The Obedient Japanese

The concept of obedience in Japan is as ancient as its people. Up until the mainstream introduction of Confucianism and Buddhism into Japanese society by the scholarly Japanese Regent Shotoku within the Seventh Century AD the Japanese people made up an isolated and primitive agrarian society. Japan’s people were fragmented by its mountainous terrain and many islands, and its culture isolated by the stormy Sea of Japan from the Asian mainland. As with all primitive societies successful group dynamics were essential for survival and this tended to be based upon isolated communities working together in remote valleys for rice cultivation and hunting and in coastal areas where fishing predominated. Hierarchy was dependent upon each community and the individual strengths and weaknesses of its participants like everywhere else.

With Shotoku’s adherence to Confucian ideals Japan’s society moved gradually from a relative unstructured and loose network of relationships to one of unyielding obedience. Initially the Confucian principles were intended by Shotoku to create a harmonious society where structure alleviated conflict by offering certainty in any relationship – ruler and ruled, father and son, elder brother and younger, husband and wife, friend and friend. Along with the introduction of Confucianism, Shotoku introduced urban design, a central bureaucracy and ultimately a hierarchical society that would endure up until the present day.

Out of all the Asian nations that have been influenced by Confucianism, Japan has been and still is the “most obedient” or arguably the best student in terms of practising Confucianism. They maintain an excellent work ethic and their society is intensely orderly and polite. The Japanese can endure hardships and undergo chaos while still being able to live in apparent harmony with one another. 

Samurai culture promoted a concept of absolute obedience 

Harmony gave way to fear and unbending obedience when the Emperor’s power was usurped by warlords (Shoguns) and feudalism started at the end of the twelfth century. Lasting for over seven centuries Japan’s feudalistic society ensured absolute control by a series of Shogunate clans controlling armies of samurai. The concept of samurai was one of military discipline and austerity – a code of conduct that is often likened to the chivalry of medieval Europe. Austerity in turn influenced greatly Japanese aesthetics, with simplicity the overriding principle.  The honor code of the samurai was based upon Confucianism and was designed to keep the killing machine samurai and martial arts cultists from destroying one another. The samurai life became ordered in every way, how they behaved with each other, with people of higher or lessor rank, what they wore and ate, how they fought and even slept. Rules were everything! 

For the average Japanese the samurai were both feared and revered. Many legends of samurai bravery and heroic deeds were commonplace. Samurai were no longer individuals, but extensions of the clan mind controlled by their Lord – offering unyielding loyalty. When they adopted the Samurai code they built an internal structure for themselves – a highly disciplined self! They acted on behalf of their lord no matter what the personal cost nor the consequences of their actions. They conformed to their code and the dictates of their Master.  Confucianism placed benevolence above all else, however such was not the case in feudalistic Japan. Loyalty became the overriding principle and thus Confucianism was bent to the needs of power and control. No matter what deep down the individual wrapped within the cloak of samurai felt he was powerless to express. Zen Buddhism however offered them a unique Japanese reprieve from guilt where emptiness of mind enabled action without conscious thought. This led to ruthlessness!

The samurai can be viewed as the first Japanese whose individuality was essentially private. Patrick Smith, author of “Japan A reinterpretation” explained. He continued to analyse the samurai’s individuality in saying “How else to describe people who found purity in the utmost detachment from everything they did that was visible to others? Satori, Zen enlightenment, was a matter of private salvation. Seppuku, ritual suicide, was an honorable way out of disgrace because it was an act of private individuality.”

Professor at Yale, Eiko Ikegami advocated two theses in her book ‘The Taming of the Samurai’. The first is the samurai ethos of what she labels ‘honorific individualism’ marked by an obsession with personal dignity, self-esteem, and reputation. The second is the unresolvable and dramatic conflict between autonomy and heteronomy – between the violence-based honor of the samurai elite and the need to control them under a collective political order. 

Though samurai no longer exist, many of the Japanese traits that Westerners still question today: the concealment of personality, rigorous loyalty to the group – stem from these warriors. With the current breakdown of life employment within Japan the ‘corporate soldier’ can no longer be used as the projection of samurai culture into the modern world. Does the influence of samurai still exist at all? 

One can certainly see the acceptance of austerity and the ability to cope with adversity as modern day Japanese traits. The ‘inscrutability’ of the Japanese is still prevalent today, their need to internalise all emotion and to hide from public view. However the need to maintain ‘face’ at all costs is more important for an older generation whilst Western concepts of individuality and autonomy are unmasking the younger Japanese face.  Irrespective the private nature of the Japanese individual and how they see their world exists upon the shoulders of history’s samurai and is essential in the cross-cultural understanding of Japanese individuality and identity.