At the Yama Shure special event held at Art Biotope Nasu, ``Singing and dancing in the water garden at night,'' the water garden was transformed into a theater, and Noboru Yasuda, a Noh performer, sang verses from the Kojiki and the Hebrew Bible. Show off the dance. Yasuda, who has always performed Noh, will write about Japanese people and ``Japanese'' on the occasion of the second resort's opening.

Written by Noboru Yasuda

“Wa” does not mean “the same” but fosters “harmony” beyond diverse opinions.

Many Japanese people are familiar with Prince Shotoku's words, ``Harmony is honorable.'' By the way, the original text is written in Chinese as ``Iwa Tameki''. Some people say that ``Japan is a country of harmony'' because ``Harmony is precious'' is placed at the beginning of the 17-article constitution. Of course, that is correct, but this is not Prince Shotoku's original quote, but a quotation from the Chinese classic Analects. Ariko (Arizo), one of Confucius's most prominent disciples, said, ``The use of courtesy respects peace.''

Prince Shotoku's ``Harmony is to be respected'' and ``The use of courtesy is to respect peace'' from The Analects. Comparing the two original texts, if we remove the first two letters of Ariko...
“Iwa Tametaka” (Prince Shotoku)
“Yowa Tametaka” (Ariko)
Although they are almost the same, the only difference is ``I'' and ``Yo'', but the meanings of the two are slightly different. The text of the Analects continues as follows.

``The path of the ancient holy king valued ``harmony'' as beauty. However, both small and important things may not go well depending on ``harmony''. Even if you are aware of harmony and are harmonious, if you do not add order (section) to it through ``rei'', things will not go well.''

Prince Shotoku said that ``Japanese'' itself is precious. Ariko, on the other hand, says that while ``Japanese'' is certainly wonderful, it may not work on its own. He says that order, or ``rei,'' is necessary for it to function.

Before thinking about what the difference is, let's confirm what "wa" is. Looking at Prince Shotoku's 17-Article Constitution, the character for ``wa'' is an old form of the character ``龢''. The Analects was originally written in these characters. The character ``龠'' on the left side of this character means to play instruments with various sounds at the same time. In other words, ``harmony'' refers to finding harmony among various people expressing various opinions.

Diverse opinions can lead to confusion if done poorly. Therefore, the Analects of Confucius says that in order to control this, ``respect'' is necessary as an order. However, Prince Shotoku says that ``Japanese'' itself is fine. Why is this? To think about this, let's take a look at ``kyowa'', a conversation style unique to Japanese.

The two met in the morning on the day of the earthquake. One person said, ``Today's earthquake...'' and the other said, ``It was amazing.'' The conversation is completed between the two of you. This type of conversation is called "co-talk." This is common not only in everyday conversation, but also in Noh, so you can see that it has been the basic form of Japanese conversation since ancient times. However, in Europe and America, it is considered bad practice to interrupt the other person's conversation. For example, you won't find "colloquy" in Shakespeare's plays.

The main characters in the performing art of Noh are shite, beings from another world (ghosts and gods), and waki, beings from this world (humans). The worlds they live in and the times they live in are different. There's no such thing as conflict. The encounter between two people often begins with a question, but since they live in different worlds, their conversations don't mesh at all at first. This is because we are having a conversation standing on the surface of conflict. However, as these two go deeper and deeper through ``co-talk,'' they reach a ``common area'' and their conflicts are resolved. In other words, the difference between self and other disappears.

As the conversation progresses further, it reaches a deeper level, the collective realm. At that time, even the difference in time will be transcended, and the place will be neither the "present" nor the "past," but the "past as a story," in other words, "the past" will emerge, and "now is the past." There, the story of Noh is first created. The trigger for this "community" is empathy through armpits. Armpits are human beings, and many of them are people who are deeply aware of their own powerlessness. He is a person who has given up on living in this world. He is a being who has stepped halfway into another world (the world of the dead). That's why he is able to meet otherworldly beings.

Waki knows he can't do anything. That's why I put my heart and soul into doing nothing. If I were to describe armpit empathy in English, it would be "empathy." If "sympathy" is the congruence with the other person's heart, then "empathy" is the active receptive ability to empathize more actively. The power of armpits is the ability to empathize by emptying oneself with all one's being, and thereby inviting the other person's emotions to flow into the vacuum.

Mainly there are the summer purification rituals (Minazuki Harai) held in June and the ``Oharae Kotoba'' chanted at the end of the year. It is a prayer that exorcises our sins and impurities, but the ones who commit the sins are the benefactors of heaven, that is, the worthy people, and the people who commit the crimes are various "sins". (Tsumigoto)" is written. We Japanese people believed that no matter how admirable we were, we were all imperfect beings and that we were all sinners who made mistakes. It is an imperfect existence. Therefore, you can't do anything alone. Based on the basic idea that ``I'm just a no-brainer,'' an unexpected idea emerges that if we all work together in harmony, we can do something.

The wisdom of Manjushri, when all three of us came together, was the Japanese ``wa''. That is why Prince Shotoku valued ``harmony''. Japanese people are a people of "wa". However, "wa" is different from "do". Confucius said, ``Gentlemen are harmonious but not alike.'' ``Wa'' is based on the fact that each person has a different opinion. It is different from ``same'' where everyone does the same thing.

→Next time is Miyu Kitayama (Representative Director of Nikimo Co., Ltd.).

(Titles omitted)