Jaspers' Schuldfrage and Hiroshima

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Volume 3, No 1, Spring 2008 ISSN 1932-1066

Jaspers' Schuldfrageand HiroshimaDoes the Concept of Guilt Exist for Japanese Religious Consciousness?

Tomoko IwasawaReitaku University, Japan

[email protected]

Abstract: Confronting the radical evil committed by humans in WWII, Jaspers' Die Schuldfragediscusses the notion ofmetaphysical guilt as the "lack of absolute solidaritywith the human being as such." In it Jaspers emphasizes that onlythrough the boundary situation of metaphysical guilt can one engage in the genuine pursuit of solidarity, whichultimately leads to the existential transformation of one's consciousness. This essay will inquire into this Jaspersiannotion of metaphysical guilt from a Japanese perspective, by asking whether Japanese survivors of Hiroshimaexperienced metaphysical guilt in the Jaspersian sense. This question arises from the realization that there is originallyno Japanese word for guilt, while there are the Japanese words for defilement and sin that, according to Paul Ricoeur,are the two experientially primary phenomena of evil, from which the consciousness of guilt can emerge. To discusshow the Japanese have developed their moral foundation without the notion of guilt, I will first examine the Japaneseconcepts for defilement and sin, as revealed in the narratives of Japanese myths. Based on this analysis, the essay willfurther show that the Japanese moral foundation has been developed out of the notion of Mono-no-aware: the

experience of being moved by the Existenz of other beings - an encounter that makes one transcend one's egodissolves the distinction between one's consciousness and others', and leads to the realization that "one is livedbyother beings," i.e., the realization of human solidarity and co-responsibility with the collective. Finally, the essaydemonstrates that Japanese religious consciousness also pursues what Jaspers calls the "solidarity with the humanbeing as such," but its pursuit is fulfilled, not by way of metaphysical guilt, but by way ofMono-no-aware.

Introduction

This essay discusses Jaspers' notion of metaphysical

guilt from a Japanese perspective. Our purpose is toinquire into whether Japanese survivors of Hiroshimaexperienced metaphysical guilt in the Jaspersian sense.This question has originally been raised by Alan M.Olson in his essay "Metaphysical Guilt" (Existenz, Vol.3/1 Spring 2008, pp. 9-19), where he emphasizes thatJaspers famously referred to metaphysical guilt as the

guilt "of being still alive"1 in the case of survivingcitizens of post-Nazi Germany. In connection with thisOlson mentions the HBO Documentary, White

Light/Black Rain,2commemorating the 60th Anniversaryof the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Let usexamine how he poses the question then:

1Karl Jaspers, The Question of German Guilt, trans. E.B. Ashton(NY: Fordham University Press, 2000), p. 65.

2White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima andNagasaki, written, produced, and directed by StevenOkazaki (HBO Documentary Film, 2007).
http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/whitelightblackrain/


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Existenz: An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts

http://www.bu.edu/paideia/existenz Volume 3, No 1, Spring 2008

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It is interesting to note that some of the survivors ofHiroshima and Nagasaki also experienced the "guilt ofbeing alive" believing that it would have been better tohave perished with the rest of the citizenry, i.e., thatthose who perished were "better off" in the sense of nothaving to endure the horror and suffering of still "beingalive." This led one individual to make a distinction

between "the courage to die," in the case of a sister whocommitted suicide, and the "courage to live." Acritical question, in this instance, is whether Japanesesurvivors experienced metaphysical guilt in the

Jaspersian sense, or whether this can be betterunderstood by way of what Ruth Benedict describes asthe difference between "shame" and "guilt" cultures,

Japanese culture being epitomized by the former and

the Western (Christian) culture being the latter.3

There is, however, a misunderstanding in Olson'sdiscussion of the film. In the actual film, the Japanesesurvivor mentioned above never uses the word "guilt."She just says in Japanese, "I am so sorryfor my deceasedbrother and sister. I thought I would rather die than liveinstead of them." So what this Japanese survivorexpresses is not the guilt, but the sorrow or sadness ofbeing alive. This misunderstanding seems to havehappened in translating Japanese into English; theAmerican translator of this film consciously orunconsciously chose the expression, "the guilt of beingalive," to describe her statement in this scene. In the firstplace, however, there is originally no Japanese word forguilt, while the Japanese do have the words for

defilement and sin. Now this lack of a Japanese wordfor guilt poses an interesting question.

Olson concludes that the Jaspersian concept ofmetaphysical guilt is a posteriori in time but a priori inlogic, and as such, that metaphysical guilt is a uniqueform of moral essentialism based upon the idea ofhumanity. If we follow this conclusion, then we maywant to ask: In the Japanese sadness culture, whichdoes not seem to have the consciousness of guilt, how isthe idea of humanity understood? What kind of moralimplication can we get from this sadness culture?

To discuss the absence in Japanese of the notion of

guilt, and steer away from the thesis of shame vs. guiltculture as proposed by Ruth Benedict in the 1940s, Iwill introduce, instead, the thesis ofMono-no-aware: thenotion of being moved by the Existenz of other beings,traditionally held in common by the Japanese as the

3Alan M. Olson, "Metaphysical Guilt," in Existenz, Vol. 3/1Spring 2008, footnote 20.

basic bond of human relations. Before commencingthis task, however, let us first examine, in the manner ofRicoeur, how the concepts of defilement and sin havedeveloped in Japanese religious/mythicaconsciousness. For, according to Ricoeur, it is the resulof an Aufhebung of these two experientially primary

phenomena of evil that the consciousness of guilt canemerge as a "veritable revolution"4of consciousness.

The Notion of Defilement

In The Symbolism of Evil, Paul Ricoeur maintains that thedevelopment of Western mythical consciousnessrepresents the salvation process of a captive free willwhich constantly engages in the elimination of evil todeliver itself from self-enslavement.5Now what is theevil so persistently opposed in Western culture?Ricoeur answers this question by providing three

archetypal myths that foreshadow the problem of eviin monotheistic religions. These myths represent threemajor moments of consciousness respectivelydefilement, sin, and guilt. The first type representingthe schema of defilement is the Mesopotamian creationmyth, the Enuma elish, in which evil was experienced asthe primordial chaos that existed before god's creativeactivity. To analyze how differently the notion odefilement manifests itself in Japanese and Westernconsciousness, let us first examine how Ricoeurinterprets the Western manifestation of defilement.

According to Ricoeur, the central theme of Enuma

elish consists in "the final victory of order over chaos"(SE175), the theme that goes on to underlie the Judeo-Christian cosmogony. He maintains that the god's workconsists in founding the world, in creating the cosmosWhat disturbs this cosmos-creation is regarded aschaotic, irrational, and uncontrollable, and thereforeevil. The god's purpose is to eliminate these chaoticelements to make the world intelligible and logicallycoherent. Ricoeur calls this eliminating process"salvation" (SE 173) that liberates humans from theblindness inherent in the primordial chaos. In the

Enuma elish, this primordial chaos is symbolized byTiamat, who, being the disordered and the irrational, isultimately slain violently and exterminated completely

4Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil, trans. Emerson Buchanan(Boston: Beacon Press, 1969), p. 102. [Henceforth cited as SE]

5By "Western," Ricoeur means, more precisely, the Judeo-Christian tradition.


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by Marduk, her offspring. Ricoeur expresses that thisoverwhelming irrationality of Tiamat provokes "aspecific sort of fear that blocks reflection" (SE25)thefear that is closely connected with the sense ofdefilement. In it, the concept of evil still does not takethe psychological connotation, but is experienced more

straightforwardly as something physically defiled. InRicoeur's expressions, it is a "stain" (SE46), an "objectiveevent" (SE29), which "infects by contact" (SE29). Theonly possible way of improving this situation is to getrid of this stain. Removing the stain is possible because,insofar as it is a stain, the defilement is not inherent, butsomething put on from outside. This metaphor of stainwell explains the fundamental characteristic of evil forthe Judeo-Christian consciousness. Evil is somethingother than oneself; it is not inherent in the true self, buta heterogeneity that should be abhorred andexterminated.

This primordial experience of defilement takes ona totally different mode for the Japanese mythicalconsciousness. In Japanese myth, defilement appears,not as the origin of evil, but rather, as a processnecessary for the reinvigoration and reorganization ofbeing. Here, we should note that the Japaneseunderstanding of being is different from that of theJudeo-Christian. The Japanese cosmogonic myth thatmarks the beginning of the Kojiki,6the oldest recordedmyth of Japan, describes the origin of being in a totallydifferent way from the Judeo-Christian tradition.Cosmogonies vary in the way they express ontophany,the appearance of being. The diversity of cosmogonicmyth, therefore, shows the way each cultureunderstands the concept of being. The Kojikibegins asfollows:

At the time of the beginning of heaven and earth, therecame into existence in TAKAMA-NO-HARAa deitynamed AME-NO-MI-NAKA-NUSHI-NO-KAMI ; next,TAKA-MI-MUSUHI-NO-KAMI ; next, KAMI-MUSUHI-NO-KAMI. These three deities all came into existence as

single deities, and their forms were not visible.7

This opening sharply contrasts with Genesis,which proclaims: "In the beginning God created theheavens and the earth." According to Genesis, there

6The Kojiki() means the "Record of Ancient Events." It isthe oldest recorded myth of Japan, completed in 712 CE.

7TheKojiki, trans. Donald L. Phillipi (Tokyo: University ofTokyo Press, 1968), p. 47.

was nothing before God; God is the prime mover, thefirst principle, and cosmic agent. Every being thereforeis created by God ex nihilo. In the Japanese cosmogonyby contrast, what existed in the beginning was not Godnor even nothingness, but Taka-ma-no-hara(the Plain ofHigh Heaven), which was already there without being

created. Upon this plain appeared the triad of kam(deities):Ame-no-mi-naka-nushi-no-kami(The Deity WhoIs Lord of the Sacred Center of Heaven), Taka-mimusuhi-no-kami (High Deity of Musuhi), and Kamimusuhi-no-kami(Divine Deity ofMusuhi). Interestinglythese deities took no positive action. Unlike theWestern God, they created nothing, but concealedthemselves after emergence. As its name indicates, thefirst deity is supposed to be lord of heaven, andtherefore, of the entire cosmos that will come intobeing. In spite of this seemingly central role, this deityappears only in this opening remark, and is never

mentioned in the rest of the text. In contrast with themysterious character of this deity, the following twodeities embody musuhi, the core principle dominatingthe Kojiki.

The Japanese word musuhi consists of two partsmusuand hi. First, musuis a verb that primarily means

"to come into being" (/: musu). Not only thathowever, this word is also used in the sense of

"steaming" (: musu), and further, associated with

the concept of "breathing" (: musu). Uniting thesemultiple meanings, the Japanese word musu suggests

the primordial image of constant appearing, i.e., theever-proliferating process of being. On the other handhi of musu-hi, which is also pronounced tamaoverarches various meanings, such as "the sun"

(!hi), "the fire" (!hi), and more abstractly, "the

awe-inspiring mysterious divine power" (!hi)thenotion that seems to be very close to Rudolf Otto'sdefinition of the primordial experience of the Holymysterium tremendum et fascinans. By introducing thesemusuhideities at the very beginning, the Kojikiprovidesa contrasting worldview to that of the Judeo-ChristianThe Judeo-Christian cosmogony is characterized by theconcept of creation, which is based on the duality of thecreator and the created. By contrast, being indifferent tothis kind of duality, the Japanese cosmogony describesthe image of an organism's dynamic process ofemerging, growing, and proliferating, informing howthe Japanese mythical consciousness has understoodthe fundamental principle of being. The concept ofbeing has never meant for the Japanese to exisabsolutely or eternally, as in the case of the Judeo-


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Christian tradition; rather, the Japanese haveunderstood "being" by such process phenomena as"being born," "becoming," and "being matured," i.e., thedynamic process of life force that never ceases but isalways in flux.8

In the Kojiki, this cosmogony is followed by the

myth of Izanagi and Izanami, the first couple that givebirth to numerous beings in the world. Different fromGenesis, where God creates all beings through HisWord, the Japanese myth describes the birth of allbeings as a result of this couple's procreative activity.They first give birth to numerous islands of Japan, andthen, various deities that symbolize constitutiveelements of the world. Here, too, the metaphor ofgiving birth suggests the idea of natural proliferation,making a contrast to the Judeo-Christian concept ofcontrolled creation. A happening, however, suddenlydisrupts the peaceful scene of abundant procreation of

Izanagi and Izanami, i.e., the appearance of the fire-godwhose birth killed Izanami, the first death introduced inthe Kojiki. Because of this death, Izanami hereafterbecomes the symbol of defilement in Japanese myth.

Comparing the deaths of Izanami and Tiamat willprovide some insight what defilement means for theJapanese mythical consciousness. Izanami passes away,not by being killed, but by giving birth to a baby. UnlikeTiamat who was slain by her own offspring, Izanami'sdeath is a natural death caused by a difficult delivery.Now, Izanami becomes the symbol of defilement, notbecause she is regarded as inherently evil, but justbecause she has eaten at the hearth of Yomi, i.e., sharingthe cooking fire of the realm of the dead hascontaminated her. Stated differently, what Japanesemyth regards as defilement is not Izanami herself, butthe very phenomenon of death. In the last analysis,unlike Tiamat, Izanami was not exterminated from theworld after all. On the contrary, she continues to exist inthe Land of the Dead as its ruler. Later in the myth, thisLand of the Dead is also called the Mother Land, or theNether Land, which is regarded as the place where allthe souls ultimately return.

In the Izanagi-Izanami myth, Izanami's deathsymbolism does not necessarily contradict Izanagi's lifesymbolism. Rather, death is an inescapable phase of thelife cycle. In other words, the myth provides us, not

8See Maruyama Masao, "Rekishi-ishiki no Kos!(The Old Stratumof Historical Consciousness)," inCh"sei to Hangyaku(Faithand Rebellion) (Tokyo: Chikuma Shob!, 1993), p. 298.

with the dualistic opposition of life and death, butrather with the monistic encompassing of those twoelements. This non-negating tension between life anddeath is impressively described in the resolution thatIzanagi and Izanami made when breaking theirmarriage. After their battle in the Land of the Dead

Izanagi does not slay the defiled Izanami, but locks herin the nether world by placing a boulder between therealms of the dead and the living. Enraged by thisseparation, Izanami endeavors to kill a thousandpeople a day, to which Izanagi responds by begetting athousand and five hundred people a day. This resultsin a victory of life over death, leaving five hundredmore infants than corpsesa mythical explanation forthe natural phenomenon of population increase. Theformula [1,500 1,000 = 500] does not ignore buacknowledges the daily presence of death.

The difference between Enuma elish and the

Izanagi-Izanami myth lies in the manner they treat thechthonic Mother. Tiamat was finally slain andovercome by Marduk, while Izanami was never killedby Izanagi but continued to exist as the one dominatingthe realm of the dead. Ultimately, the realm of thechthonic in the Japanese myth was neither negated norannulled as in the case of the Mesopotamian myth. Onthe contrary, in the Japanese folkloric tradition, thechthonic later became an object of worship that wasbelieved to provide the realm of the living withtremendous power. The defiled, the chthonic, is indeedabhorred and negated; but this tremendous power hasa possibility of being transformed into a positive powerthat brings dynamism into a rigid reality, only if treatedproperly.

What is the principle that enables suchtransformation between the opposing forces of thechthonic? The etymology of the Japanese word for

"defilement," kegare (), gives us an answerInquiring into the etymological meaning of kegareTanikawa Kotosuga, a Japanese scholar in the 19th

century, introduced a view that the word kegare

originated from :9 the word that is similarly

pronounced kegarebut means "the decline of ki" ().10

The Japanese concept of ki denotes the unfathomableforce behind all natural transformations, the force

9Tanikawa Kotosuga, Wakun no shiori(A Dictionary of JapaneseWords), Vol. 1 (Gifu: Seibido, 1898), p. 435.

10The Japanese concept of kicorresponds to the Chineseconcept of ch'i.


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encompassing both energy and matter; it is the psycho-physiological power associated with blood and breath,and thus translated as "vital force." It is the concept thatopposes the mechanistic view of the body emphasizedby mind-body dualism, and instead, inquires into theway we can develop the potencies of the body into

producing a new mode of being. In Japanese, thephysically as well as mentally healthy state is called

gen-ki(), literally meaning "the original state of ki."As this word shows, ki undergoes increase anddecrease, but the original state of ki is supposed to befull of vital force; it is the state that one can realize byuniting oneself with the kiof the world, i.e., the ebb andflow of vital force in nature.

According to Tanikawa's etymological analysis,the Japanese concept of defilement (ke-gare) wasdefined by the ebb and flow of ki. Among various typesof defilement, the Japanese have traditionally viewed

the defilement of death (called kuro-fujy!: the blackdefilement) and that of blood (called aka-fujy!: the reddefilement) as the two primary aspects of kegare. Whenkileaves one's body, the typical case of which is death,one is regarded as defiled. The bloodshed called aka-fujy!is another typical example that shows the energy,represented by blood, departing from one's body. Inthese cases, defilement means the condition lacking inki. The role of purification ritual is to transform thisdefiled state into a pure state that might producehealth, vigor, luck, fortune, and long life. What is

unique about the Japanese purification ritual is to bringabout this pure state, not by exterminating the defiled,but by utilizing its power in an opposite manner thatleads toward increase of potencies. This transformationis possible because the philosophy of ki presupposesthe ever-circulating system of life, in which defilementis an inescapable phase of the life cycle. In thisphilosophy, defilement is no longer a stain or anotherness to be annihilated, as in the case of Judeo-Christian tradition, but rather, a process necessary forthe reinvigoration and reorganization of being.

Also the concept of sinthe second schema that

Ricoeur maintains constitutes the consciousness ofevilis portrayed quite differently in Japanese myth.

The Notion of Sin

Ricouer regards theAdamic Vision of Sin and Myth of theFallas the paradigmatic myth elucidating the Westernunderstanding of sin. In it, the concept of sin isrecognized when a human confronts God, the moral

lawgiver, who is the source and foundation of anethics of prohibition, condemnation, and forgiveness. Inthe Kojiki, the archetypal myth foreshadowing thenotion of sin is the myth of Amaterasu and Susanowowhich comes right after the Izanagi-Izanami mythAmaterasu and Susanowo are two of the three deities

that were born out of Izanagi's purification ritualwhich was performed after his battle with Izaznami inthe Land of the Dead. Amaterasu is the Sun Goddessborn out of Izanagi's left eye, and Susanowo is theStorm God born out of his nose. In this Japanese myththe sinner is symbolized by Susanowo; who sinsagainst Amaterasu. This Sun Goddess, however, is nonecessarily depicted as a moral lawgiver. Then what isAmaterasu? How does Susanowo sin against her?What is the meaning of sin in this Japanese context?

The central episode of the Amaterasu-Susanowomyth is Amaterasu's concealment in the rock-cave

which was caused by Susanowo's violent conduct. Hislawless acts dissolve the order of things one afteranother. To take concrete examples, he broke down theridges between the rice paddies of Amaterasu, andcovered up the ditches. Also he defecated and scatteredthe excrements in the hall where Amaterasu wascelebrating the harvest festival. Moreover, he opened ahole in the roof of this sacred hall, and dropped downinto it the sacrificial pony that he skinned with abackward skinning. These destructive behaviors oSusanowo eventually made Amaterasu enraged andconceal herself in the rock-cave, which broughtcomplete darkness to the world.

Scholars have proposed that this episode providesthe genesis of the Japanese concept of sin, because ahistorical document entitled the Engi-shiki, thecompilation of laws and minute legal regulationscompleted in the 10thcentury, introduces the Japaneseword for sin (tsumi) for the first time by defining theabove brutal conducts of Susanowo as the HeavenlySins (ama-tsu-tsumi). In order to understand theJapanese concept of sin in this mythical context, we hadbetter analyze what consequence this conduct of

Susanowo brought about. The climax of theAmaterasu-Susanowo myth comes when Amaterasuconceals herself in the rock-cave, which metaphoricallyexpresses her death. After she hid herself in the rock-cave, the Plain of High Heaven was completely darkand all kinds of calamities arose. The eighthundredmyriads of gods assembled to discuss how to lureAmaterasu out of the cave. They collected cocks, whosecrowing precedes the dawn, and hung a mirror and


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maga-tamajewels in front of the cave. Then the goddessAme-no-uzume began a dance on an upturned tub,partially disrobing herself. This so delighted theassembled gods that they roared with laughter.Amaterasu became curious how the gods could makemerry while the world was plunged into darkness, and

was told that outside the cave there was a deity moreglorious than she. She peeped out, saw herself reflectedin the mirror, heard the cocks crow, and was thusdrawn out from the cave. Now the world was filledwith light, and brought to life again. The myth finallytells that Susanowo was punished and expelled foreverfrom the heavenly realm of the divine.

It is said that this episode is the model for the laterShinto renewal ritual, which is one of the mostimportant rituals in the Shinto tradition perpetuated tothis day. We have already observed that Susanowointerrupted the harvest festival. This festival

corresponds to the Niiname-sai, meaning the festivalcelebrating the new crops of rice. The Niiname-saiintends "the driving out of the old yearand the comingof the new year." Here, the "new year" means the birth ofa new mode of existence in the spiritual sense, not onlyfor individuals, but also for society as a whole. Theancient Japanese most vividly experienced this sacredmomentthe transition from the old year to the newyear, or more metaphorically, the transition from deathto rebirthon the winter solstice. In ancient Japaneseagricultural society, the concept of fertility wasconceived within the rhythm of the seasons, anddeveloped to the idea of periodic regeneration thatoccurs once a year, most symbolically on the wintersolstice when the sun experiences its metaphorical death.

This idea of death and rebirth constitutes the coreof the Niiname-sai. The important ritual Chinkon-sai,which is held on the day before the winter solstice,precedes the Niiname-sai. The central theme of theChinkon-sai is to experience imitative death andrebirththe theme depicted in the Kojiki as theconcealment and unconcealment of the Sun GoddessAmaterasu. Previous studies describe that, when this

ritual was held in the Imperial Court, the emperor firstlay on the sacred bedding covered with madoko-ou-fusuma, which was like a robe or a net that seeminglyfunctioned as a magical covering in which the emperorperformed imitative death.11

11Orikuchi Shinobu,Orikuchi Shinobu Zensh"(Collected Worksof Orikuchi Shinobu), Vol. 3 (Tokyo: Ch"!K!ronsha, 1995),pp. 187-189. Also see Matsumae Takeshi,Matsumae Takeshi

The emperor's concealing himself in the madoko-ou-fusuma symbolizes what Mircea Eliade calls "thereturn to the womb." In Myth and Reality, Eliadediscusses the symbolic meaning of this concept:

From the structural point of view, the return to thewomb corresponds to the reversion of the Universe to

the "chaotic" or embryonic state. The prenatal darknesscorresponds to the Night before Creation and to thedarkness of the initiation hut. The initiation mythsand rites of regressus ad uterum(the return to the womb)reveal the following fact: the "return to the origin"prepares a new birth, but the new birth is not arepetition of the first, physical birth. There is properlyspeaking a mystical rebirth, spiritual in natureinother words, access to a new mode of existence. Thebasic idea is that, to attain to a higher mode ofexistence, gestation and birth must be repeated; butthey are repeated ritually, symbolically.12

This statement properly applies to the Japanese mythand its ritual. In the Kojiki,Amaterasu conceals herselfin a cave, which appears to symbolize the womb. In theChinkon ritual held every year, the emperor reenactsthis return to the womb, mythically performed byAmaterasu. This point should be emphasized as astriking difference between the Japanese and theMesopotamian mythical consciousness, which wediscussed in the previous section. The MesopotamianNew Year's festival consisted in the ceremoniarecitation of Marduk's paradigmatic recreation of thecosmos (i.e., a scene of Enuma elish, in which Mardukviolently slays Tiamat and recreates the cosmos). Bycontrast, the Japanese myth and its ritual dramatize thereturn to the womb, and not the negation of the wombas represented by Marduk's slaying of Tiamat. TheJapanese mythical consciousness emphasizes thewomb, death, or the Night before Creation, regarding itas what conceives the origination of life, the source ofenergies on which the life in the universe dependsAfter death comes rebirth; after the emperor concealshimself in the madoko-ou-fusuma, the Chinkon rituabrings about the rebirth of the emperor by

reinvigorating his life force. A court lady in front of themadoko-ou-fusuma stands on an overturned box, andstrikes the box ten times with a halberd. This

Chosaku-sh"(Collected Works of Matsumae Takeshi), Vol. 6(Tokyo: #f", 1996), pp, 212-245.

12Mircea Eliade,Myth and Reality(New York, NY: Harper &Row Inc., 1963), p. 80.


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performance, which the Kojiki describes asAmenouzume's dancing in front of the cave, representsthe act of calling in life force from outside and attachingit to the emperor's body so that it can rejuvenate his lifeagain.

Now the meaning of Susanowo, and that of sin in

Japanese myth must be analyzed from this perspective.Susanowo's outrageous conduct indeed caused thedeath of Amaterasu. But it is this same conduct ofSusanowo that provided the world with its dynamism.In fact, to regard Susanowo as the archetype of sinner,and so, as the symbol of evil, has not been accepted inthe Japanese tradition. On the contrary, in Japanese folkreligion, Susanowo has long been worshipped as a vitalgod who brings about fertility. How can weunderstand this contradiction of Susanowo, who isonce the sinner and the god of fertility? To answer this,we need to inquire into how differently the Japanese

and the Judeo-Christian understands the notion of sin.According to Ricoeur, the category dominating theJudeo-Christian notion of sin is that of before God; sinis the concept that defines the relationship of a finitehuman facing the infinite God. To provide a concreteimage of sin, Ricoeur analyzes Hebrew words in theBible that constitute the primordial experience of sin forthe Judeo-Christian: chattat(missing the target), awon(atortuous road), pesha (revolt), and shagah (being lost).From these, Ricoeur concludes that the Judeo-Christiannotion of sin originates in such image as "missing themark, deviation, rebellion, and straying from thepath"13the path that should go straight to meet theinfinite demand of God. When we compare this imageof sin with that of the Japanese, we find a totallydifferent view. In the first place, in Japanese myth, theoriginal sinner Susanowo is not a human. The Japanesemyth has no clear distinction between the human andthe divine, and therefore, no conflict between them.Susanowo is a deity, so his conduct is not a rebellionagainst God. Rather, his sinful act is regarded as anaspect embodied in the divine itself. In Susanowo, thevalues of good and evil co-exist simply as different

modes of being. Or more precisely, the Japanesetraditionally have not made a value judgment on thesetwo elements as good and evil, but instead regardedthem as the co-existence of ara-mi-tama(the wild soul ofthe divine) and nigi-mi-tama (the peaceful soul of thedivine), which are believed to constitute two necessary,

13Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil, p. 74.

innate elements of being. Susanowo, whose nameliterally means the Raging Male, was also the StormGod not only because he was unruly and destructivebut because his excessive vigor simultaneouslyrepresented the extraordinary power originating lifeWith the images of thunder and rain, the Storm God

Susanowo symbolizes the epiphany of force andviolence, the necessary source of energies on which thelife in the universe depends. Thus, the symbol ofSusanowo is never simple, but complex. And it is inthis complex symbol of Susanowo that the Japanesemythical consciousness has found the fundamentaprinciple of being.

Mono-no aware: A Japanese Moral Foundation

Now our question is: What kind of moral implicationcan we establish upon this Japanese principle? This was

indeed the question that Ruth Benedict and otherWestern scholars confronted during and after WWII. InThe Chrysanthemum and the Sword, Benedict maintains:

In Japanese philosophy the flesh is not evil. Enjoying itspossible pleasures is no sin. The spirit and the body arenot opposing forces in the universe and the Japanesecarry this tenet to a logical conclusion: the world is nota battlefield between good and evil. Sir George Sansomwrites: "Throughout their history the Japanese seem tohave retained in some measure the incapacity todiscern, or this reluctance to grapple with, the problemof evil." The Japanese have always been extremely

explicit in denying that virtue consists in fighting evil.14

Based on this observation, she proposes that famousthesis contrasting shame vs. guilt cultures, Japaneseculture being epitomized by the former and theWestern culture being the latter. She describes thedifference of these cultures as follows:

In anthropological studies of different cultures thedistinction between those which rely heavily on shameand those that rely heavily on guilt is an important one.A society that inculcates absolute standards of moralityand relies on men's developing a conscience is a guilt

culture by definition. (By contrast,) True shame culturesrely on external sanctions for good behavior, not, astrue guilt cultures do, on an internalized conviction of

sin. Shame is a reaction to other people's criticism.15

14Ruth Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword(New York,NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005), pp. 189-191.

15Benedict, op. cit., pp. 222-223.


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We notice that this seemingly scientific statementis already tinted by her value judgment. The contrastthat she makes between guilt and shame culturescorresponds exactly to the Kantian schema ofcategorical vs. hypothetical imperatives. Benedictasserts that the Western guilt culture is established on

the categorical imperatives, and so can develop aconscience that always follows the absolute standard ofmorality, while the Japanese shame culture only refersto the hypothetical imperatives, and cannot internalizethe moral consciousness in the true sense. However, thelack of distinction between good and evil in theWestern sense does not necessarily mean the absence ofinternalized morality in Japanese culture. For theJapanese, morality is not derived from the metaphysicalAbsolute, but from the depths of the flesh, not fromabove but from below, as it were. The contrast betweenWestern and Japanese cultures, therefore, should be

reconsidered from this perspective, and not by way ofthe Kantian screening of either the categorical or thehypothetical.

As a distinguished study exploring the Japanesemode of morality, we can refer to the work of theeminent Japanese scholar in the 18th century, MotooriNorinaga. Motoori is known as a philologist whoturned his attention to deciphering the language ofJapanese myth, and further, of Japanese classicalliterature as a whole. Through his enormous work,Motoori pursued what lay at the core, not only ofancient Japanese, but of those religious experiences thatmight have been commonly held by his contemporariesas a tradition transmitted from antiquity. According toMotoori, it is "the Way of Knowing Mono-no-aware"16that characterizes the Japanese mode of morality.Mono-no-awaremeans the feeling of being moved. Examinedmore precisely,Mono-no awareconsists of two Japanesewords: monoand aware. First, monois usually translatedas "a being" or "beings," but what Motoori means bythis term here may correspond better to the Jaspersianconcept of Existenz: it signifies a mode of determinatebeing, in which being itself is manifested. The other

term, aware, means the exclamatory "ah." We let outsuch " when we are deeply moved by the modes ofother determinate beings; it is an encounter that makesone transcend one's ego, dissolves the distinction

16Motoori Norinaga, "Iwagami-sasamekoto," inMotoori NorinagaZensh"(Collected Works of Motoori Norinaga), Vol. 2(Tokyo: Chikuma Shob!, 1968), pp. 99-108.

between one's consciousness and others', and leadsto the realization that "one is lived by other beings," i.e.the realization of human solidarity and co-responsibility with the collective. This notion of beingmovedis a natural phenomenon for humans. Howeverif we are occupied by conventional self-interest and do

not transcend the selfish ego, we can never experiencesuch ecstatic moment of being moved. When one isdispossessed of the egoistic and narcissistic ego andfully engaged in the experience of Mono-no-aware, thebeing of others no longer becomes an object standingover against oneself. Instead, the beings of one andothers transcend their distinction, and become united inthe totality of being. It is this experience of unity thabrings about an existential transformation of one'sconsciousness. Motoori maintains that this principle ofMono-no-aware strongly characterizes the Japanesemode of morality throughout history. In addition, he

stresses that the true morality consists in knowing thisMono-no-aware,and not just feeling it. In other words,the phenomenon of being moved should not simplydissolve in a reflex sensation, but should be sublimatedto the pure activity of consciousness.17

In the principle of Mono-no-aware, morality is nodefined by the categorical imperatives; it does nooriginate in the commandment of the Absolute, butcomes from below. For this principle is derived fromthe very essence of human beings. As we have alreadyexamined, the Japanese mythical consciousness hasfound this essence in the enigmatic symbol ofSusanowo, in which good and evil co-exists. Then, howcan we connect this symbol of Susanowo with theprinciple of Mono-no-aware? A key to this questionmight be found in the philosophy of Georges Bataillewho inquired into the essential meaning of life revealedin the psychology of eroticism.

Bataille's analysis begins with the realization thaour beings are fundamentally discontinuous. He

17The 19thcentury Japanese scholar #nishi Hajime asserts thatthe experience ofMono-no-awareprovides "spiritual

salvation." In an essay entitled "The Catharsis of Pathos," hemaintains: "A selfish ego is not our real nature. When oneweeps for others, one feels as if there were no longer adistinction between oneself and others. It is at this momentthat one's real nature shines forth. Humans seek to return totheir real nature, in which they transcend the false ego andtransform themselves into the real self. All the artisticactivities such as poetryand fine arts are intended to achievethis lofty purpose, aren't they?" (Meiji Bungaku Zensh",Vol 79[Tokyo: Chikuma Shob!, 1975] p. 180.


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develops this thought in the light of reproduction,which reveals the essential mode of our beings. Bataillemaintains:

Reproduction implies the existence of discontinuousbeings. Beings which reproduce themselves are distinctfrom one another, and those reproduced are likewise

distinct from each other, just as they are distinct fromtheir parents. Each being is distinct from all others.He is born alone. He dies alone. Between one being andanother, there is a gulf, a discontinuity.18

Bataille posits the discontinuity of beings as whatdetermines our life in the first place. The nature of ourbeings, however, cannot bear this reality, and tries to doaway with this gulf between one being and another. Hecontends:

On the most fundamental level there are transitionsfrom continuous to discontinuous or from

discontinuous to continuous. We are discontinuousbeings, individuals who perish in isolation in the midstof an incomprehensible adventure, but we yearn for ourlost continuity. We find the state of affairs that binds usto our random and ephemeral individuality hard tobear. Along with our tormenting desire that thisevanescent thing should last, there stands our obsessionwith a primal continuity linking us with everything thatis. [EDS15]

According to Bataille, this nostalgia is responsiblefor the three types of eroticism in humans: physical,emotional, and religious. He emphasizes that, with all

these types of eroticism, the primal concern is "tosubstitute for the individual isolated discontinuity afeeling of profound continuity" [EDS 15]. It is in thisyearning for continuity that Bataille finds the mostessential attribute of being. Bataille, however, is notunconditionally praising this erotic impetus. Rather, heshows its destructive aspect by maintaining that "thedomain of eroticism is essentially the domain ofviolence, of violation" [EDS 16]; it "always entails abreaking down of the patterns of the regulated socialorder basic to our discontinuous mode of existence"

[EDS 18]. Of all those violent drives of eroticism, themost violent thing for us is deathwhich "jerks us out ofa tenacious obsession with the lastingness of ourdiscontinuous being" [EDS16].

18Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality,trans. MaryDalwood (SF: City Lights Books, 1986), p. 12. [Henceforthcited as EDS.]

It may be said that the Japanese mythicalsymbol Susanowo embodies this principle of eroticismSusanowo represents the outrageous power thadestroys the regulated social order and plunges thecosmos founded on our discontinuous mode ofexistence into chaos. This excessive power, however, is

in fact the other side of the same coin, only from whichthe possibility of our spiritual transcendence comes intobeingthe possibility of transcending one's confinedsubjectivity and uniting oneself with the totality ofbeing. The Japanese mythical consciousness hasconceived that the source of this transcendence isdeeply embedded in the essential mode of ourexistence, which Bataille calls eroticism. The principle ofMono-no-aware is an expression of this yearning forunity derived from the fundamentally erotic mode ofexistence: the yearning for dissolving the distinctionbetween oneself and another, and bringing them into

the region of oneness.19

Conclusion

It may be said that Jaspers was the philosopher whoseriously confronted this problem of eroticism inhumans. Living in the reality where the destructiveaspect of eroticism seizes human minds so cruellyJaspers has come to the realization that this violence oeroticism is so essential to humans. In Die Schuldfragehe maintains:

19Erich Neumann, a Jungian psychologist, calls theunconscious what Bataille expresses as eroticism. In DepthPsychology and a New Ethic, Neumann describes this violentdrives of eroticism as the shadow, maintaining:Psychologicallylove and acceptance of the shadow is theessential basis for the actual achievement of an ethicalattitude towards the Thou who is outside me.Surprisingly enough, the analysis of individuals reveals thatthe encounter and reconciliation with the shadow is in verymany cases a sine qua nonfor the birth of a genuinelytolerant attitude towards other people, other groups andother forms and levels of culture. We have in fact first toassimilate the primitive side of our own nature before we

can arrive at a stable feeling of human solidarity and co-responsibility with the collective. The acceptance of theshadow is a part of that process of development in which apersonality structure is created that unites the systems of theconscious mind and the unconscious. (Depth Psychology anda New Ethic[Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1990], pp. 95-97) We can relate this statement of Neumann with the

Japanese mythical symbol, Susanowo, which is regarded asa Japanese expression of the unconscious.


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In tracing our own guilt back to its source we comeupon the human essencewhich in its German formhas fallen into a peculiar, terrible incurring of guilt but

exists as a possibility in man as such.20

Confronting this radical evil so essential to humans,Jaspers struggles with "the guilt of being human" [QGG

94]. The concept of metaphysical guilt arises exactlyfrom this understanding of the brutal reality of humanessence. When one becomes fully conscious of suchbrutal aspect of eroticism in humans, not beingoverwhelmed by it, but confronts it, one begins to bearthe sense of metaphysical guilt. And it is only throughthis boundary situation of metaphysical guilt that onecan experience the existential transformation ofconsciousness. As Jaspers asserts, "only the pure soulcan truthfully live in this tension: to know about thepossible ruin and still remain tirelessly active for all thatis possible in the world" [QGG116].

Jaspers maintains that "metaphysical guilt is thelack of absolute solidarity with the human being assuch" [QGG 65], and emphasizes that the genuinepursuit of this solidarity brings about the existentialtransformation of our consciousness. This idea ofsolidarity, however, will never come into being withouta profound realization of each human being as Existenz.From this Jaspersian standpoint, Hiroshima andNagasaki become the symbol that tests ourdetermination of pursuing the solidarity with thehuman being as such. For, these are to date the only

attacks with nuclear weapons in the history of warfare,which resulted in the largest scale of mass murdercarried out by one bombing. In this contemporarymode of warfare, humans are completely stripped offtheir dignity, their Existenz, and degraded to the meretarget of the exterminating mission conducted byideology.

The Western metaphysics pursues the solidarity inthe Absolute that is accessible only by negating andtranscending the body. The Japanese religious/mythical consciousness too pursues the solidarity, butits pursuit consists, not in the negation, but in theaffirmation of the body. After all, is there no agreementbetween the Western and the Japanese understandingof being? Not reallywe find a promise of their mutual

20Karl Jaspers, The Question of German Guilt, trans. E.B. Ashton(NY: Fordham University Press, 2000), p. 94. [Henceforthcited as QGG]

understanding in the writing of Hermann Cohen,21the Jewish philosopher who wrote Religion of ReasonThis Neo-Kantian contemporary of Jaspers, whorigorously pursued the rationaldimension of religiousconsciousness, entitles the last chapter of his book"Peace" and discusses how humans can complete this

mission of peace:There are two physiological signs of this life of peace inman: the feeling of being moved and joy. In theAesthetics of Pure FeelingI have tried to show that thefeeling of being moved furnishes a proof of the aestheticconsciousness. However, this view does not contradictour attempt at this time also to claim the feeling ofbeing moved for the religious consciousness in itsvirtuous way of peace. For the religious consciousnessuses the aesthetic consciousness as amply as the ethicalconsciousness, and there is no reason for the religiousconsciousness to claim its own originality in the feelingof being moved. This feeling is the love for the nature ofman which, expressed its pureness, shines forth in thecountenance of man, where it reflects the splendor ofthe pureness of this feeling of being moved. Thereligious consciousness takes possession of thisaesthetic power in order to establish the virtue of peacein the mind. Thereby the feeling of being movedoriginates, as a witness of the mood of peace, whichanimates man and which becomes a power of his soul.22

At the end of his pursuit in Religion of ReasonCohen comes back to the feeling of being moved as thefoundation of peace, of mutual understanding. Is this

feeling not the most fundamental attribute of humanexistence, which the Japanese religious consciousnesshas emphasized as Mono-no-aware? Ultimately, theJapanese religious consciousness questions: Do humanreally need to posit the Absolute in pursuing thetranscendence, which Jaspers called "the solidarity withthe human being as such"? As a way to go beyondideologies and experience each human being asExistenz, returning to the feeling of being moved mightnow be required for us.

21Hermann Cohen (1842-1918) was Jaspers' Neo-Kantiancontemporary. Alan M. Olson points out that Cohen's "ideaof humanity" had a considerable influence on Jaspers'thought. See Olson's essay "Metaphysical Guilt," in thisvolume, Footnotes 14 and 21.

22Hermann Cohen, Religion of Reason: Out of the Source ofJudaism, trans. Simon Kaplan (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995),pp. 454-455.

Jaspers' Schuldfrage and Hiroshima

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