Each Other
Each Other
A wonderful Japanese sentiment expressed in a simple, yet powerful ideogram.
Notice there are two of the same forms inverted upon each other.
Without each other, meaning ceases to exist, thus, each other is dependent upon the other to be whole.
The importance of trust in each other, and trust in one’s own community is embodied in the spirit of this magnificent ideogram.
互
Indeed, when wet rice farming was introduced to Japan at the beginning of the Yayoi period the necessity to cooperate with each other for the survival of the community took president over the fickle needs of selfishness.
The profound nature of tagai is embedded in the psyche of the Japanese, and the emotion and feeling attached to tagai can not be explained to, nor understood by those indoctrinated into the tenets of the Occidental.
Indeed, the Occidental tenets cleave the individual away from one’s own roots and ancestry, leaving a primitive jungle winner take all mentality.
Here soulless wolves in sheep cloth feed off, and draining away the charming world of traditions, national treasures, and ways of life.
A deeper insight into the meaning of tagai came after running across a very informative book in Japanese entitled “Kabushikigaisha Amerika No Nihon Kaitai Kikaku” (America, Inc’s plan to dismantle Japan).
The take-away from this enlightning book by Mika Tsutsumi is the necessity for the Japanese to recognize a true enemy and marshal the Yamato spirit of tagai, to unite, and defeat this sinister and grave menace to the integrity of the Japanese and our way of life.
All the more interesting, the roots of this consequential peril was astutely described by Patrick Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo), in the chapter entitled “Industrial Danger” of his deeply insightful book; An Attempt At Interpretation, published in 1904.
As the Japanese take time for reflection in these turbulent times, we see the way to the future is based upon our past, and our modern reflection is that of the ancient Japanese civilization connecting each other by ancestor worship.
The ancient past still rules Japan today and the unspoken social conventions of the Japanese are held within a plethora of concepts, which can not be described nor explained, and can only be understood if one reads Japanese and has lived in Japan for any length of time.
It is here in the “Land of the Gods” the Japanese now manifest the power of tagai, and the potency of social trust, community dignity, and honour between, and among, each other.