Japan has a very rich history on the view of suicide. It is even discussed in two main Japanese history narratives. The first major writing I will be discussing is Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai (1716) by Yamamoto Tsunetomo. The second was written in 1899 by Nitobe Inazō and it was called Bushido: The soul of Japan. It is important to point out some differences about the two books. On the one hand Hagakure’s book is written to explain bushido (the way of the Samurai) to people from the age of the Samurai. On the other hand, Bushido was written and based off of Hagakure, however it is written in the context of the late nineteenth century, well after European context. Furthermore, Inazō wrote Bushido in America while Japan was in the midst …show more content…
Which makes them question whether or not they should put their own, or others’ happiness first. In western culture the sense of self preservation, and concept of suicide as a termination of one’s life and as the termination of all worldly responsibilities and in religious terms, as a sin. However, in Japanese culture, suicide is not seen as a sin, nor is it the cessation of life, but its transformation to another level, and it is a direct way for an individual to take responsibility. Furthermore, one can act in death in ways that influence life according to the Sino-Japanese system of ancestor worship. To state suicide is simply the termination of the self is thus not strictly accurate in Japan. In other words, suicide can be seen as a return to nature, or as the merging of oneself with that of another. This idea is especially true in love or double suicides. For instance, we observe frequent suicides of elderly people following the death of their partner or as withdrawing from society in order to influence it from the outside. [3] In Japan a dominant feature of suicide has been cultural aestheticization. In other words, certain suicides are given a positive cultural attention. For example, the cases of Mishima Yukio and Eto Jun. These two famous writers took their own lives, the public reaction and mass media reports included praises of their …show more content…
Hikikomori can be perceived as a manifestation of Japanese democracy, in which the good society is imagined as cohesive, protective and secure, rather than one in which the individual can freely exercise the right to be different. But that is not always so. Schools, families and the sphere of mental health care have focused on producing social inclusion, but have discouraged citizens from being labeled as ‘‘different’’, even when such a distinction could aid them.[5] For example, Japan’s postwar education and health care encouraged relative equality and common social values, as a key to a healthy and productive society. However, society offers limited and constrained substitutes to mainstream social practise. Mental health is often described as a matter of an individual’s attitude (ki no mochiyo ¯), so it is important to keep in good spirits. The over-arching cultural value is attached to being active and participative, and if one fails to do so they are considered “different”. As a result a more diffuse assumption is that mental degeneration, whether in the form of mental illness, senility or even suicide, is, at least in some part, voluntary. [3] This approach to depression does not recognize nor does it emphasize psychological, developmental or even familial issues that were potentially at play in the youth. Instead, the stress is almost exclusively placed on healing through
Men must face hardships. Men must face disease. Men must face each other [Parallel]. Men constantly pressure one another into perfection. Some men, however, crumble under the burden looming over their heads [FoS]. When some men cannot face themselves or those around them any longer, they choose a dangerous and deadly escape. They would rather commit suicide than face their hardships. In the japanese culture, society encouraged seppuku to end a life before a man brought dishonor to his family. In a world full of yearning for honor, young men learned that they must express courage through suicide to fulfill their honorable ancestors’ wishes. Gail Tsukiyama uses her novel The Samurai’s Garden to prove that only
In the book Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan, Karl Friday focuses on war in early medieval Japan. A central thesis could be the political primacy of the imperial court. (Lamers 2005) This is the tenth through fourteenth centuries, before the samurai became prominent in Japan and were trying to form themselves into more of what we think of them today. Friday focuses on five aspects of war in his book; they are the meaning of war, the organization of war, the tools of war, the science of war, and the culture of war.
In The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, a young man is thrown from his established world, left in a new, confusing realm that holds more than meets the eye. In the midst of a violent and ferocious war between the Chinese and Japanese in mid 1937, this young man, Stephen, contracts tuberculosis, and is sent to his family’s summer house in Japan. There he meets the house’s caretaker, Matsu, a simple and reserved man who holds back all but the most necessary speech. This meeting will come to define many of Stephen’s interactions with others throughout the novel: reserved and limited. In this odd land filled with subtle secrets and unspoken uncomfortability, Stephen is prepared for a very quiet and restful period, marked with healing and growth.
Culture is a collection of religion, traditions, and beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture is created and maintained through the repetition of stories and behavior. It is never definite because it is continuously being modified to match current trends, however, historical principles are still relevant. With respect to mental illness, culture is crucial to how people choose to deal with society and the methods used to diagnose and cope with mental illnesses. In Watters’ The Mega-Marketing Depression of Japan, he focuses on how Japan and other cultures define depression, but also displays how the influence of American treatments in eastern countries eventually becomes the international standards. Even though the
The bushido stressed that a samurai should be education and support the arts. The bushido also explained an act of suicide through a ritual called the hira-kira. In this ritual, if a samurai fails to complete his duty, he was expected to use a knife to cut his abdomen, after which an assistant would cut off the warrior’s
In the novel, The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama, Stephen-san was on his way towards a full recovery, from tuberculosis, when he discovered the Japanese mythological system through his family’s servant, Matsu. Through his time, he spent in Japan he learned what roles the gods play in his everyday life and discovered a new way to view living and dying. He learned new ways to look at his life and understand his purpose. Stephan-san grew more than just physically in his time spent in Tarumi, Japan. He also learned what it meant to become spiritual and learned from this new spiritual realm he discovered. This mythological system affected how they went about their everyday lives, the gods they worshiped, the ways they worshiped the gods,
Minois, Georges. History of Suicide: Voluntary Death in Western Culture. Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins UP, 1999.
Many people say that a person who commits suicide is weak or selfish in that they bring it upon themselves to help others but then kill themselves to get out of a tough situation the easy way. However, like everything in life there are exceptions to this. Sometimes suicide is committed for the greater good; in this case it is considered a noble and honorable thing to do. Such is the case of the suicide committed by Lieutenant Shinji and his wife Reiko. The couple brought it upon themselves to kill themselves to preserve their honor and loyalty. Both of their deaths can be considered heroic however, Reiko’s death was more heroic.
The samurai were a warrior class that gained immense power during feudal Japan. They held high status positions in society and exemplified the power of the shoguns. Samurai often faced death on the cruel battlefield of medieval Japan. However, most interesting about the samurai is their conception of death. The samurai not only faced death much more frequently than the average man but they also had a practice of hara-kiri or seppuku, in which they took their own life. In this paper, I will look at the notions surrounding death for a samurai. I will begin by first by discussing the origins and rise of both the samurai class and Zen Buddhism in Japan. Thereupon, I will look at the samurai philosophy of bushido and in specific the notion of seppuku. My main interest will be to delve deeper into the samurai practice of ritual suicide and how Zen Buddhism may have affected the samurai ideology. Finally, I will look into if these cultural constructs emphasized in medieval Japan, can still be made relevant to Japanese suicide during World War II.
The Japanese warrior, known as the samurai, has played a significant role in Japan's history and culture throughout the centuries. Their ancestors can be traced back to as far as can be remembered. Some stories have become mysterious legends handed down over the centuries. In this report you will learn who the samurai were, their origins as we know them, how they lived and fought and their evolution to today. It will be clear why the samurai stand out as one of the most famous group of warriors of all times.
The Samurai class was one of the highest classes to be in medieval Japan .These elite warriors are said to be the best of the best in the system of Japanese warriors. The samurai class had a certain type of weapons used in war and their battles they had 3 different types of swords. The katana, Wakizashi, and the Yari. The swords were usually made by normal sword smiths. However, if a sword for a high ranking samurai was to be mad they would have the best sword smith in all of japan to craft the sword, spear, and dagger. The samurai had different types of armor too for each of their different classes. The shogun had his own type of amour that signified who he was the armor was decorated with a custom helmet made by the best craft man and full body suit which was also made by the top Japanese designers. The normal samurai had their own type of armor but it usually was never custom and depending on the time period. The samurai armor changed over time from a hard type of paper to copper to metal and at the end of the samurai age standard military clothing. The samurai were a class that didn’t start as a class used in army’s. The samurai were first used as personal warriors that were hired by high ranking officials or sometimes the emperor himself. It was not till an emperor decided to use them as Japan’s own army that they were used during warfare but some people still did own private samurai army’s. The two main groups with the most samurai were the Minamoto clan and the Fujiwara clan. These two clans were rivals and hated each other. The two clans had many little skirmishes but at the end the Minamoto clan won and took over as the best clan of Japan. The leader of the clan soon became the first shogun (military leader of japan) he ...
The Last Samurai is a film that is often used to teach history in classes. The last Samurai represents the end of an era. The film does a good job of teaching many parts of Japanese History. This movie teaches us about the way of the Samurai, and their beliefs and traditions. The movie also expresses what life was like during the Meiji Restoration. You can see in the movie that technology started to advance, gradually decreasing the amount of Samurais. The Satsuma Rebellion, which lasted for 6 months, was shown in the movie as a battle between tradition and modernisation. Even though this film is not entirely accurate, it has some key historical events which are good for learning about this historic period.
In ancient history suicide was condemned to be a morally wrong sin. Plato claimed that suicide was shameful and its perpetrators should be buried in unmarked graves. When the Christian Prohibition came into play a man by the name of St. Thomas Aquinas defended the prohibition on three grounds. These are that suicide is contrary to natural self-love, whose aim is to preserve us. Suicide injures the community of which the individual is a part of. Suicide ...
The question of the rightness or wrongness of suicide is a challenging question to answer. Some countries see suicide as an honorable death, such as seppuku in the Japanese culture, while western cultures have a vastly different perspective on this topic. I personally categorize suicide as a permanent solution to a potentially temporary problem, but not a wrongful act. During the time Thomas Aquinas wrote about suicide it was not generally considered wrong or misguided, however, Aquinas regarded suicide as a wrongful act and felt it should be avoided. Thomas Aquinas’s has three arguments that will be examined in the following paragraphs.
Throughout time, death has been viewed in a negative light. In general, it is an event to be mourned and is seen by some as the end to existence. People do not usually seek death as an answer to their problems. In various pieces of literature, however, suicide is contemplated by the characters as the only solution to the pain and grief that they experience.