School Study Guides

8

Japanese Book News

Number 17

Chi no henshû kôgaku [Editorial

Engineering]. Matsuoka Seigô. Asahi

Shimbunsha, 1996. 194\133 mm.

327 pp. ¥2,200. ISBN 4-02-256988-

3.

The author (b. 1944) is what is

known in Japan as an “editorial di-

rector” who has explored the philo-

sophical frontiers of the editorial

profession through the process of

editing since he founded a general-

interest magazine entitled Yû (which

means “play”; Matsuoka sees editing

as a kind of game) in 1971. This

book is Matsuoka’s attempt to pre-

sent his original ideas on editorial en-

gineering, which he describes as the

most “basic information-related tech-

nology of human activity.”

The essence of life itself, he says,

is edited information in the form of

inherited genetic data, and human

existence and activities proceed in

accordance within the framework of

that data. Information is not by nature

separate or independent. It inces-

santly pursues the world of meaning

and value. Information can be con-

sidered a metaphor for the “self,” and

editing consists of placing oneself

within a given context. Everything

related to our daily lives—child

raising, cooking, sports, play, work—

possesses the qualities of editing; it is

the mechanism for evaluating and

sifting through the opinions and in-

formation that bombard the self.

RELIGION AND THOUGHT

Kindai Nihonjin no shûkyô ishiki

[The Religious Consciousness of

Modern Japanese]. Yamaori Tetsuo.

Iwanami Shoten, 1996. 193\133

mm. 260 pp. ¥2,400. ISBN 4-00-

002755-7.

Attempting to assess the Japanese re-

ligious consciousness from the

Western point of view, which tends

to expect a clear profession of faith,

does little to help understand why

Japanese celebrate New Year's by ob-

serving various Shintô rituals and

have Buddhist priests officiate at

their services for the dead, yet when

asked usually declare that they have

no particular religious affiliation. 

This study of the deeper layers of

Japanese religious consciousness

grows out of the author’s scrutiny of

the issues raised by the series of in-

cidents perpetrated by members of

the Aum Shinrikyô cult. Examined

in this volume are the thought and

behavior of a variety of Japanese in-

tellectuals including haiku poet

Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902), novelist

Natsume Sôseki (1867–1916), physi-

cist Terada Torahiko (1878–1935),

poet Miyazawa Kenji (1896–1933),

philosopher Watsuji Tetsurô

(1889–1960), and scholar of Bud-

dhism Kimura Taiken (1881–1930).

Yamaori’s aim is to detect the sensi-

bilities toward nature prescribed by

Japanese climate and culture and the

primal religious consciousness that

these men share. He also expands his

discussion to the problems of com-

munication among religions and con-

templates the possibilities for

development of a coexistential

model to replace the existing dia-

logue (conflictive) model.

Kyokô no jidai no hate: Ômu to

sekai saishû sensô [Consequences

of Fiction: Aum Shinrikyô and

“Armageddon”]. Ôsawa Masachi.

Chikuma Shobô, 1996. 173\106

mm. 302 pp. ¥680. ISBN 4-480-

05673-4.

This book is an analysis of contem-

porary Japanese society occasioned

by a study of the terrorist acts con-

ducted by the followers of the Aum

Shinrikyô cult in Tokyo in 1995 by

an up-and-coming young sociologist

(b. 1957). Aum was an incorporated

religious organization with a fol-

lowing of more than 10,000 at the

time of the incidents under the pow-

erful charismatic leadership of

founder Asahara Shôkô. 

Sociologist Ôsawa tries to identify

the nature of contemporary Japanese

society and the individuals that live

within it in the incidents orchestrated

by the Aum cult. The cult proved to

be a community of vulnerable indi-

viduals out of touch with the reality

of their own consciousness and their

own bodies who sought to project

mutual fiction and illusion. Within it

they were not aware of the rupture

between themselves and society, but

the situations forced by that gap

caused them to strike out in despera-

tion. “There is a widespread feeling

in contemporary society that we have

within our midst ‘others’ that are mo-

tivated by principles totally different

from our own,” says Ôsawa. “If that

is so, the only way we can be sure

that we ourselves do not walk the

same path as Aum Shinrikyô is to

possess thoroughgoing tolerance in

the face of whatever ‘other’ enters

our midst.”

New Titles

MEDIA AND PUBLISHING

Cover design: Shirota Shô

Cover design: Mamura Toshikazu

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9

Japanese Book News

Number 17

Orientarizumu no kanata e: Kindai

bunka hihan [Beyond Orientalism:

A Critique of Modern Culture].

Kang Sang-jung. Iwanami Shoten,

1996. 193\133 mm. 246 pp. ¥2,300.

ISBN 4-00-000258-9.

This book is a collection of essays

that first appeared in such monthly

opinion journals as Gendai no shisô

and Shisô. The author is a Korean

resident in Japan active as a re-

searcher and critic.

Taking the issue of national iden-

tity as his point of departure, Kang

(b. 1950), a political scientist, under-

takes a critique of modern culture.

Human experience and the way we

look at others has been forced into

many kinds of dichotomies: West

against East, Japan against Asia, con-

queror and conquered, white people

against black people, male against fe-

male, and so on. What are the theo-

ries and systems through which these

dichotomies have been spun? 

Basing his discussion on the

thought of Max Weber, Michel Fou-

cault, and Edward Said, Kang exam-

ines the systems of control

established in modern Europe and

discusses the views of Asia that

modern Japanese intellectuals used to

fabricate their national identity.

Shimbutsu shûgô [Shinto-Buddhist

Syncretism]. Yoshie Akio. Iwanami

Shoten, 1996. 173\105 mm. 224 pp.

¥650. ISBN 4-00-430453-9.

Yoshie Akio (b. 1943), specialist on

medieval Japanese history, reassesses

Japanese history, encompassing in his

perspective the minds of the people

while faithfully following the rules of

documentary historical research. The

book delves deeply into the drama of

assimilation of native religion

(Shintô) with Buddhism, which was

introduced from the continent. Con-

sidered in terms of the merging of

universalistic religion with indige-

nous beliefs, syncretism occurred in a

different way from that seen in the

case of Christianity, which over-

whelmed and absorbed other forms of

belief. In Japan the two religious sys-

tems combined without losing their

respective integrity and remained

open to each other.

This book describes how the trans-

formation of Shintô shrines into Bud-

dhist temples (

jingûji ) in the late

eighth and early ninth centuries was

closely related to the collapse of the

ritsuryô system and the private land

ownership of powerful local clans.

The development was prompted, the

author argues, by the popularity of

Priest Kûkai’s (774–835) school of

esoteric Buddhism, the rise of the cult

of malevolent spirits of the dead

(onryô), and the combination of the

Shintô concept of defilement and the

Buddhist faith in the pure land.

HISTORY

Chinmoku no fairu [The Silent

Files]. Kyôdô News, ed. Kyôdô

Tsûshinsha, 1996. 195\132 mm.

382 pp. ¥1,600. ISBN 4-7641-0359-

1.

This documentary is based on a series

of articles published in newspapers

throughout Japan in 1995 by Kyodo

News Agency in commemoration of

the fiftieth anniversary of the end of

World War II. In an attempt to find

out why the elite staff officers who

were known as the brains of the

Japanese Imperial Army decided to

plunge rashly into a senseless war,

the story tracks mainly the career of

Sejima Ryûzô (b. 1912), a member of

the Imperial General Headquarters

who returned to Japan in 1956 after

being detained by the Soviet Union

for 11 years after the war and worked

with a major trading firm. 

A loyal supporter of the prewar im-

perial state, Sejima’s firm profited

from business related to reparations

extended to countries victimized by

Japanese aggression during the war.

Now you can read Japanese Book News on the Internet!

With the opening of the Japan Foundation’s home page on the Internet in December 1996, information about 

the Foundation and its activities, including the full contents of Japanese Book News, is available.

Address: http://www.jpf.go.jp/

1. What’s New!

4. Publications (including Japanese Book News)

2. What is the Japan Foundation?

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6. Links

Cover design: Katsuragawa Jun

Cover design: Kamegai Shôji

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