Mono no aware

From Conservapedia

Mono no Aware (物の哀れ pronounced mo-no no a-wa-re), which can best be described as "the sensitivity (or sadness) of things", is a concept that describes the essence of Japanese culture.

It derives from an attempt to define the basic Japanese character, invented by the Japanese literary and linguistic scholar scholar Motoori Norinaga in the eighteenth century. He was a member of the group of the scholars and poets who called themselves the kokugakushu (国学者 National (or Japanese) Studies scholars), during the time of the Tokugawa Shōgunate (1603 - 1868).

The kokugakushu exerted an influence on Japanese poetry and music and saw as their goal the purification of Japanese culture from foreign influences. In order to achieve this aim, they ignored all cultural practices that they believed derived from China, Korea, Southern Asia, India, or Europe, ranging from government to art to poetry to philosophy. Finally, they decided that the Japanese character was best defined by the Manyoshu poetry (the first collection of poetry in Japan) and by the Shinto religion. However, Shinto had already been influenced to a large degree by Buddhism and it was no longer possible to isolate Shintoism from Buddhist ideas and practices.

Motoori believed that the Japanese could understand the world directly by identifying themselves with that world and they could use language to express that connection to the world. People experienced this wholeness of life by encountering things (mono) and these encounters "moved" or "touched" them (aware) — hence the definition of the unique Japanese character as "sensitivity to things" (mono no aware). This concept became the central aesthetic concept in Japan and has survived to the present day.^[1]

According to mono no aware a falling or wilting autumn flower is more beautiful than one in full bloom; a fading sound is more beautiful than one clearly heard; a partially obscured moon is more appealing than a full moon. The sakura or cherry blossom tree is the epitome of this conception of beauty; the flowers of the most famous variety, somei yoshino (the Yoshino, or Ornamental, Cherry Prunus x yedoensis), the blossoms of which are nearly pure white tinged with a subtle pale pink, bloom and fall within the space of a single week. The subject of a thousand poems and a national icon, the cherry blossom tree embodies beauty as a transient experience.

Mono no aware sees beauty as a subjective rather than an objective experience. It differs to Western ideals of beauty, in that it is very much an "internal" experience, whereas beauty in the West, which is largely influenced by classical Greek is sought in the perfection of an external object. For example a beautiful painting, or a striking piece of music. The Japanese ideal sees beauty instead as an experience of the heart and soul - an appreciation of objects and nature in a pure state.

Other descriptions of mono no aware could include:

• deep impressions produced by small things
• sympathetic sadness
• an intense, nostalgic sadness, connected with autumn and the vanishing away of the world
• a serene acceptance of a transient world
• a gentle pleasure found in mundane pursuits soon to vanish

External Links

• Definition taken from the Japan Glossary.

References