The Peasant Soul of Japan

204 Pages·1989·17.306 MB·English

by  Shoichi Watanabe (auth.)

THE PEASANT SOUL OF JAPAN
By the same author
Studien zur Abhiingigkeit der Frnhneuenglischen Grammatiken von den
Mittelalterlichen Lateingrammatiken
The Spirit of the Japanese Language
History of English Philology
An Approach to the Intellectual Life
Introduction to English Etymology
The Peasant Soul
of Japan
Shoichi Watanabe
Professor of English Studies
Sophia University, Tokyo
Foreword by Louis Allen
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-0-333-44353-8 ISBN 978-1-349-20242-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20242-3
© Kodansha 1980
English translation © Shoichi Watanabe 1989
Foreword © Louis Allen 1989
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1989
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY lOOlO
First published in the United States of America in 1989
ISBN 978-0-312-03236-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Watanabe, Shoichi, 1930-
[Nihon soshite nihonjin. English:
The peasant soul of Japan/Shoichi Watanabe; foreword by Louis Allen.
p. cm.
Translation of: Nihon soshite nihonjin.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-312-03236-4
I. National characteristics, Japanese. I. Title.
DS830.W32813 1989
952.04--dc20 89-6289
CIP
Contents
List ofM aps
VI
Foreword by Louis Allen
Vll
Preface Vlll
Simplified Chronology ofJ apanese History xiii
PART I PROLOGUE 1
1 The Tokyo Summit of 1979: An Event
which Sheds Light on the Nature of the
Japanese 3
2 The Peasant Spirit in War: The Agrarian
and Equestrian Mentalities 13
3 The Japanese Feeling of Security: Ancestral
Roots. The Soil 25
4 The Japanese Feeling of Security:
Leadership and Security 33
5 The Spirit of Harmony as the Cause of
Conflict 40
6 Societies in which orders are effective;
Societies in which they are not 58
PART II THE DYNAMICS OF ENVY 69
7 The Mechanism of the Envy Society 71
8 'Law' and 'Order' in an Agrarian Society 84
9 The Politics of Envy 100
PART III THE JAPANESE - AN
AGRARIAN PEOPLE SEEN FROM THE
POINT OF VIEW OF HISTORY 113
10 The Emperor as the Chief High Priest of
Agrarian Ceremonies 115
v
Vi Contents
11 The Civil War Period and the Foresight of
Tokugawa Ieyasu, the First of the
Tokugawa Shoguns 125
12 The Meaning of the Meiji Restoration and
the History of the Showa Period 144
PART IV THE AGE OF THE JAPANESE IDEA 153
13 The Spirit of Commerce and its Effect on
the Japanese 155
14 The World Turns Towards an Agrarian
Ideology 174
15 Conclusion 182
Appendix 185
Index 191
List of Maps
1. The Battle of Minatogawa 187
2. Important places in the latter part of the
16th century, which preceeded the
foundation of the Tokugawa Shogunate 188
3. The Pacific Ocean, 1941-45 189
Vll
Foreword
Shoichi Watanabe is a Professor of English at Sophia Univer
sity, one of the most renowned private universities in Tokyo.
A knowledgeable historian of English-language studies, a
bibliophile whose collection of English first editions would
be the envy of many a book collector, he is also the author
of a best-selling book on the German General Staff, a
disciple of forgotten Victorian figures like Samuel Smiles
and P. G. Hamerton, the father of a gifted musical family,
and a Roman Catholic.
In short, Watanabe is a very diverse and quirky Japanese,
who is also passionately interested in the foibles of his own
people and in their history. This has led him to contribute
to the many theories ofJ apanese identity which have become
a flourishing brand of Japanese speculative historical and
psychological writing since 1945.
This book is his chief contribution to that debate. It draws
on Japanese and European classical literature, on the history
of warfare, on studies of law and business management. It
is opinionated, and at times both infuriating and fascinating.
The reader will feel an urge to argue with Watanabe in
profound disagreement; he or she will also come across
sudden insights which illuminate Japanese behaviour arising
from the most trivial domestic arrangements, for instance,
the nomenclature of the Japanese lavatory; or from the
most far-reaching events, such as the outbreak of the war in
the Pacific.
As a television personality and a commentator on current
affairs in Japan's leading periodicals, Professor Watanabe is
an influential and controversial figure in modern Japan.
Whether we agree with him or not, we should be aware of
what he thinks.
Louis Allen
Vlll
Preface
JAPAN AS A COUNTRY OF DON PEASANTS
When did I first decide to write about my own people, the
Japanese? I'm pretty sure I was in the mood to do it when I
was a student in Europe, when I was 25. At that time,
though, the urge to write about Europe was stronger.
The notion that I had to write, at all costs, came to me
after I'd been to America, about two decades ago. I was
extremely anxious that my American colleagues and stu
dents should understand what sort of a country Japan was,
what kind of people the Japanese were. I also thought that
my fellow countrymen might be interested in my theories.
That was why I published The Japanese in the light of their
history, which went through its 30th printing recently. That
I
was the beginning of my commitment to theories about the
Japanese. Two years later, in 1975, I came to grasp the
essential features of the Japanese as those of a peasant,
whom I call respectfully and humorously 'Don Peasant'.
This happened while I was writing a thesis titled-The
Equestrian State and the Peasant State--comparing the Ameri
cans and the Japanese.2
The Pacific War, or the Greater East Asia War as we, the
Japanese, used to call it, remains an inexhaustible quarry of
ideas and reflections for me. In the course of the war the
characteristic features of two nations were revealed, it seems
to me, at their most typical. Finally I was led to a dichotomy
of national mentality-the equestrian mentality and the
peasant mentality. This dichotomy of mine is far from
flawless like most other dichotomies, and for that matter,
like any classification in any other field, but it sheds a new
light on the national propensity of the Japanese.
Throughout this book two concepts of the 'equestrian'
and the 'peasant' mentality are used in a special sense. An
'equestrian' people need not necessarily live on horseback
while a peasant nation does not necessarily live in rice
paddies. These two concepts are derived from two contrast
ing ways of living, and seem to be applicable to different
IX