As a result, Mono no aware can alternatively be interpreted as “the “ahness” of things.” It is the way that something affects us instantly and reflexively before we can put that experience into words – and Japanese art has frequently strived to convey things and situations that have both tremendous and enigmatic emotional influences on us.Ī self portrait of Motoori Norinaga, aged 44. The word ‘aware’ was first employed in Japan during the Heian period (794-1185) as an emphatic word to indicate a sudden and inarticulate feeling – similar to how we use ‘ah’, ‘oh’, and ‘wow’. It’s also been referred to as life’s “ah-ness.” The most valuable aspect of life is its unpredictability.Īside from tragedy, aware can also mean grief, anguish, or sensitivity, while mono can mean “objects.” While mono no aware is associated with a sense of sorrow, it is intended to be a strongly felt emotion that washes over the feeler as he or she recognizes that everything is ephemeral and of its own time and place. Things would lose their ability to move us if people did not dissolve, if they did not dissipate like smoke. The impermanence of youth, the dying of romance, and the passing of seasons are not to be mourned, but to be embraced and cherished in their impermanence, because that is where their beauty lies.
It is the realization that everything in life is fleeting. It also refers to the bittersweet knowledge that everything is impermanent. The word ‘mono’ means ‘thing’ or ‘things,’ while ‘aware’ means ‘feeling’ or ‘sentiment,’ and the particle ‘no’ denotes something an item has.’ As a result, mono no aware refers to pathos or profound feelings of things, as well as the strong emotions that objects can provoke or instill in us. Mono no aware (物の哀れ) simply means “the pathos of things,” but it can also mean “empathy for things.” In Japanese culture, it is a crucial term. Mono no Aware in Japanese Flute Music (recorded for artistic research)