Some Notes on Mono no Aware

Author(s): Kazumitsu Kato

Source: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 82, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1962), pp. 558-
559
Published by: American Oriental Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/597529 .
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558 Brief Communications
Some Notes on mono no aware
A booklet from The Japan Society of New York
reviews the Genji Monogatari ("Tales of Genji ")
briefly, yet with impartial understanding. It oc-
curred to me, after reading it, that the interpreta-
tion of the mono no aware concept by Motoori
Norinaga (translated as "the sadness of things")
is a most interesting subject; indeed, it has been
discussed many times since his writing by numbers
of scholars.
The purpose of this paper is to attempt to ex-
tend the interpretation of the term mono no aware
of Motoori from the standpoint of the epistemo-
philological approach.
Motoori's Genji Monogatari Tama no Ogushi
stressed mono no aware as the main theme of the
novel by Lady Murasaki. This emphasis on mono
no aware was accepted by later scholars and writers
such as Matsudaira Sadanobu, Kondo Yoshiki,
iliguchi Ichiyo, Fujioka Sakutaro, etc.
Mono no aware, in Motoori's interpretation,
classifies mono (things) as follows: "Mono
(things) are: talking things (mono yii), telling
things (mono gatari), worship ( mono mnde), see-
ing (mono mi), and mourning (mono imi). These
are the mono which are auxiliarily used when one
speaks of things generally." 1 In other words,
according to Motoori, mono is the auxiliary term
used with aware; and aware, naturally, is the cen-
tral concept in this idiom.
Now, the interpretation of this term aware by
Motoori may be translated thus: "Whenever one
has strong feelings, his understanding (that is,
" mind ") and feeling are identical. This is called,
'to know mono no aware.'If2 One who really pos-
sesses a mind which has profound feelings about
the phenomenal world and the noumenal realm is,
according to him, one who knows mono no aware.3
To take examples from the Genji Monogatari,
1Motoori Norinaga, Genji Monogatari Tama no
Ogushi, Suzu no ya Zohan (9 vols., 1799. Published by
Eirakuya Toshiro, Nagoya), Vol. II, p. 6.
2Ibid.
3 Mono no aware is an idiom, with mono, a noun, no,
an article (joshi), and aware, a noun in this sense. It
is usually given as mono no aware o shiru. Examples:
(1) Mono no aware shiri sugushi. (Genji, " Hawakigi ")
(2) Mono no aware mo shiri gao tsukuri. (Genji,
" Koch6 ") (3) Mono no aware mo shiran mono to.
(Genji, "Kashiwagi ") (4) Mono no aware mo shi~ranu
hito nimo arazu. (Genji, " Kager6 ").
This content downloaded from 188.72.127.95 on Tue, 10 Jun 2014 11:44:07 AM
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here are passages employing mono no aware to
express feelings of the world:
(1) Ideya, okashiki koto mo mono no aware mo hito
gara koso anbekere. (" Miotsukushi " )
(" Why, of course, the feeling of joy and mono no
aware, they all are depending on the individual's
personality.")
(2) Aki no korooi nareba, mono no aware torikasane-
taru kokochi shite, (" Matsukaze ")
(" Autumn has come and I feel that the mono no
aware are gathered together here.")
Lady Murasaki expressed her ideas with the
idiom mono no aware in descriptive forms, or in
quotations of her characters, to the effect that the
man who understands mono no aware is the one
who understands this world. This may well be
accepted, since this term frequently appears in
other literature, as in the lleian Period; to under-
stand mono no aware in this era was almost a
necessity for a learned man in aristocratic society.
Mono no aware, epistemologically speaking, is
perceived through the senses, but by using shiru,
"to know,"4 the rational understanding of sensory
aware has been added. Motoori, in this usage,
explains mono no aware as containing a broad and
profoundly human feeling.
However, Motoori erred in interpreting mono as
only an auxiliary, and not as referring to the
source of human feeling, in the sense that our per-
ceptions cannot have causes independent of our
minds. Mono in this sense means the vast mate-
rial world, including all things existing and alive,
visible and invisible; it is connected with aware
by a particle (joshi), no. Aware is thus modified
by mono grammatically. Aware is a qualitative
term which cannot exist by itself; in other words,
aware must be applied to something, like a color;
for example, blue exists as a quality of something
-so aware is the attribute of something else, mono
in this instance. But the noun mono is highly
abstract when used in mono yu or mono mode.
(English "something"--like mono in this sense-
is somewhat ambiguous, referring to an unspeci-
fied thing, with no identity of its own. But there
is nothing in the world that is merely "some-
thing"). As Motoori said, we accept mono as a
general term for phenomenal objects. Aware, as
an attribute of mono, the vast material world, al-
I Motoori, op. cit.
 Brief Communications 559

ways expresses serious and profound feelings to- the case of olcashi, however, the view is objective,
wards mono, whether the latter stands for human and there is a removal in time and space from
or non-human objects: for instance: object to perceiver, so that okashi is the perceiver's
(1) Kusamakura tabi ni koyaseru kono tabibito aware conception of a phenomenon, after reflection,
(Manyd III, 415) whether it be humorous, good, or beautiful, etc.
(C Alas, this wanderer, passing his life forever The fascicle of "lortaru " is a typical example of
journeying! ") this use of okashi in Genji Monogatari.
(2) Aware wagimoko machitsutsu aramu (Many5 XI, Thus, aware does not require a ponderous men-
2594)
(Ah, indeed I am waiting for my love.") tal process of judgment; rather it occurs as sud-
(3) Owarini tadani mukaeru hitotsu matsu aware denly or intuitively as does an exclamation.
(Nihon Shoki) (1) Aware nan no chigiri nite kakaru on arisama
("Looking with longing towards Owari, ah, you nagara
lonely pine! ") (Genji, Kwachi-bon edit., "Wakamurasaki ")
("Alas, what a fate, that you are living in this
It is interesting to note that Motoori's under- way . .. )
standing of aware is idealistic, yet much more (2) Aware samo samuki toshi kana
acceptable than the earlier Buddhistic interpreta- (Genji, Kogetsu-shd edit., " Sue tsumu hana")
tion of Genji Monogatari,5 or the subjective emo- ("Alas, this is indeed a cold year . . .")
tional interpretations
The etymology of aware is unknown, in spite of In the above cases, aware is used as kantoshi (an
Motoori's thesis that it is composed of a (kantdshi) interjection) or kantanshi (an exclamation), which
and ware (pronoun, "I") or a and hare (noun, is the honest expression of one's feeling about a
"clearness," or "brightness") ;7 it appears much subject; and in literary usage this was done with a
earlier than the term okashi "humorous, interest- poetic sentiment.
ing, funny; beautiful, good," which is another im- Below is a list of uses of aware in the Genji
portant term in the interpretation of Genji Mono- Monogatari.9
(Numbers
gatari and other works in the Heian Period.8 of aware)
Aware, on the one hand, is an affective term, stat- (1) as an interjection or exclamation.. . 33 (times)
ing spontaneously cognition, and there is an (2) as a noun........ 261
identification by the perceiver with the object; in (3) garu.6
(4) -ge nari.. 22
5 This refers to the interpretation of Genji in Imaka- (5) -a...................... 3
gami. (6) nari .638
61Hisamatsu, Senichi. Nippon Bungaku Kenkyil-shi. (7) bu.1
"Chiisei ni okeru Genji Monogatari Hihyo" (Yamada (8) -mu.1
Shoin, Tokyo, 1957), pp. 61-65. This refers to the inter- (9) mono aware .56
pretation of Mumei Z6shi (anonymous. A. D. 1200 c.) (10) mono no aware.13
7 Motoori, op. cit., pp. 1-5.

8 Examples: (1) Saredo ideya okashikikoto mo mono KAZUMITSU KATO

aware mo hitoga . . . (Genji. " Miotsukushi ") (2)
Mono no aware o mo okashiki koto omo mishiranu sama
ni. (Genji. " Yugiri "). Numbers of okashi used in
Genji: okashi-491, okashikeri-40, okashige nari-108,
okashisa-6.
IjNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,BERKELEY
9 These numbers were counted from Yoshizawa
Yoshi-
nori & Kinoshita Masao, Taik6 Genji Monogatari Yogo
Sakuin (Heibon-sha, Tokyo, 1962).

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