Are Japanese Heroes Monsters?

Although we are mostly concerned with mythical heroes on this site, it’s hard to draw a clear line between myth and reality. However superhuman, there is probably not one fictional hero that has no connection at all to the world of mortals. So we’ll start by presenting some traits of characters from the human world - and get a glimpse of their dark side.

Heroes in the Land of the Rising Sun - and beyond

The English noun “hero” is derived from an ancient Greek word, that originally meant “protector”, “defender”, or “guardian”. In Greek mythology and folklore a hero was a demigod - the offspring of a mortal and a deity.

Later, in the West, heroes came to refer to characters who brave danger and close to impossible odds to gain something. Another important aspect is that they fight for the greater good. They are willing to make huge sacrifices, even of their own lives, for the sake of others.

In English, a distinction is made between heroes and heroines. The Japanese, in contrast, use a single word: eiyuu (英雄). The English word “hero” is also used, but as in many other cases things start to get blurred when foreign words enter the Japanese language. A female “heroine” can be the princess who is saved by a hero from the dragon.

But these are all modern developments. It was not until the second half of the 19th century that Japan opened her borders to the surrounding world, and foreign words and concepts started to pour in at greater speed. Before that - in the days of the samurai and before them - there were only eiyuu.

It’s interesting to note the differences between the English and the Japanese versions of Wikipedia. If you look up the entry “hero”, they are different indeed. For example, the Japanese version has a section about the concept of hero in different cultures, in which we find the following:

“There is a close relation between [culture and] the views of heroes and villains. For example, it is quite common that the same character is referred to as a hero in one culture, and a villain in a neighbouring one.”

Villain in one land, hero in another… Perhaps the author was thinking of someone like Itō Hirobumi (1841-1909)?

The Japanese have a troubled common past with their neighbours, including Korea and China. Hirobumi played a part in those quarrels. To quote Wikipedia again:

“[Hirobumi] was a Japanese statesman, Resident-General of Korea, four time Prime Minister of Japan (the 1st, 5th, 7th and 10th) and genrō. Itō was assassinated by An Jung-geun, a Korean nationalist who was against the Annexation of Korea by the Japanese Empire. Ironically, there is an argument that Itō’s death resulted in the acceleration of the final stage of the colonization process.”

The Koreans see the Meiji era prime minister as a villain - but the Japanese version of Wikipedia lists him as a hero (see the reference section on this site). Indeed, Hirobumi made a sacrifice, but what is the “greater good” is determined by the angle from which we are looking. Feelings still run hot after the Japanese occupations and wars on the Asian continent, and it seems this is reflected in the opponent’s respective views of history and its heroes - not surprising, perhaps.

What surprised me, however, was the seeming cruelty of an ordinary Japanese woman and her view of heroism. We’ll come back to her in a moment: let’s talk first briefly about heroism and ethics.

When a child murderer becomes “Hero”

What is acceptable behaviour for a hero differs between cultures. Consider the case of Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616). It can be argued that the Japanese see him as one of their greatest heroes.

He was the man who in many ways lay the foundation for a united Japan, and the long and peaceful Edo era under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, 1603 - 1868. But some of his deeds were of the most monstrous kind. For example: when the great siege of Osaka castle was over, and the enemy - Toyotomi Hideyori - had been brought to his knees, Tokugawa ordered the beheading of his foe’s 8 year old son, Kunimatsu.

Think about that for a moment… If you have a son in the same age, imagine how you would feel in that situation. How would he feel, facing the executioner? The thought makes me shudder. But if legend is true on this account, the real hero seems to have been this child, facing death:

“It it said that in spite of his young age, in his final moments Kunimatsu denounced the many betrayals Tokugawa had commited against his family, and without showing any fear, calmly payed his penalty”

When I mentioned to a Japanese woman some time ago - a very civilised person in every way - that Tokugawa beheaded an innocent child, she just shrugged it off and said: “well, it couldn’t be helped. His father was an opponent.”

I’ve thought a lot about this. Are the Japanese glorifiying monsters? Are they themselves monsters? Yes, in some situations. And so are we! Western generals - some of whom are still thought of as heroes - have shown no lack of ingenuity in the invention of cruel punishments for prisoners. And some seem to never learn…

And yet, I can’t help but perceiving this womans attitude as medieval…

There is a prominent school of thinking in Japan claiming that the death penalty is a precious part of Japan’s cultural heritage. From Japan Times, Monday, Aug. 11, 2008:

“New Justice Minister Okiharu Yasuoka believes most Japanese approve of capital punishment because, he said, the country has a cultural background in which death is considered “gracious” for criminals.”

Indeed, the boy’s loyalty to his father was a grave criminal offense by Tokugawa’s standards. It could have been worse. The samurai boiled, burned and sawed people to death. On the other hand, in the preceding Heian era, capital punisment was forbidden - an era the Japanese view as their golden age of art, litterature and poetry. Minister Yasuoka apparently didn’t do his homework.

But the question is: was Tokugawa a hero? Heroism is about self-sacrifice, not sacrificing others. And the greater good in Tokugawa’s case was securing political dominance for his own house. That he remains a hero seems to be more related to the fact that the Tokugawa’s thereafter wrote the history books.

But the merciful hero does not seem to be alien to East Asian thought. Consider the words of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551-479 BCE), who’s teachings had a heavy influence on the samurai:

“What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.” (Lunyu 12.2)

Indeed, this requires a form of sacrifice - to accept the damage being done to you: humiliation, or perhaps even the killing of your friends or family, without seeking revenge. Unfortunately, the feudal lords of Japan skipped this chapter of Confucius’s teachings.

The Hero’s sacrifice

The temptation to destroy the opponent can be the ultimate test of a hero. To bring up a modern example, an important theme in the Star Wars trilogy is Luke Skywalker and his battle with his own hatred and yearning for revenge. If he succumbs to hatred, and kills Darth Vader - who Luke mistakes for his father’s murderer - Luke will also give in to the Dark Force of the universe, and be lost: he will no longer be a hero.

A hero, in the Western tradition, is heroic because he makes a sacrifice for the greater good.
Skywalker lose his father (or thinks he has lost him, rather), and his own hand, but still refuse to take revenge when he finally has the opportunity. That is his sacrifice, and thanks to it, the universe escapes the rule of the Dark Force. The killing of the criminal is not gracious in the mind of the author. It is an act of hatred, and hatred will consume the killer and put him in the same camp as the criminal himself.

But if the Japanese do not live by this ethic, and indeed are as merciless as the Justice Minister tries to claim, wouldn’t their ideas of heroism also be different? Wouldn’t their heroes be allowed to be cruel, or even monstrous? Are they merciless killers, who like Tokugawa stops at nothing to reach their goal? Wouldn’t Darth Vader be the hero in the Japanese universe? And wouldn’t the Western ideal of the merciful hero be nothing more than an abstraction to the Japanese?

I think not. This blog is based largely on the ideas of Joseph Campbell, the mythologist, who influenced George Lucas. And Campbell, in turn, was influence by the psychologist Carl Jung. They saw myth and as something universal, something that we all share in a consciousness encompassing all humans of all times. Something we encounter in our dreams, as the archetypes - one of which is the Hero.

We are going to see that any person, including the Japanese, can be heroic in a merciful way. I just happened to open a book on my table (you’ll find it in the book store on this blog) written by Christopher Vogler - The Writer’s Journey - and chanced upon these words on page 59:

“Ultimately, fully evolved heroes feel compassion for their apparent enemies and transcend them rather than destroy them. Heroes must learn to read the signals of their Threashold Guardians [of the entrance to the Special World where the Hero will experience his adventure]. In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell illustrated this idea beautifully with an example from Japan. Ferocious-looking demon statues sometimes guard the entrances to Japanese temples. The first thing you notice is one hand held up like that of a policeman gesturing “Stop!”. But when you look more closely, you see that the other hand invites you to enter. The message is: Those who are put off by apperances cannot enter the Special World, but those who can see past surface impressions to the inner reality are welcome.”

Jung and Campbell believed that myth connect all human beings. And so, througout history, many Japanese must have discovered the Portal to the Special World. And some must have set out on their journey to true herohood. We will look into their myths to find them.