CHAPTER 398: CHAPTER 291: RAINBOW IN THE PLUM RAIN

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.

"Honjo Shigenaga explained ’Mono no Aware’ like this in ’Purple Text Essence’: The myriad forms of things in the world are seen, heard, and personally experienced by us; we take these myriad things into our hearts to savor them, discerning their emotional essence. This is understanding the emotional essence of things, this is knowing Mono no Aware.

"Simply put, Mono no Aware is ’genuine emotional expression’, the response of the heart when interacting with the external world, it encompasses elements like empathy, sorrow, lamentation, praise, love, appreciation, affection, and pity..."

The professor lifted his glasses, bowed his head, flipped through some papers, and called out a name from the roster:

"Uesugi, is Uesugi here? Is Uesugi present?"

In the furthest left corner of the last row of the classroom, Uesugi Sakura was staring blankly at the ginkgo tree outside the window in the rain.

Those fan-shaped leaves, moistened to a lush appearance, were gently swaying to the rhythm of the June rainy season, catching his attention.

"Is Uesugi present?"

"Uesugi, Uesugi, hey! Uesugi!" Todaka Keichiro, seeing that he still hadn’t heard, nudged him with his elbow.

"Uesugi..." The professor scanned the room twice more, finally finding someone standing up, "Please briefly explain your views on ’Mono no Aware’.

Uesugi Sakura hadn’t caught up after zoning out, and it took a while to understand what the professor was asking: "Mono no Aware...? The contemplation of all things."

"Please elaborate further."

Uesugi Sakura thought seriously for a few seconds, glanced at the ginkgo tree leaves in the rain outside the window, and then said, "Cherry blossoms in full bloom, the arrival of the rainy season, autumn leaves falling—these are all the sceneries of the world. Some people sigh silently at them in their hearts, while others find these scenes completely uninteresting.

"For example, upon discovering extremely beautiful cherry blossoms, someone might sigh in their heart ’these cherry blossoms are really beautiful!’, recognizing the beauty of the cherry blossoms, and this is Mono no Aware. But no matter how pleasing the cherry blossoms are in front of them, if someone remains unmoved, they do not understand the emotional essence of things, lacking empathy.

"Like how I often listen to the rain, trying to experience my own emotions within the sound of the rain, and then integrate those emotions into the sound of the rain, my heart thereby producing a deeper emotional essence, this is ’Mono no Aware’.

The classroom fell silent, many people were listening intently to his words, occasionally jotting down a note or two to supplement their understanding of the statement.

The gray-haired humanities professor pondered for a moment, then lifted his head, smiled, and said to him:

"Hmm... very good... sit down."

Uesugi Sakura sat back in his seat, glanced at the screen behind the professor, and typed class notes on his computer.

Todaka Keichiro leaned over and said, "Uesugi, you even read ’Purple Text Essence’? Aren’t you always skipping class?"

"Hmm...? Looking down on me, are you?"

"Haha, you look like you’ve caught May blues, might not be able to shake it off, how many of the five short essays have you written?"

"There are five? Truly exhausting, lend me your notes for a moment."

"I’ll send them to you later."

Reading books, reading papers, studying English, writing papers — the typical hard life of a liberal arts student.

Uesugi Sakura felt a bit of missing his Professor Okuno again, at least he would still drag him out to the countryside for fieldwork.

Strolling was something he enjoyed, whenever he saw something interesting, like scenery or flowers, he would stop to admire them for a while.

At such moments, he often had the desire to capture these beautiful moments.

Then he wondered if he should learn to paint.

The sky during the rainy season is usually overcast for days on end, but after class, carrying his computer and walking out of the classroom, Uesugi Sakura saw bright sun in the sky.

The sunlight refracting downward, illuminating the tiny droplets in the air, making them sparkle.

Sunshower?

Standing under the ginkgo tree covered in droplets, Uesugi Sakura tilted his head up to look through the beams of light, searching the sky for something.

Southeast, southwest, northeast...

Finally, in the northwest direction, he found the rainbow he wanted to see.

The splendid arc of colors stretched across the sky, gleaming in the sunlight like a precious silk ribbon.

He hurriedly raised his phone, taking a photo of the sky.

With a click.

The image was captured onto an electronic device, and after a dozen seconds, the rainbow was gone.

The beauty seemed to linger in his heart.

Even filling in the brilliantly colorful arc in the blank space in his mind.

As if the rainbow were still hanging in the sky.

But upon looking carefully again, there were only light raindrops, and the clouds had gathered once more.

Beautiful things are fleeting, a sense of regret arose in Uesugi Sakura’s heart.

This must be the so-called ’Mono no Aware’ he just spoke of.

However, along with regret, there was also expectation, expecting to chance upon it again.

Uesugi Sakura reviewed the photo he had just taken, then sent it to Hanamaru Hanabi, and sent an [expecting evaluation] emoji.