JAPAN'S "GROTESQUE ERA."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 260, 2 November 1935, Page 8 (Supplement)

JAPAN'S "GROTESQUE ERA."

Odd Hotch-potch of West and East A NATION GROPING FOR THE LIGHT.

(By KIMPEI SHEBA.)

JAPAN to-day is experiencing a serial chaos unparalleled in i:s history and perhaps 5n that of all mankind. It is seeing the very roots of it? social structure destroyed. The speed at which Japan Is changing today is such that the old-timers, the very ones who set the amazing pace in "Westernisation during the last SO years anc astounded tie world, are beginning to take alarm. In 1854 ten American warships under Commodore Perry anchored in the forbidden waters of Japan. With a guard of 500 men Perry landed, at Shimoda. near Tokyo, and made proposals for trade and interchange which the Japanese had no power to resist. Up to that time, it must be remembered. Nippon was closed to all foreign tracing and the people, strictly forbidden to leave the shores of the country or to associate in any way whatsoever with Westerners and their culture, were medieval, a fantastic caricature of extreme romantic feudalism. But having once been forced to emerge from their isolation and quick to reali.-e the superior qualities of the West, particularly ia fighting apparatus, the Japanese set about with astonishing energy and intelligence to bring their culture and organisation up to the level of the West. Never in history did a nation make such strides as japan then did. To quote H. G. Weßbr" "Outline of History": u Japan to-day is a completely Westernised people, on a level with the ino-t advanced European people. She has completely dispelled the persuasion that Asia was in some irrevocable way hop**-

lessly behind Europe. She ha 3 made a'l European progress seem sluggish and tentative by comparison." Wills, of course, wrote of conditions up to about 1920. What of the future! Is Japan continuing to keep the pase she set in the 'nineties? The best answer to that qu<y ion is Al Jolsou's now not so infectious rejoinder, "You ain't seen nothin'. yet." Changes at a Rapid Rate. For Japan in the year 1935 is pro gressing or perhaps it would be better to say changing at a far more rapid i»ace than during the first 75 years following the opening of the country to foreigners. But whether the change that is now taking place will be beneficial and wise is another matter. There are .many who donbt that it will be. These persons range from reactionaries, ultra-patriots and the oldtimers to well-meaning, sen-j-ible visitors from the West. For to-day you have such a hodge podge of the West and East in Japan that the people have fittingly dubbed this the 'grotesque era." This phrase, by the way, aptly describes life in Nippon at present. Instead of using the Japanese word for grotesque, the English word ha 3 been adopted, but not id its entirety. Only the first syllable has been taken, "gro," and by giving it a Japanese twist this has been transformed into "guro." By combining this with the Japanese word for "era," which is "jidai," you have "guro jidai"—a phrase which is neither English nor Japanese. Instead of adopting things from the West in whole, as they did in the past, the Japanese are endeavouring to combine the West and the East, which do not mix any more than water mix*:? with oil. Into the simple, delicately constructed and fragile Japanese homes, once bare of practically all furniture, have been dumped a lot of European chairs, divans, tables and beds, until to-day if one goes into a Japanese house he is likely to wonder whether the people are in their right minds. 3lost Japanese will good-humouredly explain that this is the "guro jidai," the period of transition. That is how the Japanese, in their blind admiration of the West, have taken most things. Out into the once picturesque and lovely countryside the Westerner will be dumbfounded to find the wonderful scenery desecrated. But the Japanese will goodhumouredly explain that what the visitor beholds is the blossoming forth of the "flowers of commerce" —the billboards. Women Discard Kimono. The kimono, the lovely attire of the women of the land, is being discarded by all classes in all parts of the country, and in its place Occidental dresses, which ill befit the figures of the women of Japan, are being donned. Again, the traditional school of painting, founded by such masters as Hiroshige and Harunobu, whose works are admired the world over, is going to ruins in the mad

rash of the young artists to imitate the art of the West.

Western oil paintings and sculptures are all the rage in Japan to-day and works of the traditional school go begging, although any art critic fram the West will tell you that Japanese will never amount to anything as imitators of Western art. AH of these phenomena and many others have produced effects from which n<: one here has escaped. Naturally there has been a reaction against such things. In many of the girls' schools, where the students all nowadays- dress in Western clothes, an hour or two has been set aside each, week for the purpose of teaching the students lessons in proper behaviour as practised in olden Japan. It may astonish the Western readers to learn that a good number of high school girls in Japali do not know how properly to dress themselves in kimonos, for most of them never wear kimonos except during the Xcw Year holidays. Recently a school for bride 3 was established in Tokyo. This was principally because the girls of the present day, absorbed, as the girls of most other nations are, in romantic thoughts, motion pictures and outdoor sports, know little about cooking, proper Japanese deportment and filial piety. This school has been extremely popular and there are to-day scores throughout the country similar to it. Hand in hand, howe\er, with the movement to keep the girls from becoming over-Westernised ha* been the systematic training of these girls in sucn martial arts as rifle practice. This has been the tendency in other walks of life, with the result that a hodge-podge culture is being developed. There is. moreover, little doubt that many of the things Japan is doing at present —some in its blind admiration of the West and others, paradoxically, in an effort to rid itself of the advances of Occidentalism —are ludicrous and fantastic, if not reckless and bordering on madness. Instead of being rational, some of the nationalists who are behind the movement to check westernisation are sounding a war cry against everything alien. They have set up such mottoes as "Asia for "the Asiatics," "Back to Japan," and other similar ultra-patriotic, imperialistic mottoes. Some of the things these men are attempting seem ridiculous, while others, as already has been noted, are without doubt dangerous. The Minister of Education, Genji Matsuda, is an excellent example of the advocate of the "Back to Japan" movement. Although he rides in an expensive American limousine and dresses in European clothe*-, one of the first thing* he did on assuming office was to attack the use of the English words "papa" and "mamma" by the children %f the land. "These words," he thundered, "do not convey the feeling of respect for parents that the Japanese words oto-sama and oka-sama do." Perhaps not, but does a one-year-old babe know this? his inquisitors ask.

Opposes Teaching of English- i Matsuda's li papa and mamma" inei-' dent borders on * the ridiculous and is harmless, but this is not so with other things he is planning to do. Being the Minister of Education, he has let it be known that he is opposed to the compulsory teaching of the English language in hif-h schools. Even in the universities, he feels, there is no need for English. True, the motive behind the actions of Matsuda and other followers of the nationalistic banner is understandable. No nation, these men feel, can attain to greatness in the art of either peace or war without definite moral superiority. Behind and above the rise of Japan and the successes gained bv her in war and peace is a moral force, a belief in

destiny, which these ultra-patriotic fanatics claim is being *>ftaken by the insidious advances of the Occident.

Moral force, it is declared, brought the •Japanese from obscurity to power; the impelling power will enable them. should it be necessary, to face unflinchingly sacrifices greater than any in the past. Anything tending to weaken thi* force must be combated, it is held.

Japan, the patriots agree, has benefited tremendously by the lessons she has learned from the materialistic Was*. In recent years, however, this has been at the cost of sacrineins her spiritual civilisation, which most Japanese believe ■ it superior to that of '.lie West, and something without which a vigorous, growing island empire like Japan cannot, exist.

Few take issue with this argument But why, ask the liberal minded, conduct such ridiculous things as the "papa and mamma" campaign? Such thing* can only cause Japan to be ridiculed by the rest of the world, it is maintained.

The answer to this may be that Japan is groping for a course. She is afraid 10 turn about face completely, cast aside ihe benefits she has derived from the West, and return to the ancient civilisation of the East. She is equally afravi i hat continuation of the policy of blindly following the West may result in ultimate destruction of the nation. The old-timers have seen the people injudiciously take up almost every fa 3 that has swept the West, from sucn unimportant, trivial and foolish customs as \-oung men going about without hats, and girls smoking in public, to the more serious fads, such as Communism, Fascism and Nazism. At the moment the tendency is to imitate the Xe-v Deal policies of the American Govern ment. Brain trusts have sprung up in Government circles, in private institutions and in political parties.

Hand in hand with this, however, ha* been the growing power of the anriforeign, ultra-nationalistic movements. Tlie organisations bcliind this movement sprang up like mushrooms during the hectic days of the military campaign in Manchuria. Ever since the League of Nations acted against Japan these organisations have been making capital of the anti-Western sentiment and the belief that the nations of the West are scheming to deprive her of what she regards as her just reward. There are at present more than 500 patriotic organisations throughout the country. Some of them, true, have fewer than a score of members, but others, like the Black Dragon Society, wield considerable power. Many of these patriotic bodies have the backing of the army. Their motive is to turn Japan away from the West and to cultivate the spiritual culture of the East. Spiritual Culture Inexplicable. To explain what is meant by the spiritual culture of the East is one of the most difficult thing.4. It has probably never been satisfactorily explained. Behind it is the principle of obtaining human satisfaction without the aid of materialistic things. A true Japanese

artier is supposed to derive spiritual satisfaction if tie ceremony he has conducted, his posture and tlie handling of his bow and arrow have been correct. Whether the arrow hits the target or misses it is immaterial. The old-timers and the militarists are striving to check all "Western influences which tend to conflict with or demoralise this spiritual culture. By propaganda and war talk they are endeavouring to combat what "they term the insidious advances of occidentalism. While they grudgingly admit the necessity of" accepting the scientific achievements of the West, they would rather see the nation jhoys backward than to absorb the free and easy thoughts which prevail particularly in ihe United States.

The idea of the army, but not necessarily of the numerous patriotic organisations, is to combine the materialistic civilisation of the West with the spiritual civilisation of the East—a thing which has never been attempted and which many believe to be impossible. Actually the conflict taking place to-day is between modernism and the old Japan.