mono no aware

is 'the pathos of things,', their sorrow and their tears, because life is in truth not as we would rather wish it to be. It is a sense of disappointment that can lead to sentimentality and nostalgia (possessing their own grace in the otherwise vulgar rush and armored transactions of daily life). Or it can lead to a sense of irony and paradox (a brand of stoicism that endures in the face of all odds and the certitude of death.).

On one level, the common on, mono no aware is accurately, I believe, translated as 'the pathos of things,' their sorrow and their tears, because life is in truth not as we would rather wish it to be. This sense of disappointment can lead to sentimentality and nostalgia, both of which possess their own grace in the otherwise vulgar rush and armored transactions of daily life. Or it can lead to a sense of irony and paradox, a brand of stoicism that endures in the face of all odds and the certitude of death. As ironic stoicism and graceful nostalgia, mono no aware has permeated the Japanese character until modern times, although it is not clear, given the psychological dislocations of the Pacific War and Japan's consequent singleminded transformation into a first-class economic power, that this particular character has survived the twentieth century. Mono no aware has its circumstantial origins in the historical experience of failure and defeat, which is why although individual American minds might understand it, it is or has been foreign to the construction of the American character as transmitted in history books and popular culture. Detached from the wholly mundane, however, and viewed from an enlightened or transpersonal perspective, mono no aware is the sense of wonder, mystery, and love that I have earlier discussed as yugen, and it is this sense that poetry ideally evokes, in the medieval view of it.

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

In time, mono no aware also came to denote a 'pathos' between subject and object so intimate that no real difference could exist between the two.

is a feeling which encounters the meaning of all things, discovers it, draws it into itself and, thus, understands true elegance.

The man who knows mono no aware,' he wrote in Shibun yoryo ( 1763), 'is he who has heart [feeling)... he who does not know the pathos of things is the man without heart' (ibid. 4: 59). The heart or feeling Motoori envisaged was open to the things in life and had the capacity to penetrate their essence to discover kinship and similitude among all living things. It was a feeling that encountered the meaning of all things, discovered it, drew it into itself and, thus, understood true elegance.

is a harkening back to a long lost fundamental sensitivity of original human beings whereby, before doctrine muddied human thought, every movement of the heart, whether enjoyable or sad, was recognized.

Motoori's theory of mono no aware is developed in his works on poetics and The Tale of Genji. This concept occupies an important place in his works on the Ancient Way as well, although the phrase itself does not appear in the text. For instance, in one passage of Tamakushige (Commentary on The Tale of Genji), Motoori expounded how, long ago, every movement of the heart, whether enjoyable or sad, was recognized, and that this sensitivity to feelings was a fundamental characteristic of human beings in their original form. He wrote, In ancient times when the hearts of people were naive and not yet adulterated with doctrines from other lands, there was no useless, devious thought of indiscriminately creating theories about where people go after death. When they died, people simply went to the Land of Yomi, the world of the dead, and there was nothing to do but prepare themselves for it and grieve.

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.

Among living things, he added, humans were superior to all other things. Since humans were supplied with sensibility and, therefore, possessed intentions that clarified, they were in a position to be profoundly stimulated by things that touched them, and to be moved by them more frequently. 'It is a principle that one cannot do without song' (ibid.)

is a mode of knowing whereby poetry, a human construction inspired by the natural world of things, reveals the spark of divinity.

But the immediate effect of this conception of knowing was to show that poetry, a human construction inspired by the natural world of things, revealed the spark of divinity. Motoori put this convention in the form of a question he never answered: 'It has been believed that the deities and men who recite the songs possess a sense of profound feeling for things. However, man must give prominence to the goodness of poetry... the gods must receive the profoundly sincere intention informing poetry. But should it not be understood that to merely hear beautiful poetry is to have aware'' (ibid. 2: i 74). Good poetry depended on appropriate figuring (aya) and the proper employment of words. Style alone did not make a good poem... it constituted an empty gesture if it was not 'naturally' connected to the figuring of the deed itself. Hearing a beautiful poem meant that one received first the skill of the poet and then the sense of empathy inspired by the thing or deed that the composer was communicating. To occupy the subject position of the poet, the listener must bring to a reading of the poem the profound sensibility that prompted its figuration .

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.

Above all else, Motoori imagined mono no aware as 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.

is a state of mind characterized as an acceptance of things just as they are. It is a philosophy of acceptance.

The philosophy of acceptance in the films of Ozu may be called this both because it is so deeply felt and because it has antecedents both in the Buddhist religion and in Japanese aesthetics. In basic Zen texts one accepts and transcends the world , and in traditional Japanese narrative art one celebrates and relinquishes it. The aesthetic term mono no aware is often used nowadays to describe this state of mind. The term has a long history (it appears fourteen times in The Tale of Genji), . .. Ozu did not, of course, set out self-consciously to capture this quality. To do so would have seemed to him artificial, just as the concept itself would have seemed to him old-fashioned and bookish. Nevertheless, his films are full of it, since he was. The many examples of mono no aware in his pictures, homely, mundane, often seemingly trivial, are none the less strong for all that. (Richie, Donald. 1974. Ozu).

mono no aware, n.All

mono no aware