The Dignity of the Nation　　　　　　Fujiwara Masahiko　 　　Chapter 4　　Japan : Land of Emotions and Form 　　　　1.　 Pay More Respect to Emotions and Forms 　　　　2. 　Sensitivity to Nature 　　　　3.　 Japanese gardeners as no.1 　　　　4. 　Tea ceremony, flower arranging, calligraphy 　　　　5.　 The sense of impermanence in decline 　　　　6.　 The pathos of things 　　　　7. 　The unique sensibility of the Japanese 　　　　8. 　What do you see in the cherry blossom ? and the birth of Shinto 　　　　9. 　Natsukashisa, or nostalgic longing 　　 　10. 　Four kinds of love 　　　 11.　The two sides of love of country ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・ 　　　　1.　 Pay More Respect to Emotions and Forms The point I have been making is that we cannot live by logic and reason alone. Something else is needed. And that someting else is needed in order to choose the correct starting point for any sequence of logic. In my opinion, that "something else" are the beautiful emotions and forms that Japanese people possess. If logic and reason are "hard," then emotions and forms are "soft." It is only by uniting the hard and soft structures people are able to acquire the power of all-round judgement. 　　　　2. 　Sensitivity to Nature What exactly, then, are these emotions and forms ? First and foremost is an acute sensitivity to nature. In the old days, foreigners who resided in Japan for any length of time invariably commented on this. George Samson was a diplomat in the British Embassy in Tokyo in the early Showa period. Samon's wife, Catherine, who wrote a book called "Livin in Tokyo." "Surely there can be no people superior to the Japanese in their sensitivity to nature and their susceptibility to beauty," she writes. I conted that this delicate sensitivity to nature is the main cause behind the birth of Japanese literature, which is unequaled in the world. 　　　　3. 　Japanese gardeners as no.1 Traditional Japanese gardens are among the subjects Mrs. Samson writes admiringly about. A Japanese gardener will not listen to the instructions given him by the owner of the house. He will instead make a counter-proposal, saying, it would be better to plant it somewhere else. The Japanese gardener then examines the tree from all possible angles; he goes and stands in a variety of positions; he plants tree in the most harmonious possible place. "Watching them thrilled and delighted me," she writes. 　　　　4. 　Tea ceremony, flower arranging, calligraphy Tea is a similar story. In the U.K the British just slosh it carelessy into mugs and slurp it down, but here in Japan we have created sado, the tea ceremony. For the display of flowers, we have created kado, or the art of flower arrangement. Strictly speaking, ideograms fulfill their function if the person to whom they are addressed is able to read them, but still in Japan we have come up with shodo, the art of calligaraphy. There is even something called kodo, the art of guesting incense fragrances. We Japanese make everyting into an art. Fight arts like judo and kendo also emphasize beauty and proper etiquette, and thus have an atmosphere utterly unlike the fighting arts of other counties. The aesthetic emotions derived from our delicate sensitivity to nature form the nucleus of the Japanese character, enabling us to create works of art unlike those anywhere else. The Japanese have the rare ability to sense the beauty that exists in the juxtaposition of fragile human life and the permanence of nature. Japan is a country under permanent threat from nature with its typhoons, earthquakes, and floods. Here in Japan, more than in other countries, it is easier to feel the fragility of human life set in contrast to the permanence of nature. Our enviroment naturally engenders a sense of the impermanence, the transitoriness of things. 　　　　5. 　The sense of impermanence in decline It was Buddha in India who originally spoke about the sense of impermanence of things, but the impermanence he was talking about was philosophical. Everything is in flux; nothing exists unchanged for eternity; all things must change. The sense of impermanence of things, which came to Japan through China from Nothern India, went through a similar metamorphosis. The Japanese sense of impermanence originated in the dry, philosophical notion that all things are subject to change, but it fathered emotions like compassion for the weak and pity for those who fail, evolving into a sense of solidarity between all people who share the same sad, fragile destiny. 　　　　6. 　The pathos of things As the sense of impermanence became more abstract, it evolved into the emotion that we call mono no aware, or the sense of the pathos of things. Running through much of the Japanese literature of the Middle Ages, this emotion is best defined as the sensibility that finds beauty in the fragility of mankind and in things that change amidst the permanence of nature. Everybody grieves at the sight of things in decay. Western people do, too. But the Japanese sense the beauty that is inherent in that fragility. Danald Keene, the Japanese literature scholar, sees this as a sensibility that is unique to the Japanese. We are able to discover emotional beauty even in fragile, fleeting things. 　　　　7. 　The unique sensibility of the Japanese In his essay "The Insect Performers," Lafcadio Hearn mentioneds the sensitivity of the Japanese to the sound of insects. They listen to the sound of insects as if it were music, and even manage to feel the pathos of things in it. In the West, sensitivity like this is limited to a handful of abscure poets, but in Japan the ordinary run of people have it quite as a matter of course. Fall comes and the sound of the bell-ringing cricket is heard in the distance, soothing the emotions and quieting the soul with the special melancholy of autumn. This has been going on since time immemorial. 　　　　8. 　What do you see in the cherry blossom ? and the birth of Shinto The Japanese attitude to flowers is an example of this acute sensitivity to beauty. The cherry blossom is truly beautiful for only three or four days. But as high winds and stormy weather always seem to come and target that particular moment, no sooner have you begun to marvel at the cherry blossoms than they are gone. The Japanese regard the three or four days when the blooms come out as priceless. Projecting human life onto the blossom that falls grace-fully after a brief span of only three or four days, they contrive to see in it a beauty that is of a different order to any other flower. Putting the sense of "the pathos of things"aside for a moment, the Japanese also have feeling of awe and reverence toward nature. For Wester people, nature is something that has to be subjugated to secure the happiness of the human race. From the remotest past no Japanese has ever believed that. Nature is something majestic beyond all comparison with humankind, and we should humble themselves before it. The Japanese sensed the existence of something holy in nature and so sought to live in harmony with it. This wonderful way of considering nature led to the birth of Shinto. It is this emotion that is responsible for the modesty of the Japanese as a people,"To subjugate nature for the happiness of humankind" is an attitude of overweening human arrogance. 　　　　9. 　Natsukashisa, or nostalgic longing Another emotion of which the Japanese can be justly proud is natsukashisa, yearning for something lost. This, too, is a most sophisticated emotion. The hometown nostalgia of the Japanese is a thick, sticky, and strong emotion based on the sense of being tied to a place. The quantity of literature devoted to this theme shows just how strong an emotion it is. 　　　 10.　 Four kinds of love This emotion of nostalgic longing is the foundation of what I call the "four loves." The first three loves are, in order, family love, love of one's hometown, and then love of the land of one's ancestors. Last of all - and only after the first three kinds of love are firmly in place - comes love of humankind. It is important not to get the order wrong. The love of one's hometown grows out of the love of family, while the love of country grows from both of these. In Japan, love of humankind is often taught first, but that will never work. There is no such thing as a "global citizen,"and teaching such a fiction does a hundred times more harm than good. 　　　 11.　The two sides of love of country Many people are distrustful of the idea of loving of one's native country. Indeed, the majority of Japanese hold ludicrous opinions like "love of country acts as the trigger for war." As a matter of fact, the very opposite is true. Wars are started by people devoid of love for their country. Nationalism is a sordid philosophy that entails not giving a damn about other countries while pursuing exclusively one's own national interests. By contrast, the love of country that I am talking about is sokokuai,"love of one's ancestral land." Sokokuai is much closer in meaning to the English word "patriotism" and patriotism means to love the culture, the traditions, the sensibilities, and the natural scenery of one's own country more than anything that all the people of the world should aspire to have. 　　　　　　　　　　　　To : 　Index　　　　　To : 　Chapter 5　 The revival of the samurai spirit