Introduction
The work Patriotism by Yukio Mishima portrays a code of values and honor followed by Japanese solders and officers. The main character, Shinji, is faced with a dilemma he cannot resolve. One extreme way of giving form to one’s death and one’s life is through suicide. The classical Japanese way of ritual suicide or seppuku, a prescribed form of self-disembowelment for samurai, was performed in order to perpetuate individual and group honor and avoid disgrace.
However “illogical” or unacceptable such ritual suicides appear to us now, their logic within the samurai cultural milieu of Japan was clear enough. The book vividly portrays that such actions by samurai reasserted symbolic coherence for generations of followers, thereby extending imagery of self and world beyond individual death. Japanese attitudes toward suicide, thus, have much to teach us about universal psychological principles around taking one’s own life and about approaching death in general. Thesis: In the book, Patriotism, Shinji commits seppuku, and this act is significant to him because it demonstrated his loyalty to the country and his friends, his strong moral character in the face of dilemma, his courage of self-sacrifice and his honor for a soldier to commit suicide.
Discussion
Shinji performs seppuku as the only possible way to avoid shame and dishonor. Following strict moral codes, Shinji cannot betray his friends and kills them. It is important to remember that the samurai concept was that of the period, of warriors in peacetime. During the two hundred and fifty years of Tokugawa rule, the social role of samurai had changed radically from warrior to bureaucrats. Their qualifications were expressed in the word coined and popularized to designate the “way of the samurai”: bushido. Mishima writes: ” Death of any sort is a fearful thing to watch. You must not be discouraged by what you sec” (41).
This highly moralistic system of thought embodying the samurai ideal stressed absolute loyalty to the feudal lord and demanded the cultivation of such virtues as will power, courage, and honor. The samurai’s ultimate act of self-discipline and duty to his lord was idealized in the ritual suicide of seppuku. By slitting open his abdomen and exposing his intestines, the warrior proved his sincerity and purity.
Yukio Mishima underlines that Shinji has a strong moral character in the face of dilemma which helps him to commit suicide. In general, Yukio Mishima emphases Japanese culture perceived death as an event, at least for the elite, illustrates the connection between death and group as well as individual completion. A particular way of dying becomes a means of perpetuating important cultural principles, thereby contributing to survivors’ sense of immortality through the biosocial and creative modes. Shinji recollects: “Was this seppuku?-he was thinking. It was a sensation of utter chaos” (Mishima 45).
The intensity of a death scene may also, in itself, convey powerful images of experiential transcendence. The process is less paradoxical than it seems, because it is again the survivors who are affected, often indelibly, by such imagery.
The uniqueness and importance of seppuku is that it is the most ritualistic form of samurai suicide, which demanded extreme self-control. “This extraordinarily complex ritual system used what was often coerced suicide to ensure a high degree of socialization and to reintegrate the dying person into the group” (Martinez 54). From the samurai’s perspective, seppuku symbolized the ultimate level of individual self-control, rather than the breakdown of the individual. By taking hold of death through ritual suicide, the samurai also took hold of life. But because seppuku fulfilled one’s responsibilities as defined by the group, it strengthened both the structure and the rules of the community.
Shinji performs seppuku as the only possible form to demonstrate his loyalty to the country and the Emperor. In Japan, ruling groups seek to impose parts of their values and behavior patterns on those they rule. The concept of dying well, for example, was spread through the common people. And after the Meiji Restoration, the mass educational and military systems contributed to its further spread. For many Japanese, the sense of belonging to the group at death is accompanied by a feeling of dying into the cosmos.
This “cosmos” encompasses not only the physical world but all living things as well as the souls of the dead. Shinji wife feels bitterness and sweetness of that great moral principle in which her husband believed” (56). Although not personalized, the cosmos is harmonious; and although not always a place of happiness, it at least is not a place of tragedy. Takada and Lampkin underlines that many people decided commit suicide “had been disgraced by their enemies.
They decided to perform seppuku and leave their names to posterity” (76). By committing seppuku, Shinji concretized his ideal self‐ image as a true samurai and absolved his feelings of failure, guilt, and inadequacy. He atoned for his reckless attack and loss of friends.
Shinji decides to commit seppuku to prove his honor as a soldier and a military man. For a military man, personal code and ideals of honor are the main values he believes in. Shinji’s death suggests how the act of suicide can be a means of affirmation or revitalization. This military code has important practical consequences: it provides a sense of unity and a source of energy in Japan’s rapid military growth. Death frees Shinji from his immediate problems but not from history. Death by seppuku enshrined Shinji as a model for soldiers, as a sort of military god, whose devotion to Emperor was recast into a generalized devotion to all national causes.
The author writes: Shinji “was anxious not to undermine the considerable strength he would need in carrying out his suicide” (34). The ultimate values, the purpose of man’s life, and the meaning of history can be defined only by factors immanent in society, culture or daily life, which are all relative to circumstances.
When circumstances become complex, the required responses become contradictory. “When a man lives amidst clashes between different value systems, then he makes a desperate effort to maintain the identity of self by regarding an immanent factor as transcendent or by considering a historical authority (that is, an authority not over but in history) as absolute” (Mente 32). Instead of a God in Heaven, Japanese have believed in a master on earth. And in the world where Shinji lived, the master of masters was the emperor.
Summary
In sum, the novel Patriotism demonstrates ideals of honor and strict personal code of values typical for many Japanese soldiers and officers. As cultural symbolizations of all kinds were undermined, resentments that probably always underlay those expressions of cultural reverence could be mobilized. Death imagery, in turn, can become part of a process of rebirth, helping to reassert sacred cultural visions that contribute to social integration and make change possible.
We have observed both tendencies in the Japanese modernizing process. But it is fair to say that the culture has placed particular stress on the revitalizing functions of death imagery and also that this form of revitalization carries special dangers. Rituals associated with death exist in all cultures and have important functions. They transform the private character of death into a sacred public event, provide the structure for survivors’ mourning experiences, and turn a potential disturbance into a functional expression of social continuity.
Works Cited
- Martinez, D. The Worlds of Japanese Popular Culture: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Cultures. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- Mente, B. L. The Japanese Samurai Code: Classic Strategies for Success. Tuttle Publishing, 2005.
- Mishima Yukio. Patriotism. New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1995.
- Takada, N., Lampkin, R. The Japanese Way: Aspects of Behavior, Attitudes, and Customs of the Japanese. McGraw-Hill; 1 edition, 1996.