Savoring Serendipity

INTERVIEWER The earthquake and tsunami disaster of March 11 claimed thousands of lives and devastated huge swathes of the Tōhoku region. What feelings has the disaster prompted in you?

CAMPBELL The sakura cherry blossom is one of the best-known symbols of Japan. The beauty of the spring flowers has been celebrated in waka poetry and other forms of literature for centuries. There is an old expression that dates back to the Heian period [794–1185]: sumizome sakura—cherry blossoms dyed black as ink. The idea comes from a legend in which cherry blossoms turned black in mourning after someone’s death. I expected it might be difficult to enjoy the sakura in bloom this year, with the scars of the disaster still so fresh. But when I went to see the blossoms in Shinjuku Gyoen, it came home to me again just how beautiful they really are. I’ve heard several people say that the blossoms were one of the things that gave encouragement and strength to the people of Tōhoku after the disaster.

INTERVIEWER The cherry blossoms have represented a wide variety of emotions for the Japanese over the years. One famous ninth-century waka poem by Ono no Komachi, for example, runs: Hana no iro wa / utsurinikeri na / itazura ni / waga miyo ni furu / nagame seshi ma ni [The flowers withered / Their color faded away, / While meaninglessly / I spent my days in brooding, / And the long rains were falling]. (*3)

CAMPBELL Japan is a country blessed with beautifully changing seasons, but at the same time, it suffers frequent natural disasters—typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis. The recent disaster brought home to me how strongly this unpredictable environment has shaped the development of a distinctively Japanese sensibility of impermanence. This is typified by the idea of mono no aware, sometimes translated as a sense of the pity of things. Back in the Edo period, they used to use the expression kobore-zaiwai, which describes an unexpected moment of happiness—serendipity, I suppose we might call it in English. The realization that the world around us will not last forever should make us treasure even more the chance encounters and the little moments of happiness we stumble upon in the course of our lives. This kind of pure-hearted sensibility was typical of Edo-period Japan.

INTERVIEWER The idea is that we should take the time to savor the little pleasures and moments of happiness that fall in our path?

CAMPBELL Let me give you an example. In early May I had an opportunity to visit several of the evacuation centers in an area of Tōhoku devastated by the disaster. The electricity supply had still not been restored, and people were cooking on gas stoves. One of the young women at one of them spent nearly two hours on a nearby hillside and came back with a bucket full of edible wild plants. Everyone was delighted, and people started preparing a meal from the herbs and plants she had brought back. Even in the midst of these terrible conditions, people were still able to express their gratitude—for the natural blessings of the plants, and for the efforts of the woman who had gone to collect them. Despite everything, in other words, they were still able to savor life’s little moments of kobore-zaiwai. Japan was recently overtaken by China as the world’s second-largest economy, and people are warning that the effects of the March 11 disaster will cause Japan’s economic power to slip even further. But at the same time, the disaster may also provide an opportunity for people to reassess the modern Japanese lifestyle. Perhaps people will rediscover the traditional Japanese value system, with its emphasis on the importance of a harmonious relationship with nature. And that may lead to new kinds of cultural expression.

INTERVIEWER What’s the best way for foreigners to experience the kind of Japanese culture you are talking about?

CAMPBELL Of course the best way is for people to come to Japan and see it for themselves. People often assume that Japan must be an expensive place to visit, especially with the yen valued so highly against other currencies at the moment. But in fact you can find roundtrip tickets from the States for as little as 600 dollars, and in Tokyo there are budget accommodations where you can stay for 2,000 to 2,500 yen a night. It’s a very easy place to visit nowadays. Tokyo or Kyoto—it doesn’t matter much where you go. Spend a few days walking around and find something that suits your own personal tastes. Lady Gaga, for example, is a big fan of the soba noodles at a tiny standing-room only place in a Tokyo train station. I think that’s a good approach. Once you start looking, you’ll find your own Japan, one that matches your own tastes and interests.

INTERVIEWER Thank you for taking the time to talk to us about such a wide range of subjects today. After living so long in Japan and becoming so acclimatized to life here, do you get comments from people saying you’ve changed when you go back to the States?

CAMPBELL I do get that occasionally. Once, when I was at a restaurant in the States with my sister, I unconsciously picked up the plate of pasta in front of me and started eating from it . . .

INTERVIEWER Is it a particularly Japanese custom to lift a dish from the table to eat?

CAMPBELL Well, it’s certainly not something an American would normally do.

INTERVIEWER You have to admit it’s quite convenient . . .

CAMPBELL I tell you, though, my sister scolded me, and I was quite embarrassed myself. [Laughs]

(Translated from an interview in Japanese.)

(*1) ^ The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) is the oldest surviving piece of novel-length prose fiction in Japan, written by Murasaki Shikibu, a lady-in-waiting at the imperial court. Known to date back to at least 1008, it depicts the life and loves of “shining” Prince Genji, a nobleman born to one of the emperor’s lower-ranking consorts. More than 400 characters appear over the course of the novel’s 54 chapters, which come to more than 1,200 pages in English translation.

(*2) ^ Nansō Satomi hakkenden was written in the late Edo period by Kyokutei Bakin. Set in the Muromachi period (1333–1568), this epic novel of adventure describes the exploits of eight young men born from the relationship between Princess Fuse of the Satomi clan of Awa and the heroic dog Yatsufusa. Begun in 1814, publication continued for 28 years. This colossal work comprises 98 chapters in 106 volumes.

(*3) ^ Donald Keene, trans. Seeds in the Heart: Japanese Literature from Earliest Times to the Late Sixteenth Century (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), p. 234.