Photographer
Definition
of "mono no aware":
Meaning literally "a sensitivity to things","mono no aware" is a concept describing the essence of Japanese culture, invented by the Japanese literary and linguistic scholar scholar Motoori Norinaga in the eighteenth century, and remains the central artistic imperative in Japan to this day. The phrase is derived from the word "aware", which in Heian Japan meant sensitivity or sadness, and the word "mono", meaning things, and describes beauty as an awareness of the transience of all things, and a gentle sadness at their passing. It can also be translated as the "ah-ness" of things, of life, and love.
