I CANNOT SLEEP

I CANNOT SLEEP

I cannot sleep. The time was 2 am and I am wide awake. Saito the cat is delighted — an extra, early breakfast and unexpected play time. “I might as well work,” I think and move to the kitchen to brew the coffee. While waiting, I step out the front door to breathe the morning air.

It is quiet with not even a sound from the distant railroad — not even a cricket. The street is dark and empty and nothing moves. No wait! Two figures, dressed in completely in black, with black hoods pulled over their heads, pass by on the opposite sidewalk. “Death and his intern on an errand?” I wondered. Perhaps not, but creatures of the night nonetheless. In front of me, a cricket makes his way across the sidewalk to a patch of green grass now gray in the early gloom. I smile. Another creature of the night but one I do not dread.

I return to the kitchen where a spider scurries about the counter, perhaps looking for crumbs from last night’s pizza. I decide to leave the kitchen to her for a while and come back for the coffee later. Musings of Lafcadio Hearn await on my computer.

ONE OF NATURE’S LITTLE DRAMAS WE HAVE NO TIME FOR

ONE OF NATURE’S LITTLE DRAMAS WE HAVE NO TIME FOR

This morning, oh about 7:30 am, I was on my way to the morning market when I heard a “murder” of crows, chattering and cawing away up in the trees across the street. Now, crows are not unusual here in Midtown at all, and I find them cheery, funny birds to have around. I looked up, expecting to see some sort of “crow antics,” always entertaining, but that is not what I saw. I looked up and there was a large, beautiful red-tailed hawk sitting atop a pine tree, with a dozen or so crows diving at him, all the while cawing frantically. I stood there for a few minutes watching this little drama of nature; the hawk sitting there in the treetop, unperturbed by the angry crows. Eventually he shook himself, fluffed his feathers and then took off casually to the south, the crows in hot pursuit.

 I noticed, as I stood there watching, that no one else passing by looked up. No one took notice of what was going on above the street as they walked here and there to whatever destination required their presence immediately. Some were absorbed in their smart phones, oblivious to all around them, and those that were not so engaged, still seemed unmindful to the spectacle.

Then I thought that this was perhaps not so remarkable any longer to anyone but me. We have intruded into and destroyed the habitats of some many creatures in the last thirty years — where else have we left them to go but into the urban environment. I remembered that there had been a time, when I was much younger, when we became aware that our expansion outward from urban centers, with the explosion of the suburbs destroying the wild lands; that to have one’s own expensive though cheaply made home was central to the so called “American Dream,” We also knew then that we could make a collective choice to restrain our careless expansion, intrusion, and destruction; but as a society, we largely chose to either ignore that choice or to act only in our own immediate interests.

True, peregrines for example, nest and hunt even in the big cities like New York or San Francisco, but also the coyote, the bobcat, the mountain lion, and even the bear now intrude into our towns and cities — where else can they go when we have pressed them so hard and taken away their homes.

I was just thinking these things as I watched the crows on my way to the morning market.

JUGOYA (Harvest Moon Festival)

o-tsukimi* night

two eyes watching from the grass

tanuki views me

(*Moon viewing)

MUSINGS ON GOJIRA

The first view the world ever had of Gojira (Godzilla) 59 years ago.

A week ago I had the opportunity to watch Gojira, the 1954 movie now more commonly referred to as Godzilla. It was a great treat for me because, having grown up in the United States, I had not had the opportunity to watch the original film; instead, only having access to the 1956 Americanized version, with scenes featuring Raymond Burr spliced into the original film. Well, I must admit that it was quite a treat to watch the original version of Gojira and to at last hear those iconic words spoken for the first time in their original context...well, actually written in English subtitles along with the original Japanese dialogue. Those words? “RUN! IT'S GODZILLA!” 

For 59 years, since its release on November 3, 1954, those words have been uttered, screamed, screeched, not just in that movie or even in every one of the Godilla films that followed; however not only in the movies of the franchise, but by kids, Showa kids in Japan and American kids in San Francisco for example, during their playtime fantasies, and in every possible parody of the original film imaginable; parodies that including the cartoon series South Park and Austin Powers' Goldmember — without a doubt one of the few worthwhile scenes in that entire movie...no I didn't like it much but this scene still makes me chuckle aloud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu62k4K4sQ4

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.

A Change Of Season, A Change of Hours

A Change of Season, A Change of Hours

Winter, if you live deep underground and hadn’t noticed, is rapidly approaching. The splendid colors of autumn are gone, the trees now naked against the gray sky, casting long, thin shadows on the streets and houses below. Oh there are a few stalwarts on my street who have managed to hang onto their yellow leaves, but even their golden canopies are growing thin.

The sun travels daily on an ever lowering and shortening arc, although as I go about my daily errands, I tend to be unaware of its presence. The sun is more often hidden behind a thick gray blanket of clouds and fog adding an extra note of darkness to what I generally consider an already bleak time of year.

Darkness. In the winter it comes early and leaves late, though more often than not on a foggy day, it never entirely leaves at all. Even today, darkness comes earlier than yesterday and departs later. This morning the sun officially rises at 7:13 am and dips below the horizon at 4.44 pm – later than yesterday and earlier than tomorrow. December 21 at 7:04 am, even before it comes up that day, the sun will have reached its lowest arc and then begin its too slow climb higher and higher into the sky – the longest night and the shortest day.

The beginning of winter. Some people see it as a “bright” time of opportunity, as a time of light and warmth! Ice skating, snowmobile riding, skiing, Christmas decorations and lights making the “season bright”. I suppose these are the people who always tend to see the proverbial glass as being half-full. I tend to see it as almost totally empty. It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s going to get colder, and I have to dress up like Eskimo to go outside! As the “Kitty Mafia” would say (if they could talk), “Fogedaboudit!”

Ah yes, the “Kitty Mafia”: Max our menopausal senior kitty, and her evil henchman “Mr. Saito”, named for a courageous member of the Shinsengumi of Kyoto at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate and later a police officer in Meiji Tokyo. I think sometimes that perhaps “Igor” or “Quasimodo” might have been a more appropriate name. And then there is Sumie, the mafia “gun-moll”, at once hardboiled and yet seductive in getting her own way from my hapless wife. But I digress. Winter to the “Kitty Mafia” is just a minor inconvenience. It means they get to spend more time in the house; but then, there is plenty to do there so “it’s all good”. The fact that they are inside more than out, simply means to them that the proprietors of the “inn” simply must adjust to their presence.

More food, of course, must be on hand and readily available upon demand. In fact, “It’s best if you keep the ‘Meow Mix’ bowl topped off at all times, but don’t let the stuff at the bottom become stale.” Cans of cat food must be stockpiled in a wide variety of flavors and then opened and submitted for approval before serving. Cat’s boxes must be maintained to the utmost standards of cleanliness on a daily basis; in fact, it would be preferred if undesirable material was removed immediately after each use. Saito, as a point of fact, will break into a short operatic aria just after use, to signify his completed task and the beginning of the tasks for the “clean-up crew”.

Winter also means that additional cat toys must be acquired so that those members of the “mafia” who desire to play may have a wide variety of amusements to choose from. Heaters must be turned up with clear access for sitting, meditating, or sleeping at each cat’s whim, and in sufficient numbers so that no one is forced to share with their fellow cats – cat’s do not like to share.

Any forced allotment of anything, be it food, toys, or sleeping space runs counter to cat culture. Sleeping space seems to be a “biggie” at our house, more specifically, futon space. Max must have the bottom of the futon to herself: left side, right side, or between the legs. The lower part of the futon is hers and may not be trespassed upon by her underlings. Saito likes the head of the futon where he can watch the human occupants sleep, knead their faces in his own sleepy ecstasy, or more to the point, watch for any sign that REM sleep has started so that he may awaken the sleeper in order to have their undivided attention. As for Sumie, sleep is always best on top of a warm, breathing human body and the liberal use of claws ensures that she stays in place despite her “bed” tossing and turning.

Ah, to sleep, perchance to dream! There is the rub! Winter and the “Kitty Mafia” mean a change in hours for their human employees (yes, that is really all we are you know, underpaid and overworked). As you may know, when I am not seeking out “evil doers” or battling against crime in our universities during the winter, I work a lot at home. To work at home, more or less keeping your own hours, and thus avoiding the daily trek to the office has become quite popular in the last few years. I think really it started out to be a great thing: being able to drink coffee anytime at your desk, take a snack break, work in your jimmies – great stuff. One could, in theory, sleep late, do their work, and probably have playtime left over each day or at the least a low-stress, casual environment in which to work. Not so with the “Kitty Mafia” in winter. My hours have changed, now dictated by “Max & Company”. 3:30 am has been determined to be the optimal time for me to awake, prepare breakfast, clean kitty toilet facilities, and provide either entertainment for mafia members or to be a temporary playmate – more often than not the target of “play” rather than a “mate”.

The early hours of the morning are also the time when I must open the blinds so that Max can peer out into the night and see all the things that go “bump” in the night and are otherwise invisible to us humans. She has no concept of how much cold comes through an uncovered window. 3:30 AM is also the best time for Sumie to practice for her next action movie role by climbing up on furniture and jumping across the room from great heights. It is also the best time for Saito to practice his interpretations of “Pavarotti’s Greatest Hits.”

In the early morning hours, as I sit and drink my coffee and try to read the news, I am meowed at, poked, prodded, climbed over, and bitten on ankles and feet, “Excuse us, but you really do need to pay attention to us. News and coffee can wait”. Of course there is method to this madness. No more working to the sounds of birds chirping or to the smell of fresh mowed grass carried on a warm summer breeze. The dark, cold silence of early morning is now the prefect time for me to work. (Actually this is true but I’ll never admit it to them). Naptime is permitted in late morning, after a sufficient amount of work has been completed and any outside errands, such as the purchase of more cans of food or litter. Early afternoon, beginning about 1 PM is the time to become active once again, allowing for the preparation of lunch, the completion of chores and work, and the preparation and serving of dinner. Following dinner it’s bedtime. Was it Ben Franklin who said “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise?” Well, I feel neither healthier nor wiser, and certainly not wealthier. Obviously he did not live with cats! I feel more as if I have been dragged unwillingly over to the “dark side”.

Those persons who see the “half-full glass” are sure to say that the days will quite soon start to grow longer and thus the days warmer. I on the other hand, from the bottom of my now empty glass, see clouds, rain, snow, a lack of any worthwhile sleep, and typing away on some essay or work of Japanese scholarship, in the bitter cold, dark, damp, early hours of the morning: just as I’m doing now. Fogedaboudit!


Copyright 2008 by Hayato Tokugawa

JAPANESE AESTHETICS: Bigaku

JAPANESE AESTHETICS (Bigaku)

A characteristic feature of long-established aesthetics within Japan is the inclination to value symbolic portrayal more highly than realistic representation. Another trait is the assumption that true art involves a selective presentation of the beautiful and skirting of the humble and vulgar. As a result, artists have tended to choose nature for their subjects, thus shunning the portrayal of everyday life for the ordinary people. The taste for grace and elegance by the Heian court exerted a lasting effect on later cultural traditions, and established elegance as one of the main standards for beauty. Such important notions as okashi, fūryū, yūgen, and iki all carried a nuance of elegance.

Another highly valued attribute was impermanence, which could be considered a variation of elegance, for delicate beauty was considered fragile and ephemeral. Buddhism, with its emphasis on life’s uncertainty, merged with this ideal and provided a certain “philosophical” depth. Such aesthetic values are aware, mono no aware, yūgen, wabi, and sabi all thus implied transience.

An artistically created empty space, either in time or in space, became an important idea in aesthetic practices. Simplicity fit together with the concept of mimesis, which stressed symbolic depiction. Concepts like wabi, sabi, ma, yojō, and shibui were all oriented toward simplicity in their basic inferences, consistently showing distaste for rich or ornamental beauty.

Simplicity also means “naturalness,” or a lack of pretension, in artistic expression. In traditional Japanese aesthetics the gap between art and nature is considerably shorter than in the West. The mystery of nature could never be presented through description; however, it could only be suggested and the more brief the suggestion, the greater its success.

(First published 2008.09.16. Copyright 2006 by Hayato Tokugawa. All Rights Reserved)

SOME USEFUL HAIKU TERMS

SOME USEFUL HAIKU TERMS

MORA

Mora (plural is morae) is a unit of sound used in the study of words that determines the weight of syllables and thus their stress and/or timing, in some languages such as Japanese. The term meaning “period of time” comes from Latin meaning a pause or a delay. A syllable containing one mora is said to be monomoraic, two is bimoraic. Generally, monomoraic syllables are said to be “light syllables,” bimoraic syllables are said to be “heavy syllables” and trimoraic syllables are said to be “super-heavy syllables.”
Japanese is famous for its moraic qualities. Most dialects including Standard Japanese use moras (or morae) as the basis of the sound system rather than syllables. For example, in modern Japanese haiku, one does not always follow the pattern 5 syllables/7 syllables/5 syllables as is commonly believed, but rather the pattern 5 moras/7 moras/5 moras. As just one example, the Japanese syllable-final n is moraic.

KIGO

Season words or Kigo (季語) are words or phrases that are generally associated with a particular season. They were originally used in the longer “linked-verse” form known as renga, and especially in the opening phrase of a renga, the hokku, to indicate the season when the stanza is set. The are valuable in providing an economy of expression (extremely important I have recently learned) for haiku to indicate the season in which the poem is set.

HISTORY OF KIGO

Representation of and reference to the seasons has always been important in Japanese culture and poetry. Japan is, of course, long from north to south so seasonal features can vary from place to place. The sense of a season in kigo is; however, based on Kyoto since classical Japanese literature was developed mainly in this region, especially up to the early part of the Edo Period.

Some examples are (for spring)” “spring begins” (haru tatsu), “warm” (atakakashi or nurumu”, spring haze (kasumi).

I am told that many Japanese haiku poets often use a book called a saijiki, which is a dictionary for kigo. An entry in a saijiki might include a description of the kigo itself plus a list of similar or related words, plus a few examples of haiku that included that kigo. The saijiki is divided into the four seasons plus there is a list for “season-less” or “muki” words.

(First published 2008.09.16.) Copyright 2006 by Hayato Tokugawa. All Rights Reserved)

Thoughts From A Takayama Rooftop

THOUGHTS FROM A TAKAYAMA ROOFTOP

Minna-san Konnichiwa!

Irasshaimase!

Thank you for visiting.

I began writing essays about Japanese art, culture, aesthetics, history, Budo, Bushido, and even politics several years ago. When placed on the Internet in the form of a blog, these essays (much to my surprise) grew immensely popular. But blog hosting sites come and go, things disappear or suddenly become inaccessible. As a consequence, we have had many requests both from long-time readers and new, to re-print the early essays and articles. To that end we have created this blog. We have also had numerous suggestions and requests to compile many of the articles, essays, poetry and stories into some sort of printed collection. To that end, we are working toward finding a solution.

I am a writer, artist, I hope sometimes a poet, and a teacher of several forms of martial arts and Budo. I have even been accused of being a humorist. We shall see! Often the source of what I write is not so much any particular muse, although if I had to name one, it would be my wife Aoi. Often my thoughts, ideas, coming from walking the streets lined with old shops and buildings, walking by the river, or just sitting up on the rooftop. Thus the title of this collection, “Thoughts from a Takayama Rooftop.”

I hope that you will visit us often as I try to discuss a variety of topics from Japanese art and culture, to Bushido, Asian philosophy, and even the weather and find enjoyment here.

-Tokugawa Hayato-
15 October 2008