The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture

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There are a variety of situations in which Japanese people have to fulfill one’s duty, such as in the relationship of master and servant, in family, and in helping each other in the community during weddings and funerals. A mother-in-law teaches her daughter-in-law the etiquette of the house, and the whole village comes together to welcome a daughter-in-law from another village. If you do not fulfill these duties, you will be treated coldly by others. Japanese social critic and philosopher Tamotsu Aoki said that the translated book "helped invent a new tradition for postwar Japan." It helped to create a growing interest in "ethnic nationalism" in the country, shown in the publication of hundreds of ethnocentric nihonjinron (treatises on 'Japaneseness') published over the next four decades. Although Benedict was criticized for not discriminating among historical developments in the country in her study, "Japanese cultural critics were especially interested in her attempts to portray the whole or total structure ('zentai kōzō') of Japanese Culture," as Helen Hardacre put it. [9] C. Douglas Lummis has said the entire "nihonjinron" genre stems ultimately from Benedict's book. [10] When someone does something for you, even if it is with good intentions, it is important to return the favor in Japanese society. Also, according to the Japanese dictionary, 義理(giri) means “the right course of things, the right way to follow as a person. And, to be obligated or to serve or reward others in a position or as a matter of morality.”

That said the knowledge she draws from other books is quite decent and the section on ON is very interesting and worth a read.Soon after the translation was published, Japanese scholars, including Kazuko Tsurumi, Tetsuro Watsuji, and Kunio Yanagita criticized the book as inaccurate and having methodological errors. American scholar C. Douglas Lummis has written that criticisms of Benedict's book that are "now very well known in Japanese scholarly circles" include that it represented the ideology of a class for that of the entire culture, "a state of acute social dislocation for a normal condition, and an extraordinary moment in a nation's history as an unvarying norm of social behavior." [10] 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.

b) the author is from the victorious country (Who was it who said that history is written by the victors?) The first half of the book was not very interesting because of the difficult expressions, so I summarized my impressions of the second half. 義理(giri): Fulfill your duty.In a 2002 symposium at The Library of Congress in the United States, Shinji Yamashita, of the department of anthropology at the University of Tokyo, added that there has been so much change since World War II in Japan that Benedict would not recognize the nation she described in 1946. [13] Unfortunately, I have never been exposed to people from other countries except for traveling and English conversation schools, so I can’t really feel it. Training Johnson, Sheila (2014). "Letters: Unfair to Anthropologists". London Review of Books. 36 (7) . Retrieved 6 April 2014. d) the author didn't speak the language of the said country. (I did see the movie Lost in Translation. And a lot can get lost in translation sometimes. I should know. Over two decades here in Japan and I still get lost in Shinjuku Station, never mind the biggest hospital in my neighborhood.)

Kent, Pauline, "Misconceived Configurations of Ruth Benedict", Japan Review 7 (1996): 33-60. JSTOR 25790964. Sometimes it is easy to live by the rules usually determined but sometimes it is hard. In Japan, relationships with other people, the world and the community are important. Japanese manners and model rules of behavior do not apply in other countries. It's a total secret, but the island nation of Japan and I have one of those "if we’re both single in 2015 let's get married" things. If it comes to that, and on the strength of "The Chrysanthemum and the Sword", I've decided that Ruth Benedict can do the reading. Storia ragionata delle origini della coesistenza pacifica degli opposti insita nel pensiero giapponese 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.There is a lot of facile criticism of this book -- criticizing her for using the distinction of shame/guilt, for viewing Japanese culture through the lens of kinship structures, and so forth. Forget the critics -- like many such books, she puts them to shame (pun intended). They're what my students would call 'salty'. Essential reading for anyone interested in Japanese culture, this unsurpassed masterwork opens an intriguing window on Japan. The World War II–era study by the cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict paints an illuminating contrast between the people of Japan and those of the United States. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is a revealing look at how and why our societies differ, making it the perfect introduction to Japanese history and customs. If you're looking for a book about Japanese culture from a nonbiased perspective, this isn't going to work for you. It's a book filled with anecdotal evidence and secondhand accounts, and while Ruth Benedict is a renowned anthropologist of the time who earned her high reputation...this is definitely a book of its time and of its origin. It is an American researcher piecing together what she and others have gleaned from Japanese culture, and it says just as much (if not more) of Westerners and how they view other foreign cultures as it does about Japanese culture of that period. However, nowadays, with the development of social medias, more people can express their opinions freely not with caring other people in the internet than before. A culture of shame

Ruth Fulton Benedict (June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American anthropologist and folklorist. 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"?

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. John W. Bennett and Michio Nagai, two scholars on Japan, pointed out in 1953 that the translated book "has appeared in Japan during a period of intense national self-examination—a period during which Japanese intellectuals and writers have been studying the sources and meaning of Japanese history and character, in one of their perennial attempts to determine the most desirable course of Japanese development." [9] Ambassador Numata's Speech at Flower Show 25 Nov 2000". 2006-01-11. Archived from the original on 2006-01-11 . Retrieved 2011-11-24. The Japanese people today are much more diverse in their ways of thinking and values than in the era depicted in “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”. Especially now, with the spread of social networking services, people are clashing in the internet with each other in a variety of opinions and arguments without worrying about the world.