What I talk about when I talk about running

Some years ago, I started jogging.

For the first several months, I jogged on a regular basis and I was proud of myself becoming such a diligent and contestant person. But soon, my rather lazy nature overpowered my newly acquired virtue and finally I stopped jogging.

Why couldn’t I keep going on jogging? Is it just because I’m lazy?

I’ve found the reason when I read Haruki Murakami’s essay “走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること” or “What I talk about when I talk about running.”

The book is like his autobiography and he talks very honestly about himself and running. I was impressed to know what Murakami has been holding inside.

Murakami said this;

“When it comes to sports, playing in a team is not for me, neither is one-on-one game such as tennis. Instead, I’m interested in whether clearing the criteria that I set for myself rather than competing with each other. In that sense, long-distance running just fits in my mentality.

Writing novels is similar to long-distance running. The important thing for me is to overstep myself yesterday as much as possible because the only opponent I have to beat is myself.

I might have ended up seeking for becoming isolated. After all, it’s a two-edged thing. It would protect my inner security but hurt me at the same time. Therefore, I’m running continuously to cancel them out.”

I see how strongly Murakami is determined to push through what he has decided to do at any cost. I’m way too far away from that kind of motivation that requires me to run.

photo:mainichi.jp

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A hundred camellias

I went to Nezu Museum to see a special exhibition titled “One Hundred Camellias.”

Camellias have been adored both in the East and the West, and the past and the present. In Japan, growing camellias became a fad in Edo period. People were not satisfied with just appreciating flowers and started breeding them to have some new types. (It’s a bit similar to the enthusiasm for tulips in Europe in the 17^th.

“One Hundred Camellias” is a 24m-long picture scroll in which we can see more than 100 kinds of camellia. A variety of flowers are arranged in articles for daily use such as a bowl, a fan, a basket, a trash tray as well as in vegetables! The ideas of combinations with a flower and a container are incredibly intriguing.

The scroll was planned by Tadakuni Matsudaira and was finished by his son. It took 2 generations to complete it because they asked poets, monks and scholars to write down praises for each camellia. The scroll has a great literary value, too.

The museum building, which was designed by a successful architect, Kengo Kuma, is also worth seeing. When I stepped into a long and narrow outside corridor, which is lined by bamboo trees, I felt as if I were walking around Kyoto. It’s quite relaxing.


photos: Nezu Museum, izuhapi.net

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What’s Shintoism？

Recently, I started visiting shrines as a member of a historical walk club and I’ve realized that I don’t know anything about Shintoism. It might sound like an excuse but, for me, visiting shrines is just about the same as visiting historical sites and I didn’t need to think about exactly what Shintoism is.

However, It seems that it’s about time for me to touch the headwater of our culture.

What is Shintoism?

Minoru Sonoda (1936~), a professor of religion and a priest in Chichibu shrine said: “Shintoism is a religion in which you feel the existence of gods in nature.”

神道は「自然の中に神を見た信仰」だ

Saigyo(1118-1190), a famous poet and a monk from the Heian period (8^th c) composed a poem when he visited Ise shrine.

“I don’t know exactly what there are in the air but I somehow shed tears because they are very grateful and respectable.”

なにごとのおはしますかは知らねどもかたじけなさに涙こぼるる

Nobuhiro Nishitakatsuji(1980- ), second primary priest at Dazaifu Tenmangu said; “The principle of Shintoism is that you feel and appreciate the beauty of four seasons.”

神道とは四季を感じること

Shintoism, unlike other major religions, does not have a founder, nor a certain bible, but if there are some texts that we can find the heart of Shintoism, they should be “Kojiki” or Record of Ancient Matters, “Nihon Shoki” or The Chronicles of Japan, and “Manyo-shu” or the oldest collection of Japanese poems.

Especially, Manyo-shu is important when it comes to seeing how the ancient people perceived the nature and felt like one with it.

In Manyo-shu, for example, a deer and bush clover get married. Sea and mountains die as if they were mortal. There was no clear distinction among human beings, animals, plants, mountains, river and such.

It seems like that all the objects on the earth are living in the same level without any hierarchy.

When ancient people sing as “mountains laugh,” the word “laugh” isn’t a metaphor. People think mountains are really laughing.

In here, everything on the earth is unified one.

（to be continued）

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