Tezos

Mono No Aware

Creator

tz1e49f9DTcSsiNg3hxKnBUTod6FpJwFhzh3

Description

Magnolia × soulangeana Common name: Saucer Magnolia (fallen petal) The Japanese have a word for what a fallen petal does to you. Mono no aware, the pathos of things, which translates roughly as the ache you get from knowing something is beautiful because it won't last. Zeami, who wrote the theory of Noh theater in the 1400s, said the flower is marvellous because it blooms and singular because it falls. And then this. A tepal on the ground, which is what magnolia petals are actually called, because the flower predates the distinction between petal and sepal entirely. In the Victorian era sending magnolias meant dignity and perseverance, but also a love of nature, which was a specific coded message in floriography. Samurai connected falling petals to bushido, the warrior code, the idea that an honorable life should burn completely and end without clinging. Motoori Norinaga, an 18th century scholar, spent his whole career arguing that mono no aware was the entire purpose of art. To know it, he said, is to be stirred by every single thing existing in this world. A magnolia on the grass is maybe the most direct version of that. Everybody looks up at the tree. Almost nobody looks down. © Corina Daniela Obertas Photography. All rights reserved. The purchase of this NFT grants the collector ownership of the token only. Full copyright, reproduction rights, and commercial usage rights remain exclusively with the artist. No part of this artwork may be reproduced, distributed, printed, licensed, or used for commercial purposes without prior written consent from the artist.

Traits

Tag

macro

Tag

magnolia