This country has an abiding faith in the power of understanding. If we just understood each other, our differences would disappear and this uncomprehending world could become one.
Such faith, though touching, is perhaps unwarranted. For one thing, it is unlikely. Edward Seidensticker, I believe, once opined that, actually, a more complete understanding could lead to a more total disapproval.
For another, in this country understanding becomes hopefully identical with agreement. If you come to understand us, says the argument, then you will come to agree with us and, in time, will become just like us. Mutual understanding becomes unilateral.
There is thus reason to believe that mere understanding will not solve all problems. Nonetheless, faith in the dogma has long flourished and the result has been many a volume devoted to a comprehension of Japanese ways.
This volume, for example. It originally appeared as a special issue of the Sun magazine in 1993 and restricted itself to 100 words -- a number often utilized as a celebratory unit in Japan, for example in the Hyakunin-isshu poem-card game which used to be played at New Year's. Now it has been reissued as a bilingual book. Much has been retained but there have been some subtle changes, and five new terms have been included.
I have no idea what they are, but I can guess that one of them is "waisetsu" (obscenity) because the color illustration boldly illustrates its theme in a way which would have been impossible in 1993. Also, the commentary (by Ueshima Keiji, a religious scholar) is completely contemporary.
He points out that there is, properly speaking, no such thing as an obscene subject. We need to recognize, he says, "that it is the act of hiding, covering, or prohibiting a certain subject that creates obscenity." And he points out that such standards have much fluctuated in Japan and are, in any event, exceedingly obscure.
It becomes apparent that this Heibonsha volume is significantly differently from the ordinary "understanding Japan" volume. For one thing the words chosen are unusual. "Amaeru," "giri-ninjo" and other Chrysanthemum Club favorites are missing. Instead we have essays on the "juken-senso" examination wars, the "man'in densha" packed commuter trains, the yakuza and obscenity.
For another, the writers (all of them fairly well-known and mostly responsible critics) often choose to write against type. Thus a scholar of religion writes about obscenity, a literary critic (Matsuda Osamu) writes about tattoos, a German literature specialist (Tanemure Suehiro) writes about ramen and the poet Takahashi Mutsuo writes about chopsticks.
The latter example will give some indication of the heterodox liveliness of many of the pieces. Takahashi said that chopsticks came from ceremonial skewers which were used to keep things pure. At the same time, he personally feels that the hand is a good deal more pure than any pair of chopsticks. "I feel ashamed of eating with chopsticks when I am with people . . . who eat with their hands. Hands soiled with food can be washed, but I feel that no matter how much chopsticks are washed, they are never completely clean. The mentality which requires the use of chopsticks is also unclean, even polluted."
The thought presented in many of these essays is far different from those self-congratulatory received ideas which usually find their ways into texts pushing understanding Japan. Each is supported by an illustration (often by a name photographer) and is unusually well translated by a group of professional and often well-known translators.
Despite the title, then, whether understanding will result or whether understanding is even all that welcome is not the real concern. The essays are informed, opinionated and relatively free of Nihonjinron-received ideas. It is as though understanding is no longer being equated with agreement but with information. And this is a major step on the road toward -- whatever it is worth -- mutual understanding.
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