Bansuido and Shoji-san (Part I)

In the first week of August, 2007, I went to an old house in Sendai City called “Bansuisodo”. This house was actually rebuilt by students of Doi Bansui – a great poet and literary figure of Sendai. His original house that used to stand in the same location was destroyed during World War II. His students loved him so much that they chipped in to rebuild t their beloved professor’s house.

Below is an excerpt taken from Sendai City homepage:

Doi Bansui （1871～1963）
Doi Bansui was a poet and scholar of English literature born in Sendai, and is best known as the lyricist of the song Kojo no Tsuki (The Moon Over the Ruined Castle). His house, the Bansuisodo, stands as a memento of the days he lived.
This literary heritage still runs in Sendai and continues to steadily produce famous writers, such as Isaka Kotaro, Saeki Kazumi, Sena Hideaki, and Kumagai Tatsuya.

It was a weekday afternoon so I was the only visitor at the old house. However, I was warnly welcomed by its keeper for the day – Shoji-san. Shoji-san was a elderly man in his 70s but he still looks, acts and smiles as he is in his 50s. What would have been a “drowsy afternoon visit” was kept alive and interesting by this dynamic old man. He told me many things about the Professor Bansui even after playing the Japanese tape that covers the highlights of Bansui-sensei’s life. I learned that the good old professor translated great literary works such as Homer’s directly from Greek.

However, our conversation was not limited to Prof. Bansui but went way beyond and it was wondeful to get so much insight from a man of lengthy experience and deep wisdom.

Here are some of my questions and his replies:

1) Where do think the Japanese race came from ? Did the Japanese people originate from Mainland China?

He said : “There are many trains of thought about the origin of the Japanese people. There are some who say we originated from China or elsewhere and there are some who claim that we came from the original inhabitants of the land. The answer lies in the prehistoric times and is therefore blurred by myth and legends. Looking at the old literature that most would dismiss as superstition – the first Japanese emperor came from the gods, and is a god himself. Recently there was a TV documentary that features a certain tribe of Mayans (or did he say Inca’s?) that were born with birthmarks . Most if not all Japanese are born with birthmarks – so it could be possible that there is a link between these distantly separated races. “

I also agreed and added – when I showed a picture of a former colleague in the States who is an American Born Alaskan , my colleagues in Japan said –“This guy looks like a Japanese “.

He said “Exactly! In prehistoric times Japan is not a separate group of islands but rather part of a the main Asian continent and connected to the Americas via land bridges. People in those times moved here and there so its impossible to really determine what is the origin of each race.”

He said rather that bother ourselves with the question of our origin, many Japanese believe in the “Ideology of Infinity”. I was intrigued and asked – what is that ideology.

He quickly replied - “It means we and everything around us is infinite – no beginning and no end. As you know matter can never be created nor destroyed. And that belief is applied to everything – including the Japanese race. The Japanese race , we believe is here and will always be here. It may change one form or another but whatever state it is we refer to it as the Japanese race. We accept whatever it is right now and whatever it would be in the future , there is no need to rationalize.

He said the same concept is applied to death by the proponents of this ideology. Death is nothing but a change of state – the person does not really end there – he merely changes form. That way we learn to accept “death” more freely and without fear.

I was amazed by this man so I asked a little more of his background. He is already retired and works there as a volunteer along with several others sharing the days of the week. He is not a Lit major or something – he used to be just an ordinary salaryman but he did have some interest in literature and reads a good deal of literary magazines and works.

[LINKS]

About Sendai:

http://www.city.sendai.jp/kikaku/seisaku/yoran/english/section03.html

Sendai City Travel Pointer:

To go around the city I recommend taking the Loople Sendai –a Public Tourist Bus that goes around the city’s major attractions :

http://www.kotsu.city.sendai.jp/e/bus/loople/loople.html