A Look at Japanese Culture

by T.S. Okuyama, 6th dan

One very difficult aspect of leaning Aikido, apart from the hard physical training necessary to learn techniques, is the development of an understanding of the philosophical concepts. Martial arts - and for that matter any art - are heavily based on the culture in which they are developed. Since Aikido was developed in Japan, it is important that we understand some aspects of Japanese culture to deepen our understanding of Aikido and its principles.

When we talk about a culture, we must see that there are many differences within one culture. In the United States there are geographically-based cultural differences, between communities on the East Coast, in the South, the Midwest, and the West Coast. There are also differences based on the origin of people, whether they are white Anglo-Saxon, African American, Asian, Mexican-American, and so on. We think we are all different, and we are. Americans are brought up to be different and idealistic.

There are similar differences within Japanese culture. There are mountain, farming, seaside fishing communities, and metropolitan cultures, as well as northern and southern cultures. They are all different. So much so, that everybody thinks we are all alike, although we are all different. Indeed, many people believe that there is no such thing as cultural differences because each culture is made up of all these different people.

But even taking into account the vast differences within each culture, there are definite, distinct, and huge generic differences between Japanese and American culture. Some cultural aspects are so different that they are difficult to imagine. I would like to point out some of those differences in this article so that as you study Aikido, you can appreciate the very differences in Japanese culture that permeates and helped to create Aikido. I must qualify that I am not a cultural anthropologist: these are my private observations, developed through years of professional work in Japanese and American business communication.

One major difference (and believe me, there are many) between Japanese and American cultures stems from the religious beliefs of the culture, and how we experience them as children. (Allow me to state that although I want to talk about religious influences within a culture, I do not support, promote, or criticize any religion.) The basic American concept, stemming from Judeo-Christian tradition, is monotheistic - a belief in a single, absolute God. The Japanese concept, stemming from the Shinto-Buddhist tradition, is polytheism - multiple gods. This is a big difference. Whether you are a devoted churchgoer or not, these concepts in our respective cultures influence both our thinking process and the foundation of our behavior.

Americans, in general, tend to separate things into two aspects. I think one reason for this has to do with the belief in absoluteness. When there exists someone (a Supreme Being) or something (the law, for example) that is absolute, this being or thing becomes a measuring standard, against which all other beings or things are compared and experienced as different, as non-absolute. This polarization distinguishes and develops diametrically opposed concepts, and creates oppositions: good and bad, soft and hard, lightness and heaviness, black and white, left and right, you and me, mind and body, etc. This tendency - to experience differences as absolutes, as opposites - is a general conceptual tendency of Americans.

Japanese, on the other hand, tend to conceptualize in terms of unity of harmony. They avoid diametrically opposed concepts which might develop into confrontation. When there is no absolute being, there is no standard against which other beings are compared. Everything is relative, and those ideas which Americans would experience as opposed are seen as existing within the same realm. Soft and hard, left and right, good and bad, mind and body are not really opposite and separable. These seemingly disorderly or contradictory concepts co-exist in Japanese culture. There is no need to compare them. You don't go to heaven or hell when you die; you simply become one of the gods. This is the culture in which Aikido has been nurtured.

When we recognize that Japanese culture is different from American culture in this way, we may understand more about Aikido and its principles. We may understand what it means to harmonize, to be heavy and light, to unite mind and body, to connect your center to your partner's center. In the Japanese cultural framework, heaviness exists within lightness. Strength comes from softness. Body and mind are not separable. Left and right hands move in unison. There is goodness within a villain and evil within most of us. You and I exist inseparably within the universe, therefore, we are already in harmony as we are. There is no need for compromise or confrontation.

When we study Aikido, we are not simply learning Aikido techniques. The training process in Aikido as a Budo, a martial way, leads us to the realization of what is, as it is. Our aimless aim is to realize that we are already in harmony with ourselves and with nature. Intellectually understanding this concept is one aspect of study, in which I hope this article may be useful. Embodying it is our challenge.