2021/7/24(土)SMC

Hi everyone!

Here is the summary of the meeting held on July 24 at Oyama Community Center.

I basically quoted the English emailed to me from each speaker.

SM SM Noro served as the Coordinator and the Lecturer.

Lecture

The 1933 gem In Praise of Shadows (public library) by Japanese literary titan Junichiro Tanizaki (July 24, 1886–July 30, 1965) belongs to that special order of slim, enormously powerful books that enchant the lay reader with an esoteric subject, leaving a lifelong imprint on the imagination — rare masterpieces like Robin Wall Kimmerer’s love letter to moss and Glenn Kurtz’s paean to the pleasures of playing guitar.

Tanizaki, translated here by Thomas J. Harper and Edward G. Seidensticker, examines the singular standards of Japanese aesthetics and their stark contrast — even starker today, almost a century later — with the value systems of the industrialized West. He writes:

- We find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates… Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty.

At the heart of this philosophy is a fundamental cultural polarity. Unlike the Western conception of beauty — a stylized fantasy constructed by airbrushing reality into a narrow and illusory ideal of perfection — the zenith of Japanese aesthetics is deeply rooted in the glorious imperfection of the present moment and its relationship to the realities of the past:

- The quality that we call beauty … must always grow from the realities of life, and our ancestors, forced to live in dark rooms, presently came to discover beauty in shadows, ultimately to guide shadows toward beauty’s ends.

His inquiry into the origin of these cultural differences, paradoxically enough, calls to mind both Buddhism’s basic teaching of acceptance and the memorable words of one of the West’s greatest thinkers — Albert Camus’s observation that people often “refuse to be happy outside the conditions they seem to have attached to their happiness.” Tanizaki writes:

- We Orientals seek our satisfactions in whatever surroundings we happen to find ourselves, to content ourselves with things as they are, and so darkness causes us no discontent, we resign ourselves to it as inevitable. If light is scarce then light is scarce; we will immerse ourselves in the darkness and there discover its own particular beauty. But the progressive Westerner is determined always to better his lot. From candle to oil lamp, oil lamp to gaslight, gaslight to electric light — his quest for a brighter light never ceases, he spares no pains to eradicate even the minutest shadow.

Table Topics Speeches

<Is it more charitable to spend your money or time? > (SM Yo. Narisawa)

<What are some of most famous cities in the world? What makes them famous? > (SM K. Narisawa)

<What I would like to do if I knew I would not fail? > (SM Kaneko)

<What was the last time you felt lucky? > (SM Yu. Narisawa)

<What was your favorite folk tale when you were kid? > (SM Yamazaki)

Prepared Speeches

<SM Yu. Narisawa>

Have you ever heard of the Bump Dance? The dance was a fad around fifty years ago. Two people bump their hips against each other to the beat of the song. I’m gonna let you listen to the song for your entertainment. How do you like it?

But, sorry, today’s topic is not about the dance. As I told you in the previous online meeting, I am often bumped. When I think I’m walking straight, I often bump against people at the station. Recently, I’ve seen a poster in the station saying you might think you have been bumped but you might have bumped. Is this the case with me? These days more and more people bump against me. Why do they bump against me so often? As I said in the previous online meeting, I think more people walk while looking at their smart phones. I feel as if they would like to save time because they are too busy. I was wondering what they are looking at on their smart phones. I sometimes look into the screen on their smart phones. In most cases they are playing games. Looks like they are busier than you think. But they have more free time than a few decades ago according to statistics. It’s just because they can’t wait. That means I have to continue enjoying the bump dance.

<SM Yo. Narisawa>

The speaker talked about a novel called " Secondhand heart". This is a love story between a woman who had heart transplant surgery and a man who is a firefighter. They were attracted to each other. But each of them had secrets they didn't want to talk about. Her secret was she had had heart transplant surgery. His secret was he had a twin sister who had been killed in a car accident. When he was driving a car and his sister was sitting in the seat next to him, he asked her to take his bag on the back seat. She removed the seat belt. At the moment, a car bumped into his car. She died in the accident. And What's worse, he didn't know she had signed a donor card. She donated her organs. One day, they made up their mind to confide their secrets. They knew her transplanted heart was his twin sister's. The facts threw them into confusion. But they realized that they loved each other very much. They got married. It was a happy ending story.

<SM K. Narisawa>

His speech was based on the proverb: Don’t judge a book by its cover. He talked about the incident that happened recently to him. And the incident proved that the proverb was right. This guy looked arrogant and seemed to be working only to climb the hierarchical ladder at first, but it turned out that it was not true. He now seems more interested in accomplishing everyday things at school than promotion. After all, we should judge a person by the clothes they wear or the position they are in.

<SM Yamazaki>

The speaker talked about his potential health concern due to some sudden recent weight gain that was discovered via a medical checkup. He attributed it to the worsening condition of the bunions on his big toe, which led to a lack of exercise. The speaker added that he began to wear a unique type of shoes that accommodate his deformed big toes. With such shoes, he would like to work on walking and cycling, he said.

Next meeting:

July 26 7:30-9:00 pm ZOOM meeting

July 31 9:00-11:00 am ZOOM meeting

Reported by YAMAZAKI