The Forgotten Japanese was first published in 1960. It is a collection of life stories and vignettes as told by men and women in their seventies, eighties, and nineties, people Miyamoto met during his research and travels. It is an eye-opener even for the Japanese; a look at life in rural Japan between 1850 and 1960 that introduces us to farmers, carpenters, and fortune-tellers who are adventurous, curious, mischievous, and resourceful. Through their lives we witness Japan’s modernization, and we are offered glimpses of important moments in her history as well.
These are the stories of common people; this is history and culture from the ground level. A carpenter is drafted to fight against the shogun’s army in a war that signals the end of the Tokugawa period. An old man describes the shogun’s final flight from Osaka, requisitioning a small boat to take him to safety. But the storyteller is as interested in the fate of the common boatman as in that of his famous passenger. We learn of families that are too poor to care for their own children and others who take them in, of outlandish priests, and of long and grueling hours of farm work. A woman tells of her travels to see the world. A woodsman talks of wolves, goblins, and fox spirits. A grandfather sings ballads to his grandson. When a boy is lost, the villagers go searching, knowing him well enough to suspect where he might have gone. We encounter a woman with leprosy on a narrow mountain path, and attend a village meeting that lasts through the night. We are introduced to fishermen, hunters, wood carvers, mountain ascetics; to people from every imaginable trade and livelihood. We witness men pulling carts, then horses pulling carts, and finally the arrival of paved roads and cars.
Vestiges of what Miyamoto found on his travels are still to be found in rural Japan to this day. While the bullet train has extended its reach into much of rural Japan and thatched roofs have been replaced by ceramic tiles, many rural Japanese continue to heat their baths with firewood, and individual communities hold meetings much like those Miyamoto experienced. The way of life that appeared to be nearing its end in Miyamoto’s time is still nearing its end today. It may finally disappear as the last of those born in the Meiji period pass away, their values and memories lost with them.
With the exception of the photographs in which Miyamoto appears, a photograph of Sakon Kumata in chapter 9 and a photograph of Tanaka Umeji in chapter 10, all photographs were taken by the author. Those that did not appear in the original Japanese version of The Forgotten Japanese were selected from among the ninety-five thousand photographs taken by Miyamoto with, for the most part, his Olympus Pen camera. The maps have been redrawn and expanded upon here to provide greater clarity and context. In an effort to make this compelling description of life in rural Japan all the more accessible, the chapter order has been changed slightly and the chapters have been arranged in two parts. In the first, we join Miyamoto on the road where we are introduced to his research methods and then offered accounts of individual lives, each a unique window on life in rural Japan. In the second, we step back to look at whole communities as they respond to a variety of crises and hardships. Only when the original text was redundant or where elaborate geographical details interrupted the flow of the writing have omissions been made. A glossary provides information regarding people, places, events, and concepts that may not be familiar to the reader.
In Japan, a younger person will often address someone older as “Grandpa,” “Grandma,” “Uncle,” or “Aunt,” though they are not related in any way. In the text that follows, Miyamoto often does this as well, out of affection and respect, and toward the establishment of a rapport that then led to the many frank and open conversations we find herein.
The Forgotten Japanese (original Japanese title: Wasurerareta Nihonjin) is now in its fifty-seventh printing in Japan. It has never been translated into English. This translation is based on a longer version of The Forgotten Japanese, prepared by the author as the tenth volume in a collection of his published works.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Miyamoto Tsuneichi’s eldest son, Chiharu, for his kind permission to translate his father’s work. I am also grateful to Messrs. Okamoto, Takasaki, and Takagi of the Suo oshima Cultural Exchange Center—where Miyamoto’s writings, photographs, and a vast collection of fishing, farming, and other tools are kept—for their assistance in the selection of photographs and in the checking of innumerable facts. Stewart Wachs, Jerry Irish, and Anne Connolly read, edited, and offered valuable advice with regard to the manuscript. Inagaki Naotomo, one of Miyamoto’s students, talked with me at length about his teacher while Sano Shinichi’s biography of and lectures regarding Miyamoto provided me with a new perspective on his life. Tsuda Yojiro of Iwanami Shoten generously shared important photographic data while Iwao Sudo and Haga Hideo allowed me to make use of their photographs of Miyamoto. Kikuno Kenichiro drew the maps and Kodama Tatsuro performed the map graphics. Nakamura Koji introduced me to the wonderful world of Miyamoto Tsuneichi, and Ken, John, and Stewart at the Kyoto Journal encouraged me to pursue this translation. The elderly members of my village served as a sounding board regarding life before the war, and Sayaka kept me going for the years that I disappeared into the vast world of this book and this man. Finally, I thank Peter Goodman of Stone Bridge Press who took on, and stuck with, this important story, helping it to find its way into the English language some fifty years after its Japanese debut.
Jeffrey S. Irish
Kagoshima Prefecture
Japan
Author’s Preface
[Originally an Afterword to the 1971 edition]
I set out to write these accounts with an interest in depicting old people as transmitters of knowledge. Then, part way through, I started to think about how I might depict the environment in which the elderly lived when they were young, and how it was that they had lived their lives. I was not interested in mere reminiscences but in considering how these people were linked to the present and thinking about the role that they had played. Because my interests changed along the way and new aims were added, this collection lacks unity. What is more, the only elderly person from eastern Japan included here is Grandpa Takagi Seiichi; no one else is touched upon. Therefore, these are the lives of elderly people living against the backdrop of society in central and western Japan.
With Japan’s capital in Tokyo and many scholars gathered there as well, the tendency in current Japanese scholarship is to view matters with Tokyo at the center. And when one thinks of the countryside, the portion of Japan that lies east of the center has become the standard. For example, in the postwar period a lot of attention has been paid to the abuse of daughters by their mothers-in-law. Certainly this is a problem that must be considered, and it occurs in places where fathers are particularly dominant [especially in eastern Japan]. On the other hand, it would appear that there is even more tormenting of mothers-in-law by their daughters, but this matter is given little attention, probably because mothers-in-law lack the means or the power to appeal to the media. With regard to marriage as well, before the middle of the Meiji period [the 1890s], how would the number of daughters who married according to their parents’ wishes and those who married on the strength of their own will have compared? It would appear that in western Japan, there were more examples of the latter than of the former.
Even within a single era, various regional differences can be found, but we must not simply divide them into the advanced and the backward. We tend to view people of previous generations and those living in the lower strata of society in a trifling manner. And though we may have a propensity to feel a sort of pathos, I think it is necessary for us to put ourselves in the position of others and to think