April 2, 2007
BUSHIDO VS. THE BUSH:
Cherry blossoms, the beautiful and the good (Spengler, 4/03/07, Asia Times)
t is a common observation that a sense of the natural, or the spontaneous, uniquely characterizes Japanese art: the unpredictable patterns of ash glaze in ceramics, the freedom of calligraphy, the impressionistic representation in painting, the allusiveness of poetry. Nature is cruel as well as generous, but always beautiful, and this balance and tension pervades the Japanese esthetics that Professor Fujiwara associates with samurai ethics. If nature is as cruel as it is spontaneous, then men also may be spontaneously cruel.The comparison may seem peculiar, but the Japanese in a way resemble the Jews in their passion to bring something of the eternal into every detail of everyday life. As Franz Rosenzweig put it, the myriad laws regulating Jewish prayer, diet, marital relations, and so forth all stem from a single motive, to import eternity into daily life. As Fujiwara avers, that is what the Japanese do by making every aspect of life into a work of art. But the contrast is as sharp as the parallel. Jewish food generally is unappetizing as well as visually unappealing, as opposed to Japan's magnificent national cuisine; Jewish manners are brusque, while Japan has made an art form of courtesy; and no aspect of Jewish religious life is concerned with visual beauty in any way at all.
On the contrary, Jewish practice subordinates human instincts to revealed commandments. Dietary laws derive from recognition that animals also are close to God, if not as close as humans. Marital relations put the human sex drive at the service of family and children. Prayer places every human action - waking, sleeping, eating, and so forth - in the context of the presence of a personal god. One of the most ancient Jewish teachings states that the world rests on three things: Torah (the revealed code of behavior), worship, and acts of kindness.
So writes a guy who's suffered through brisket. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 2, 2007 7:41 AM
Japan's magnificent national cuisine
Let's face it. The Japanese eat raw what in every other civilized culture is known as "bait."
It is much worse than that. They do not only eat raw fish, they are known to eat living flesh, cutting slices from a twitching carp. It has been reported that a similar "cusine" was pursued at the expense of live prisoners of war at the end of World War Two.
One view of culture of the pre-reformation Japan sketches how Bhuddism was put in service of Bushido, enabling murder and oppression.
http://www.friesian.com/divebomb.htm
All is illusion, being; non-being and the distinction between being and non-being are illusion. So, we may butcher Chinese, rape Koreans, test our poison gas on staked-out prisoners without personal responsibility, as all of these things just happen.
An opening of the gates of hell,it was, and its suppression was a great good work. Ponder it, and give thanks for the gift of the Jews.