Mono no aware

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.

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]

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. Their artist statement on Bandcamp begins, "There is a Japanese term: mono no aware. It means basically, the sad beauty of seeing time pass - the aching awareness of impermanence. These are the days that we will return to one day in the future only in memories."[10]

Icelandic progressive rock band Agent Fresco entitled the final track of their 2015 concept album Destrier "Mono No Aware."

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".[11]

• 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
• Girls' Last Tour

Related terms with no direct translation in English:

• Han
• Lacrimae rerum
• Memento mori
• Mottainai
• Nine Changes
• Wabi-sabi
• Ubi sunt
• Weltschmerz
• Sehnsucht
• Saudade

• "Lecture notes". Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. from a Japanese culture class at Ohio State University