Discourse on Decadence

Ango Sakaguchi

THINGS HAVE CHANGED in the last half year. them shamefully survive and thus sully the fine
I take my leave to humbly serve and shield our name they had earned for themselves. No such
Sovereign Lord . If I should die at our Sovereign humane feelings exist in the laws of today. But
Lord's side , I'll have no regrets. The young have this tendency remains in a great extent in people's
all "scattered as the blossoms," but they have also hearts, and it seems that the desire to end beauti-
survived to become black marketers. Now that ful things while they are yet beautiful is a general
you , whom I love , have left to shield our Sovereign Ten years or so ago there was a great
feeling.
Lord , I no longer wish to live a hundred years deal .of public sympathy at the story of the student
Within the space of half a year, the girls who and sentyoung girl who committed double suicide some-
off their men with such brave hearts, will have where in Oiso wishing to end their life in chaste
grown increasingly businesslike about the task oflove. And when several years ago a niece to whom
bowing before their husbands' memorial tablets, I was extremely close committed suicide in her
and the day is not far off when their hearts will 21st year, I too felt somehow thankful that she
find room for the images of other faces. It is not had died while still beautiful. This was because
that humans have changed. Humans have been although at first glance a fastidious girl, there
like this all along, and what has changed is only was about her an air of danger that would shatter,
the outer layer of things. a worrying sense that she would descend headlong
Apparently, one of the reasons for refusing down into damnation, and I felt that I could not
clemency for the 47 ronin of yore and effecting bear to witness the rest of her life.
During the war, writers we^e forbidden to
their execution was an almost fussy solicitude for
them, which deemed that it was wrong to haveportray a widow in love. It was the design of the
military politicians to prevent war widows being
Sakaguchi, Ango (1906-1955) incited to decadence, no doubt wishing to have
The essay "Discourse on Decadence" (Darakuron)them live their remaining lives in nun-like devo-
was first published in Shincho, a monthly magazine, in tion to the husband's spirit. The military had a
April 1946. It had a profound influence on its readers
who were in a state of complete emotional and physical most sensitive understanding of corruption, and
exhaustion during the turbulent period immediately the fact that they should go to the extent of con-
after the World War II. SAKAGUCHI is the author triving such a prohibition was a result, not of any
of numerous novels and essays including Tale of a lack of understanding of the inconsistency of a
Blizzard (Fubuki Monogatari ), The Idiot (Hakuchi),
The Cloak and the Blue Sky (Gaito to Aozora ), ANGO woman's heart, but rather of all too clear a
Street-talk (ANGO Kodan) ; Selected Works of SAKA- knowledge of it.
GUCHI , Ango (SAKAGUCHI Ango Zenshu) 12 volume It is generally claimed that in ancient days the
collection published by Kodasnsha and Complete CriticalJapanese samurai had no knowledge of the feel-
Works of SAKAGUCHI , Ango (SAKAGUCHI Angoings of women and children, but this is a super-
Hyoron Zenshu ), 7 volume collection published by
Tojusha.
ficial view, and the greatest significance of their

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invention of that thoroughly uncouth code, the were no more than children obedient to fate. Even
samurai ethic, was in fact as a barrier against granted that politicians have no creative original-
human weakness. ity, yet politics in its historical aspect does have
The idea is that the samurai must leave no creativity, has indeed a will, a stride for which
stone unturned, and even reduce himself to beg- there is no halting, which marches onward as do
gary, in order to track down his enemy and exact waves upon the great ocean. How many people
revenge, but were there indeed such loyal re- contrived the samurai ethic? Surely this is another
tainers, who hunted out their sworn enemies with case of the creativity of history, of its "sense of
the passion of vengeance? All they knew was the smell." History is forever smelling out humans.
code of revenge, and that code's rules concerning And while the samurai ethic is both inhumane and
honor; fundamentally, the Japanese as a people anti-human insofar as it is a set of stipulations
bear very little malice and do not bear it for long against human nature, and instinct, yet in that it
and their truest feeling is in fact surely an optim- is also a result of insight into that very nature
istic "yesterday's enemy is today's friend." Iťs and instinct, it is something entirely human.
a perfectly common situation to find someone In the emperor system, too, I see an exceedingly
coming to an understanding, nay becoming posi- Japanese (and thus perhaps original) political
tively bosom friends, with the enemy of yesterday; work of art. The emperor system is not some-
the very fact that he was your sworn enemy makes thing brought into being by the emperor. Of
you the more anxious to butter him up, and there course emperors have from time to time plotted
is a sudden urge to forget loyalties and "serve of their own accord, but generally they do not
two masters," an urge to "serve" yesterday's act, and their plots never showed any signs of
enemy. It is said that one must not live to bear succeeding- they usually resulted in exile, or in
the disgrace of captivity, but the fact is that with- fleeing to the mountains, and the emperor would
out such a code it would be impossible to incite eventually regain recognition for reasons which
the Japanese in battle; we are obedient to the were inevitably political. Even when forgotten
code, but our truest feelings lie in the opposite socially, the emperor acts out his political role.
direction. Japanese military history is a far more The political reasons for the emperor's existence
Machiavellian business than that of the samurai can be found in the politicians' "sense of smell" ;
ethic, and surely we can learn more about the they observed the native disposition of the Jap-
mechanism of history by examining our own moti- anese people, and discovered therein the emperor
vations than by looking to the proofs of historical system. It is not something inherently limited to
events. Just as the military politicians of today the imperial family. If the situation had allowed
prohibit writing about widows in love, the samurai for replacement, it could equally have been the
of old felt the need for the samurai ethic, to family of Confucius, the Gautama family, or the
control the weakness within themselves and those Lenin family. It was just that replacement was
below them. not possible.
Hideo Kobayashi has characterized the politi- At the least, the politicians (the nobility and
cian as a type which has no originality, which samurai) smelled out the need for an absolute
merely administers and controls, but it seems that monarch as a means to ensure their own everlast-
this is not necessarily the case. Although the ing prosperity (which in fact wasn't everlasting,
majority of politicians are indeed of this type, a although they would have dreamt of it being so).
small number of geniuses are creative in their In the Heian Period the Fujiwara family, while
methods of administering and controlling, and willingly choosing to support the emperor, never
this then becomes a model for mediocre politicians, questioned the fact that they were beneath him
revealing itself as a vast living will in the shape in rank, nor considered him a hindrance to them.
of history which penetrates each new period and They used the emperor's existence to deal with
each new government. In the realm of politics, family quarrels, younger brother getting one up
history is not something which links together - on elder brother, and older brother scoring off
individuals, but is born as a separate, gigantic father. They were instinctively materialistic, con-
being that absorbs all individuals, and in its his- tent if their lives were happy ones, yet satisfied
torical aspect politics likewise perpetrates a vast also to be enamored of that strange system whereby
act of creativity. Who brought on this war- was they performed increasingly magnificent ceremonies
it Tojo? Was it the militarists? It was them of in honor of the emperor. Worshiping the emperor
course, but without doubt it was also the ineluc- in fact was a means of displaying their own
table will of history, that colossal being that pene- dignity, and also of being made aware of that
trates Japan. In the face of history the Japanese dignity themselves.

2 Review of Japanese Culture and Society

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 This seems truly ludicrous to us. We were they are yet beautiful is a trifling human feeling,
dumbfounded at the foolishness of having to bow ourand in the case of my niece, it may well be that
heads every time the train turned under Yasukuni I should have wished her not to commit suicide
Shrine, but a certain type of person has to do that but to survive, and instead descend into damnation
in order to be aware of himself, and we also, and wander in the dark wilderness. In truth, the
though we laugh at the foolishness of the Yasukuni path of literature to which I have assigned myself
Shrine affair, are ourselves perpetrating the same is just such an exile in the wilderness, but even
type of foolishness in other matters. It is only so it is no easy matter to eradicate that petty
that we don't recognize our own foolishness. desire to end beautiful things while they are yet
Miyamoto Musashi tells how, while hurrying to- beautiful. Beauty left uncompleted is not beauty.
ward Ichijoji-kudarimatsu-no-hatashiba, he caught It may be that it can be called beauty only when
himself beginning to bow in prayer as he was the wretchedness of that inevitable sojourn in
passing a shrine to Hachiman. His teaching that damnation can itself be called beauty, but does
one must rely "upon neither gods nor Buddha" that mean that one must always intentionally take
both springs from this inclination in himself and into account the old bag of 60 in looking at the
is an expression of deep remorse directed against 20-year old girl? I don't know about that. I prefer
it, and it all goes to show that we all involuntarily the beautiful girl of twenty.
worship some very stupid things, and are simply It is said that death is the end of both flesh
not conscious of doing so. A Confucian teacher and spirit, but I wonder about that. To be honest
before he begins his lesson will first raise his books I cannot go along with the idea that, now that
reverently to his head, and in that act he must we've lost the war, it is the spirits of our fallen
be tasting his own dignity and his own very heroes who are most to be pitied. However, when
existence. And we do the same kind of thing with I think of those shoguns over 60 and still so at-
regard to other areas of life. tached to life, who are being dragged into court,
For a nation like the Japanese, which makes I completely fail to see what's so attractive about
Machiavellism its business, the emperor is neces- human existence; and yet I cannot but imagine
sary for both the manipulative aspect and for the that if I myself were a 60-year old shogun , then
"noble duty" aspect of politics. Individual poli- I too would be dragged into that courtroom cling-
ticians may not have always recognized this ing to life, and so in the end I am left feeling
necessity; in the context of the historical "sense astounded at this strange force called life. I prefer
of smell," it is not so much that they were aware the 20-year old beauty, but do the old shoguns
of any necessity for the emperor, but rather that also prefer her? And is it in light of this prefer-
they did not doubt the reality of the current situa-ence for the 20-year old beauty that our fallen
tion. Hideyoshi, when the emperor visited his heroes are claimed to be so much to be pitied?
mansion Juraku, wept at the magnificent ceremony, If it's all so clear-cut, then I can stop worrying,
but in fact he was both sensing his own dignity and could even find here the basis of a new faith
in the occasion, and seeing before him a universal which devotes itself to the pursuit of 20-year old
god. This was so for Hideyoshi but not neces- girls, but life is a more incomprehensible thing
sarily for other politicians of course, but even than that.
granted that Machiavellism is a device of the devil, I cannot stand the sight of blood, and once
it is not necessarily strange that the devil should when there was an automobile accident right in
also worship a god like a little child. Any con- front of my eyes, I wheeled round and fled. Yet,
tradiction is possible. I always liked grand destruction. While trem-
In short, the emperor system is the same type bling at the shells and incendiary bombs, I was
of thing as the samurai ethic. The prohibition at the same time tremendously excited at such
stating that, since a woman's heart is fickle, "the frenzied annihilation ; and yet I believe that I
virtuous wife must not serve two husbands" is in never loved and longed for human beings more
itself anti-human and inhumane, but in the truth than at that time.
of its insight it is human, and in the same way, I refused the kindness of several people who
the emperor system in itself is neither "true" nor encouraged me to evacuate, or undertook to provide
natural; but in terms of the historical discovery me with a residence in the country, and I held out
and insight to be found there, it contains a deep in Tokyo. I intended to make the air-raid shelter
meaning not lightly to be denied, and cannot in the ruins of Kosuke Oi's place my final base,
simply be explained by reference to eternal truthsand when Kosuke Oi evacuated to Kyushu I there-
or natural laws alone. by lost the last of my friends in Tokyo; but when
The desire to end wholly beautiful things whileI imagined the American troops eventually land-

OCTOBER 1986 3

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ing, and myself holding my breath in the shelter up the slope lay a corpse, covered by a sheet of
barraged by heavy artillery fire on all sides, I felt corrugated iron, which looked as though it had
the urge to submit to that fate and prepare my- been struck by a car rather than died in an air-
self for it. I thought that I might die, but without raid. Beside it stood a soldier with a bayonet.
doubt I more often believed that I would live. The endless winding flow of victims coming and
As for my ambitions once having survived among going poured past it indeed like some innocent
the ruins, however, I expected nothing beyond stream ; no one so much as noticed the fresh blood
survival itself. Strange rebirth into a new and on the road, and if occasionally one did notice,
unforseeable world. My curiosity for this has been he showed as much interest as if he were looking at
the most vivid thing in my life, and it was simply a discarded scrap of paper. The Americans said
as if I were strangely spellbound by the need to that the Japanese immediately after the war were
remain in Tokyo and thereby pit this danger bewildered and stupefied, but the nature of that
against the extraordinary degree of vividness procession of victims just after the bomb attack
which my curiosity had attained. was different in kind from bewilderment and
For all that, I am timid by nature. On April stupefaction- it was an astonishingly weighty,
4th in 1945, I experienced for the first time a replete, innocence; they were simply the obedient
bombing that lasted for two hours all around me; children of fate. The ones laughing were always
the flare bombs overhead made the place as bright girls of 15-16 or 16-17. Their laughing faces were
as day, and when my second eldest brother, just clear and delightful. Raking among the ruins of
arrived in Tokyo, asked from inside the air-raid the fire and tossing the crockery into a burnt
shelter whether they were incendiary bombs I bucket, or basking in the sun as they stood guard
tried to reply that they were flares, but found my- over their scraps of luggage, perhaps these young
self in a condition where unless I placed all my girls were unaffected by the present reality be-
strength in my stomach no voice would come out. cause they were filled with dreams of the future,
At that time I was working part-time at Nippon or perhaps it was due to their great vanity. It
Film Co. (Nichiei), and once, directly after the was a pleasure for me to search out the laughing
bomb attack on Ginza, we stood on the Nichiei roof- faces of the young girls in that burnt wilderness.
top in Ginza with three cameras positioned on the In the face of such grand destruction, there
tower of the five-story building, to film another was destiny, but there was no decadence. They
attack formation. When the air-raid warning were innocent, but replete. Those who had safely
came everyone disappeared from the Ginza roads, escaped through the raging flames now crowded
rooftops, and windows. Even the rooftop anti- together beside a burning house for warmth
aircraft encampment people hid in a covered against the cold, in a completely separate world
trench, and there was no sign of anybody; the from others a mere foot away who were desper-
only people visibly exposed to all around were theately battling to extingish those same flames.
group of ten or so people on the roof of Nichiei. Grand destruction - its surprising love. Grand des-
First there was a rain of incendiary bombs on tiny - its surprising love. In comparison to this, the
Ishikawa-jima, and the next formation came di- look of the nation since defeat is one of pure and
rectly overhead. I was aware of the strength simple decadence.
draining from my legs. Those cameramen, cig- Yet, compared to the banality of decadence, its
arette in mouth, who pointed their cameras at banal matter-of-factness, one feels that the beauty
the oncoming formation with such extraordinary of those people obedient to destiny, the beauty of
calm, left me quite astounded. the love in the midst of that appalling destruction,
And yet I was in love with grand destruction. was a mere illusion, empty as a bubble.
The sight of people submissive to fate is a The Tokuwaga regime's rationale for killing
strangely beautiful one. All the vast mansions in the forty-seven ronin was that this would eternally
Kojimachi disappearing as if they'd never been, preserve them in their status as "loyal retainers,"
nothing but the flicker of smouldering fires re- but although it did indeed manage to prevent a
maining, and an elegant father and daughter, descent into decadence for the forty-seven, there is
sandwiching a single red-leather suitcase between no way to stop the descent of humans in general
them, sitting on the green grass by the moat. If from the purity of the "loyal retainer" to medio-
it weren't for the vast ruin with its little tongues crity and then into damnation. Even if you rule
of flame in one corner of the picture, the scene that "the virtuous wife must not serve two hus-
would have been no different from a peaceful bands," that "the loyal retainer must not serve
picnic. And at Dogenzaka, likewise now a vast two masters," it is impossible to prevent man's
expanse of nothing but burning embers, half way downfall. Even if you stabbed the young virgin

4 Review of Japanese Culture and Society

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to death and thereby succeeded in preserving her beauty pervaded it throughout. This was not the
purity, when once you begin to hear the banal beauty of human truth. So long as we forget to
footsteps of decadence, those matter-of-fact foot- think, we can easily find in this sight an unsur-
steps like the endless lapping of waves upon the passable show of nonchalance and magnificence.
shore, you cannot help but recognize that the Even with the unceasing fear of bombings, people
petty nature of human action, the petty nature of were always nonchalant just so long as they didn't
the virgin's purity thus preserved, is nothing more think and needed only to gaze entranced. I too
than a bubble-like, empty illusion. was one of those fools. In all innocence, I was
Could we not say that the Kamikaze hero was playing with the war.
a mere illusion, and that human history begins After the war we were permitted every freedom,
from the point where he takes to black-marketeer- , but one might say that when people are permitted
ing? That the widow as devoted apostle is mere every freedom they become aware of their own
illusion, and that human history begins from the inexplicable limits and needs. It is eternally im-
moment when the image of a new face enters possible for humans to be free. This is because
her breast? And perhaps the emperor too is no humans live, and must die, and because they think.
more than illusion, and the emperor's true history Political reforms are made in a day, but human
begins from the point where he becomes an ordi- change cannot be made so easily. Humanity took
nary human. the first step on a newly-discovered path in distant
It is not only that creature, history, which is Greece, and how much change can we see in it
so huge; humanity itself is likewise surprisingly today ?
huge. To be alive is indeed the supreme mystery. Humanity. Whatever the terrifying destruc-
One of the grander images of humanity which the tion and fatality with which war faces us, it can
end of the war has enabled us to perceive has do nothing to humanity itself. The war has ended.
been that spectacle of shogims of 60 and 70 lining And look, haven't the Kamikaze heroes become
up like horses upon the battlefield, to be dragged black marketeers, and aren't the images of some
into court rather than committing seppuku. Japan new men already swelling in the breasts of the
was defeated, and the samurai ethic has perished, widows? Humans don't change. We have only
but humanity has been born from the womb of returned to being human. Humans become deca-
dent-loyal retainers and saintly women become
decadence's truth. To live, and to fall- this is the
correct procedure, and can there be any easy short-decadent. It is impossible to halt the process, and
cut to the saving of humanity outside it? I do not impossible to save humanity by halting it. Humans
like harakiri. Once a melancholy old machinating live and humans fall. There is no easy shortcut
rogue, Matsunaga Danjo, was cornered by Nobu- to the saving of humanity outside this.
naga, and there was nothing for it but to shoot It is not because we lost the war that we grow
himself in defense of the castle. Immediately decadent. We fall because we are human, it is
before he died, he followed his daily practice of only because we live that we fall. But I believe
setting in place the moxa cautery for longevity, that humans cannot fall utterly. This is because
then he thrust a pistol against his face and blew it humans cannot retain a steely indifference in the
apart. He was past 70 at the time, a vicious old face of suffering. Humans are pitiful, frail, and
man who felt no compunction in publicly playing consequently foolish, but also too weak to fall com-
around with women. I sympathize with the way pletely. In the end perhaps we cannot help but
he died, but I still don't like harakiri. kill the virgin, devise the samurai ethic, and give
Yes, while trembling with fear, I yet gazed the emperor his role. But in order that the virgin
enchanted at the beauty. I had no need to think. killed be one's own and not some else's, in order
This was because I saw before me only objects to create one's own samurai ethic, one's own em-
of beauty, not humans. Indeed, there weren't even peror, it is necessary for each of us to fall well.
any thieves. People claim that Tokyo is dark And as with people, so too, Japan too, must fall.
these days, but during the war it was pitch black, We must discover ourselves, and save ourselves,
and yet I walked about the dark streets late at by falling to the best of our ability. Salvation
night with no fear of being attacked and robbed, through politics is an absurdity the mere surface
and slept without locking the doors. War-time layer of things.
Japan was an unbelievable utopia; a certain empty Translated by Seiji M. Lippit

October 1986 5

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