The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture

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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. 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. 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.'"

I love it, but I struggle to believe it. Didn't this father know what the Crown Prince's son / Crown Prince was called? Hirohito was the eldest son of the Meiji Emperor's eldest son; there weren't any surprises in the succession. Did the father kill the boy when Hirohito became the Taisho Emperor’s Regent? Or wait until he inherited the throne "for real"? Storia ragionata delle origini della coesistenza pacifica degli opposti insita nel pensiero giapponese Still...this one gets a good rating from me. I rate it not for its objectivity, but for its relative accuracy. Benedict wrote with what materials she had and could obtain, and the result was not so bad. She did claim in the first chapter that Japan is a country of contradictions - "different". That claim alone gives the reader fair warning that she could be wrong in some of her interpretations (and that she could also be right). And this tone resonates in the whole book. She keeps repeating the word "different" that Japan appears quite exotic, even alien, in some parts (just try to grasp "giri"...getting out of Shinjuku Station when you get lost in it seems an easier task). 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. Japan is a culture of “shame,” established not by absolute ethical standards (a culture of “guilt” that relies on conscience), but by relative standards. Ridicule in public and the “shame” of being watched are the roots of Japanese virtue. They do not want to be embarrassed, so they act the exemplary code of conduct. Knowing shame is the best in ethics in Japan.a b c Kent, Pauline (1999). "Japanese Perceptions of "the Chrysanthemum and the Sword" ". Dialectical Anthropology. 24 (2): 181–192. doi: 10.1023/A:1007082930663. ISSN 0304-4092. JSTOR 29790600. S2CID 140977522 . Retrieved 20 August 2023. Ryang, Sonya, "Chrysanthemum's Strange Life: Ruth Benedict in Postwar Japan", Asian Anthropology 1: 87-116. doi: 10.1080/1683478X.2002.10552522. PMID 17896441. In Japan, it is important to repay a favor and fulfill one’s duty（ 義理, giri ）.If you don’t fulfill your duty, you are laughed and called a shameless person.

Japanese people are carefully observing the suggestions of others’ behavior and at the same time being judged by their surroundings.Dated to say the least with some factual inaccuracies, such as her statement that the Tang Dynasty had a classless society which the Japanese did not adopt, however the Tang had a well documented class system. Although it must be said that the Japanese did adopt a multitude of things from the Chinese as Kanmu was a great admirer. 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.

Bullying in school is an example of this as I saw in “kuki no kenkyu”. And the old value system of being happy to get a good school education and work at a big company may also be one of behavioral norms. 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. 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. jicho-suru, to self respect, to be prudent)” means to consider the factors that affect your situation and refrain from saying or doing anything that will be criticized by the public. It means to be cautious of the consequences of one’s actions.

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