and yes, the world is moving towards sustainable consumption...
i have been working on this element on green procurement as a KPI was set for my division. i naturally love new subject matter as i get to do it from scratch which means i learn and study the subject matter to produce a piece that is suitable for my company. i love policy making....
while i did some networking locally, i was told to establish international networking... i wrote to many utilities and companies and TEPCO was one of the first to share so much information to the extend that they shared with us the english write up of their policy.
thus, the journey begins... a silent shrill of excitement went through my body. memories rekindled. i can't believe that i will step into the country that was part of my childhood memories. the stories of japanese occupation of malaya, the shogun miniseries which we awaited every week in the 1980s, the samurai theme, world war 2, geography lessons at school, the literary pieces that i read and did assignments on i.e. the kabuki, short stories and haiku poems, story books with japan as the setting, my best friend's journey many years before mine, the beauty of cherry blossoms that i yearn for, kitaro's matsuri and his other songs that was music to my soul, my love for shigeru umebayashi's works, the acquired taste for japanese food namely sushi and sashimi and of course ken watanabe in the last samurai and memoirs of a geisha as well as Takashi Kaneshiro...oh yes!!! yet, i stayed silently calm for i didn't want to jinx it with my excitement. while TEPCO was the first choice, we were also looking at New Zealand or Australia and then, it was decided when the many layers of approvals came along. i was going to japan was more important to me that TEPCO.
japan was part of my childhood, my growing up years were filled with something about japan....i think i was very impressed with the nation...the way they rose up after the second world war...hiroshima nagasaki. the level of determination they had to rise above the rest to be one of the most powerful countries in the world made me in awe for them. the more i get to know them, the more i am in awe of them. there is something about them...
what it is to be a japanese from the eyes of an author that he portrayed through his work which was part of my literature studies... it was my dream to travel to japan ever since I read that short story in my world literature in english class... literature had somehow shaped my inner self...i love themes like heroism, love, sacrifice, patriotism, loyalty and integrity...im probably a drama queen. it was my dream to travel to japan... i remembered that story i read once and never did i forget the story though i couldnt remember the title nor the author...
google is my best friend.... i found the short story that opened my door to japan...Patriotism by Yukio Mishima... this is one of the most famous literary piece in japan and a summary of the my japanese love...this is the literature in me!
the review of "Patriotism": The essence of what it is to be Japanese? http://personal.centenary.edu/~khowell/index4patriotism.html
Mishima uses Japanese culture to illustrate his argument for imperialism. He does this in such a proud way, showing his reverence for Japanese culture and traditions. The honor, loyalty and patriotism that ruled the lives of ancient samurais and the soldiers of the Imperial Army on the eve of World War II embodies the true essence of what it meant to Mishima to be Japanese. Love of the government and love of family are almost inseparable, but loyalty to the government comes first.
This story makes much more sense in the context of Japanese culture and tradition. The two main characters commit suicide by mean of the ritualistic samurai death, harakiri. This is common knowledge to the Japanese people, while it seems horrible and grotesque to people of the Western world. Many of the domestic dynamics that are normal in the story are also making reference to Japanese culture from pre-World War II Japan. The traditional dress and bathing rituals seem foreign to members not of the Japanese society. Even the format Mishima uses is reminiscent of the calm, methodical stages that the couple goes through in undertaking their suicides. Each numbered section relays specific information, and each section has a different focus. There is a time and place for all of the information that needs to be relayed to the reader.
Woman's place in traditional Japanese society is illustrated brilliantly in "Patriotism". Paragraph one, with its cold, precise reporter tone, acknowledges the subordination of women to men by the manner in which the names of the suicide victims are listed. "On the twenty-eighth of February," begins the first sentence of the story, where "Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama of the Konoe Transport Battalion" is introduced. The sentence continues on for seven lines, a total of seventy-nine words. Then, we learn of the second suicide victim, noted simply, "His wife, Reiko, followed him, stabbing herself to death." with a total of nine words. More evidence of this is in the second section; "Not once did Reiko contradict her husband, nor did the lieutenant ever find reason to scold his wife."
The tradition of arranged marriageis touched upon in the second section. Reiko thinks of Shinji, "...a man who had been a complete stranger until a few months ago...". There is an age discrepancy, Shinji is thirty-one and Reiko is twenty-three when they are married. The families of the children to be married consult a matchmaker or a go-between. The go-between in the story is Lieutenant General Ozeki. In marrying a man, the wife was expected to take on the responsibilities of occupation of the husband. On their wedding night, Shinji tested Reiko's resolve as the wife of a lieutenant by making sure she knew that she'd be expected to die when he died. Although the arranged marriage was predominant in the past, the proportion of arranged marriages today ranges anywhere from 25 to 50 percent of all the marriages.
Honor, loyalty, intelligence and integrity are the basis of the Code of the Samurai. "The samurai's life was like the cherry blossom's, beautiful and brief. For him, as for the flower, death followed naturally, gloriously." A quote from "Ancient Warriors - The Samurai", The Learning Channel (1994) These ancient ideals and codes contributed to the ethic of the soldier's life in subsequent years. Mishima uses seppuku, or harakiri, to display both the lieutenant's and his own unfaltering nationalism and loyalty to the emperial system. Harakiri developed as an integral part of the code of bushido and the discipline of the samurai warrior class, it is an act of loyalty and dignity and also a means of redeeming failure through an honorable death. The samurai understood seppuku--whether ordered as punishment or chosen in preference to a dishonorable death at the hands of an enemy-as an unquestionable demonstration of their honor, courage, loyalty, and moral character.
Seppuku is not the act itself, but the state of mind reached by the samurai during the ceremonial disembowelment. Mishima makes reference to this in section four, "Was this seppuku? -he [Lieutenant] was thinking."Harakiri was a very formal ceremony, requiring certain etiquette, witnesses and considerable preparation. Reiko and Shinji make these preparations in the third section. Reiko wraps her possessions, such as dresses and small ceramic figurines, and prepares them to be given to her family and friends after her death. Each of them writes a single note to be read by the person who discover the bodies and the mourners. Reiko uses her note to apologize for her "unfilial conduct in thus preceding her parents to the grave". Shinji writes simply "Long live the Imperial Forces", reiterating the dedication to the ruling regime. Through adherence to the ancient customs, they are to be rewarded by the regaining of honor by such an honorable death.
By painting such a vividly dignified picture of ancient, traditional Japanese culture, Mishima voiced his opinion on the governing powers in Japan during the nineteen-sixties. His love of emperialism, unfaltering nationalism and loyalty to the emperial system were in accordance with his political beliefs of fascism and military superiority. This affection for fascism and the resurrection of a romanticized samurai ideal is what Mishima hoped that Japan would recognize and return to the Emperor system. "Patriotism" is an especially important example of the success of his literary works in keeping his opinions alive.
It was through filmography and literature did I fall in love with the land of the rising sun...and today, I shall embrace my love through the eyes of haruki murakami to immerse myself in the memories....
