＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:https://skawa68.com/
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
Many of you may not be familiar with Masahiro Yasuoka (1898 – 1983), a scholar of Yomei Gaku. However, I know him well because the president of the company where I worked was a member of the “Shiyu-kai” (currently “Kansai Shiyu-kai”) presided over by Masahiro Yasuoka, and his “stories about the Chinese zodiac” were always quoted in the “New Year’s Message” and so on.
１．Who is Masahiro Yasuoka?
Masahiro Yasuoka was a Yangming scholar, philosopher, and thinker from Osaka City. He was well versed in Eastern thought based on Yangmingism, and had many supporters at the top of the political, financial, and government circles. He also had a great influence on the policy decisions of successive prime ministers.
Apparently, when he was in elementary school, he began reading aloud from “The Great Learning(「大学」)” of the “Four Books(「四書」).”
He began studying “Wang Yangmingism” while he was a student at the University of Tokyo, and his book “Studies on Wang Yangming,” which he wrote and published as a graduation gift in 1922 , caused a stir.
In opposition to the “Taisho Democracy” that was popular at the time, he advocated “traditional Japaneseism,” and gained some admirers among the aristocracy and military.
In 1927 , he founded a private school called “Kinkei Gakuin(「金鶏学院」),” and in 1931 , with investments from zaibatsu such as Mitsui and Sumitomo, he founded the “Japan Farmers School(「日本農士学校」)” in Saitama Prefecture and began an educational movement.
The Kinkei Academy gained supporters in the military, government, and business circles, but in 1932 it founded the Kokuikai Association(「国維会」), which it co-founded with Konoe Fumimaro and others with the aim of “reforming national politics based on Japanese ideals,” but it was seen as a “powerful figure in the political world” and was forced to disband two years later.
The Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War(「終戦の詔勅」) was drafted by the Chinese scholar Mizuho Kawada, and he edited it, meaning he added some parts in red ink.
After the war, he was “banned from public office” (later lifted) for his “involvement in foreign policy as an advisor to the Ministry of Greater East Asia,” but in 1949 he founded the “Shiyukai” (later the “National Shiyukai”) and worked to train the next generation of leaders and to spread classical Eastern thought through lectures and talks he gave around the country.
He maintained close ties with the political and business world, having a dialogue with Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru in 1951, and as an advisor to LDP politicians he mainly preached about the study of Oriental Prime Ministership and the study of emperors, and served as their “spiritual leader,” “shadow advisor,” and “advisor to the prime minister.”
He had many admirers in the business world, and he mentored many business leaders from the Mitsubishi Group, Sumitomo Group, Kintetsu Group, and Tokyo Electric Power Company.
In 1958, he formed the Japan Council with Nobusuke Kishi and others, and became involved in the movement to revise the Security Treaty and the Constitution. While he devoted himself to the study of Eastern classics and to the training of human resources, he continued to wield great influence in the political, financial, and government circles as an elder of the right wing of the establishment.
It is said that he was the one who first came up with the era name “Heisei.”
＜“Origin of the new era name Reiwa” and “Origin of Heisei”＞
２．What is “Yangming”?
Yangming Studies” is ‘Practical Confucianism’ initiated by Wang Yangming (1472-1529), a Confucian scholar, thinker, and military commander in the Ming Dynasty in the first half of the 16th century, as a critical successor to Zhu Xi studies, and is ”the study of seeking reason in the mind through practice in work and daily life, as one cannot reach reason through reading alone.。
“Unity of knowledge and action” means that “if you know but do not act, you do not know,” or in other words, “knowledge and action should not be thought of as separate things.”
“Achieving one’s conscience” means that the principles that permeate heaven and earth lie within one’s own power of judgment (conscience).
“Mind is reason” means that “the reason of things exists nowhere other than in one’s own mind, and there is no need to seek the reason of things anywhere else.”
Founded in the late 12th century by the Southern Song Confucian scholar Zhu Xi (1130-1200), Zhu Xi school is a new form of Confucianism. It is characterized by its theoretical approach and its emphasis on hierarchical relationships and etiquette, with the idea that “orders from superiors are absolute, and it is natural for subordinates to obey them.” In Japan, it was easy to use as an academic field to maintain order in the feudal domain system, and so it became the official academic field of the shogunate.
In contrast, Yangmingism holds that knowledge is useless if it is not accompanied by action. True knowledge should be accompanied by practice, and what you learn should be put into practice.
Since “Yomeigaku” was favored by people who had practical skills, a strong sense of justice, and a strong tendency to criticize politics, the shogunate was wary of it spreading and becoming a critical force. In 1790, Matsudaira Sadanobu issued the “Kansei Reforms,” which banned all learning other than Neo-Confucianism, and eliminated Yangmingism.
The most prominent Yangming scholars of the Edo period were Nakae Toju (1608-1648) and Kumazawa Banzan (1619-1691).
Famous people influenced by Yangmingism include the Confucian scholar Oshio Heihachiro (1793-1837), who was a deputy governor of Osaka Tenma and led the Oshio Heihachiro Rebellion in 1837, Yoshida Shoin, and Saigo Takamori.
3．The marriage scandal with Kazuko Hosoki
<Added 10/11/2021> Kazuko Hosoki passed away on November 8th from respiratory failure. She was 83 years old.
I pray for her soul to rest in peace.
In 1983 (the year Masahiro Yasuoka passed away), he made a promise to marry Kazuko Hosoki, a hostess at a Ginza club. Despite opposition from Yasuoka’s family, Kazuko Hosoki submitted her own marriage registration based on the marriage vows she had made with him, and it was accepted.
However, since Mr. Yasuoka was 85 years old at the time and had symptoms of dementia, his relatives filed a petition for mediation to have the marriage invalidated. Mr. Yasuoka passed away the month after the petition, but a settlement was reached and the marriage was removed from the family register on the seventh day after his death.