???????? Wakon-Yosai

1
???????? Wakon-Yosai Japanese Spirit, Western
Learning and Globalization
Hawaii International Conference on Arts and
Humanities, 2006

• Norio Ota
• York University
• Toronto, Canada

2
Preamble

• Wakon-Kansai ???? Japanese spirit, Chinese
  learning
• Wakon-Yosai ???? Japanese spirit, Western
  learning
• Mishima Yukio ????? and his suicide
• Bushido ???
• Chushingura ??? 47 Ronin
• Wakon-Beisai ???? Japanese spirit, American
  learning
• Mukon-Musai ???? No spirit, no learning
• Wakonn-Wasai ???? Japanese spirit, Japanese
  learning
• Wakon-Mansai ???? Japanese spirit, all learning

3
Background

• Wakon-Kansai ? Wakon-Yosai
• What is Wakon?
• Kurofune 2nd Kurofune globalization
• Fukuzawa Yukichi ????, Okakura Tenshin ????,
  Uchimura Kanzo ????, Nitobe Inazou ?????, Kuki
  Shuzo ????, and Suzuki Daisetsu ????
• Translation-ism ????
• Ogyuu Sorai ???? Yakubun-sentei ??????
• ?? Japanism
• Fukuzawa Yukichis isshin-nishou ???? one body
  two lives
• Karl Löwith completely separate dual life style
  of Japanese scholars

4
Wakon-Kansai tradition

• Ito Jinsai ????(1627-1705)
• Ogyu Sorai ????(1666-1728)
• Ishida Baigan ???? (1685-1745)
• Tominaga Nakamoto ????
• principles of kajo ?? newer research tends to
  look at older sources than the previous research
  
• ???????? it is impossible to harmonize various
  theories to get to the one truth
• Naito Torajiro ????? ?????????
• Chinas response ???? in ????

5
Early wakon-yosai tradition

• Mori Senzo ??? Oranda Shogatsu ????????
• Suminokura Ryoi ????Kawamura Zuiken????
• Tanaka Kyugu ????Aoki Konyo ????
• Yamawaki Toyo ????Maeno Ranka ????
• Sugita Genpaku ????Hiraga Gennai ????
• Ito Tadanobu ????Katsuragawa Hoshu ????
• Mogami Tokunai ????Otsuki Bansui ????
• Inamura Sanpaku ????Hoashi Banri ????
• Mamiya Rinzo ????Takano Choei ????
• Sakuma Shozan ?????
• Seki Takakazu ??? Wakon-Wasai?

6
Modern period

• Takeda Kiyoko ???????????Naturalization and
  Renegation
• Acculturation type ???
• Isolation type ???
• Renegation type ???-????
• Competitive or prophetic type ???????-????
• Grafting type
  ????-?????
• Fukuzawa Yukichi ???? ???????? Encouraging to
  study
• Uchimura Kanzo ????
  Christianity
• Nitobe Inazo ????? ????? Bushido
• Okakura Tenshin ???? ????? Tea
• Kuki Shuzo ???? ??????? Structure
  of IKI
• Suzuki Daisetsu ???? ?
  Zen
• Datsua-nyuuou ???? leave Asia and join Europe

7
After WWII

• Kokutai ?? national polity
• Wakon-Beisai ???? Japanese spirit, American
  learning
• Wakon ?? - Chushingura ??? 47 Ronin
• Bubble Economy
• Japan as No. 1
• Collapse of the communist bloc
• Loss of self-confidence
• Return to Asia

8
Era of globalization

• Japans second sakoku ?? national isolation
• The 9th Central Education Council general meeting
  
• Wakon-yosai is talked about, but in the world of
  academia wa is pushed by yoo, and has atrophied.
  However, the philosophy of wa, such as
  irrationality and transience, is also inevitable,
  .

9
Era of globalization (cont.)

• Marubeni Corporation exports the wakon-yosai
  approach to South Africa.
• Africans are making renewed efforts to
  harmonizing their culture with western culture,
  at the same time that they are arguing for the
  necessity of recovering African-ism and
  self-respect. In those efforts, Japanese culture
  such as wakon-yosai appears very fresh to them,
  and the role of Japan seems gradually to become
  clear.
• JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency)
  also considers that Japans accumulated knowledge
  regarding wakon-yosai should be a part of
  financial cooperation with the recipient
  countries.
• A more eclectic view of wakon-yosai, taking good
  from both, has been promoted by some schools and
  businesses such as Shiseido.

10
Global nature of Japanese culture

• Japanese culture possesses global
  characteristics
• Hasegawa Nyozekan ??????(1938)
• Keichu ?? Kamo no Mabuchi ???? Motoori
  Norinaga ????
• re-examined Japanese characteristics by
  distinguishing between the influences
• of Buddhism and Confucianism, in order to
  find a spiritual basis for a new united nation
• universal nature of Japanese culture
• Japanese national characteristics -
  harmonizing all conflicting factors by
• finding common denominators
• Yamazaki Masakazu ????(1990)
• universal nature of Japanese culture
• interaction between the ie-system in the
  farmer class and the warrior class, and
  individualism in the merchant class, which have
  co-existed since the end of the Muromachi Era
  this dual nature has played an important role
  throughout the pre-modern and modern periods

11
Critics of Wakon-Yosai

• Pros Cons
• Motto schools, universities
• Eclecticism between Japanese culture and western
  culture Businesses Shiseido, advertisements
  for housing
• Strategy JICA - a model strategy for
  under-developing countries to adopt
• Served to promote Japanese ultra-nationalism, and
  led Japan to its defeat in WWII
• Post-war periodwakon-beisai ???? Japanese
  spirit, American learning,
• mukon-musai ????no spirit, no learning ,
  Wakon-mansai ???? in the era of globalization
• Anime and film genre Miyazaki Hayaos Spirited
  Away, The Last Samurai (a case of
  beikon-wasai?) - ghost of bushido ?
• Views (overseas)
• North America - Bushido, Zen, Shintoism,
  Buddhism, Chanoyu, Haiku, Ikebana, Kurosawa
  Akira, Mishima Yukio, Tanizaki Junichiro, Abe
  Kobo - western scholars understanding of wakon
  (recycled among students)
• Asian scholars (China, Korea, the Philippines,
  Vietnam) - different understandings of wakon and
  Japans wakon-yosai tradition
• Chukon-yosai, chukon-wasai, kankon-yosai,
  kankon-wasai ?
• Canadian multicultural context - first generation
  immigrants adopt kasai with their cultural
  spirit, and disseminate their newly-created
  identities through their communities. The
  Chushingura mentality, the essence of wakon was
  still prevalent among Japanese in Japan, and also
  preserved strongly among Japanese-Canadians
  (Ota, 2003).

12
Allergic reaction to Christianity?

• To put this issue into a personal context,
  like ?? Yamazaki I have been advocating some
  global nature of Japanese culture, based on my
  strong criticism of the mistakes Japan made and
  has been making until now. In my attempt to
  understand yokon as suggested by ?? Fukuzawa,
  religion is the largest hurdle. This seems to be
  a common tradition since Arai Hakuseki ?????when
  he interviewed Giovanni Battista Sidotti ???? in
  the Edo Era. ???Kawakita states As a result, we
  Japanese have lost the ability to comprehend all
  religious phenomena. Nor are we even trying to
  understand them. (Kawakita, 76) He points out
  that this is the result of overemphasizing the
  communalist (group-oriented) tradition over
  Buddhist tradition (individualism), and suggests
  that Japanese should reexamine the latter. The
  wakon-yosai tradition seems to have been hampered
  strongly by Japanese allergic reaction to
  Christianity. ?? Uchimura and ??? Nitobe went far
  beyond by becoming Christians and probably
  understood yokon more deeply, but that fact could
  have been one of the reasons why their ideals
  were not accepted widely.

13
Conclusion

• Wakon-yosai is not a unique approach for
  recipient nations of advanced civilization. The
  problem is, however, that it does not seem to be
  possible to adopt foreign culture selectively,
  and still maintain the local spirit intact. Wakon
  has been constantly changing, being influenced by
  kansai or yosai.
• In the traditional view, wakon and yosai were
  separate and not interactive. A more dynamic view
  is required in an age of globalization. Yosai
  always influences wakon because yosai comes with
  yokon. Rather than taking a passive view, it is
  necessary for Japanese scholars to learn yokon
  vigorously, as Fukuzawa suggested, and develop
  wakon as a dynamically and continuously changing
  entity. Globalization requires wakon-wasai and
  yokon-yosai constantly interacting with each
  other to deepen an understanding of the world
  with the synergistic effects of both.
• I would like to conclude my presentation with a
  personal episode.
• When I read Reginald Bibbys Mosaic Madness
  for the first time, I was indeed surprised to
  find he had written almost everything that I had
  been thinking about Canadian multiculturalism. I
  disagreed only on some issues of religion. As a
  result, I translated this book into Japanese with
  my colleague in Japan I found it amazing that
  two persons from entirely different backgrounds
  could share almost the same opinions on various
  issues. I regard this as a result of the more
  dynamic model of the wakon-yosai approach.

14
References

• Bibby, Reginald (1990) Mosaic Madness, Stoddart.
• ????(1990)????????????
• ????(1942)????????????
• ??????(1938)???????????
• ???(1995)???????-????????1995???
• ????(1989)??????-?????????1989???
• ????(1941)??????(??????)????
• ????(2004)??????????????????????
• http//www.bioethics.jp/naox_report1-j.html
• ?????(1973)?????????????
• ???????(1999)??????????-?????????????????????????
  ????????????1999???
• ????(1979)?????????????
• ????(1995)????????????
• ????(1963)????????????17 ???
• ????(2004)??????????
• http//www.kyoto-up.gr.jp/body/sirizu/sir_1fo
  llow.html

15
References (cont.)

• ???????(1991)??????????????(??????)????
• Leclerc, Richard Claude Roberge (1997)
  Footsteps of the Quebec Missionaries in Japan (
  ????????????????)
• http//www.info.sophia.ac.jp/amecana/Journal/
  15-4.htm
• ????(2002)?? ????(1989)???????????????
• http//www.isis.ne.jp/mnn/senya/senya0686.html
• ????(1961)???????????
• ????????(1998)??????????????
• ????(1998)??????-???????????????????
• ???(1963)??????????????17 ???
• ????? (1925)?????????????
• http//www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000284/files/17
  35_4336.html
• ?????(1963)???????????????17 ???
• ?????(1982)???????????????????????
• http//www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/jhntakna/wakon.html
• Nitobe Inazo (1905) Bushido http//www.sacredte
  xts.com/shi/bsd/index.htm

16
Reference (cont.)

• Ota, Norio (2003) What is Chushingura to current
  Japan?, panel presentation, JCCC. Toronto.
• __________(2005) Wakon-Yosai (Japanese spirit,
  Western learning) and Globalization, in WHY
  JAPAN MATTERS!, edited by Joseph F. Kess and
  Helen Lansdowne, Centre for Asia-Pacific
  Initiatives, University of Victoria, B.C.
• ?????(2002)????????????
• http//socyo.high.hokudai.ac.jp/Journal/J10PD
  F/No1013.pdf
• ????(1929)?????(????)????
• ????(1990)?????????????
• ??????????-?????????????????
• http//www.valdes.titech.ac.jp/kuwako/kanph
  i-1-1.pdf
• ???????????????????(1988)???120???????-???????
  ???????????1988???
• ????(1963)????????????17 ???
• ????(1940)????????(?????)????
• ????(1992)?????????????
• ?????????????????????????????
• http//www.res.otemon.ac.jp/yamamoto/works_2
  /essay_02.htm
• ????(1990)????????????????