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Essence of Honesty in Ishida Baigan and Virtue of Integrity in Organizational Ethics

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Kansei Engineering International Vol.4 No.2 pp.1-8 (2004) ORIGINAL ARTICLES ESSENCE OF HONESTY IN ISHIDA BAIGAN AND VIRTUE OF INTEGRITY IN ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS Yuko KOBAYASHI TokyoInstitute of Technology, 2-12-1 Ohokayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8550, Japan Abstract: This study illuminates Ishida Baigan's honesty that has popularly been respected as one of the typical features in his lessons. While the Japanese have respected honesty described as makoto in having absorbed Confucianism , their notion of honesty has been criticized by some researchers that it holds truthfulness as one behaves unselfishly and focuses sincerely on the subject he/she just faces, in practice, and it would tend to lack •ereason' to justify his/her behavior in taking social good into account . However, in this paper, I present his idea that the transparency in the spirit of his notion of honesty leads to the modern understanding of a virtue of integrity, which is a central topic of business ethics, by examining Baigan's thoughts seeking harmony (or wago) among people from all walks of life in pursuing their honest behavior, particularly based on the way he considered the honest figure of merchants. The background that the concept of his honesty included transparency is related to the fact that he never forgot to be conscious of societal harmony. Then I argue that Baigan's honesty reflects •ereason' to meet public interests, and, it holds the essence to consider in what ways a corporation should establish business ethics especially in considering stakeholders. Baigan's lessons indicate that , attaining transparency may become a moral principle relevant to integrity, which requires one to demonstrate his/her action. Keyword: Honesty, Integrity, Transparency, Information, Business Ethics 1. INTRODUCTION influenced people from all walks of life and was familiar In this paper, I discuss the essence of honesty as •ethe philosophy of the common people'. conceived by Ishida Baigan, and the relationship I will take up Baigan among a number of notable between individual honest behavior and social good theorists including Confucians in Japan for the following deriving from business ethics that he taught. reason: he has been the icon for businesspeople in the Today, in every field of business, information country and kept on inspiring many people since the Edo disclosure has been sought and viewed as strategic era. To date, moral principles such as being competency and contributing to meeting the interests of hardworking, honest and frugal have conventionally stakeholders, and information management is regarded been labeled to Baigan's lessons. As an example, his as a critical issue that may construct or destroy social lessons have helped develop fundamental ideas in trust of business organizations. business organizations and the above moral principles In organization, what is the motive power to have been respected as absolute values for sustaining a encourage one to inform inconvenient or negative news traditional merchant house. Baigan's disciplinary scope to his/her stakeholders? It may be to establish an observed from his typical lessons are extensive. As R. evaluation system to buy in his/her behavior deriving Bellah[1] suggested, it is noticeable that high respect from honesty. In order to attain the objective of the toward authority and class recognition by individuals system, he/she needs not only the honesty signifying coexisted in the realm of Baigan. loyalty or devotion but also having integrity in terms of While the classic researches of Baigan's lessons having strong moral principles. looking into honesty and frugality have been popular and As long as honesty is regarded as behaving just indeed, those researches are meaningful to position the according to what he/she perceives, a •ereason' may be moral principles in the path to professional success, the lost from his/her honesty. To take a deep insight into interest in transparency that is relevant to honesty as this phenomenon deriving from one's honesty, I explore moral principle for a businessperson has scarcely been the essence of honesty addressed by Ishida Baigan, one noticed. I will focus on transparency as a virtue of of the popular theorists in the mid-Edo era of Japan and Baigan's honesty and explore how transparency would the founder of "sekimon shingaku" (or shingaku), which add value to Baigan's honesty. Received October 10, 2003 Accepted December 18, 2003 1 Kansei Engineering International 014 Due to the inclusion of transparency, Baigan's honesty the second son of a farming family to leave home and be is beyond loyalty (or chushin) leaning towards a subject apprenticed to a merchant, Baigan did this. For some or a concern. In order to discuss Baigan's honesty, I reason, he returned home in the midst of his would apply the term 'integrity'. Honesty is the apprenticeship and sometime later, he again left home to concept that is included in integrity. In other words, work for another merchant. Such a vocational history, integrity has, in a moral sense, something else beyond job-hopping, meant that one would fail in becoming a honesty. It signifies complete honesty, wholeness, and candidate for manager and abandon career promotion in strong moral principles. To get the essence of Baigan's a merchant house. honesty and justify the cause of honest behavior, we While Baigan was working for a merchant house, he need to review integrity in one's mind. decided to become a philosopher. It is known that I anticipate verifying the essence of Baigan's honesty Baigan had not belonged to any school but studied with a by examining his own words, specifically looking into mentor before he opened his own lecture house in Kyoto, the Confucian terms such as honesty (or shojiki), 1729 (14thyear of kyoho period). It was free of charge, integrity (or seijitsu), and truthfulness (or makoto). and he welcomed everyone including women. After introducing Ishida Baigan's personal history to Especially, at that time, it was surprising that the door present what he taught to his disciples, based on his was open for women, and that the lecturer had not notable books titled Tohimondo (Conversation between studied at any school, but had been a peasant and a Town and Countryside) and Seikaron (Managing Home) merchant. Baigan actually admitted to the criticism as in the next section, I discuss honesty commencing with he noted, "It was 15 years ago that I put up a notice to the mechanism of mind that consists of nature and announce that I would begin lecturing and welcome feelings under the Zhu Xi school of Neo-Confucianism everyone. Then, some people said it was admirable which partly influenced Baigan in developing his while others asked what on earth that uneducated man thoughts. Before coming to a conclusion, I present an could teach. Or, some praised me officially, but sneered issue on the view concerning the value of honesty, that is, at me privately. I heard they were divided in their that Japanese honesty is emotional and lacks the opinions."[3] consideration of an end of matters in terms of moral The references drawn for Baigan's lessons were principle. When we review Baigan's honesty reflecting extensive. They included Confucian, Buddhist, and his moral thoughts, we find that he wished to make Japanese books. As Shibata[4] and Bellah[5] argued, things meet with societal interests, and emphasized among many kinds of intelligent resources Baigan used societal harmony as an end of honest behavior. while forming his thoughts, Confucian books had been most influential for Baigan's thoughts (especially the 2. THE ESSENCE OF BAIGAN'S LESSONS Zhu Xi School of Neo-Confucianism). In fact, according to Shibata's survey about Tohimondo In this section, primarily, I describe the personal (Conversation between Town and Countryside), the history of Ishida Baigan (1685-1744), based on the origins of Baigan's thoughts were, in order of frequency, classic study led by Shibata Minoru[2], in order to the Analects of Confucius, Mencius, the Doctrine of the explore how Baigan developed his ideas. I outline Mean, the Great Learning, the Elementary Learning and Baigan's lessons by drawing his keynotes related to the so on. In the top 10 list, nine out of ten books were concept of honesty or shojiki. Confucian. It was not an atypical finding because it Ishida Baigan was a popular philosopher who lived in was all too common for philosophers to base their the mid-Edo era. He was born in 1685 (second year of academic ideas on Confucianism at that time. Hence jokyo period, ruled by Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi). the important thing is that Baigan did not intend to His hometown was Kuwata County, Tamba District in follow the ideas in these books to develop his ideas. Kyoto, Japan. He was the second son of a farming Instead, he applied these academic resources and picked family and his formal name was Okinaga and nickname up words in order to evidence his theories that had been was Kanpei. Since, in those days, it was customary for formed by his experiences[6] . 2 ESSENCE OF HONESTY IN ISHIDA BAIGAN AND VIRTUE OF INTEGRITY IN ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS It is assumed that Baigan's humbleness and strength harmony is accomplished and brotherhood helped him carry out his works, while remaining single among all the people is enhanced. What I for life, changing jobs, running a seminar house, being wish is to lead people to this level.[10] an independent philosopher and enduring criticism. A typical history that before winning popularity, Baigan At a glance, above, it appears that Baigan's words once lectured for one participant tells us his earnestness. show us the way of frugality.
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