The uncompromosing christian discipleship of Nobuo Nagano in Ayako Miura`s Shiokari Pass - USD Repository
THE UNCOMPROMISING CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP
OF NOBUO NAGANO IN AYAKO MIURA’S SHIOKARI PASS
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
AGATHON HUTAMA
Student Number: 054214008
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2011
THE UNCOMPROMISING CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP
OF NOBUO NAGANO IN AYAKO MIURA’S SHIOKARI PASS
By
AGATHON HUTAMA
Student Number: 054214008 Approved by Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum.
Advisor December 14, 2010 Tatang Iskarna, S.S., M.Hum.
Co-Advisor December 14, 2010
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
THE UNCOMPROMISING CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP
OF NOBUO NAGANO IN AYAKO MIURA’S SHIOKARI PASS
By
AGATHON HUTAMA
Student Number : 054214008 Defended before the Board of Examiners on January 26, 2011 and Declared Acceptable
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
Yogyakarta, January 31, 2011.Faculty of Letters Sanata Dharma University
Dean
Name Signature Chairman : Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A.
……………………… Secretary : Drs. Hirmawan Wijanarka, M.Hum. ……………………… Member : Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M.Hum. ……………………… Member : Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum. ……………………… Member : Tatang Iskarna, S.S., M.Hum. ……………………… Perfection, I believe, we forever cannot achieve,
but we can still always be almost perfect after all.
- – “Mind your meal, it should be empat sehat lima Sampoerna; if you smoke, though.
Mas Aga
If you don’t, don’t start.” tamahuthonaga@gmail.com ioane_agaoth@yahoo.co.id
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma: Nama : Agathon Hutama Nomor Mahasiswa : 054214008
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
THE UNCOMPROMISING CHRISTIAN DISCIPLESHIP OF NOBUO NAGANO IN AYAKO MIURA ’S SHIOKARI PASS beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini, yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta Pada tanggal : 1 Maret 2011 Yang menyatakan Agathon Hutama
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To be honest, I am a little bit late to finish this undergraduate thesis. It is because there were so many temptations that demanded more of my time, so that focusing on writing this study seemed to have become my priority no more. Anyway, here it is; the non-fiction work that I have finished, finally.
I use as the object of this study a Japanese novel entitled Shiokari Pass. Unfortunately, because I failed to find any studies conducted by other people in order to provide me insights for working on my own, I had to rely on sources of the related studies of the issues seen in the novel. Therefore, I thank you very much, the library of Sanata Dharma University, whose collection of books is vast and among them I could find references that I needed (including few that had never been borrowed since the late twentieth century until I did).
I also would like to express my deepest gratitude to the goodfellas in campus who never gave up supporting me, namely Doni, Fred, Bayu, Anto, Trimbil, Nopek, Karlina, Decy, Estu, Danu and the big family of Teater Seriboe Djendela: Mas Yoga, Mas Kumis, Bang Onal, Mico, Tije, Gedhek, Egi, Eli, Evi, Dian, Helga, Via, Padmo and many more friends whom I cannot mention here one by one because the list will be so long like history, hyperbolically saying.
For my advisor, Mrs. Elisa Dwi Wardani, S.S., M.Hum., I am sorry for my bad habit of writing confusing inductive paragraphs yet I owe you a lot in the whole process of doing this undergraduate thesis. Also, Mr. Tatang Iskarna, S.S., M.Hum., thank you for our discussing about the sacrifice of Christ and how it thesis consultation with you. For Mrs. Dewi Widyastuti S.Pd., M.Hum., thank you for your criticism and advice on the theory of character development used in this study and for reminding me the right format of the thesis layout. For all of you dear lecturers, I also thank you for the knowledge you have shared in your classes that I attended semesters ago. God bless you all.
For both my beloved parents, Bu Anastasia Tri Widihati and Pak F.X. Giarso, thank you for all the unconditional love that I have received since I was born. Let us celebrate my graduation, alright? My kinsmen from both clans, the Dimars and Pringgo Pudiyantos, thank you so much for your supports, advices, and prayers.
Above all, I thank you my Jesus Christ, whom I believe will always accompany me in all the moments of my life. Praise be to Thou forever and ever.
Amen.
Agathon Hutama
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGEABSTRAK
……………………………………………….. 39 A. The Characterization of Nobuo Nagano in Shiokari Pass …………… 39 B. Nobuo’s Process to His Christian Conversion ………………………… 44 1.
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS
30 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ………………………………………. 33 A. Object of the Study …………………………………………………... 33 B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………………….. 36 C. Method of the Study ………………………………………………….. 37
C. Theoretical Framework ………………………………………………...
View on Courage………………………………………………….. 27 5. View on Death ……………………………………………………. 27 6. View on Righteousness …………………………………………... 29
19 2. Theory of Christian Discipleship …………………………………. 21 3. View on Choice …………………………………………………... 26 4.
Theory of Character and Characterization ………………………
Review of Related Theories ………………………………………….. 19 1.
Honor in Japanese Society ………………………………………... 11 2. The Polemic of Christianity in Japan …………………………….. 12 B.
……………………………… 11 A. Review of Related Studies …………………………………………… 11 1.
CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW
…………………………………………. 1 A. Background …………………………………………………………... 1 B. Problem Formulations ………………………………………………... 7 C. Objectives of the Study ………………………………………………. 8 D. Definition of Terms …………………………………………………... 9
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
………………………………………………………………….. xii
………………………………………………………………... xi
……………………………………………………………….. i
DEDICATION PAGE
APPROVAL PAGE
……………………………………………………….... ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE
…………………………………………………….. iii
MOTTO PAGE
…………………………………………………………….. iv
……………………………………………………... v
ABSTRACT
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
……………………………. vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
……………………………………………….. vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
………………………………………………….. ix
Rejection………………………………………………………….. 45
2. Compromise………………………………………………………. 50 a.
Kiku’s Return and Different Perspective of Nobuo towards Christianity
……………………………………………………
52 b. Osamu Yoshikawa’s Influence towards Nobuo’s Sense of
Righteousness …………………………………………………
55 c. Nobuo’s Anxiousness towards Death………………………… 61 d.
Nobuo’s ‘Unconscious’ Actualization of Christian Values …... 66 3. Conversion and the ‘Conscious’ Actualization of Christian Faith .. 70 C.
The Uncompromising Christian Discipleship of Nobuo Nagano……. 86 1.
Nobuo’s Courage in Actualizing His Faith ………………………. 93 2. Nobuo’s Faith in Christ as a Costly Grace ……………………….. 97 3. Single-Minded Obedience in Nobuo’s Actualization of His Christian Faith……………………………………………………..
102
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION
…………………………………………… 107
BIBLIOGRAPHY
…………………………………………………………... 112
ABSTRACT
AGATHON HUTAMA. The Uncompromising Christian Discipleship of
Nobuo Nagano in Ayako Miura’s Shiokari Pass. Yogyakarta: Department of
English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2010.A Roman poet, Horace, said that literature should be delightful and instructive. His words still find significance today, for it can be found in every literary work of all genres
- – prose, poetry and drama – a message implied by the author, which is intended to be grasped by the reader. This undergraduate thesis uses as the object of study a Japanese novel, written by Ayako Miura, entitled Shiokari Pass. It was written based on the life accounts of a real person named Masao Nagano whom the author fictionalized as Nobuo Nagano, who became the main character of the novel.
The author’s flair to retouch the true story with her literary creativity has made her fiction an enjoyable stuff to read. This is the delightful side of her work. The instructive side can be found in the message implied in her work, seen through the story line and the development of the main character of the novel.
There are two objectives to be attained in this study. The first one is to show that the actualization of Christian faith of the main character can be seen through its development. The second objective deals with main character’s actualization of Christian faith through which a form of uncompromising Christian discipleship can be identified.
The writer used library research in this study to get most references necessary in this study, while the approach applied here is the moral-philosophical approach. Meanwhile, the analyses are sequenced into, first, examining main character’s development to reveal the process of his conversion to Christianity and, second, elaborating the findings in the first problem formulation to show that the main character’s actualization of Christian faith reflects the description of uncompromising Christian discipleship.
The answer for the first problem formulation is that the development of the main character results in two phases which are ‘unconscious’ and ‘conscious’ actualization of Christian faith
. ‘Unconscious,’ because the main character had had an antipathy towards Christian religion before his conversion yet with the influences of people around him the main character was motivated to do things he had not yet realized as the ones having Christian values. Although he still saw no need to be converted to Christianity, the ‘unconscious’ actualization served as a firm foundation for his conversion, though. When he was finally converted into Christianity, he realized that it was for God and not for himself that he did remarkable things. This is a ‘conscious’ phase, marked with the main character’s enlightenment that he was a sinner, and would always be. It was by following the way of Christ that a sinner could be justified. With this consideration, he became a devout Christian who absolutely obeyed the words of God written in the scripture. He did not hesitate when he thought it necessary to sacrifice his own life for others, just as Christ did. It is thus a form of uncompromising Christian
ABSTRAK
AGATHON HUTAMA. The Uncompromising Christian Discipleship of
Nobuo Nagano in Ayako Miura’s Shiokari Pass. Yogyakarta: Department of
English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2010.Menurut Horace, seorang penyair Romawi, alangkah baiknya jika sastra adalah sesuatu yang indah dan bermanfaat. Pendapatnya saat ini masih signifikan karena di setiap jenis karya sastra
- – prosa, puisi, dan drama – terdapat pesan yang disampaikan secara tidak langsung oleh pengarang untuk ditangkap oleh pembaca. Skripsi ini menggunakan novel Jepang karya Ayako Miura berjudul Shiokari
Pass . Novel tersebut ditulis berdasarkan kisah nyata seseorang bernama Masao
Nagano, yang oleh pengarang difiksikan menjadi Nobuo Nagano, tokoh utama novel. Kemampuan pengarang dalam memberi sentuhan pada kisah nyata tersebut dengan kreativitas dalam berkarya sastra telah menjadikan kisah fiksi yang ditulisnya menarik untuk dibaca. Inilah sisi keindahan karyanya. Sisi manfaat terlihat pada pesan yang terkandung dalam karyanya, yang tampak pada alur cerita dan perkembangan karakter tokoh utama.
Ada dua tujuan yang hendak dicapai dalam penelitian ini. Tujuan pertama adalah untuk menunjukkan bahwa pengaktualisasian iman Kristiani tokoh utama dapat diamati dari perkembangan karakternya. Tujuan kedua terkait dengan pengaktualisasian iman tersebut, yang melaluinya dapat dilihat sebuah bentuk kerasulan Kristiani yang teguh.
Penulis melakukan studi pustaka di perpustakaan untuk mendapatkan sebagian besar sumber. Pendekatan yang digunakan adalah pendekatan moral-filosofis. Sementara itu, urutan pembahasan adalah sebagai berikut: Pertama, melihat perkembangan karakter tokoh utama untuk mengetahui proses yang dilaluinya untuk menjadi seorang Kristen. Kedua, apa yang didapat pada analisis sebelumnya dikembangkan lagi untuk menunjukkan bahwa aktualisasi iman Kristiani tokoh utama mencerminkan gambaran kerasulan Kristiani yang teguh.
Jawaban dari rumusan masalah pertama adalah ditemukannya dua tahap aktualisasi iman Kristiani yaitu ‘tidak sadar’ dan ‘sadar.’ ‘Tidak sadar,’ karena sebelum ia dibaptis, si tokoh utama adalah orang yang anti terhadap agama Kristen. Namun orang-orang di sekitarnya memberikan pengaruh kepadanya dan membuatnya melakukan hal-hal yang tanpa disadarinya memuat nilai-nilai Kristiani. Walau ia merasa tidak perlu menjadi seorang Kristen, namun tindakannya itu telah menjadi dasar yang kuat untuk imannya. Saat ia akhirnya menjadi seorang Kristen, ia menyadari bahwa untuk Tuhanlah ia melakukan hal- hal baik, bukan untuk dirinya sendiri. Inilah tahap ‘sadar,’ yang ditandai dengan tercerahkannya tokoh utama bahwa ia adalah, dan akan selalu menjadi, pendosa. Hanya dengan mengikuti Kristus sajalah pendosa akan dibenarkan. Dengan kesadaran ini, ia menjadi seorang Kristen yang taat pada sabda Allah di Kitab Suci. Ia tak ragu untuk memberikan nyawa demi keselamatan orang lain seperti yang dilakukan Kristus, saat ia merasa tindakan itu diperlukan. Dengan demikian,
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background A literary work is a vehicle to deliver certain messages to the reader, as the Roman poet Horace said about literature as a delightful and instructive thing
(Guerin et al., 1999: 25). This is to say that every form of literature communicates something; even encourages its readers to pay a full attention to what it conveys, so that reading activity can be worth something; not merely an ephemera.
Enjoyment in reading, in accordance to what Horace said, is not temporal but one that can last for days, months, and even years after. How then can such amusement last? It is by finding something inside the book having the utmost significance and being applicable in everyday life.
In a literary work, a message covers either moral or philosophical value, or both of them. There are literary works written purposefully to make the readers aware of moral and philosophical issues implied in the story and share the authors‟ perspectives towards them as seen in the messages. One subject that belongs to both morality and philosophy having been so widely explored, ranging from antiquity to contemporary literary traditions in all genres
- – drama, prose, poetry – is religion.
In morality scope, religion is on one hand the spiritual guidance to live life within its capacity to connect a person with God whom a religious person reveres world. Religion reaches not only the spiritual but also the material world, as what a religious person has spiritually acquired, he or she will then perform it in real life; to apply the spiritual value into action. Thus, determining an action is morally accepted or not, it depends on whether the action meets the spiritual value of the religion or not. However, it is something subjective for every religion existing in this world when it comes to something moral or immoral, for not a few points of their teachings corresponds to each other‟s.
In philosophical scope, religion is open for questions over those intangible things it deals with, such as the questions over the paradox of the love of God to the world; over the fact that evil things like war, murder, persecution continuously happen and, still, God does nothing to stop them while He is addressed as the God of goodness and love who will never let His people suffer. Terrorism, committed in the name of God, is another motion for philosophical debate. Does religion debauch men, or is it abused?
The writer deliberately points out to such philosophical question above; to the question over the contradiction between God‟s love and human suffering. It is, though, suggested by the writer not to immediately link the question to the topic of this study. It is merely an overture to the smaller scope that this study takes as topic: the uncompromising discipleship. Specifically again, this is the uncompromising Christian discipleship.
Why did the writer choose this topic? The answer to this question is probably not a plain one but since the object of this study is a literary work, a novel, the philosophical spot. The novel, Shiokari Pass by Ayako Miura, focuses on the search for and exploration of the Christian faith by young Nobuo Nagano, its main character. One interesting fact is that the novel was written based on an actual event that in the same way communicated the same message like the one of the novel.
When a fiction is written, there can be only two possibilities. The author might have written a purely fictive, imaginative story which does not correspond to any actual events at all or it is a fact fictionalized into a work of literature that embodies a certain message which both the real story and the unreal one have in common. The message may lie on a certain event of the fact, which in the fiction it can be found in the exactly same happening. However, an author who writes fiction based on fact, like Mrs. Miura did, of course will not confine his or her creativity to retouch the fact in order to make it more enjoyable to read on one hand and on the other hand to express also the author‟s attitude towards the message of the true story which is intended to be grasped by the readers. At this point the author wants to share what he or she believes or makes him or her inspired to the readers, in the hope that they will feel the same the way the author does, for the author believes of the goodness implied in the message of the story. This is wrapped by the saying of Horace presented at the beginning of this chapter. Literature can always entertain a soul but at the same time it should be able also to serve as something that inspires, if not enlightens, anyone who does the reading.
The novel itself colorfully describes its setting of time and place, which is the
th
early 20 century Japan, particularly the capital Tokyo and the northernmost large island of the country‟s four, Hokkaido. At that time it was what the historians call the Meiji Restoration, a period named after the reign name of Emperor Mutsuhito (1852-
1912) of Japan. His reign name „Meiji‟ means „enlightenment‟ and it was during that period Japan was for the first time open for the world beyond its borders after it had been isolated for about 200 years under Tokugawa Shogunate. This era was marked not only by advances of the nation in technology, lifestyle and else introduced by Western world but also by the reformation in religious life, namely the religious tolerance indicated by the permit granted for reintroduction to Christianity.
Although the country had approved the missionaries to begin again their once broken effort to spread the Good News in Japan (the mainstream was not Catholicism like the first mission but instead American Protestantism), it was not guaranteed that the religious tolerance was without discrimination. In the novel it can be found that Japanese society at that time still believed that Japan needed not „imported‟ religions.
Shusaku Endo in his novel Silence (1966) described the earlier missionary work in Japan that ended in the Church of Japan became underground Church because of persecutions started by Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598), the predecessor of Tokugawa shoguns, and continued by the latter. A quote from the translator‟s preface of Endo‟s novel analogizes Japan as “a swamp because it sucks up all sorts of ideologies, transforming them into itself and distorting them in the proc ess.” (Endo, 1966: 13)
Not surprising it was that when Western influences penetrated Japan, it only took the ones considered advantageous, especially goods and guns. As for missionary works, for the sake of „secular‟ things they were tolerated but still to a certain extent they could not proceed any further. In 1614, the edict of expulsion was issued by Tokugawa Ieyasu, declaring that missionary work could not continue because it might disturb the country‟s stability as the „Kirishitan‟ first gave their obedience neither to their ancestors nor their rulers but to their foreign guides (Endo, 1966: 6). Since then, persecutions had taken place. The 1614 decree runs as follows:
The Kirishitan (Christian) band have come to Japan, not only sending their merchant vessels to exchange commodities, but also longing to disseminate an evil law, to overthrow true doctrine, so that they may change the government of the country and obtain possession of the land. This is the germ of great disaster, and must be crushed (Neill, 1975:160).
As stated above, in the novel the attitude of Japanese people of the Restoration era was, at large, still the same with before the Restoration. The fact that Christianity was a religion imported from the West was the reason why Meiji people still held old prejudices upon Christian religion. Christianity, according to Confucius scholar Yasui Sokken, had the potential to disturb the society of Japan and its form of government. (Ion, 2009:5)
Such reason may be acceptable, for at that time the national unity of Japan was its effort to renew the face of the country into a modern one, Japanese identity would not be relinquished. To make it so, Meiji lawmakers had promulgated the law that made the Emperor of Japan a „sacred and inviolable‟ figure, and therefore was not responsible for any acts of his ministers. He served not as the head of state but a sacred symbol of national unity instead. (Benedict, 1974:125)
Ayako Miura‟s Shiokari Pass highlighted the era of Meiji Japan, when Christianity was seen as a wicked thing. Christians were discriminated and many of them were disowned because of their attachments to the faith. Miura
‟s focus, however, is the Christian discipleship of its main character, Nobuo Nagano, who was converted to Christian faith after having been since his childhood nurtured a resistant attitude against it.
It was because of his grandmother‟s influence and his own disappointment due to his feeling of being abandoned by his mother in his infancy; that he regarded Christianity and Christians as something hateful.
God yet has His own design for Nobuo Nagano. Even since was a child, Christian values had been penetrating him along with his growing sense of responsibility of his. The people who were close to him helped build his character and it developed into one which embodied Christian virtues.
After his conversion to Christianity, Nobuo was not a „safety player.‟ He considered his baptism as the grace of God and he kept telling to his fellow
Christians that it was, if necessary, an obligation to give life for Christ. (Miura, 2000:254) This attitude of Nobuo Nagano meets the idea of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian whom the NAZI put to death in 1945 because he disobeyed concern of the book he wrote in prison was about „easy Christianity‟ and in his book The Cost of Discipleship he emphasized on what Jesus Christ said about the world which resents Him and His disciples. Bonhoeffer talked about the risk of being
Christ‟s followers. In this study, Dietrich Bonhoeffer‟s conception of Christian discipleship is indispensable; meaning that in the analysis it will play a great part for the problems of this study mainly stresses on the Christian discipleship of Nobuo Nagano. Both he and Bonhoeffer were like a sheep in the wolves‟ lair. They lived in the same situation that was unhealthy for Christian faith and in such a time and place they had the confidence that their faith in Christ would support them in the most perilous moments.
B. Problem Formulation
The problems the writer found were related to the life of the main character that portrays his deeds which construct the whole story and to the ideas of Dietrich Bonhoeffer that scrutinizes Christian discipleship and criticizes those who half-heartedly actualize their Christian faith. There are three problems to be thoroughly analyzed in this study.
1. How is the main character in the novel characterized? 2.
How did the main character undergo the process to find his Christian faith? 3. How can the actualization of Christian faith in the main character‟s life be regarded as a form of uncompromising Christian discipleship?
C. Objectives of the Study
The first objective of this study is all about seeing the main character of the novel the way he is characterized. It is necessary to have an intrinsic analysis so that there will be a strong foundation for the further analysis of the main character when he is confronted with the topic this study takes. The analysis of the first problem formulation will highlight the qualities of the main character which is obtainable via reading the novel, but most especially his characteristics. Why characteristics? It is because the next problem formulation is based on the findings of the first one. No-one can investigate something without evidences which, in this study, can be collected from the work analyzed.
The second objective of this study is to show the process of the main character to find his Christian faith. From the previous problem formulation, there are characteristics of the main character that help structure the whole odyssey of the main character from being an unbeliever to becoming a believer. There are two phases of the process itself; both of them point out to the actualization of Christian faith.
The writer‟s terms for the phases are the „unconscious‟ and the „conscious.‟ The former phase comprises the main character‟s faith development from rejecting Christianity to compromising with its values and latter phase the episode after the baptism of the main character, in which he actualized his faith as a Christian.
Finally, the third objective is to show that the actualization of faith of the main character is a distinctive one that excludes the main character from other Christian faith that makes it worthy to be called an uncompromising Christian discipleship.
For this analysis the writer employed Bonhoeffer‟s ideas compiled in a book entitled The Cost of Discipleship. In this book, written during his internment in a NAZI concentration camp, Bonhoeffer talked about the cost of following Christ as well as the reward for those who could hold on to Him.
Christian discipleship was never an easy thing, so Bonhoeffer said, and Christ had also warned about this. Yet for those who knew the reason of following Christ, it would not be disappointing, for salvation awaited the faithful ones. Bonhoeffer emphasized the „unpleasant‟ conditions of Christian discipleship, though, which in Ayako Miura‟s novel is very apparent in its main character‟s actualization of Christian faith.
D. Definition of Terms
The terms used in this study were all taken from The Cost of Discipleship, the book written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer considered by the writer to have great weight in this study. Also, t he book‟s main idea is the one to which the topic of this study refers. There are three terms used; all of which are taken from
The Cost of Discipleship . They are: 1.
costly grace: a call to follow Christ in a form of discipleship; leaving all in possession for Christ‟s sake and it is like a treasure hidden in the field; the gospel that must be sought again and again
2. Christian discipleship: an exclusive attachment to Christ whose grace of call bursts all the bounds of legalism (Bonhoeffer, 1963: 63) 3. single-minded obedience: the condition of free from any anxiety in the course of following Christ and His commandments
(Bonhoeffer, 1963: 89)
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies 1. Honor in Japanese Society This is the study of patterns of Japanese life found in Chrysanthemum and the Sword by Ruth Benedict. The book provides a sociological study of the Japanese
people that highlights their patterns of thought. This book particularizes its scope of research at the era of prewar Japan.
In this book information about Japanese attitudes, ways of thinking, and their world view can be retrieved. From this book the writer quotes the discussion related to personal honor for Japanese people. To maintain good reputation, a Japanese first has to observe whether or not he has fulfilled a duty called giri to one‟s name. This is the very foundation and the most essential thing when one is to be called a real person of honor.
Giri to one‟s name is the duty to keep one‟s reputation unspotted. It is a series of virtues
- – some of which seem to an Occidental to be opposites. They are those acts which keep one‟s reputation bright without reference to a specific indebtedness to another person. They include therefore maintaining all the miscellaneous etiquette requirements of „proper station,‟ showing stoicism in pain and defending one‟s reputation in profession or craft (Benedict, 1974:145). Japan‟s militaristic tradition is old and, until its defeat in the World War II, it had been militarily active. Thus, the virtues that Japanese people must observe can be said to have similarities with the ways of a soldier. The quotation above, it
Giri to one‟s name also demands acts which remove a slur or an insult; the slur darkens one ‟s good name and should be got rid of. It may be necessary to take vengeance upon one‟s detractor or it may be necessary to commit suicide, and there are all sorts of possible courses of action between these two extremes (Benedict, 1974:145).
The importance of honor for Japanese people is, indeed, a crucial matter. Rather than living in shame, it is better to die an honorable death. Suicide is an accepted way to remove all blemishes and restore the honor. There are, of course, accounts of great men committing suicide by disembowelment that serve as reminders for others not to neglect the duty called giri to one‟s name.
2. The Polemic of Christianity in Japan
Today, Christians encompass 4% of the total population of Japan. Two-thirds of them are Protestants and the rest are Roman Catholics. (Cybriwsky, Roman A., et al. Microsoft® Student 2008 [DVD]) Since Japan now is a secular country, especially after the World War II when the Emperor of Japan resigned from his role as a Shinto deity and became ordinary man, religion is no longer the affair of state.
Not until the end of World War II, though, did Japanese government leave Japanese people to perform their religious activities without control from above.
The authoritarian rule of Tokugawa Shogunate exercised a strict control over religious life and this policy was continued by its successor, the Meiji government. The control was actually to limit the threat to the morale and, ultimately, the nation of Japan which the two governments believed came from one source: Christianity.
Arai Hakuseki, a Tokugawa philosopher, implied his opinion towards Christianity in his writing about the incompatibility of the religion with Tokugawa Japan‟s bakuhan state and social order. In Hakuseki‟s point of view, rests the argument that state authority would not be accomplished unless there were controls over territorial integrity and political stability. Such controls were necessary in order to dodge foreign threats and one thing that could be done was to control the spiritual and religious lives of the people, allowing only beliefs suitable with the socio-political culture. (Ion, 2009:4) Another scholar, Yasui Sokken, commented on Christianity in the same flavor Hakuseki did. He argued that Western religion (Christianity) threatened to disturb Japanese society and its form of government. It was based on, as Robert Bellah has shown, the knowledge that the Japanese emperor was the one to whom loyalty at all levels was expected.
(Ion, 2009:5) Benedict wrote that The emperor had to be a Sacred Father removed from all secular considerations. A man‟s fealty to him, chu, the supreme virtue, must become an ecstatic contemplation of a fantasied Good Father untainted by contacts with
Christianity, on the other hand, does not recognize worship to a worldly object and this became a problem in Japan. Japanese Christians were seen as rebels, for they gave their loyalties to something else rather than the emperor.
The polemic itself came from Christianity as well. Since Christianity is considered a universal religion, the missionaries might have in their minds that it was unacceptable if in a certain place Christianity was not well-received and Christians are treated hostilely. At least it can be seen in the rebuke of a foreign missionary when a number of Japanese Christians of Uragami was arrested.
Why does your country prohibit our Christianity? This religion is the very religion which is followed by millions and millions people in the world. I am now trying to spread this religion in Japan in order to let them serve the true path. Nevertheless your country is oppressing this religion. This is completely unreasonable (Kato, 1973:80).
It was the misunderstanding a very narrow perspective that belonged to the other side, possibly, that became one factor causing breach between Japan and Christianity. Christianity was at first warmly accepted in Japan but it was not because of the peace sought by clan leaders, who was at war with each other when
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Christianity was first introduced to Japan in the mid-16 century. It was because among missionaries there were traders who sell guns and ammunitions. The first successful mission of the Jesuits was in Kyushu, where the daimyo of Bungo and Satsuma held their fiefs. They allowed the padres do their jobs and in return they were given priority to obtain more and better weapons than their neighbors (Horner, 1948:80).
There was yet another reason why early Christian mission was successful: there was a deep dislike towards Buddhism which was the religion of Japan (it is important to note that in Japan both Shinto and Buddhism affiliates, so that when someone says about „religion of Japan,‟ it can be either Shinto or Buddhism, for the term Shinto itself appeared only after the introduction of Buddhism, to distinguish it from the latter). Oda Nobunaga, one of the most prominent figures in Japanese civil war who respected the Jesuits because of their wide learning and courtesy and favored them for the sake of trade faced another enemy, the warrior monks of Buddhist Tendai sect who formed alliance with his enemies. Nobunaga fought them and gave a fatal blow to ensure their defeat. He burned the ancient and sacred monasteries of the sect in Mount Hiei.
When they saw that he intended to destroy the place both Emperor and Shogun as well as some of his own generals asked him to desist. But he took no notice of them, and on October 20, 1571, attacked and set fire to all the monasteries so that they were completely destroyed and nothing at all remained, while the monks without exception, with many fair ladies and children, who had little excuse for existing there, were brought before Nobunaga and put to death to the number of several thousands (Sadler, 1978:82).
Clear enough that Buddhist priests had already been down in spirituality, for they gave up their oath of celibacy and indulged themselves in the pleasure of flesh. Apart from other factors helping its early success, there had to be among Christian converts who realized the meaning of their baptism. Seeing the degradation of morality in the Buddhist priests, they now put confidence in Christian missionaries whose conducts agreed with their words.
The breach started when Toyotomi Hideyoshi, chancellor of the empire after the civil war ended, issued the edict of expulsion in 1587. At that time there were already more or less 500,000 Christians in Japan (Neill, 1975:159).
Japan is a country of the Kami (the gods of Japan) and for the padres to come hither and preach a devilish law is a most reprehensible and evil thing...Since such a thing is intolerable, I am resolved that the padres should not stay on Japanese soil. I therefore order that having settled their affairs, within twenty days, they must return to their own country (Neill, 1975: 160).
During the next reign by the Tokugawa Shogunate, a decree was issued in 1614, declaring a ban to Christianity with severe punishment for anyone who preferred to retain the faith rather than renouncing it.