono no aware is a term containing the word 'aware' which combines the sighing voice 'ah' (ah, how beautiful!) with the 'hare' (hare, how beautiful!) to form ah-ware, which is felt in and emitted from the heart when one sees, hears, or otherwise touches some object in the world such as cherry blossoms or the moon.

Mono no aware is representative of an expression of the profound feeling found in the heart. It is synonymous with the production of song and poetry, which began with the creation of heaven and earth.

Mono no aware comes forth through knowing the heart of things, which is born of knowing the ways of the world and being familiar with the emotions of the people of the world.

Mono no aware functions to show that a demonstration of spontaneous and natural feeling, rather than studied rationality, distinguishes the high from the low.

Mono no aware gives rise to the equivalence of 'intention' and 'thing' from the feeling released in the response to an object. In turn, the concordance between meaning and things (mono) reveals the meaning of all things living in the world.

Mono no aware 1s 2irst principle is to realize that a deep knowledge of things stemmed from knowing the heart of things.

Mono no aware is grounded in the idea that all speaking (or poetry) began in the world when the perception of things, reaching the eye and ear, touched the heart. Every living thing had meaning and was, therefore, capable of eliciting feeling, and thus, eliciting poetry/speech.

Mono no aware is to be stirred by the view of the wonderful cherry blossoms, or of the bright moon while facing it.

Mono no aware is to discern the power and essence, not just of the moon and the cherry blossoms, but of every single thing existing in this world, and to be stirred by each of them, so as to rejoice at happy occasions, to be charmed by what one should consider charming, to be saddened by sad occurrences, and to love what should be loved.

Mono no aware is a thing which to know is to have feeling for all living things. For if one feels, then he is touched by things.

Mono no aware is the idea that a person only becomes aware of an object and knows its 'heart' (kokoro) when he recognizes that he is being emotionally moved by an object that is itself somehow emotionally charged.

Mono no aware is that from which poetry springs.