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Chapter 5. Toward Kensho: An Inner Journey (1899–1904)
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Chapter 5 Toward Kenshō An Inner Journey (1899–1904) The Fourth Higher School Nishida returned to was being radically reformed under the leadership of Höjö Tokiyuki. Student conduct had deteriorated since the founding days of the school when Nishida had been a student. After Japan’s victory in its war with China (1894– 1895), the higher school students had “softened” their moral values; many engaged in heavy drinking, and a few even commuted to school from the demimonde.1 Höjö believed that students were the future of Japan and that an educator’s mission was to guide them properly. In 1898, to prepare the ground for school reform, he first brought his trusted colleagues, Hori Koretaka2 (a professor of Japanese) from a middle school in Yamaguchi, and Mitake Kingorö from Yamaguchi Higher School. In the following year, he discharged a few professors who had set bad examples for the students. In their stead, he brought in Sugimori Korema, professor of English; Toda Kaiichi, professor of economics, geography, and law; Nakame Satoru, professor of German and French; Ibaraki Seijirö, professor of English; Tanabe Ryüji, professor of English and Nishida, professor of philosophy and German. Once the teaching staff was strengthened, Höjö went about implementing his reform measures. He discouraged the prevalent practice of students’ cutting classes; he set up a “temperance society” (sesshukai );3 and he introduced a mentor system, in which each student was assigned to a faculty member so that personal ties could be formed between students and professors.4 At first, students reacted negatively to Höjö’s reform measures, which seemed to them too intrusive. A group of students even turned their feelings into action and assaulted Höjö on the day of a school athletic meet.5 On the following day, Höjö called the culprits into his office and spoke to them in a calm voice: Toward Kenshō (1899–1904) Up until today, I have been constantly irritated by students, because everywhere I turned, I only saw gutless students worse than rotted women. But today at this school I discovered you young men, who are fearless and high spirited. I cannot help but feel greatly delighted. The only thing I wish for you is that henceforth you channel your fearlessness and high spiritedness into your academic studies and achieve good results.6 End of speech. Students, dumbfounded, were most impressed by Höjö’s magnanimity, and said to one another: “The new principal is a cool guy!” Thereafter they applied themselves assiduously to their studies and many became men of considerable achievements.7 This incident probably took place a year before Nishida’s arrival, but everyone knew about it. When classes began on September 11, Nishida quickly became immersed in school-related activities. He taught logic and German that year. School duties, on top of his family responsibilities, kept him busy. In his September 15 letter to Yamamoto, he describes the difficulty of pursuing Zen practice amid so many responsibilities, but he tried to stick to his routine of doing zazen both morning and evening. I’m ashamed that I have made very little progress in my Zen practice. Although I want to, it is really hard to practice Zen when I have a job in the outside world and a wife and children at home. But from what I understand, if one continues to practice even an hour or half an hour daily with total concentration, and if one maintains this mental intensity of concentration at all times, the process of practice gradually “ripens.” I also understand that it is the worst thing to stop practicing for even a day. . . . Fortunately, Master Setsumon is available at Utatsu Hill. When things settle down a bit, I intend to muster my courage and resume my practice with him. Lately, I keenly feel that nothing is more important than the salvation of my soul (kokoro no sukui), so much so that even if I were to give many years to the practice of Zen without any concrete result, it is still the only thing I would like to pursue in my life. . . . A man of old said that he who seeks the Way does not mind devoting his entire body and life to that pursuit. When even I don’t know my “true self,” how could my wife and children stand in the way of my practice to find my true self ? I think there was a passage in the Bible...