Japan: An Attempt at Interpretation, Lafcadio Hearn

Image via WikipediaJapan: An Attempt at Interpretation, by Lacadio Hearn, is just one of many titles by the author available, for free, at Gutenberg.org. It attempts to compare and reconcile both the history and custom of Japan and Japanese for those of European and American origin. In his preface, he declares that most works covering Japanese culture and history are 'sworn enemies of that religion.' It has been a fascinating study. I cannot help but wonder how much of this text might apply to Korea and Korean culture as well.

Lafcadio Hearn initially shows how far the Orient is the very exact opposite of the Occident. Everything from literature being read from what we associate with the last page to the first, and writing which reads from right-to-left, and even weapon smithing, are vastly different with what was done classically in the west.

Typically, Hearn compares Japanese culture with that of the ancient Greek. Both cultures would have had what he calls a family cult: a family cult worships the ancestors before them. While there have been many changes to this, great respect owing those before us was extremely important both to the ancestors and their living after death, and to the living and their success or tragedy in life.

There is neither heaven nor hell in the Japanese religion. Also, in the early part of religion, words like ghost and god were much the same. That, once dead, a man or woman would then be a god. This was much the same as was believed in the Ancient Greeks.

The family structure is another very interesting aspect of Japanese culture which Hearn puts a fair amount of detailed description to. The family unit has a single male figurehead. The family unit itself could be quite massive, and may include as many as a thousand members. While this family member had control over life and death of any of the other members, it is pointed out that he had many responsibilities and had to act in a seemly way. If he would act improperly with his family, the authorities of the village or town in which he lived could be contacted by members of his family with complaints; once this was done, he would have to abide by the decisions of the village elders or leaders.

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Hearn points out that though the patriarch of the family had this power of life and death over the family, he too was bound by law and custom to follow what was expected of him: The reader will be able to understand, from the facts of this chapter, to what extent the individual was sacrificed to the family, as a religious body. From servant to master—up through all degrees of the household hierarchy—the law of duty was the same: obedience absolute to custom and tradition. The ancestral cult permitted no individual freedom: nobody could live according to his or her pleasure; every one had to live according to rule. The individual did not even have a legal existence;—the family was the unit of society. Even its patriarch existed in law as representative only, responsible both to the living and the dead. Thus, it could be said that the patriarch really was not free to do as he wished.

Some customs of the past, such as "the term applied to this form of immolation,—hitogaki, or "human hedge,"—implies a considerable number of victims in each case," is quite fantastic and horrific. Further notes of Japanese horrific myth are tantalizing to one, such as myself, who is interested in unique horror stories.

Despite the statements that the leaders or higher classes had to submit to certain codes, and surely while that is true, those codes might be lost on myself and any modern person. For the merest hint of an insult or slip, a superior could execute an inferior. For any reason whatsoever, a Samurai might kill an offender though the offence be slight. An example, "One had to be careful about the quality of the smile: it was a mortal offence, for example, so to smile in addressing a superior, that the back teeth could be seen." So, every smile had to be exact. Neither too little nor too much, else it would be a capital offence.

Image via WikipediaHearn points out about some traditional villages left visited by a westerner that "the ordinary traveller can little understand what it means. That all are polite, that nobody quarrels, that everybody smiles, that pain and sorrow remain invisible, that the new police have nothing to do, would seem to prove a morally superior humanity." However, this seemingly perfect village would be the result of centuries of rigorous and bloody oppression.

Sumptuary laws were quite vigorous as well. Every class had their possessions clearly defined, from the type of cup that they might drink from, to what they might drink, and even what gifts they were able to give and coffins they could be buried in.

Last year I watched the TV series, Shogun, which I had believed to be an entirely fictitious work. However, it seems there was quite a bit of historical account upon which it existed. There was indeed a pilot who somehow managed to rise to a quite high status in Japan. In the TV series, the pilot is derived from both events and real people.

Hearn shows how, initially, Japan had been relatively open to several religions. However, well after the pilot Adams had played out his role in history and in the time of Elizabeth I, Japan had had enough of Christianity. Hearn suggests a part of this was due to their activity in the country, and also their reputation for having committed grievous crimes against humanity in the Americas with the natives. I cannot help but agree with their sentiment: if the Christians had continued to grow in influence, it would have been inevitable that Japan might have fallen under the weight of the Christian doctrine and started their own cleansing of Japan.

As a result, when Japan had felt the violence and cruelty of the Jesuit priests, it worked to expunge itself of Christianity altogether. It seems that the Christians went to a nation open to religion, and made of it intolerant.

Hearn at last delves into modern Japan. He states that while the Japanese farmer may actually own his farm, he may also lose it entirely.

The author speaks of how the imperial edict of the late 19th century was made to encourage and demand that Japan take on the knowledge of the west. To fulfil the edict, 'Only those who have lived in Japan during or before the early nineties are qualified to speak of the loyal eagerness that made self-destruction by over-study a common form of death,-- the passionate obedience that impelled even children to ruin their health in the effort tio master tasks too difficult for their little minds, and the strange courage of persistence in periods of earthquake and conflagration, when boys and girls used the tiles of their ruined homes for school-slates, and bits of fallen plaster for pencils. What tragedies I might relate even of the higher education life of universities! -- of fine brains giving way under pressure of work beyond the capacity of the average European student, of triumphs won in the teeth of death, of strange farewells from pupils in the time of dreaded examinations, as when one said to me: "Sir, I am very much afraid that my paper is bad, because I came out of the hospital to make it--there is something the matter with my heart." (His diploma was placed in his hands scarcely an hour before he died.)"

Image via WikipediaI cannot even comprehend this level of dedication from the student to the teacher. I don't know if I would want that level of responsibility. However, it most certainly helps to explain how much collective pressure can build upon the mind of a Japanese student, and how, tragically, this unfortunately and too often translates into suicide to the extent that Japan has the highest student suicide rate in the world. It would seem that life takes a back seat to success, and that failure is a greater spectre than the grave.

Hearn finally concludes his  fascinating book with a look into his modern Japan. In 1904, when this book was released, Japan had been at war with Russia. He warned that should she win this war, that she might become outwardly aggressive. How remarkable and accurate his belief was, considering that it would not be too long from this period that Japan would indeed embark on an aggressive campaign during WWII.

This book was a delight to read. It was a simple taste of what surely would be an invigorating indepth study of Japanese culture and history. It gave a glimpse into a fascinating world, a tiptoe into a pool of wonder. It gave me a taste and made me wanting more. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants an outline of Japanese culture and history in a way that is easy for an occidental mind to understand.