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…
” 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
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…
” 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