"Mono no aware:(物の哀れ?), literally "the pathos of things", and also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera", is a Japanese term for the awareness of impermanence (無常 mujō?), or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life."
"...a “pathos” (aware) of “things” (mono), deriving from their transience. In the classic anthology of Japanese poetry from the eighth century, the Manyōshū, the feeling of aware is typically triggered by the plaintive calls of birds or other animals. It also plays a major role in the world's first novel, Murasaki Shikibu's Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji), from the early eleventh century. The somewhat later Heike monogatari (The Tale of the Heike Clan) begins with these famous lines, which clearly show impermanence as the basis for the feeling of mono no aware:
The sound of the Gion shōja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sōla flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind.
And here is Kenkō on the link between impermanence and beauty: “If man were never to fade away like the dews of Adashino, never to vanish like the smoke over Toribeyama, how things would lose their power to move us! The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty” (Keene, 7). The acceptance and celebration of impermanence goes beyond all morbidity, and enables full enjoyment of life."
Are there examples of this in modern and or contemporary literature or maybe even cinema? There are the Japanese classics that are mentioned above, as well Ozu's films, but what about more recent examples?
>The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty” (Keene, 7). The acceptance and celebration of impermanence goes beyond all morbidity, and enables full enjoyment of life.
ayy
>>7827418
Nah brah, don't give me this dichotomy perscriptivism.
>>7827408
Yeah, this is everywhere. First to come to mind is that it's a minor theme in the visual novel/anime Clannad, but i recall seeing it often in Japanese works, regardless of medium.
Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights
It's a Japanese Science Fiction novel from the 60s, touted as the "best Japanese SF" (highly debatable)
It's rather boring and disjointed, but the last chapters at the end of the universe are full of this feeling.
Lost In Translation has some similar scenes, too.
http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/mono-no-aware/
This short story gives that feeling, melancholia but in a nice way
>>7827415
YEAH!!