調和主義の起源は不明だ。だが縄文時代に根を持つと思う。聖徳太子もえらく強調しているから、その時代よりも前から重要視されていたのだろう。 日本には欧米的な民主主義も資本主義も自由主義も存在しない。あるのは調和主義に迎合した主義だけ。

PART ONE: What is "Harmonism"? (3)

By Shun Daichi

2. “Hamonism” and Japan (2)

Anyway, my old theory went as follows.

Before the Tokugawa Shogun era, there was truly bloody age of civil war that lasted intermittently for some three centuries. The most extreme Civil-Warism was at play during this period.

There was a conqueror, one of the "unifiers" of Japan at the end of the civil war, called Oda Nobunaga (1534-82) . He was the kind of character we never had before or after in the history of Japan.

He was a man of himself and acted like God and a dictator without peer. His cruelty and lack of compromise with his opponents made him the conqueror. Japan needed such a personality and incredible brutality to end the civil war.

I thought this experience was too much for the Japanese people, and everyone hated the civil wars and realized a need for some system to control conflicts among people.

Then came the age of Tokugawa and people enjoyed relative peace for over two and a half centuries.

I thought faith in harmony started and matured during this period. It must have started unconsciously by all the people because there was no one who specifically campaigned for it.

Japanese people get wiser through their civil war experience and realized that the most important matter for the nation and people is to have "peace."

And the best way to keep peace is through harmony among people, and practical methods to maintain harmony have been developed in our society.

This is my old idea and not too bad. I mean I think the theory is true, however, now I think Harmonism has deeper root in our society.

The Jomon Culture was originated about 14000 years ago. The Jomon produced very fine pottery at around 14000 years ago. The Jomons produced the oldest pottery in the world.

Scholars found that Jomon people were very prosperous. They cultivated forest, had agriculture. Plantation of chestnut forest was everywhere. Each township or big village had specialty in certain products.

We still do not know much about the Jomon culture, however, many scholars believe that the Jomons were peace-loving people.

3000 years ago, Yayoi people from Mainland China invaded and conquered the Jomon people. It should be brutal and there should be wars between the Jomons and the Yayoi, however we cannot find any trace of wars nor battles between them. The Jomon people appear to welcome the Yayoi people to their land. Idea of the Jomon people must be Harmonism.

"Harmony (wa) is the most precious value" is the first sentence in the first Japanese constitution made by Shoutoku Taishi in 700 AD. This clause has been hammered into the heads of the Japanese people at every stage of our education.

However, our society today and in the past has never had a truly harmonious society and there never will exist one. We just had a relatively harmonious society for the last four centuries, except during the Meiji Restoration and the World War Two.

Harmonism always pursues harmony through the method I will explain in the next chapter, however, it is like a dream and is never possible to reach. Therefore if we can maintain relatively harmonious relations in society we consider it a success.

A difficult question may then be asked. If the Japanese are the harmony seekers then why did Japan wage war on China, the U.S. and the rest of the world?

This was because Civil Warism was revived through global imperialism. However I will explain more about this in Chapter 4.

We have democracy, freedom and capitalism in the Japanese society of Harmonism. However, all those ideas have been adjusted and changed to meet the needs of Harmonism. I can say that no Western-style democracy or freedom or capitalism exists in Japan.

Can I say that you and I basically know what Harmonism is? So, we can go on to the next step, which shall look at our society and analyze, "How do we achieve and maintain harmony among the people in our society."

(To be continued)