विस्तारः (द्रष्टुं नोद्यम्)
Kudo Heisuke’s daughter.
From Hitori Kangae by Tadano Makuzu, 1818
What is lamentable about our country’s shallow ways is that people feel that they are knowledgeable simply if they read Chinese and Japanese books and study long-established things. No one talks about the need to reflect on the situation of the country as a whole.
Thinking about why this should be so, I concluded that, rich in material goods and with abundant pleasures available, people fritter away their time in amusements.
Or else, as people work at this and try to correct that, the years pass,
and even if they come up with some ideas in their old age,
there is no one with whom to discuss them,
so in the end their ideas come to naught.
Would that there were people who,
following the example of countries whose writing is horizontal,
would build on what was done by those before them,
reflect broadly on the situation of the country as a whole,
and conduct affairs in a way that would not bring us shame in the eyes of foreigners.
How shameful to be looked down upon by people of other countries
for the shallow outlook that leads us to trade copper that lasts for ten thousand generations
for sugar that melts when you lick it.+++(5)+++
Chinese, who rely only on book learning,
are rigid in their thinking and earthbound.
Because of this, they have difficulty looking at a country in its entirety.
Japan is a country with too many things to occupy our attention.
It will not do to leave the serious matter of the number of days and nights as merely a project to think about in one’s spare time.
It is of utmost importance to make it a national practice (kunibito no sadame)
to use the number of days and nights
as a framework for thinking about things.
No matter which example we pick,
the myriad matters in this country will proliferate with the passage of time.
We need to be properly selective in dealing with such things.