Mono-no-aware

Empathy for all things

The beauty of nature and the landscape are always a source of inspiration, contemplation and fullness. Seen live, these landscapes, these lines, these lights, one has the sensation of breathing them, of assimilating them, of amalgamating them with one's spirit, with one's essence, until one becomes part of it, as in a mirror of the soul, of the emotions and harmony.

Mono-no-aware is a Japanese term that expresses a concept of this kind, an empathy towards all things, in particular towards the beauty and harmony of the forms of nature and the landscape. This people with a very particular culture and imagination, has developed an extra sensitivity towards the forms of nature, the landscape and all its incessant changes, so much so that every aspect of the natural world enters in a vital and powerful way the whole religious, poetic and mythic of this distant country.

At every moment the landscape shows us its changes, in the seasons, in the atmospheric conditions and in the movement of our star, and photographers know well how everything can change in a few moments. For the Japanese spirit all beauty is transitory, like life itself in all its forms, everything is destined to become corrupted and for this reason every single instant is unique and precious, a great treasure that is offered to us.

Perhaps we Westerners should reevaluate our way of seeing the world, nature is too often seen by us in competitive, sporting, recreational or utilitarian terms, very few go along paths to meditate, to contemplate shapes, lights and colors, to see in a stone, a tree, a flower or a wild animal a mirror of oneself. Many people see nature as a distraction, while it should be a concentration, a place, a sacred space where we can gather, or better still be able to open up, to find our own center and exchange energies and knowledge in an empathic way with the whole cosmos, which speaks to us through the language of beauty.

Even our western culture was able to express extraordinary contemplative and empathetic depths with the world of nature and its mysterious forces, but we have to dig a lot into the past to find its traces, we should even dig into the ashes, where the souls that in the nature they saw a mirror of themselves were sent to the stake

An overview of Val Baganza, a scenographic succession of ridges over which the massive mass of Monte Barigazzo looms (far right).