June 26th, the rainy season continues.
Tokyo is veiled in layers of rain under the continuous overcast skies, the air entirely filled with damp moisture.
"Have any of you studied 'Mono no Aware'?"
Everyone sitting was a liberal arts student at the University of Tokyo; they hadn't researched it, but had all read "The Tale of Genji."
The gray-haired old professor leaned on the lectern with both hands and said to the people in the lecture hall, "In the philosophy of 'Mono no Aware', both emotions and objects constitute the main body of 'Mono no Aware'. It is only by viewing emotions and objects as one whole that it can be called 'Mono no Aware'.
"In fact, everyone greatly misunderstands Mono no Aware, thinking the 'Aware' refers to sadness, but that's not the case. Indeed, from the meaning of Chinese characters, it does seem so, but in Japanese, 'Aware' refers to exclamation.
