FOOD FOR THOUGHT FROM 1890

I was reading through Lafcadio Hearn’s Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Volume II, Chapter XXVI, “The Japanese Smile,” published in 1984, and once again came upon the extracts from an essay by Viscount Tōrio. The ideas expressed in his essay were at times critical of things Western, of trends within the Meiji government Japanese society; yet, as I read through them, I began to think that there existed in his words of more than one hundred years ago, important lessons for modern Japan as well as contemporary America. I present them now, as Hearn did in his time, as if nothing else, food for thought.

Order or disorder in a nation does not depend on something that falls from the sky or rises from the earth. It is determined by the disposition of the people. The pivot on which the public disposition turns towards order or disorder is the point where public and private motives separate. If the people are influenced chiefly by public considerations, order is assured; but if by private, disorder is inevitable. Public considerations are those that prompt the proper observance of duties; their prevalence signifies peace and prosperity in the way similar to families, communities, and nations. Private considerations are those suggested by selfish motives: when they prevail, disturbance and disorder are unavoidable. As members of a family, our duty is to look after the welfare of that family; as members of a nation, our duty is to work for the good of the nation. To regard our family affairs with all the interest due to our family, and our national affairs with all the interest due to our nation, this is to fitly discharge our duty, and to be guided by public considerations. On the other hand, to regard the affairs of the nation as if they were our own family affairs, this is to be influenced by private motives and to stray from the path of duty.

Selfishness is born in every man; to indulge it freely is to become a beast; therefore, sages preach the principles of duty and propriety, justice and morality, providing restraints for private aims and encour- agements for public spirit… What we know of Western civilization is that it struggled on through long centuries in a confused condition, and finally attained a state of some order, but that even this order, not being based on such principles as those of natural and indisputable distinctions between sovereign and sub- ject, parent and child, with all their corresponding rights and duties, is liable to constant change; according to the growth of human ambitions and human aims. Admirably suited to persons whose actions are controlled by selfish ambition, the adoption of this system in Japan is naturally sought by a certain class of politicians. From a superficial point of view, the Western form of society is very attractive; in as much as, being the outcome of a free development of human desires from ancient times, it represents the very extreme of luxury and extravagance. Briefly speaking, the state of obtaining things in the West is based on the free play of human selfishness, and can only be reached by giving full sway to that quality. In the West, little notice is given to social disturbances; yet they are at once the evidence and the factors of the present evil state of affairs. Do Japanese, enamored with Western ways, propose to have their nation’s history written in similar terms? Do they seriously contemplate turning their country into a new field for experiments in Western civilization?

In the Orient, from ancient times, national gov- ernment has been based on benevolence, and directed to securing the welfare and happiness of the people. No political creed has ever held that intellectual strength should be cultivated for the purpose of exploiting inferiority and ignorance. The inhabitants of this empire live, for the most part, by manual labor. No matter how industrious they are, they hardly earn enough to supply their daily needs. They earn, on the average, about twenty sen daily. For them there is no question of aspiring to wearing fine clothes or to inhabit handsome houses. Neither can they hope to reach positions of fame and honor. What offense have these poor people committed that they also, should not share the benefits of Western civilization? Indeed, by some, their condition is explained on the hypothesis that their desires do not prompt them to better themselves. There is no truth in such a supposition. They have desires, but nature has limited their capacity to satisfy them; their duty as men limits it, and the amount of labor physically possible for a human being limits it. They achieve as much as their opportunities permit. The best and finest products of their labor they reserve for the wealthy; the worst and roughest they keep for their own use. Yet, there is nothing in human society that does not owe its existence to labor. Now, to satisfy the desires of one luxurious man, the work of a thousand is needed. Surely, it is monstrous that those who owe to labor, the pleasures suggested by their civilization, should forget what they owe to the laborer, and treat him as if he were not a fellow being. But civilization, according to the interpretation of the West, serves only to satisfy men of large desires. It is of no benefit to the masses, but is simply a system under which ambitions compete to accomplish their aims. That the Western system is gravely disturbing to the order and peace of a country is seen by men who have eyes, and heard by men who have hears. The future of Japan, under such a system, fills us with anxiety. A system, based on the principle that ethics and religion are made to serve human ambition, naturally agrees with the wishes of selfish individuals; and such theories as those, embodied in the modern formula of liberty and equality, annihilate the established relations of society, and outrange decorum and propriety. Absolute equality and absolute liberty being unattainable, the limits prescribed by right and duty are supposed to be set. But as each person seeks to have as much right and to be burdened with as little duty as possible, the results are endless disputes and legal contentions. The principles of liberty and equality may succeed in changing the organization of nations, in overthrowing the lawful distinctions of social rank, in reducing all men to one nominal level; but they can never accomplish the equal distribution of wealth and property. Consider America…It is plain that if the mutual rights of men and their status are made to depend on degrees of wealth, the majority of the people, being without wealth, must fail to establish their rights; whereas the minority who are wealthy, will assert their rights; and, under society’s sanction, will exact oppressive duties from the poor; neglecting the dictates of humanity and benevolence. The adoption of these principles of liberty and equality in Japan would annul the good and peaceful customs of our country, render the general disposition of the people harsh and unfeeling, and finally prove to be a source of calamity to the masses…

Though at first sight, Western civilization presents an attractive appearance, adapted as it is to the gratification of selfish desires; yet, since its basis is the hypothesis that men’s wishes constitute natural laws, it must ultimately end in disappointment and de- moralization. Western nations have become what they are after passing through conflicts and deviations of the most serious kind; and it is their fate to continue the struggle. Just now, their motive elements are in partial equilibrium, and their social condition is more or less ordered. But if this slight equilibrium happens to be disturbed, they will be thrown once more into confusion, and change; until, after a period of renewed struggle and suffering, temporary stability is once more attained. The poor and powerless of the present may become the wealthy and strong of the future, and vice versa. Perpetual disturbance is their doom. Peaceful equality can never be attained until built up among the ruins of annihilated Western states and the ashes of extinct Western people.

 

---

 Author’s Footnote: These extracts from a translation of the Japan Daily Mail, November 19, 20, 1890, of Viscount Tōrio’s famous conservative essay do not give a fair idea of the force and logic of the whole. The essay is too long to quote entirely; and any extracts from the Mail’s admirable translation suffer by their isolation from the singular claims of ethical, religious, and philosophical reasoning, which bind the various parts of the composition together. The essay was furthermore remarkable as the production of a native scholar, totally uninfluenced by Western thought. He correctly predicted those social and political disturbances which have occurred in Japan since the opening of the new parliament. Viscount Tōrio is also well known as a master of Buddhist philosophy. He holds a high rank in the Japanese army.

Emotions and Forms: Uniquely Japanese

Emotions and Forms: Uniquely Japanese

Much of my formal education and training had been in science and law; both disciplines based upon logic. As I grew older, and hopefully wiser, and as a student of traditional Japanese Budō and Bushidō, I began to read and study about the Japan of past days; and as I experienced life in Japan, not only in the dojo but in the small towns and villages, away from the cities, I began to think about such Japanese things as jōcho (emotion) and katachi (forms of behavior). People took tradition seriously. They often enjoyed dressing in kimono; they enjoyed eating together as a family, gathered around a low table in the living area of a simple home. People who were too loud or boisterous were given a cold shoulder. I witnessed Japanese unspoken communication and personality projection. Away from the cities, the national character was entirely different. Customs and traditions, sincerity and humor, were considered of much greater value than the logic I had learned and trained in at school. Of course there were some people who clamored for “more”, “more is better”, “modern is better”; yet, those who shouted for more reform to the modern ways, were discreetly criticized by the elders as “lacking a proper sense of humor.”

I began to realize that, yes indeed, logic had its place, but aesthetics, emotions and forms of behavior could be equally important if not more; things uniquely Japanese. When I mention “aesthetics,” I am speaking of such things as nihonjin no shizenkan, the concept of nature. When I say “emotion,” I am not speaking feelings such as joy, anger, sympathy, sadness or happiness, which we learn about in school and which we all experience naturally; I am refereeing instead to emotions that are cultivated through cultural experience; such emotions as natsukashisa, a sense of yearning for the lost, an mono no aware, an awareness of the pathos of things. By “forms,” I mean the code of conduct that has been with us for centuries, derived from Bushidō, the samurai code of ethics.

When considered together, these are the things that make Japan and the Japanese special, unique in the world. Just as Nitobé Inazo pointed out that Bushidō was the foundation of Japan’s national character, so also are these others. Even as far back as the Meiji Restoration, both emotions and forms of behavior began to go into a gradual, imperceptible decline. The rate of decline was accelerated in the Showa Era and sustained extensive deterioration after World War II, as the country suffered from Americanization and free market principles which reached deep into the Japanese heart to exert their influence on Japanese society, culture and its character as a nation. Even the Japanese educational system, has served to erode the Japanese pride and confidence in their country, largely at the hands of revisionist politicians and historians. People, particularly in the cities began to forget those things that were the country’s traditional emotions and forms of behavior, the things that should have given them the pride to be uniquely Japanese. Instead, the country falls prey to the logic and reasoning of the West and the decline continues through a process of globalization, which is nothing more than an attempt at making the world homogenous. Japan must find the means to realize and preserve its individuality and to recapture its simplicity in living, its emotions, and its forms; thus, remaining forever, uniquely Japan.

THOUGHTS FROM A TAKAYAMA ROOFTOP - A NEW CAPITALISM?

IS IT TIME FOR A NEW CAPITALISM?

I cannot help but wonder if the current global (and it truly is global) financial crisis is an opening for building a new form of capitalism that is based on sound values?

It would seem to me that capitalism, which was based on financial speculation, was in essence an immoral system that misused and distorted the logic of free enterprise and entrepreneurship. My own feeling is that capitalism needs to find a new moral values (based on something more than the maximum short-term profit) and that we must be willing to acknowledge a stronger role for government, particularly in a regulatory and “watchdog” capacity.

In the United States, many people including myself were surprised at how quickly politicians from both the Republican and the Democratic Party were willing to bail out banks and insurance companies when they began to go under. Very few of those in a position of power were willing to take the risk of letting the banks collapse due to their own mismanagement, misjudgment, and excesses of their management. One cannot really know what the consequences could have been. The choice to save the banks from the consequences of their own errors indicates a shift in values, away from the alleged wisdom of the market. There were so many who said not to worry, that the market was not the economy, but it would seem that such was not necessarily the case. The market was the American economy and they got it very wrong, particularly in matters of financial securities. They got it terribly wrong.

Will the downturn produce a deeper shift in the values of consumers? Some experts have seen the global financial crisis as an evolutionary necessity, in fact, desirable, specifically because it is producing such a change. The hope of those experts is that the trend will now be to put family ahead of work. Certainly this is something very much needed in the United States where for example, workers have fewer holidays than those in any other industrialized nation, and certainly Japan must also be considered, based on the number of hours the average Japanese worker must spend on the job each day, despite many more holidays. The French on the other hand, have already had shorter working days, shorter workweeks, and longer vacations in place for a very long time, and have been the major focus of criticism by American business management.

Americans especially, have a tendency to scoff at the French, yet France may indeed be a good model to follow. The French have for a very long time tended to be less inclined to go into debt. When they pay with “plastic”, they are inclined more to use debit cards, thus drawing on money they already have, rather than credit cards. We can now better appreciate the realities of not spending money we don’t have.

Excess is out of style, meaning that there is currently less luxury spending. There are cutbacks on the retail sale of luxury goods everywhere, even the large department stores of London, New York, and Tokyo. Cartier reports that it is facing its toughest market condones in 20 years. One cannot help but wonder, however, if this change marks a permanent trend in values or merely a temporary reduction forced on consumers by investment and income losses as well as continued economic uncertainty.

President Obama said in his inaugural address that, “The time has come to set aside childish things”. We must choose the noble idea that “all are equal, all are free, and all people deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.” He may be right. It is time for the world to restore some proper sense of what is truly important.

Do we, particularly in the United States and Japan, buy luxury items more because of the status they bring rather than because of their intrinsic value? I think so. Could the current crisis serve to help us appreciate that there are indeed more things that are more central to our happiness than our ability to spend money on Rolex, fashions and fine dining? As a Buddhist, I cannot help but wonder if we cannot take it one step further and become more aware and more active in seeing to the needs of those who live in real poverty and thus are far worse off than we will ever be.

I see a danger however in that the possibility for real change will be corrupted, as has happened to the environmental movement. “We’ve gone green” has become an advertising catch phrase with no real value behind it. Will greed utilize the crisis as another opportunity to make money? If you look and listen closely, you will see that there are already steps in that direction by big and small businesses alike.

It gives one pause to think.