The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan by Ivan MorrisReview by: Marius B. JansenThe Journal of the Association of Teachers of Japanese, Vol. 10, No. 2/3 (Sep., 1975), pp. 217-220Published by: American Association of Teachers of JapaneseStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/489029 .

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The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the

History of Japan, by Ivan Morris. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1975. xxiii, 500 pp. $17.95.

Reviewed by MARIUS B. JANSEN

Princeton University

Many of us have remarked on the tendency of

Japanese to romanticize and idealize partisans who failed, and to select the brilliant failures as national heroes: Yoshitsune but not Yoritomo, Masahige but not Takauji, and Ryoma, Katsu, and above all Saigo, but certainly not Okubo. Ivan Morris is the first to make this the subject of a book-length study, and the product is a volume with historical sweep and psychological perception that guarantee it wide reading among non-Japan- ologues at the same time that it remains important for the most demanding specialist.

Mr. Morris selects his failed heroes from the fourth century (Yamato Takeru) to the twentieth (the kamikaze fighters of World War II), and in the process he finds it possible and in fact

necessary, through skillful condensation and pro- vision of chronologies, to encapsulate a good deal of Japanese history. The result is in part a contribution to popular history, the sort specialists tend to leave to less qualified hands, and at the same time a book that makes solid contact with

figures like Michizane, Yoshitsune, Masahige, Oshio Heihachiro, and SaiSaigo. Sao's chapter is the

longest and, all considered, the most satisfactory;

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more shadowy figures like Amakusa Shiro and Arima no Miko serve, one feels, more as devices to round out the narrative than as fully substantive heroes.

Mr. Morris' prose is, as always, engaging and lively, and he never condescends or belittles. Since he is concerned with what his heroes have meant to their compatriots, the facts of the matter are not always as important to him as the way those facts have been seen, but to keep the record straight his footnotes--which constitute more than one third of the text, which ends on page 334--make it clear where the record has become blurred. The stories are told with zest, and Morris makes good use of the extensive products of Japan's recent "history boom"; the Yoshikawa Kobunkan Jimbutsu sosho and the Chuo Koron Nihon no rekishi series, and the like. Comparative perspectives are added from western literature and writers like Joseph Campbell. Dust jacket endorsements by Erich Fromm and Shirley Hazzard confirm my impression that this skillful work will reach a wide audience well beyond the membership of the Association of Teachers of Japanese.

But let us turn to Mr. Morris' theme. The West, he says, has as "typical heroes men and women whose cause has triumphed." Japan too has such figures, but it also has another type; "a man whose career usually belongs to a period of unrest and warfare and represents the very antithesis of an ethos of accomplishment. He is the man whose single-minded sincerity will not allow him to make the maneuvers and compromises that are so often needed for mundane success. . .His death is no temporary setback which will be redeemed by his followers, but represents an irrevocable collapse of the cause he has championed: in practical terms the struggle has been useless and, in many instances, counter-productive." It is the predilection for these men "that can teach us much about Japanese values and sensibility--and indirectly about our own as well." (xxi-xxii)

We can begin with the admission that worldly success usually requires compromise and maneuver repugnant to paragons of sincerity, the ideogram

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that heads each of Mr. Morris' chapters. Is there something here beyond Leo Durocher's reminder that nice guys finish last? I think there is; Japan has had its successful heroes too, but the really popular ones in historical imagination are those who lost--more often, too--their lives. The world as Japanese perceive it, Morris says, is not benign; it produces a natural pessimism. His further addition of Mahayana Buddhism and natural disaster (p. 39) as contributing factors in this could profit from more elaboration and comment. But it is clearly true that "in the very imper- manence and poignancy of the human condition the Japanese have discovered a positive quality. Their recognition of the special beauty inherent in evanescence, worldly misfortune, and 'the pathos of things' (mono no aware) in many ways replaces the blithe Western belief in the possibility of 'happiness."' (p. 40) And as it works itself out, "in the mystique of Japanese heroism nothing succeeds like failure." (p. 15)

Space makes it difficult to do justice to themes of this order. Mr. Morris must be aware that the "blithe Western belief in the possibility of 'happiness'" is better rooted in twentieth century Los Angeles, with its cemeteries that deny the reality of death, than in the main stream of Western religious and literary thought. After all, in The Imitation of Christ (Chapter XXIII), no less than in the Hagakure,. the reader is cautioned that "Thou oughtest so to order thyself in every act and thought, as if today thou wert on the point to die. . .When it is morning, think thou wilt not come to eventide. And when evening is come, dare not to promise thyself the morning." Furthermore, his determinedly gloomy dismissal of nineteenth century changes makes Oshio and Saigo losers instead of, as later official history had it, harbingers of the new. Consequently, there is a sense in which the heroes Morris treats are not nearly as unsuccessful as he would have us think. To the degree that they profess imperial loyalty, for instance, are not Masahige, Saigo, and others exemplars of gloriously righteous conduct, indeed in some sense the necessary creations of a later

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cult? And are not the stories of Yoshitsune and Benkei and of the 47 ronin (who are treated, because of their "success") illustrative of the beauties of loyalty to superior and to group, and thus in fact rather "happy" endings? What these all share, of course, is a romantic purity of

motive, a refusal to surrender, and a belief that death itself is "lighter than a feather."

Nevertheless there clearly is something distinctive here, and Ivan Morris has written a book that will start many of us thinking about it. I found him particularly good on Saigo and on the kamikaze fighters, where he has tapped the large literature of recent years with taste and sensi-

tivity.

Modern Japanese: An Advanced Reader, by Gen Itasaka, Seiichi Makino, and Kikuko Yamashita.

Tokyo, New York & San Francisco: Kodansha International Ltd., 1974. Volume I, Text, 144 pp., Volume II, Vocabulary and Notes, 184 pp. $12.50.

Reviewed by AKIRA MIURA

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Modern Japanese: An Advanced Reader is designed for students of Japanese who have completed Hibbett and Itasaka's Modern Japanese: A Basic Reader. Volume I consists of twenty lessons, all extracts from books, essays, and articles. Volume II is a

glossary scattered with notes.

An Advanced Reader is more colorful on the outside than A Basic Reader--Volume I in pinkish orange, and Volume II in light blue. The printing is of high quality, which is a big step forward from the handwritten text of A Basic Reader. Moreover, it has very few misprints. In fact, the only misprint I have found is the use of the lowercase Z, instead

cult? And are not the stories of Yoshitsune and Benkei and of the 47 ronin (who are treated, because of their "success") illustrative of the beauties of loyalty to superior and to group, and thus in fact rather "happy" endings? What these all share, of course, is a romantic purity of

motive, a refusal to surrender, and a belief that death itself is "lighter than a feather."

Nevertheless there clearly is something distinctive here, and Ivan Morris has written a book that will start many of us thinking about it. I found him particularly good on Saigo and on the kamikaze fighters, where he has tapped the large literature of recent years with taste and sensi-

tivity.

Modern Japanese: An Advanced Reader, by Gen Itasaka, Seiichi Makino, and Kikuko Yamashita.

Tokyo, New York & San Francisco: Kodansha International Ltd., 1974. Volume I, Text, 144 pp., Volume II, Vocabulary and Notes, 184 pp. $12.50.

Reviewed by AKIRA MIURA

University of Wisconsin, Madison

Modern Japanese: An Advanced Reader is designed for students of Japanese who have completed Hibbett and Itasaka's Modern Japanese: A Basic Reader. Volume I consists of twenty lessons, all extracts from books, essays, and articles. Volume II is a

glossary scattered with notes.

An Advanced Reader is more colorful on the outside than A Basic Reader--Volume I in pinkish orange, and Volume II in light blue. The printing is of high quality, which is a big step forward from the handwritten text of A Basic Reader. Moreover, it has very few misprints. In fact, the only misprint I have found is the use of the lowercase Z, instead

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This content downloaded from 185.44.78.129 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 17:21:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions