The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture

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I’m giving this work more stars that it might deserve because it was an early effort to understand Japan, started perhaps when WW II was still raging, but finished in the aftermath when American forces had occupied Japan and, in 1946, were still trying to understand what the best way to administer the country would be. It had been a terrible war, ending in the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the fire-bombing of Tokyo and other cities. After that, Americans predicted that there would be fierce resistance. It didn’t happen. The acceptance of American occupation contrasted startlingly with the brutality of Japanese forces during the war. Why? We can say that Ruth Benedict, an anthropologist who did not speak Japanese and did not have the opportunity to go to Japan, wrote an amazingly insightful book in such a situation. Whether all her observations were true or if they still hold water today is entirely another subject. If you're looking for a book about Japanese culture from a nonbiased perspective, this isn't going to work for you. It's a book filled with anecdotal evidence and secondhand accounts, and while Ruth Benedict is a renowned anthropologist of the time who earned her high reputation...this is definitely a book of its time and of its origin. It is an American researcher piecing together what she and others have gleaned from Japanese culture, and it says just as much (if not more) of Westerners and how they view other foreign cultures as it does about Japanese culture of that period. The letters of “自重” is the kanji for “to respect oneself” originally. But in Japan it is the kanji for “to be prudent”. In the book, the contrast was drawn between the West, where people put more emphasis on themselves and act according to their own values and conscience, and Japan, where people refrain from saying or doing anything that would be criticized by the world. In Japan, you have to refrain from saying or doing anything that will be criticized by the world. That is “自重する” in Japan. That does not mean act according to their own values. Especially, the higher your position, the more you have to be aware of the weight of the situation. b) the author is from the victorious country (Who was it who said that history is written by the victors?) a b c d e Lummis, C. Douglas, "Ruth Benedict's Obituary for Japanese Culture", article in Japan Focus, an online academic, peer-reviewed journal of Japanese studies, accessed October 11, 2013

testo commissionato dall'Office of War e pubblicato all'indomani di Hiroshima, questo saggio rappresenta ancora oggi la più completa e accurata disamina del pensiero giapponese e della sua evoluzione nei secoli Why do we have such a value system in Japan? For Japanese people, Life has peaks in childhoods and middle age, and downs in the rest. Adults love their children, but when children reach a certain age, they encourage to behave in a way that is accepted by the world as adults. Men and women are educated separately to instill in them a sense of their differences and roles. When did Japanese people start to have this characteristic? It is not written in “The Chrysanthemum and Sword”. I think that, to begin with, Japan is a closed island nation that is geographically difficult to interfere with from abroad, and since the nation land is mostly mountainous and there are few plains where people can live, the country and each village were isolated without much interference, and there was a foundation of strong ties within communities.The Japanese society depicted in “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” is one that observes others, while at the same time following exemplary rules to avoid being criticized by others. This is a presentation of Japanese society today, too, many people still concerned about public opinion even now. There are still many people who choose their appearance, clothes, occupation, education, place of residence, etc. based on the reaction of others. d) the author didn't speak the language of the said country. (I did see the movie Lost in Translation. And a lot can get lost in translation sometimes. I should know. Over two decades here in Japan and I still get lost in Shinjuku Station, never mind the biggest hospital in my neighborhood.)

It is told of Count Katsu who died in 1899 that when he was a boy his testicles were torn by a dog. He was of samurai family but his family had been reduced to beggary. While the doctor operated upon him, his father held a sword to his nose. 'If you utter one cry,' he told him, 'you will die in a way that at least will not be shameful.'"There is a lot of facile criticism of this book -- criticizing her for using the distinction of shame/guilt, for viewing Japanese culture through the lens of kinship structures, and so forth. Forget the critics -- like many such books, she puts them to shame (pun intended). They're what my students would call 'salty'. As you probably have guessed the downsides of this book are exactly the same as its positives - it was written at a particular time, for a particular purpose drawing on limited sources, and the end result now is not only seventy years on, historical but also circular. Johnson, Sheila (2014). "Letters: Unfair to Anthropologists". London Review of Books. 36 (7) . Retrieved 6 April 2014. Because her book is Yum, Yum, absolute Yum. It is a complete guilty pleasure. Reading this book I felt like a dog rolling around in something absolutely disgusting. But I just couldn't stop. Ruth's milkshake brings all the Japonophiles to the yard.

By training one can attain selflessness and enlightenment. Observing self, eliminating shame, and living as if you were dead is what the Japanese yearn for. consigliatissimo agli amanti della cultura giapponese e imprescindibile per gli amanti del cinema e della letteratura sia classici che contemporanei Ruth Fulton Benedict (June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American anthropologist and folklorist.A classic book because of its intellectual and stylistic lucidity . . . Benedict was a writer of great humanity and generosity of spirit.”—from the foreword by Ian Buruma Benedict is an anthropologist -- though I've read a good amount of anthropology, I had never read Patterns of Culture. And I was somewhat skeptical, remembering the bland cover of Patterns on the old copy my father had when I was a child. But Benedict writes with such depth and intelligence and broad vision that I now see that her reputation is fully deserved. She is brilliant..., and humane. The reason why Japanese people behave modestly with these values is because they were taught in the home at that time. During childhood, children are raised freely, but as they grow a little older and become more sensible, they are taught the rules of the world and trained to follow them. If they don’t follow these rules, even their family will be cold to you. In the past, the family had patriarchal and the power of the father was absolute, and the rules of the world were strictly taught. Nowadays, families have changed and couples work together to raise their children, and although they teach general rules, manners, and etiquette, they do not raise their children as harshly as they did in this era. Summary and my impression The book began a discussion among Japanese scholars about "shame culture" vs. "guilt culture", which spread beyond academia, and the two terms are now established as ordinary expressions in the country. [10] The principal issue that she identified was that Japanese live within a network of obligations and duties, analogous to owing money to many different and competing creditors, one may temporarily satisfy some to a certain extent, but only at the cost of not satisfying others, perhaps by this point I had already become more crazy than ever because this seemed to me entirely natural, the debt to ones parents for life and upbringing, to kin for occasional indulgences, to the bastard bank for the mortgage, duties of citizenship and humanity. This network of obligations she notices provides for really satisfying unhappy endings in Japanese fiction, and she suspects this means that happinesses, like that lovely warm bath, tend to be postponed or avoided in favour of meeting some obligation or other (such as to the family, or benefactor and the Emperor). Shame is felt so extremely, that ideas of revenge against people who insult you is taken extremely seriously - here I did wonder if she had read too many novels featuring samurai in the course of her research but then again it perhaps is a fair point about the culture of early twentieth century Japan and its search for international prestige through colonialism. For a brief instance while reading I did feel deeply that her discussion of all these circles of duty made sense of the Olympus scandal, but then I thought that all businesses take their reputation and image extremely seriously and generally seem to prefer to cover up, evade, or lie rather than to come clean about mistakes - and in that sense perhaps corporations are people after all.

Ambassador Numata's Speech at Flower Show 25 Nov 2000". 2006-01-11. Archived from the original on 2006-01-11 . Retrieved 2011-11-24. This is the famous contrast between the culture of guilt and the culture of shame. In the West, they have a culture of guilt, where there are absolute ethical standards and behavior is left to the conscience of each individual. Japan is a culture of shame, where the standard of behavior to avoid criticism from others. There is a code of conduct that says you should do it to avoid being criticized by the world, and you act in accordance with it. If this is the case, it means that the culture has a strong sense of sameness and synchronization. The unity of the team or organization may be strong, but the member would be criticized or be treated cold when straying from the unity. When someone does something for you, even if it is with good intentions, it is important to return the favor in Japanese society. Also, according to the Japanese dictionary, 義理(giri) means “the right course of things, the right way to follow as a person. And, to be obligated or to serve or reward others in a position or as a matter of morality.”It's a total secret, but the island nation of Japan and I have one of those "if we’re both single in 2015 let's get married" things. If it comes to that, and on the strength of "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", I've decided that Ruth Benedict can do the reading. c) the country being analyzed was, in many years of its history, closed to the outside world (Was it James Michener who claimed that Japan had put up one of the most effective iron curtains in the history of mankind?)?