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Okina No Fumi (The Writings of an Old Man)

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Okina No Fumi (The Writings of an Old Man) "TRANSLATION Okinano fumi THE WRITINGS OF AN OLD MAN BY TOMINAGA NAKAMOTO Translated by KATO SHUICHI QKINA NO FUMI CAWritingsofan OldMan) is oneof the two major works of TominagaNakamoto, and is moreimportant than the other, SHUTSUJO KOGO, in thesense that the former discusses the Three Teachings and covers the whole intellectual worldof the author. Thus it is theonly source now available to indicatethe contents of the lostbook, SETSUHEI, andto explain what he believed inas theWay of Truth.SHUTSUJO KOGO is concernedina verydetailed way only with Buddhism; One might say OKINA NO FUMI is moreinteresting in methodology, while SHUTSUJO KOGO is morecomplete as a historyof Buddhist doctrines. Thetext used for our translation isone included inNIHON JURIN SOSHO, kaisetsubuII, TjyJtosho kankokai, Tokyo, 1929. Thenotes to the text are by no means complete. As the text is a sortof general survey of the bistoryof Shintoist, Buddhist, Confucian doctrines, it is practicallyimpossible to explain everythingforthe general reader. Although some details are given about certain points, most ofthe notes are brief,especially when the relevant information caneasily be obtained from wellknown dictionaries orreference works in English. MAUTHOR' S INTRODUCTION THESE writings,said to be thework of a certainOld Man, have been made availableto me by a friend.Even in thisworld of decay there still seems to be one wise old man.He emphaticallyexpounds the theorythat there is the Way of Truthbesides the Ways of the ThreeTeachings: Buddhism, Confucianism and Shintoism.In thebelief that a personwho behavedin accordancewith what he sayswould never make mistakes, I have thoughtof lendingthis Old Man my support.I asked my friend the name of this Old Man,but my friend did nottell me, sayingthat he himselfdid notknow. There was nothingI coulddo aboutit. The Old Man musthave been like those who existed in ancienttimes, living in seclu- This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Fri, 26 Dec 2014 02:31:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TRANSLATION. KATO, "Okinano fumi" I95 sion,freely speaking their minds. With the idea thatit wouldbe instructivefor myown family and mightbe passedon to otherpeople, I havecopied the whole frombeginning to end. Gembun3rd year (I738), eleventhmonth. Tomo no Nakamoto. CI IN THE present-dayworld, Buddhism, Confucianism and Shintoism are regarded as theThree Teachings representing the threedifferent countries, India, China andJapan, respectively. Some people think that those Teachings must converge at theend; otherscriticize each otherdisputing what is genuine.However, the Way whichshould be called theWay ofall Ways is a differentone, and none of theWays of the ThreeTeachings is actuallyin accordancewith the Way of Truth.In anyevent, Buddhism is theWay of India, Confucianism is the Way of China,and sincethey are of other countries, they are not the Way ofJapan. Shin- toismis theWay ofJapan, but sinceit is ofother times, it cannotbe theWay of thepresent-day world. The Waymust be inprinciple the Way in whatevertime in whatevercountry, but it is essentialfor the Way of all Waysto be practised. The impracticableWays cannotbe consideredas the Way of Truth.And it is impossibleto practisethe Waysof the ThreeTeachings in present-dayJapan. cii THE Buddhistsare supposed to trainthemselves and try to convertother peo- ple by learningeverything from India, but thereis no exampleof anyone in Japan who has everpreached in Sanskritor masteredthat language, let alonetried to do everythingjust as in India,from household utensils to the constructionof buildings.In India,it is politeto exposehalf the body and press the palms togeth- er; it is consideredgood manners to showknees and thighs.A passagein a sutra says: "anklesand kneesopenly exposed, only genital organs concealed." Thus thingsthat people here hide as uncleanare permittedto be exposedopenly., The Buddhistsshould not hesitate to do all suchthings! If evenmy own words are regarded as uncleanin anotherplace, it wouldbe permitted,not to put them into practice. If evenwords that are not mine are re- gardedas cleanin another place, it isnecessary toput them into practice."2 Thus Buddhahimself did not teach that you should change all thecustoms ofyour own countryto imitateIndia. It is thusnot in accordancewith Buddhism itself that 1 Ka-sbitsu-rogen-on-ba-zJi * in the two aspectsof Nyorai (Tathagata). textshould be readka-shitsu-rogen-me-on-zJ MAff$ 2 The source of this quotation has not been I &A. Thispassage refers to one of the thirty- identified. This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Fri, 26 Dec 2014 02:31:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 196 MonumentaNipponica, XXII, I-2 JapaneseBuddhists are doing what is notfitting in thiscountry by trying to imitateererything Indian. The old Manhated them and made fun of them in this chapter. CM SINCE meatdishes are regarded as an importantfood in China,Confucianists shouldkeep cattle and sheep which as a rulehave to be madeinto meals. The menu too has to be set withreference to whatis writtenin the "InnerRules" ofthe "Bookof Rites." At a weddingthey should perform the ceremony of "Calling on the Bride'sParents."3 At religiousceremonies effigies have to be put up. As regardsclothing, the Chinese costume should be usedand forthe head the Con- fucianisthat4 should be worn.It is not Chinesestyle to wearordinary formal dresswith a smoothhairdo. Confucianists should use Chinesepronunciation for Chineseideographs. As thereare variouspossible pronunciations, they should learnthat of the countryof Lu ofthe Springand AutumnPeriod, and as there are manykinds of ideographs they should use onlythe ancienttype, Chu type and tadpoletype.5 Thereis thesaying: "Ifollow the barbarians when I go tothe barbarians," or another:"It isgood manners tofollow the popular customs," oragain: "King Tu strippedto the waist when he entered the country of naked people."6 Indeed eren theConfucianists didnot say that the customs ofthose countries hare to be changed toimitate China. It isthen not in accordance with true Confucianism thatJapanese 3 Shingeitit: oneof the six rites at wedding, Dynasty.The namekato no sho, literally tadpole- mentionedin the"Book of Rites,"in whichthe likewritings, is obviouslydue to thetadpole-like bridegroomvisits the bride's parents to bringher shapeof the characterswritten with lacquer on awaywith him. piecesof bamboo during the Chou Dynasty. It is 4 Shin-i;*: everydaycostume for Chinese inaccurate,however, to attributethis type of gentry.Shbho -**: a ritualhat, originally of the writing,as theChinese tradition after the Three Yin Dynasty,used by Confucius,and laterpop- Kingdomsdoes, to anyparticular period of time, ularamong Chinese Confucianists. becausethe charactersnever had tadpole-like 5 Kobun,chubun, kato no bun -tX; f I X: shapeswhen they were inscribed on thestone and kobun,or ancientforms of writing, includes koko- notwritten with lacquer. These archaic types- tsubunIf *,X, writtenon tortoise-shell oranimal ancient,chu and tadpoletypes-were already out bones,the oldest of Chinesecharacters from the ofuse duringthe Han Period;sh5ten (also called Yin Dynasty;and kimbun1X, inscriptionson simplyten X, andrei -), firstintroduced during bronzevessels from the Yin and ChouDynasties. theHan Period,were always used, but onlyfor The namechubun derives from Shi Chu t , (in specialpurposes in thelater periods; the common ChineseShih Chou), who is supposedto havein- typesof writing in post-HanChina and inJapan ventedin the late Chou Perioda new typeof are kai*, gyo4i and so *, whichare quite dif- characters,chubun (also called daiten A-X) in con- ferentfrom the archaic types. trastwith shdten .1 . whichwas introducedby 6 Sourcesof these sayings not identified. Ri Shi _1$f(in ChineseLi Ssu) duringthe Ch'in This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Fri, 26 Dec 2014 02:31:12 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TRANSLATION. KATO, "Okinano fumi" I97 Confucianistsaredoing what is alien ? thiscountry, trying in ererything toimi- tateChinese customs. tIV IN OLD Japanit was goodmanners for people to saluteeach other four times, turningto each otherand clappinghands. Food was servedon an oak leafas a dish.At timesof mourning songs were sung, people wailed over their loss, and whenthe mourningwas overthey went out to theriver to performthe purifi- cationrites. People who learnShintoism must practise these things, every one ofthem, exactly in themanner of ancient times. Since the goldor silvermoney we use nowadaysdid not existoriginally in the age of Gods, thosewho learn Shintoismwould do well to throwit away and makeno use of it. Also,since our presentstyle of dress,called gofuku, has been takenover from the Chinese countryof Go,7 it wouldbe properfor them not to wearit. As forwords, they shouldthoroughly memorize the old expressionsof the age of Gods and say kazofor father, iroha for mother, sere for you, shiraha for dress, haha for snake and atsushireru8forsick; they should call everything in a differentway and givethem- selves namesof a differentkind such as so-and-so-hikoor so-and-so-hime-no- mikoto. Shintoismmay forbid us to changethe originally left-hand thing to the right- hand,the right-hand thing to theleft-hand; but does not really ask for a total changeof the present manners tothe ancient ones. It wouldnot be in accordance withShintoism itself to imitatethe ancient times in ererythingand behare in a strangeextraragant way as Shintoiststoday are doing.Lord Minister Nono- miya9is saidto hare once
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