1st Asia FIEP-Conference Theme: Physical Education and Its Impact to Quality of Life of Children and Youth – An Asian Perspective Kogakuin University Dec/2014

Gil Vicente Lourencao Tsukuba University / Federal University of Sao Carlos

The ethnography in ancient Japan looked from the present; some thoughts about vital energy and kinship

Development of Skills Necessary for BUDO Chair – Prof. Dr. Toyoshima Co-chair: Prof. Dr. Sugino

Acknowledgements:

¡  Monbukagakusho

¡  FAPESP

¡  Kogakuin University

¡  Toyoshima Sensei

¡  Kazuma Sensei

¡  Sugino Sensei

To reach a house, you must first enter the gate. The gate is a pathway leading to the house. After passing through the gate, you enter the house and meet its master. Learning is the gate to reaching the Way. After passing through this gate, you reach the Way. Learning is the gate, not the house. Don’t mistake the gate for the house. The house is located farther inside, after the gate is passed. Heiho Kaden Sho, Yagyu Munenori.

Abstract ¡  This presentation refers to a line from my field research in

Japan during the years 2012 and 2014 being a moment in my PhD in Social Anthropology. The aims is to relate some ethnographic facts collected with the practitioners of Japanese fencing [Kendo] - among them, Japanese and non Japanese - through the relationships made upon training places, called Dojo. The point is make an analogy between the notion of house, Dojo and Ie; the house remains an important practical concept for building a kinship. By kinship we understand the ways to make relatives. ’Relatives' here have a more free sense, as ways of making relationship without necessarily implying human reproduction.

¡  Keywords: Hierarchy, Family, Notion of House, Japaneseness, Concept of Ki-Energy, Kinship.

Few words about the study

¡  I lived over two years in Japan, from 2012 to 2014 to make a research about the Ki, or vital energy.

¡ Nevertheless, the two years spent in Japan opened my eyes to a somewhat broader understanding of a given kinship operation in practice, and this kinship helps to think about the Ki.

¡  I had contact with numerous people related to Japanese martial arts, from Japanese and people born in other contexts and cultures. These meetings and conversations, I realized in fragmentary way, little by little, like the petals of Sakura flowers falling gently in the wind at the beginning of the Japanese spring, a very important principle of Japanese Social organization and cultural and life aspects.

Being and becoming

¡  I researched - in Brazil and Japan - collecting data within Kendo training Halls and training Kendo. It needs to be understood in order to understand under what conditions this study was conducted. Training Kendo was and is the relevant way to talk about Kendo, and about the relationships established through it.

¡  While living in Japan, I realized that there is a myriad of subjectivity modes quite distinct and which tied to a constellation of cultures and practices.

¡  Being Japanese in this sense raises a problem and a limit. What is the way a person becomes ‘Japanese’? And second, what are the ideal from which we would have a comparison index?

¡  There are different processes, which labeled by broad concepts as a Society, Nationality, Culture, State, place more problems than solve. Simplifying, everything depends on the place in which the same person are and does. And Inside the martial ways, there are specific ways of subjectivity that even pass by modern Japan.

¡  For few people inside of martial ways, being Japanese means wants to live in peace, be in contact with indigenous practices. To have the past as a future. Naturally it does not mean to deny the present; people still have smartphones, laptops and many other things of Capitalistic World.

One definition ¡ According to Morishima Sensei [2010]:

“The Kendo is education. Making a true Japanese. This is the ultimate aim of Kendo. Currently, greatly increased the Japanese who are not Japanese. There are many Japanese with undefined nationality. In this way Japan's future is critical. Spirit of Kendo, spirit of bushido, externalize it in daily activities. And teach it to disciples. Then society will improve, kendo will improve. Will have the courage to rebuild Japan. This is the mission of those who practice kendo.”

Anthopologic point of view

¡  From the point of view of a given anthropology, we could recognize a definition of a person inside of Japanese Culture by three points. First, an underlying hierarchical principle of Japanese social organization; second, by the native word; and third, by kinship.

¡ According to Morishima Sensei, there is some Japanese non-Japanese. For the other side, we can consider non-Japanese, Japanese. At least in theoretical point of view.

Training halls – Dojo – 道場

¡  In Japan, there is a social and environmental structure for martial arts, everywhere. Usually the big stadiums for martial arts are called Budoukan, and within these, there are Dojos, or training halls. On the other hand, there are famous Dojos in Japan of varying sizes, depending on the fame and history of the Sensei, contemporary or past.

¡  This is the case in several Universities, and usually in schools we can found these halls on a reduced scale, since the Kendo course is elective for students. Police departments in which I was, and in some companies we can find these halls.

¡  These spaces have a special wooden floor, inscriptions on the walls, and the Kamidana, a small oratory of delicate wood and finely ornate, where this given one notion of divine for Shinto [Kuroda, 1981]. These places are treated with care for people. Always, and every day of training, it’s clean in the beginning and at the end, either by children or adults.

¡  We note that often they are true extensions of Japanese houses, especially in the case of fixed locations owned by a Sensei. Small gatherings happen, conversations and of course training.

Hierarchy system

¡  Professors Sensei) 「先生」, the senior students (Senpai)

「先輩」, and beginner practitioners (Kouhai) 「後輩」 . This primary hierarchical system is the basis of any hierarchy in Japan, working in any relation, inside of Companies, schools, universities and of course in martial practices.

¡ This hierarchical system is vitally important to understand the Japanese social structure. All other systems used it in a similar logic and its operation takes into account basically the temporality. Longer in a given activity, more a person should to know. And teach.

Kinship makes relatives

¡ Dido San, 38 years old, Italian, married in Japan with Japanese wife and two children, was one of Senpais I met over the practice. He lived about 8 years here, been studying language and Culture in Tokyo and after went to work in Japan; he came motivated by Kendo. At one point he met I. Sensei and went on to study Ittoryu, and it changed some things he saw in Japan since became part of a 'big family', in his words.

¡ M. Ishii P., 38 years old, English, married with Japanese wife and newborn son, working in High School as a teacher of English. Mainly interested in Kendo and martial arts, came because the family and work in Japan, making residence in Kanagawa. According to M., life in Japan was possible for the family that cultivated and interest in martial arts, and want to live there because of the wife and child. In addition, it makes a change in his name, getting Ishii of his wife.

¡ A. Fisherman, 28 years old, English, married with Japanese wife, two children, working in Kendo supply store in international sales. Came to Japan in 2009 to enhance the Kendo and knew his wife and married. He says Japan is the best place to have a kind of life he have, to take care of the family, training and work and expect to live more years here, and being winner of European Kendo Championship in a possible future. And recognizes that must have something inside the heart to want to live in Japan and he feels as if he have a Japanese heart.

¡  G. McCallik, 40, Scottish, English teacher, married Japanese wife, lives in Osaka 10 years ago. Came as a student of computer science by Monbukagakusho, but the underlying reason he said was the Kendo. He maintains a website with information and English translations of famous papers and books, being an important reference for Kendo people to make the translation of these and give several tips about training in Japan and is also an editor of several books of martial arts. According to him, the important point is owns a Japanese spirit and it is something possible, to do with confidence. In addition, this wouldn’t be a Japanese quality only, since they have to work on it.

About House and Dojo 道場と家  について。

House and Dojo¡ The notion of house have an important connotation for

martial ways, since it is a metaphor for kinship and a sense of corporality.

¡ About the house, two things are important - the inner space and the arrangement of elements that recount the relationship and the relations established with the living and the dead.

House¡ According to Levi-Strauss (1986, p. 186-187) in Europe

and around the world - as in Japan - the medieval houses have exactly the same characteristics, defining the ownership of a domain composed of tangible and intangible assets - the "Honors" - among which are located even supernatural treasures. And the important thing is, in order to perpetuate then, the 'houses' appealed widely to kinship.

家と家族はハウスですか。 Is possible a comparison between Dojo, Ie, and notion of house?

It is useful to think the Ie/Kazoku, since consider other aspects beyond the framework given by corporate groups of kinship. For the case of Ie, four levels can be considered:

¡ The social entity means dwelling house [unlike Kazoku, regard to nuclear family] and is sensed as independent of its members. For each house there is identification with name, social status and history. This aspect Shimizu calls symbolic Ie.

¡ The other aspect, which he calls embodied Ie, is established on 2 levels: Hotoke or the dead and the living, organized in a corporate group.

Ie/Kazoku and House – 家と家族はハウスですか。

¡ Thirty, the basic social unit consists of three generations: older, seniors and youngers. the important points are the birth, the nomination and the body's production through training. Inside the Dojo, we have only one, and that is training and sometimes the nomination for people who become members of a Dojo, when in case of non-born in Japan [in case of births in Japan, retraces up from the family name].

¡ Fourth, and crucially, the Japanese case shows a dimension of kinship building, in which we could distinguish three - or more times – of construction. The first, on the relationship by procreation; the second, for the construction of body itself and the third through an alignment symbolic or ideological.

About Ki 気についてFirstly, there is no real equivalent for Ki in English. The Japanese word for this is 気, which can be translated as 'vital energy'. Often uses this word in Japan about many things, including relation to natural phenomena, the condition of human relationships, about the state of body and mind. From a broad sense, the Ki can be described as follows:

¡ Source of all things

¡ Vital force

¡  Spirit

¡ Vitality

¡ Element to describe the movement and state of mind

¡ Even if you can not be seen, can be sensed or detected

¡ Have a special relationship with the breathing

気について¡  From the point of view of Kendo speeches in Brazil that indicates for

practicing Kendo is necessary to discipline the 'Spirit' before the body, and in this sense they use the word Ki for designate it.

¡  For the other side, in Japan the term in reference to designate 'Spirit' is 「精神」；however, sometimes we can understand the Ki as ‘spirit’, but in this case the conceptualization is a little bit narrow compared with 'vital energy' – more broader – because we can feel and think it in ambience-agency of humans and non humans in general.

¡  Taking the 'vital energy' as a definition, all living beings have it and the particularity of Kendo is presented in the attention to make it bigger. The concept of Ki operates mainly in terms of strength or weakness of the body. It is also seen as a power that animates the body and allows the action, carrying in its development intentionality or 'vitality’.

気について

¡ The important thing to keep is the exchange of Ki, 「気が合う」necessarily involves a form of conduit that allows a direct sensory mode of exchange of affects. This is different of feelings mediating by through the mind, in the westerns thoughts.

¡  Significantly, there is no word for 'mind' in the Japanese language in common usage. There is, however, a concept that is larger than (and includes) the mind called kokoro「心」. Since the referential sphere of kokoro subsumes the micro-sphere of the mind, this means that Japanese language and behavior explicitly look at exchange of affects. A process that pass through mind while at the same time pass through Kokoro. In other words, a balance between Heart and Mind, Nature and Culture can be found.

Still about kinship – Conclusion

¡  From this point we can see the mistake of anthropologists and social scientists to think Ie is due largely to disregard the analysis of what is conceived as a body, Seishin and Ki as this largely makes the kinship works. The body 「体」 for Japanese culture is something constructed from birth until death. The Seishin「精神」on the other hand, what would be the spirit, need a constant recognition. The Ki 「気」 on the other side indicates a notion of vital energy, largely related to elements that are not taken into account in kinship analysis, continually folding on culture and nature.

¡ What analysts see as kinship as culture, is something folds constantly on nature in Japan. Is believed that the bodies are different, the spirits are different, but this difference does not lie in culture or in nature, but in both at the same.

¡ The question here is admitting in a sense, only with a balance between a folding nature in culture and a culture in nature, social life is possible. Kinship is possible. A given humanity is possible.

¡ What is ‘given’ and what is ‘made’? Depends. Depends on the relationships from which Kinship is done, as of possible folds between nature and culture to the case analyzed. All account for this relationship, not just the blood, the body or the soul, or the land, the house and the plants and flowers. The Japanese Kinship puts this kind of problem and difficulty. It depends; maybe is a graceful and wise solution.

¡ On the other hand, the idea of mutuality of being is quite interesting to think about the way in which kinship relationships are made in Japan, including non-Japanese; persons involved intrinsically in the existence of other people, living lives of others and share other’s deaths. In short, and above all, the experience of these people shows participation into the other’s lives.

¡ The Ie can be socially constructed as genealogically; can be interpreted as an emphasis on biological, at birth, the role of man and woman, body transformations, and ancestors and substances, including the Spirit, blood, semen. In the postnatal moment: residence, reincarnation, adoption, friendship, shared suffering. And ideologies such as schools, lineages, age groups, gods, spirits, etc.

¡ Well, the human being - or ningen 「人間」- is a space into person. A moment, filled by others, relationships, family relationships, substance, morals, ways of life, agency, nature, culture. What would be the Ie, for a kinship? Most likely a fill through inter mutually involved things and persons. More than mutuality of being, perhaps would be more appropriate to think about mutuality of become relatives. Maybe here is the detail.

Thank you very much for your attention Gil Vicente Lourencao gilvicenteworks@gmail.com gilvicenteworks.wordpress.com ufscar.academia.edu/GilVicenteLourencao

PhD candidate in Social Anthropology Post Ph.D. candidate – Tsukuba University ABEJ - Brazilian Association of Japanese Studies LEM - Laboratory of Immigration Studies-UFSCAR ABA - Brazilian Association of Anthropology ABMON - Association of Students Monbukagakusho 日本武道学会- Japanese Academy of Budo