Golden sayings of Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Hello. Everybody! Let’s appreciate golden sayings of Ryunosuke Akutagawa (he is a very famous Japanese novelist). When he was a very young child, he was taken in tow by his aunt because his mother got sick. He was raised by his aunt. His mother passed away when he was 10 years old. He was doing fine in school, so his father tried to get him back. However, his father was good-for-nothing. He made a late wife’s sister pregnant and have a child. It is natural that two families came to dislike each other. A half brother called Tokuji was having bad marks or results in school. He was always told to study like his big brother. Akutagawa was a very annoying person for Tokuji. It is said that Akutagawa was raised feeling the complexity of human relationships.

The cleverest way of life is to live neglecting one age habituation, following it strictly.

I could use the word “one group” instead of “one age”. There are lots of mysterious scenes in Japanese society. For example, what do you think of “radio exercise”? I hear that foreign people think Japanese people doing radio exercise before work is really strange. In case of blue collar job, each worker only have to exercise by themselves. However, it is no good for Japanese society. Doing the same thing is the virtue of Japanese people. A school uniform is the same. When I was a high school student, bad girl students want to wear a long skirt. It is a small self-assertion. Akutagawa, obeying many grope’s habituation absolutely, had a strong belief that was never influenced by it.

 

Every social life needs lying.

I think lying is lubricating oil for social life. But if lying is something like a seasoning, we need to adjust its quantity according to a person’s character. A flattering word toward a boss might make him or her unpleasant in case that it is too unnatural. A good user of flattering makes human relationships smooth and easier to continue chatting. Even though you say empty compliments like “It’s really nice.” to praise your boss’s bag or something, your boss might say “I’ll tell you the store that I bought it.” and you might be getting along with your boss. Let’s use flattering to let you live easily. You don’t want to tell a lie? OK!! You had better live alone in the mountain! I’m just kidding!

 

Jesus Christ looks exactly the same a candle burning out by itself.

I often see a person like Jesus in a company. He says “Let’s carry out the plan I submitted.” “Without my idea, I’m sure that it shall end in failure.” Praising himself, he is finally fired. Jesus was a Guru of Christianity, so he is required to do his best until he was burned out. However, I think it is important to listen to someone’s opinion, to have second thoughts, and not to think every problem by himself or herself.

 

Everyone around me is dirty, and so am I. And it is painful to live seeing it with my own eyes.

I know it is really painful for Akutagawa to live in dirty human relationship. However, when I see this situation with a philosophical eye, I think that he is free from worldliness because he understood that he was as dirty as people around him was. Don’t you think so?  What I want to tell you is that a person who knows his dirtiness could forgive others. If the God exists and he makes us live, then because the God forgives us, we could forgive others with dirtiness like ourselves with dirtiness. If I can think like this, I think it’s wonderful.

 

Happy people never care about what is happiness.

I feel understand this words. When we go to a shrine, we often pray saying “I hope I will ○○.” It might be the same of “I am not ○○.” For example, “I hope I will make money.” is equal to “I don’t make money.” A person who never requires anything might be the happiest man. But a man has a desire that he wants to be better. Happiness is the eternal theme for human. Without desire, there would not be the advance of civilization.

 

Thank you for reading my post through to the end.

日本語はこちらから。

 



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