The Japanese Mind And Awareness In The Tale Of Utuho
Japanese mind and “aware”
1. Problemsand the meaning of “aware”
In the textbook, “The Japanese Mind”, the author says, “ the Japanese sense of beauty is based on a concept known as mono no aware, a kind of aesthetic value that comes from feelings, while in Western art, people try to construct something of beauty with a logic of what is beautiful. The Japanese aesthetic is very subjective, and there are no absolute criteria as to what this should be. In the West, however, what is beautiful is beautiful in and of itself, so there are explicit and well-established criteria for beauty. Aware is said to be representative of the Japanese sense of beauty, and it is a term of great subtlety, which is quite difficult to understand because it relates specifically to the Japanese feeling of appreciating something that is …show more content…
regarded as worthless.” I think there are two problems in his explanation as to “aware” and “mono no aware.”
First, “mono no aware” is the concept invented by Norinaga Motoori, a Japanese classical scholar. So it may be a mistake to explain traditional Japanese sense of beauty only by “mono no aware”. According to “Kogo daijiten”, an archaic word dictionary, “mono no aware” means that keen emotions and human feelings found in and provoked by natural scenary and every aspect of a life. However, it was not until Edo period that people regarded “mono no aware” as a ultimate idea of literature. In fact, in “The tale of Genji” ,”mono no aware” is used only thirteen times, in “The tale of Utuho” ,five times, and in “The tale of Ochikubo”, no time. Moreover, in the first place, if “there are no absolute criteria as to what this should be,” great literatures that people feel empathy for is difficult to be born. What the criteria for beauty should be relates a cultural context of the culture.
Second, the author says.
” Aware is said to be representative of the Japanese sense of beauty, and it is a term of great subtlety, which is quite difficult to understand because it relates specifically to the Japanese feeling of appreciating something that is regarded as worthless.” Why can we say “Aware” is representative of the Japanese sense of beauty ? Yes, in the “The tale of genji”, “awarenari”(adjective form of “aware”) is used often, 802 times, and this figure is overwhelming.But in“The tale of Utuho”, while “awarenari” is used 246 times, “omoshirosi”(beautiful, funny, atmospheric) is used 221 times. Though these two tales are written in Heian period, it is not true that “aware is representative of the Japanese sense of beauty” for the literatures I read.(I don’t think representative of words are worth selecting.We use every word properly according to the situation.) “Aware” means feeling keenly, and a lot of things are its object.So it is better to say Japanese appreciate something that is regarded as worthless than to say “it(“aware”) relates specifically to the Japanese feeling of appreciating something that is regarded as
worthless.”(p.37) Then, what’s “aware” ? Let’s see examples in “The tale of Ochikubo”.In this tale,an aristocratic woman(Onnagimi ) is abused by her step-mother(Kitanokata). A man(Otokogimi), whose father is in power, and her servant(Akoki) help her escape from her house, and Onnagimi lives a happy life with Otokogimi.
① (Akoki) felt pity because Onnagimi is always “awareni”( adverb form) alone.
② (Onnagimi’s father, after looking at her beautiful hair) “though I regard you ‘aware’, I didn’t know your mind, because I was caring other my daughters .
③ (Onnagimi)afraid that Otokogimi may see her to be poorly dressed, she feel “aware”, and put on a hakama.
④ (in a letter from an Akoki’s foster female parent to Akoki)considering you as your late mother,I thought you are aware…
In the example①, “aware” means “pitiful”, in the ex.② it means “dear”, in the ex.③ “helpless and resigned”, and in the ex.④ “intimate”. Aware’s meaning varies in every situation, so “aware” doesn’t always relate to “something regarded as worthless.” It is the emotion that is felt heartily.(Classic literature basic word dictionary)
2.Disappearing “aware” As mentioned above, what the criteria for beauty should be relates a cultural context of the culture. (“Sanenkobou”,Higashiyama,1985)
Kaii Higashiyama, a Japanese artist felt as if the nature and himself were one, and his life were at the mercy of great power that is universal in the nature, and the universe.This way of thinking was seen in the ancient Japanese people. They embraced animism. They believed there are deities, “Kami”, in all things, and they are always with “Kami”, and people thanked their power. In Heian period, Shinto and Buddhism mixed, and Buddhism’s idea that all things are transitory was prevalent. However, the world where happenings are explained by Buddisum idea and deities. As the time went on, people became to think “rationally”, because they are exposed Western science and technology. Moreover, scientism suggested that human beings will be progressing, didn’t considered old things as useful. “Aware” was unfortunately connected to the idea of transition, so people forgot how to feel “aware” in addition to belief that happenings were explained by “inga”(fate) and “Kami”. (Therefore, for example, ancient people went to temples and shirine to pray, and regarded Buddhist images sacred as well as beautiful but now, many people seem to go there for sightseeing and little prayer.)
What’s more, “aware” has been an old world, and seen only in classical literatures. Many of them are translated into modern language, but there is no guarantee that modern words can describe all old words, because our world and the way to feel is defferent from ancient times, so concepts, which represent the world, can have different meanings.
3.Understanding old ideas
Therefore, it is not surprising that “aware” is disappearing, however, it is profanity to all the ancient artist and author to resign ourselves to forgetting how to feel and understand old ideas, such as “aware.” Why the faculty of literature exists is this goal: understanding human being’s wisdom and society, and relativizing the current world.
So studying “aware” too can be committed to achieving this purpose and changing Japanese mind.
1. Problemsand the meaning of “aware”
In the textbook, “The Japanese Mind”, the author says, “ the Japanese sense of beauty is based on a concept known as mono no aware, a kind of aesthetic value that comes from feelings, while in Western art, people try to construct something of beauty with a logic of what is beautiful. The Japanese aesthetic is very subjective, and there are no absolute criteria as to what this should be. In the West, however, what is beautiful is beautiful in and of itself, so there are explicit and well-established criteria for beauty. Aware is said to be representative of the Japanese sense of beauty, and it is a term of great subtlety, which is quite difficult to understand because it relates specifically to the Japanese feeling of appreciating something that is …show more content…
regarded as worthless.” I think there are two problems in his explanation as to “aware” and “mono no aware.”
First, “mono no aware” is the concept invented by Norinaga Motoori, a Japanese classical scholar. So it may be a mistake to explain traditional Japanese sense of beauty only by “mono no aware”. According to “Kogo daijiten”, an archaic word dictionary, “mono no aware” means that keen emotions and human feelings found in and provoked by natural scenary and every aspect of a life. However, it was not until Edo period that people regarded “mono no aware” as a ultimate idea of literature. In fact, in “The tale of Genji” ,”mono no aware” is used only thirteen times, in “The tale of Utuho” ,five times, and in “The tale of Ochikubo”, no time. Moreover, in the first place, if “there are no absolute criteria as to what this should be,” great literatures that people feel empathy for is difficult to be born. What the criteria for beauty should be relates a cultural context of the culture.
Second, the author says.
” Aware is said to be representative of the Japanese sense of beauty, and it is a term of great subtlety, which is quite difficult to understand because it relates specifically to the Japanese feeling of appreciating something that is regarded as worthless.” Why can we say “Aware” is representative of the Japanese sense of beauty ? Yes, in the “The tale of genji”, “awarenari”(adjective form of “aware”) is used often, 802 times, and this figure is overwhelming.But in“The tale of Utuho”, while “awarenari” is used 246 times, “omoshirosi”(beautiful, funny, atmospheric) is used 221 times. Though these two tales are written in Heian period, it is not true that “aware is representative of the Japanese sense of beauty” for the literatures I read.(I don’t think representative of words are worth selecting.We use every word properly according to the situation.) “Aware” means feeling keenly, and a lot of things are its object.So it is better to say Japanese appreciate something that is regarded as worthless than to say “it(“aware”) relates specifically to the Japanese feeling of appreciating something that is regarded as
worthless.”(p.37) Then, what’s “aware” ? Let’s see examples in “The tale of Ochikubo”.In this tale,an aristocratic woman(Onnagimi ) is abused by her step-mother(Kitanokata). A man(Otokogimi), whose father is in power, and her servant(Akoki) help her escape from her house, and Onnagimi lives a happy life with Otokogimi.
① (Akoki) felt pity because Onnagimi is always “awareni”( adverb form) alone.
② (Onnagimi’s father, after looking at her beautiful hair) “though I regard you ‘aware’, I didn’t know your mind, because I was caring other my daughters .
③ (Onnagimi)afraid that Otokogimi may see her to be poorly dressed, she feel “aware”, and put on a hakama.
④ (in a letter from an Akoki’s foster female parent to Akoki)considering you as your late mother,I thought you are aware…
In the example①, “aware” means “pitiful”, in the ex.② it means “dear”, in the ex.③ “helpless and resigned”, and in the ex.④ “intimate”. Aware’s meaning varies in every situation, so “aware” doesn’t always relate to “something regarded as worthless.” It is the emotion that is felt heartily.(Classic literature basic word dictionary)
2.Disappearing “aware” As mentioned above, what the criteria for beauty should be relates a cultural context of the culture. (“Sanenkobou”,Higashiyama,1985)
Kaii Higashiyama, a Japanese artist felt as if the nature and himself were one, and his life were at the mercy of great power that is universal in the nature, and the universe.This way of thinking was seen in the ancient Japanese people. They embraced animism. They believed there are deities, “Kami”, in all things, and they are always with “Kami”, and people thanked their power. In Heian period, Shinto and Buddhism mixed, and Buddhism’s idea that all things are transitory was prevalent. However, the world where happenings are explained by Buddisum idea and deities. As the time went on, people became to think “rationally”, because they are exposed Western science and technology. Moreover, scientism suggested that human beings will be progressing, didn’t considered old things as useful. “Aware” was unfortunately connected to the idea of transition, so people forgot how to feel “aware” in addition to belief that happenings were explained by “inga”(fate) and “Kami”. (Therefore, for example, ancient people went to temples and shirine to pray, and regarded Buddhist images sacred as well as beautiful but now, many people seem to go there for sightseeing and little prayer.)
What’s more, “aware” has been an old world, and seen only in classical literatures. Many of them are translated into modern language, but there is no guarantee that modern words can describe all old words, because our world and the way to feel is defferent from ancient times, so concepts, which represent the world, can have different meanings.
3.Understanding old ideas
Therefore, it is not surprising that “aware” is disappearing, however, it is profanity to all the ancient artist and author to resign ourselves to forgetting how to feel and understand old ideas, such as “aware.” Why the faculty of literature exists is this goal: understanding human being’s wisdom and society, and relativizing the current world.
So studying “aware” too can be committed to achieving this purpose and changing Japanese mind.