Culture and Customs

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 315, 28 March 1928, Page 16

Culture and Customs

ROAD TO UNDERSTANDING Exploring a Nation's Inner Life PROFESSOR MUKAI. bow canbarked upon a gear's friaidboira. Prafesstr- Stsrai is Director of the First Foreign

- = '-y in the eocrse of it* ceve.sp—hjiedr* even discord 'of a grave Enfil sixty years ago Japan had teen !ated from the rest of the wt-rl-i extept Chtna and Korea ~-th lixxle or no: ttese manners and customs as -t ts of the Weinem countries, but if the W*stem pe-tnle come to understand ate meaning cf oar manner* and cusnoms they will be able to know the aett-er Let ux begin with the forms of greeting. In Weit&ft countries the commonest one Is handshaking. It is needless to explain that thus way of greeting that the hand for holding weapons is given to that of an opponent. In Japan the commonest is : as you kno - •sreH. making a bow just in the same way as it is made before a god- But, w>V *io the Japanese use the same form of greeting for men as for gods? DESCENDANTS OF GODS According to ancient belief, all the Japanese were descended from one god. Foreign mythological stories tell us that a certain tribe worshipped the wolf as its forefather, and another the bear, but in Japan, our ancestors believed the god to be their forefather. Being a descendant of the god. each Japanese was and still Is called vxtice-m&Ama.. Now Mita m-a means the god, or what Emerson calls the “Over-Soul," and Wafce means “separate,” and so the word TF atoe-rrJitama means a copy of the god, or a different manifestation of the Over-SouL In other words, each individual Is a holy being, capable of developing himself into a So-d. and, in fact, those who have fully realised this capacity or possibility are enshrined and ‘worshipped as gods. This is why the Japanese use the same form of greeting for men as for gods by way of paying homage to each other’s divine nature. The recognition of this divine nature ‘ in men is manifested in various manners and customs besides the form of greeting. For instance, on New Year's Day the gate of every Japanese house is decorated with a straw rope called shimenawa. This straw rope is considered sacred and is meant to show the existence of a divine being withinAccordingly every Japanese shrine is decorated with this rope all the year round- But on New Year's Day every man’s house is decorated in just the same way as a god’s shrine so as to

remind every inmate at least once a I year of the possibility of his becoming a god. This custom goes to show that the Japanese consider their homes as shrines. Again, on New Year's Day, all the Japanese people take certain special kinds of food and drink- As drink they take foao (spiced sake), and . as food certain articles which can be obtained easily and cheaply in any part of the country, no matter whether it ; | be situated by the sea or deep in the mountains. All the Japanese, high and low, rich, and poor, celebrate the New Year by taking the same food and ; drink, because they want to remind i themselves that they form one big [ ' family whose members are related with t one another by flesh and blood, having . descended form one and the same god. • : The above-mentioned idea of the ; ; Japanese people is shown most clearly r in the festival rites of a shrine. A ’ shrine erected for a small village or L for the whole nation is invariably dedi- , eated to the ancestral god, and the j . god is represented by a mirror placed L in the innermost recess of the shrine. . On the festival day, people first pro- j ceed to the shrine and worship before , the sacred mirror. To worship, in the ; ' Japanese sense of the word, is for , every individual to identify himself r with, the original god from whom he I has come down, and to perceive his i real self reflected, uncovered and un- ’ - stained in the mirror. Every worship- j , per before the shrine, rising in spirit

* above the noise and confusion around j 1 , him, is in communion with the god, j truly enjoying the honour of being a l manifestation thereof—his real self, j l Suppose 1 worship at a shrine and j stand before the sacred mirror en- i ’ shrined therein, I shall see only my i true self between heaven and earth, j , reflected in the mirror. Suppose again another worships, he will see only his ! ; true self reflected in a similar way in j the same mirror, and thus we both i shall renew our conviction that all in- ; di vidua Is are but different manifesta- ; tions of one and the same god. After j : this renewal of their conviction, the j 1 : worshippers will come away to share " ■ the holy work of carrying along the J street, shoulder high, a sacred palar. - __ j quin called mikoshi. On this occasion s j they are no longer separate individuals, but form one whole to carry the sacred ~ | palanquin together. What does this " ! palanquin signify? It signifies a holy “ ; work to please the god. SELF EXPRESSION i ; Thus our festival rites require that f i we should w ork as one spiritual body t on the one hand, and do our best as e : different manifestations of one god on the other; further Kagura (sacred _ music and dancing performed as a part » of the rites before the god; expresses ; the rapture and ecstasy enjoyable only in such a true state of existence. Being a different manifestation of one god, each of us has his own position and duty different from those of others and the real worth of human life is established, according to cur belief, by as know! edging and abiding by and executing this individual lot. We are to fulfill our lots in this world, ! not because w'e fear the god's rebuke or desire to court his praise, but be- j cause we have within us an uncon- : trollable aspiration which forces its * way to expression. The word “prayer,” as we accept it in our spiritual way, j means nothing by a “declaration.” The Japanese verb inoru (to pray), is composed of the two parts, noru (to declear) and i, an intensive prefix, and the word means just “to declare solemnly.” When starting any work, the Japanese in old times declared. “God witness us!” and they did not j pray, “May God help us.'” for they , have been equipped by the god with , all that was necessary. “God, witness us!” was an inori or declaration which meant that everyone was ready to give full expression to what had been given him as a manifestation of the gpd

Western manners and. ctn= -o rr.sCiviHsation starts with the conquest ■ been built up to what it is to-day zsy conquering outward nature. Corresponding to this outward nathan outward nature. Civilisation cf the highest order cannot be attained without the conquest of this inward nature. The West has been striving chlfefiy to conquer outward nature, while the East has been endeavouring to subdue inward nature. Herein lies the most remarkable difference between Eastern and Western cl vllisations, and from this main difference start many minor ones which manifest themselves in manners and customs on both, sides of the globe. In the East, free expression of emotions and. passions is considered as a disgrace, because it shows that a man has been controlled or conquered by his inward nature above which he ought to place himseif- To our way of thinking, a man should not be controlled by nature inward or outward, but should conquer .; it- Thus we must restrain «, all our feelings to a due measure and degree when we express them. R e Japanese have gone from childhood through this kind of discipline which aims at proper suppression of our inward nature. Consecuently, it seems strange to us who have been thus trained that “Western people give free vent to their feelings with no regard whatever to occasions and circumstances. DISCIPLINED EMOTIONS The Orientals keep back not only their feelings within due bounds, but many other things. They consider it as a mean thing to reveal all they have. This idea is shown * also in Oriental ; arts. Take Japanese music, for ex- , ample. Japanese music can hardly be represented in mechanical notes of : foreign music. In singing, we often ’ “kill our voice.” By “killing” we

mean that we check our voice at a certain pitch in order that we may thus make it rise or fall infinitely higher or lower beyond human conception of sound or even of time. A loud voice is a loud voice, and nothing more. But a rising voice, checked purposely half • way, retains its possibility to rise infinitely higher. In this we find the i special beauty of Japanese music. This l is also the case with Japanese dancing, j Unlike Western dancing, the Japanese art does not require any violent movement of limbs and muscles, because a movement carried to extremity ends there, and goes no farther. In our dancing, a faint movement of the fin-ger-tip is apparently a tremor, but a tremor which suggests its possibility to move infinitely. i In this way we Orientals always aim jat reaching the infinite through the t finite, and grasping the whole through a part. In our Oriental way, therefore, infinite sorrow should be perceived \ where no tear is shed- Infinite wrath 1 should be detected where no rough word is uttered. We have been brought : up from childhood under various forms -of such discipline. ITcebana (flower arrangement) and j chanoyo (tee. ceremony) are also other : expressions of this discipline. Indeed. ‘ a single flower is to us the beauty of 1 the universe itself, and a single cup of ; tea the sweetness of human life itself. BRUSH AND CHISEL

j In Japanese painting and sculpture, !we often “save the brush and the ; chisel.” By “saving the brush and the j chisel,” we sum, as in the case of ; “killing our voice,” to give so much the , \ better and fuller effect and expression j |to what is painted or carved- I am \ { glad that many Western people have i ; now come to appreciate the real worth I j of this artistic expedient and I trust : in time they will go a step further and { truly understand the fact that it is [ ; quite proper and reasonable for man ! : —the most excellent art production of | ; god—to resort to the voice-killing and j i brush-and-chisel-saving also in show- ! ing his inward feelings. This special taste of the Japanese \ people has often caused much mis- S understanding among Western people. ! Of course, when those whose manners j and customs differ very much from ours, speak or behave rudely toward \ us—rudely from our viewpoint, we do ! not generally care to blame their rude- | ness, and sometimes we tolerate even ! an insult with a smile, as we have | been taught to do. If, however, their j rudeness goes so faj* as to affect our honour, we would protect it at the cost of our life. We know by experience of unpleasant episodes that have been I caused by trivial rudeness on the part I of ignorant and yet innocent Occiden- ; tals. To avoid these unpleasant things i in the future, we should by all means i know each other better and more closely.