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1. Human Nature in the Japanese Myths

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Japanese Culture and Behavior
This chapter is in the book Japanese Culture and Behavior
Editorial Note to Part One MORALITY refers to value standards by which a certain conduct is judged and sanctioned as right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust, noble or ignoble, and so on. Focusing on Japanese concepts of morality, we regard culture foremost as a storehouse of such value standards. Individuals are disposed, though admittedly in varying degrees, to reg-ulate or justify their conduct and to evaluate one another's conduct according to one or another standard drawn from that storehouse. Morality involves both constraints upon the individual and sentiments held and aroused in the individual. Part 1 begins with John C. Pelzel's analysis of myths that appear in the Kojiki (Records of ancient matters) and Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan, also called Nihon Shoki), compiled by imperial order in A.D. 712 and 720, respectively. Pelzel's chapter may well be read as an introduc-tion to the entire volume, in that it reveals intimate parallels between mythical motifs and "reeil" human life, whether the former are regard-ed as projections or metaphors of the latter (both projections and meta-phors come under the umbrella of symbols in our view). Indeed, Pelzel does suggest such parallels between mythical dramas on the one hand, and human nature and human life on the other, as conceived by the early Japanese and still largely relevant to modern Japanese . There is another reason that this article heads the first part of this vol-ume. Value standards vary from specific to general, from situational to ultimate, from relative to mandatory. It is generally assumed that the general-ultimate-mandatory end of the scale is embedded in the realm beyond human jurisdiction, that is, the supernatural world. A super-natural being might be looked up to as an exemplary moral actor, or as a creator, proclaimer, and enforcer of a moral order. What is said and done by gods who appear in the mythical narratives, especially major gods in the Shinto pantheon, such as the Sun Goddess and her recalci-trant brother, Susanoo, may provide a clue to the nature of Japanese morality.
© University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu

Editorial Note to Part One MORALITY refers to value standards by which a certain conduct is judged and sanctioned as right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust, noble or ignoble, and so on. Focusing on Japanese concepts of morality, we regard culture foremost as a storehouse of such value standards. Individuals are disposed, though admittedly in varying degrees, to reg-ulate or justify their conduct and to evaluate one another's conduct according to one or another standard drawn from that storehouse. Morality involves both constraints upon the individual and sentiments held and aroused in the individual. Part 1 begins with John C. Pelzel's analysis of myths that appear in the Kojiki (Records of ancient matters) and Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan, also called Nihon Shoki), compiled by imperial order in A.D. 712 and 720, respectively. Pelzel's chapter may well be read as an introduc-tion to the entire volume, in that it reveals intimate parallels between mythical motifs and "reeil" human life, whether the former are regard-ed as projections or metaphors of the latter (both projections and meta-phors come under the umbrella of symbols in our view). Indeed, Pelzel does suggest such parallels between mythical dramas on the one hand, and human nature and human life on the other, as conceived by the early Japanese and still largely relevant to modern Japanese . There is another reason that this article heads the first part of this vol-ume. Value standards vary from specific to general, from situational to ultimate, from relative to mandatory. It is generally assumed that the general-ultimate-mandatory end of the scale is embedded in the realm beyond human jurisdiction, that is, the supernatural world. A super-natural being might be looked up to as an exemplary moral actor, or as a creator, proclaimer, and enforcer of a moral order. What is said and done by gods who appear in the mythical narratives, especially major gods in the Shinto pantheon, such as the Sun Goddess and her recalci-trant brother, Susanoo, may provide a clue to the nature of Japanese morality.
© University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents VII
  3. Acknowledgments X
  4. Introduction XI
  5. Part One: Moral Values and Sentiments
  6. 1. Human Nature in the Japanese Myths 3
  7. 2. The Monkey Memorial Service of Japanese Primatologists 29
  8. 3. A Culture of Love and Hate 33
  9. 4. Compensative Justice and Moral Investment among Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans 43
  10. 5. Individual, Group and Seishin: Japan's Interned Cultural Debate 62
  11. 6. The Relation of Guilt toward Parents to Achievement and Arranged Marriage among the Japanese 80
  12. Part Two: Interaction, Communication, and Grouping
  13. 7. An Ethnography of Dinner Entertainment in Japan 108
  14. 8. Amae: A Key Concept for Understanding Japanese Personality Structure 121
  15. 9. "Male Chauvinism" as a Manifestation of Love in Marriage 130
  16. 10. Language and Behavior in Japan: The Conceptualization of Personal Relations 142
  17. 11. Gift-Giving in a Modernizing Japan 158
  18. 12. Criteria of Group Formation 171
  19. 13. Skiing Cross-Culturally 188
  20. Part Three: Development and Socialization
  21. 14. Maternal Care and Infant Behavior in Japan and America 201
  22. 15. Who Sleeps by Whom? Parent-Child Involvement in Urban Japanese Families 247
  23. 16. Ethics and Moral Precepts Taught in Schools of Japan and the United States 280
  24. 17. Violence in the Home: Conflict between Two Principles— Maternal and Paternal 297
  25. 18. "Spirituell Education" in aJapanese Bank 307
  26. Part Four: Cultural Stress, Psychotherapies, and Resocialization
  27. 19. Nonmedical Healing in Contemporary Japan: A Psychiatric Study 344
  28. 20. Self-Reconstruction in Japanese Religious Psychotherapy 354
  29. 21. Japanese Attitudes toward Mental Health and Mental Health Care 369
  30. 22. Fear of Eye-to-Eye Confrontation among Neurotic Patients in Japan 379
  31. 23. Naikan Therapy 388
  32. References 399
  33. Contributors 419
  34. Index 421
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824841522-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents VII
  3. Acknowledgments X
  4. Introduction XI
  5. Part One: Moral Values and Sentiments
  6. 1. Human Nature in the Japanese Myths 3
  7. 2. The Monkey Memorial Service of Japanese Primatologists 29
  8. 3. A Culture of Love and Hate 33
  9. 4. Compensative Justice and Moral Investment among Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans 43
  10. 5. Individual, Group and Seishin: Japan's Interned Cultural Debate 62
  11. 6. The Relation of Guilt toward Parents to Achievement and Arranged Marriage among the Japanese 80
  12. Part Two: Interaction, Communication, and Grouping
  13. 7. An Ethnography of Dinner Entertainment in Japan 108
  14. 8. Amae: A Key Concept for Understanding Japanese Personality Structure 121
  15. 9. "Male Chauvinism" as a Manifestation of Love in Marriage 130
  16. 10. Language and Behavior in Japan: The Conceptualization of Personal Relations 142
  17. 11. Gift-Giving in a Modernizing Japan 158
  18. 12. Criteria of Group Formation 171
  19. 13. Skiing Cross-Culturally 188
  20. Part Three: Development and Socialization
  21. 14. Maternal Care and Infant Behavior in Japan and America 201
  22. 15. Who Sleeps by Whom? Parent-Child Involvement in Urban Japanese Families 247
  23. 16. Ethics and Moral Precepts Taught in Schools of Japan and the United States 280
  24. 17. Violence in the Home: Conflict between Two Principles— Maternal and Paternal 297
  25. 18. "Spirituell Education" in aJapanese Bank 307
  26. Part Four: Cultural Stress, Psychotherapies, and Resocialization
  27. 19. Nonmedical Healing in Contemporary Japan: A Psychiatric Study 344
  28. 20. Self-Reconstruction in Japanese Religious Psychotherapy 354
  29. 21. Japanese Attitudes toward Mental Health and Mental Health Care 369
  30. 22. Fear of Eye-to-Eye Confrontation among Neurotic Patients in Japan 379
  31. 23. Naikan Therapy 388
  32. References 399
  33. Contributors 419
  34. Index 421
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