About Culture
Hideo Kobayashi
I will talk for about twenty minutes. I would like to talk about culture. The word culture has become very popular, but it is unfortunate that so few people seem to know exactly what it means. The word "culture," which is used today, is of course a word in translation, but the word has existed in China since ancient times, and it has a political meaning, which means to edify the people without the use of force. The word culture has been applied directly to the English word "culture" or to the German word "Kultur." Either way, the meanings are completely different, and I don't know who translated it, but because of this translation, even when we say "culture," we no longer understand what Germany is. It is a terrible thing when a word has no sense.
We just say "culture, culture, culture," as if it were a buzzword. However, for Westerners, the word culture must have a distinct feel, as if it were a native language. There is no way to misinterpret it just by hearing it. Culture means cultivation, the cultivation of the fields, to make things. The word culture does not have a single meaning, but no matter how it is used, when Westerners hear the word "culture," they feel that it includes the meaning of cultivation. This is the sense of the word.
Jinmye Huiyu, in discussing culture, refers to such a point and says something to this effect. For example, an apple tree grows and produces good apples. If you succeed in producing a fruit from a wild apple tree by applying fertilizers and other innovations, such as "Delicious" or "Indian," then the apple tree has culture, even if only figuratively. However, if you cut down an apple tree and use the timber to build a house or make geta, it does not mean that the primitive apple tree has become a cultural apple tree. In other words, cultivation was not carried out.
The reason for this is that the apple tree was not cultivated. Then, this is what happens. The apple tree itself was originally predisposed to bear fine fruit. The potential inherent in the nature of the apple was realised through human knowledge and human effort. In such cases, apple trees were cultivated. However, the apple tree itself does not have the potential to become geta. Man has already created geta. The apple tree itself has no knowledge of this.
In this sense, Westerners use the word "culture." The word is also translated as "culture" in Japan, but, for example, no matter how much culture I acquire from the outside, if it does not develop my qualities, then I am not a cultured person. In other words, the cultivation of myself as a person is possible on the assumption that within me there is the potential to perfect my personality.
I must cultivate myself. No matter how much knowledge I acquire, if I do not acquire it, I cannot become a cultured or educated person. Therefore, the first step is to have a belief in the improvement of a person's qualities and individuality. Otherwise, it is meaningless to talk about culture. The same applies to the culture of the people and the culture of the nation. However, the term "international culture" is used with impunity. If a country's culture has a traditional character, there can be no such thing as an international culture. International culture should be called technology rather than culture. Because they are so careless, they want to call any new technology a "culture." This is the case with housing.
Another thing that the words "culture" and "cultivation" themselves say, and which is obvious to Westerners, is something that the Japanese, who talk about "culture," do not realise. Culture is not a mere idea, but rather a thing, a "thing" that marks the efforts of the human spirit. Cultural activity is the cultivation of more beautiful apples. The word "culture" is meaningless unless the human spirit, when it confronts a definite object of reality, not necessarily nature, but history, creates some new value or form out of that object. The word "culture" has no meaning unless it creates a form. Culture is the production of a valuable, tangible thing by the spirit. Therefore, what I am talking about here, for example, can never be called a cultural activity. The reason is that by talking like this I am not producing any real form. Since I am a literary scholar, I believe that some of my writings are cultural production, and I indeed strive to do so. Literary writing is like apples. Good writing is a form of reality that lasts far longer than apples. But talking is not. I am thus consumed with my own spirit.
It is very difficult to produce spiritually in journalism. It requires a spirit of great abundance. It takes time, patience, and passion to create realistic forms of thought and beauty, but journalism does not allow for such things. The author is so energetic that he writes as if he were selling off a product. There is no way that production will not increase. They work together and consume their minds. Readers have become so accustomed to this that they have come to believe that culture is blossoming in this form of mental consumption.
There is another troubling trend in our time, and that is that, despite the fact that criticism is very popular, the idea of criticism is lacking. Of course, where there is no criticism, there can be no new creation. Criticism is a means of creation, not a mere critique. There is no such thing as criticism for the sake of criticism. There are too many things that should not exist. The words "critical" and "critique" are translated as "critique," but they originally mean "danger." Sudden death is called a critical moment. As in, we're gradually moving forward again, and we're already beyond that point. It also means a critical point at which you can no longer go on. The word "critique" has such a sense to Westerners.
For example, when a doctor tells you that something is wrong with you, he says, "This is the critical point." If the spirit that happily accepts things as they are is the spirit of normalcy, then we must deny such happiness, and instead of enjoying what is given to us, we must analyse it, dismantle it, and interpret it in various ways. The spirit of insatiability is a dangerous pathological spirit. An unresponsive mind is a dangerous and pathological mind. Therefore, it cannot be stopped, even if you say that you have stopped it. But I say that once you go down that path, you must thoroughly experience the dangers. Otherwise, it will be of no use to you. You will never know the secret of the critical spirit. The critical spirit begins by destroying the given object. Well, then, the object is gone.
But you have only destroyed the object from a certain standpoint, you criticise it. Now you will want to destroy the position. The position disappears. In this way, you will realise that where the spirit of criticism goes, there is nothing that will not disappear. In the end, even your last stronghold, yourself, will be obliterated by your strong critical spirit. It is at this point that you experience the danger of criticism. You realise that it is dangerous for you. In such an experience, there is an opportunity for the poison of criticism to turn into food for creativity. But it seems to me that most people feel safe somewhere halfway. Criticism may be dangerous for others, but it is not dangerous for oneself. That is why we can only produce criticism for the sake of criticism. How scary! Such half-hearted criticism is also criticism, so it is destroying the object, the object has disappeared. However, the sad thing about being half-hearted in one's critical consciousness is that one is unaware of it, unaware that one is doing something where there is no object. They think the object is always right in front of them. And so they pile critique upon critique, interpretation on interpretation. The object of reality and precision.
It is putting down a curtain of criticism between us and Kami. Bashō said, "Be in emptiness and do the real thing." The spirit of criticism finally makes us doubt all objects and see the emptiness as the truth.
I believe that if the spirit of criticism does not finally question all objects and seize the false, there will be no object of reality for the spirit to confront. Well, with such a tendency, it would be very difficult to produce culture. Finally, I would like to say that this tendency towards congratulatory criticism has nothing to do with the current war. It was so before the war. It will continue to be so after the war.
(May 1945)