Last update: 2023-09-02
Japanese esthetics pathos of things played a major role in the world’s first novel, Murasaki Shikibu’s Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji), going back to the early eleventh century.
The meaning of the phrase mono no aware, simply put, is awareness of impermanence. This brings about some degree of melancholy but mono no aware teaches us the realities of life.