Mono No Aware is a key term in Japanese culture and loosely translated it means the appreciation of things/objects due to the realisation of their impermanence. Spyros first came across the term Mono No Aware in the autobiography of Sally Mann. The term immediately resonated with him, as for as long as he can remember he had that feeling of happy/sad when on one hand there is the realisation that all things exist only temporary and at the same time you feel so much at awe that you got to experience them. It’s the ever-repeating circle of attachment and letting go.
On a philosophical level he never particularly connected to terms like Memento Mori or Vanitas. The denouncing of the material world to him does not equal enlightening or liberation but mostly fear that he associates with numbness, indifference, and apathy. So, he was over the moon when he discovered Mono No Aware, finally a term that felt natural to him.
Yes, loss brings sadness, but don’t we say better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all, well, et voila! And on a perfume level, isn’t the experience of perfume inherent to Mono No Aware, the moment you spray it, it starts to disappear, and that is part of the beauty of perfume. This perfume is an ode to this feeling and to the culture that brought us the term.
Cherry blossom, matcha tea, Japanese cedarwood, musk
Spyros Drosopoulos
