Why Mono No Aware: Cultural Art History of Tokugawa Period Japan - Research Paper Example

Critical Analysis of the Concept of “Mono no Aware” Introduction “Mono no aware” is especially a term -in the art history of Japan- that means the pathos of things. Also it refers to ‘empathy towards things’ or ‘a sensitivity of transience of things”.1 Indeed though the term is not directly associated with the things of beauty, the quality to attract human mind is considered as an essential features of these things. But literally it refers to the transience or ephemera of anything.2 According to Khoon Choy Lee, it is the awareness of the transience, of things, that produces a sense of bittersweet cognition of how things flow inevitably flow out into the past.3 Since things flow out the past or beauty is not everlasting, human attempt to retain it forever essentially gives birth to the pathos.4 In fact the term was first introduced by the Japanese scholar Motoori Norinaga in the 18th century. Norinaga first used it as a concept in a literary criticism of “the Tale of Genji”. Afterward the concept of “Mono no aware” was widely used in various Japanese art and literature including “Manyosha” and in contemporary Japanese cultural tradition and literary philosophy it occupies a central place.5 Historical Origin of ‘Mono No Aware’ and its Perception The term ‘Mono no aware’ is derived from two linguistic sources: First ‘mono’ is a traditional Japanese word that means “things”; then ‘aware’ is a term, used in Heian period, that refers to an exclamation, meaning a set of measured surprises such as “deep feeling”, “pathos”, “poignancy”, “sensitivity” etc, as Hooker says, “The phrase, derived from aware , which, in Heian Japan meant something like "sensitivity" or "sadness", means "a sensitivity to things.”6 (Hooker) In the criticism of the Tale of Genji, Motoori manipulated ‘mono no aware’ as one of the crucial features of the work that moves the readers to perceive the transience of things while producing the melancholy over it.7 The tradition of associating ‘mono no aware’ with beauty was first introduced by Motoori’s attempt to associate it with Sakura, a cherry flower. Motoori was motivated by the extreme beauty, transience and its quick death. In Japanese cultural art and literature, Sakura is often considered as the symbol of ‘Mono no aware’.8 Though ‘Mono no aware’ is a literary philosophical concept, it is widely used in various Japanese cultural issues that are related to melancholic aspects of life, as John Gillespie says, “According to mono no aware, a falling or wilting autumn flower is more beautiful than one in full bloom; a fading sound more beautiful than one clearly heard; the moon partially clouded more appealing than full.” 9 Melancholic changes of life such daughter’s marriage, death of a near and dear one, etc and various ceremonies require Sakura blossom to refer to the temporariness of the sweet moments of life.10 “Mono no Aware” in “The Tale of Genji” and Motoori’s Contribution The concept of ‘Mono no aware’ is considered as largely the contribution of the famous kokugakushu, Motoori (a literary and linguistic scholar) in the Tokugawa period. Motoori was the most influential critic of this period because of his invention of the idea.11 In his famous critical work, “Kojiki-den”, he attempts to evaluate the sensitivity to thing as the natural spontaneity in feelings and spirit of ancient Japanese heritage of literary works and art. His purpose of criticizing the trend in his contemporary art and literary works was to eradicate the dominance of the Ancient Chinese literature over the Japanese cultural heritage.12 He criticized his contemporary scholar Ogyu Sorai for worshipping Chinese literatures overlooking this traditional Japanese sensitivity. For him, “Mono no aware” is a built-in construct of the Japanese cultural art. He suggests that the melancholic sensitivity of things is the existential essence of Japanese being.13 In his annotation to “the Tale of Genji”, he notes that the so-called attribution of unmanliness of “the Tale Genji” is essentially the revelation of the sensitivity of a Japanese mind to things. This sensitivity, according to Motoori, often reveals itself in the forms of short-fleeting ecstasy; but in most cases, this ecstasy evolves from a man’s notion on the melancholic transience of the object’s beauty.14 Motoori’s coining of the idea of “Mono no aware” was greatly influenced by Wang Yangmin’s philosophy of “innate knowing”.15 Like human being’s innate and intuitive knowledge of good and evil, the melancholy of the sensitivity of things is a result of the amalgamated, intuitive perception of the short scope of joy and its sorrow related to its decay. Interrelation between “Mono no Aware” and the Revival of Shinto and Tennoism Apart from its philosophical and notional meaning the concept of ‘Mono no aware’ is greatly related to the Japanese literary and nationalist movement. One of the dogmatic factors that motivated Motoori to coin the term was to instill a nationalist zeal into the Japanese cultural frontiers and also to drive out the Chinese influence over Japanese literature.16 Motoori characterized the “sensitivity of things” as a unique feature of Japanese mind. In its remote sense, he implicates that the Japanese are capable of sensing the rest of the world in a way that establishes them as a subject while others as objects.17 As a response to Motoori’s idea, the cultural body of Japanese literary frontiers, “kokugakushu”, rejected all forms of foreign socio-cultural, literary and art practices. Eventually the movement gave birth to the revival of Shinto, an ancient Japanese religion. Later during the Meji period, it led to the revival of Tennoism. But though Shinto was accepted by the kokugakushu as the pure Japanese religion, it was not able to shed all of the influences of Buddhism.18 Referring to the nationalist dimension of “Mono no aware” Hooker says, Motoori wanted to show that the unique character of Japanese culture (and he considered Japanese culture to be the "head" of the world; other nations were the "body") was the capacity to experience the objective world in a direct and unmediated fashion, to understand sympathetically the objects and the natural world.19 The Meaning of “Aware” in “Manyoshu” Though the term “Mono no Aware” was interpreted somewhat differently by Japanese Studies Scholars, the kokugakushu, in order to inspire the nationalist awareness, its pure philosophical meaning was best expressed in the first Collection of Japanese poetry. For the Kokugakushu, the poems of the “Manyoshu” were the best revelation of Japanese mind through its obsession with the sadness of things.20 The aware is not only to be perceived as the transience of the beauty of things; rather it is connected with the sadness of mind with the perception of things. The essential implication of this idea is that worldly sensitivity is itself an inevitable source of sadness. Therefore ‘aware’ of thing is to be perceived subjectively as the essence of Japanese mind, as Gillespie says, “Mono no aware states that beauty is a subjective rather than objective experience, a state of being ultimately internal rather than external.”21 This aesthetic perception of “mono no aware” later massively dominates all forms of Japanese art such as literature, music, paintings, writhing, etc, as in this regard Richard Hooker says, “The aesthetic of aware and mono no aware became one of the dominant principles of modern Japanese writing and film”22. Conclusion Mono no Aware is an indispensable part of the Japanese art and culture. It is historically associated with the development of the Japanese self perception. Since its coining by Motoori Norinaga in the 18th century, the idea continues to dominate the Japanese cultural art, literary works and music.23 Though philosophically it is similar to the mind’s obsession with the existential absurdity of human mind, a pure Japanese perception is somewhat different as in a book review Paul Constant says, “For an existential mystery, Oh! speeds along at a steady clip, and Shimoda sketches Japan with the panache of an excellent travel writer.”24 Rather it greatly reflects the Keatsian sadness of mind over the transience of beauty. Yet mono no aware as the inspiration of the nationalist literary movement is a symbol Japanese superiority. Works Cited Ching, Julia. To acquire wisdom: the way of Wang Yang-ming, New York: Columbia University Press, 1976. Constant, Paul. “About Suicide, Japan, and Mono No Aware”, 22 Nov. 2010. Gillespie, John. “Mono No Aware: The Essence of Japan”, Ezine Articles. 22 Nov. 2010. Hooker, Robert. “the Japan Glossary”, Washington State University, 22 Nov. 2010. Hooker, Robert. “The Flowering of Japanese Literature”, 22 Nov. 2010. Keene, Donald. Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature in the Modern Era, Poetry, Drama, Criticism, Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1984. Lee, Khoon Choy. Japan--between Myth and Reality, Tokyo: Tokyo Unversity Press, 1995. Martin, Richard. Our Kimono Mind: Reflections on Japanese Design: A Survey since 1950, Sydney: The Design History Society, 1995. Nakayama, Mineharu. “Lecture notes” Ohio State University, 22 Nov. 2010. Tierney, Emiko Ohnuki. Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and Nationalisms. Tokyo: Ming Lee, 2002. Read More