The ie system: guarantor of cultural knowledge transfer?

19.9.2020

The ie system: guarantor of cultural knowledge transfer?

First year essay in learning module „Foundations of Japanology“ (SuSe) Lecturer: Dr. Chantal Weber

Thomas N. Schneider Mat. Nr. 7366328 Email: tschne29@smail.uni-koeln.de

UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE, EAST ASIAN SEMINAR, DEPT. JAPANOLOGY

“I wonder how, I wonder why; Yesterday you told me 'bout the blue blue sky; 1 […] And all that I can see; Is just a yellow lemon tree.”

* This essay considers the question: Is the ie system a guarantor of cultural knowledge transfer?

By knowledge we mean facts, theories and rules that are assumed valid and considered true by persons or groups. The word guarantor should not be confused with the word guaranty: In this context, the word signifies an institution or legal practice that secures a social goal for and thru a group. A guaranty or warranty requires a legal person and is usually of limited duration.

What do we mean by cultural knowledge? The combination of the two words suggests that knowledge and culture are not one and the same, that the speaker distinguishes different kinds of knowledge. Titzmann refers to knowledge as cultural when it is not the knowledge of individuals but of groups: „We shall term culture that spatial-temporal system whose thought and speech practices in a certain space and at a certain time exhibit a relative consistency in their fundamental premisses. Hence, what is 2 referred to in literature studies as a period would be a culture in this sense.“

We wish to verify whether for a group of humans, a civilization settled in the territory of the Japanese Isles, the ie has proven itself capable as a system to survive across periods or eras.

Social scientists struggle to define culture. For a Japanologist this becomes evident, for example, in the debate on the correct translation and meaning of the word bunka 文化 (culture). Waldenfels interprets the corresponding kanji 漢字 („Symbols of the Han-people“, Chinese characters) in this context as intellectuality (bun 文) and dynamic process (ka 化). By intellectuality he means creative capacity, the capability of humans to express their thoughts: „All that is governed by rules and laws und leads to beauty in art and science. […] An educated human 3 is a bunjin 文人. bungaku 文学 is the study of literature.“

The discipline of social studies proved, starting from the study of contemporary British society, that defining the culture of a people or a nation is not straightforward: society splits along lines of race, class, sex, gender, etc., groups in a society can be variously defined; Deutungshoheit (interpretative sovereignty) is hegemonically disputed and in continuous flux.

Hoggart, Williams and Hall expanded on the classic study of the high culture of the social elite to advocate understanding the diverse ways of life and traditions of the whole of society.

Nonetheless, Japan and its culture are often accorded an exception: its society is ascribed strong homogeneity. This is variously attributed, for example, to its special insular location, intermittent periods of government-enforced isolation sakoku 鎖国 (closure of the country, 1640 - 1853) or the successful implementation of the teachings of Far-Eastern philosophers, in particular Confucius 孔夫子 (Teacher Kǒng, 551 – 479 B.C.).

1

Extract from the chorus of a hit by the pop group „Fool’s Garden“: lemon tree. 1995.

TITZMANN, Michael: „Kulturelles Wissen – Diskurs – Denksystem: Zu einigen Grundbegriffen der Literaturgeschichtsschreibung“. In: Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur. Franz Steiner Verlag, vol. 99, H. 1 (1989), p. 47. (own transl.)

3 WALDENFELS, Hans: „Kultur als Grundbegriff“. In: Wege zur Kultur. Gemeinsamkeiten – Differenzen – Interdisziplinäre Dimensionen, ed. YOUSEFI, Hamid Reza, et. al, Nordhausen 2008, p. 81. (own transl.)

2

1

The question at hand expresses the will of a group – here of the Japanese people or nation – to preserve valued intellectual capital and customs that differentiate their culture and society, next to its material artefacts. Institutionalisation is the means chosen to achieve the goal of resisting the passage of time. The dissemination of cultural knowledge beyond one’s own society is of secondary importance.

Certainly, the ie system is not the only method available for the transfer of cultural knowledge.

However, it is considered a key Japanese cultural practice. On the other hand, the concept of the stem family, which shares similarities to the ie, is not completely unknown in Europe, as Ochiai emphasizes. 4 An understanding of the Japanese practice and its challenges in the present should be of interest when reflecting on one’s own cultural traditions.

In relation to the question of robustness of the ie system, let us consider among other things: -

What are the origins of the ie system and how was the concept understood in the Middle Ages by the ruling class?

How was the ie system defined as a state institution during the time of Empire (1868 – 1945)?

What was the role of the ie system after the nation’s defeat in the 2nd World War and how has it been redefined for the present?

Using the model of communication developed by Shannon und Weaver we will, in a second part of the essay, show the limitations of the usual Western method of relying heavily on written sources to access the cultural knowledge of past civilizations and eras, as well as – in the inverse – to pass on cultural knowledge to future generations. What opportunities do new information technologies offer and can these replace the ie system as a means of study and practice of Japanese customs, artforms and cultural traditions? * The Japanese word ie and the symbol 家 stands for house, i.e. a building used as an abode. In addition, ie has the meaning of family, household, clan, or tribe. According to Hall und Beardsley, in genealogical usage the word refers to the male hereditary line: „The ie is a patrilieneage, a network of households related through their respective heads, comprising main houses, branch houses, and the branches of branch houses traced down through the generations.”5 The concept can be traced back to the family system of the court and the knighthood. The kojiki 古事記 (records of ancient matters) from the start of the 8th century A.D. established the divine origins of the emperor and the identity of his people. This served to justify territorial sovereignty and drew a distinction to the cultural influence and power of the Chinese court. Over subsequent centuries, aristocratic families - the ie - meticulously maintained genealogical records to legitimate their claims and status.

4

OCHIAI, Emiko: “Debates over the Ie and the Stem Family: Orientalism East and West”. In: Japan Review, International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, No. 12 (2000), p. 105.

5 HALL, John Witney, BEARDSLEY, Richard K.: Twelve Doors to Japan. New York et al.: McGraw-Hill Book Co 1965, p. 78.

2

In 1889, the system was codified and made a mandatory legal practice for all Japanese citizens. However, the corresponding laws were voided by the American occupation forces after the defeat of the Empire. The original legal adjuncts created concurrently, the koseki 戸 籍 (family registers) are maintained to this day in modified format. These replaced precursors such as terauke 寺受け (birth registers of Buddhist temples), goningumi chô 五人組帳 (five households registers) as well as the shûmon ninbetsu aratame chô 宗門人別改帳 (religious inquisition registers) for the census of the bakufu 幕府 (Shogunate).

Legal definitions from the time of Empire are less relevant to our investigation than the institutional and cultural practice that has entered the Japanese consciousness. Nakane identified a repeated pattern in Japanese society: the tatte-shakai 立 っ て 社 会 (vertical society). According to the constitution (1946) sovereignty is vested in the People. The tennô 天星 (heavenly ruler) as symbol of the state is not elected. Succession passes from father to son in accordance with the Imperial Household Law of 1889. The 2019 abdication of Akihito 昭仁 (1933 - ) in favour of his son Naruhito 徳仁 (1960 - ) was arranged under a one-off bill.

The law from the Meiji period (1868 - 1912) was left unchanged.6 Despite Hirohito 裕仁 (1901 - 1989) publicly denunciating his divinity on New Year’s Day 1946, the tennô still holds a central role in shintô 神道 („way of the Gods“) belief. Ancestor worship gives the ie a religious dimension: family members that have died, but also the unborn successors are part of a community of souls. It is the duty of the living members to honour these souls, to protect the household from misfortune. The house altar as well as the ancestral grave must be maintained, seasonal rites such as o-bon お盆 need to be honoured.

To better understand the workings of the ie system in feudal times, we shall describe its hierarchical structure and patriarchal character: the ie household is led by the eldest father, the head of the household. Family members must subjugate themselves and are not free to choose, for example, a profession or partner. The head of the household enjoys absolute decisionmaking authority, manages material assets and wealth, assigns position and allocates tasks to family members, decides succession and inheritance. He holds responsibility and is held accountable for everything that results from interactions with other ie. Usually, the first-born son is raised from birth to take over the role of head of the household after the demise of his father. In the case of no natural-born son or premature death it was common to adopt a son from another family. At the same time, it was usual for daughters to leave the family and the household through marriage and for younger sons to establish their own branch family in a house allocated by the head of the household. The primary role of women was to give birth to and raise siblings. They were expected to stand by their man in all matters. The other social castes (famers, craftsmen and traders) could not live up to this ideal form of Samurai ie.

Following this discourse on the traditional ie understanding we want to focus on its historical significance in mediating Japanese culture. The ruling class determined what was allowed to pass as high culture, funded and, therefore, preserved. So it is only natural that the aristocracy used the ie system of the period as the means for passing down the generations feudal ways of 6

HARA, Takeshi: “Opinion: How to Abdicate a Throne? The Akihito Way”. In: The New York Times, 1.5.2019, accessible under https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/opinion/japan-emperor-akihito-abdication-naruhitothrone.html (last accessed on 11.9.2020)

3

life and past-times, such as kôdô 香道 (way of fragrance), sadô 茶道 (way of tea), the combat sports of the bushi 武士 (Samurai) such as kendô 剣道 (way of the sword) and kyûdô 弓道 (way of the bow), shodô 書道 (way of writing), etc.

One may note that many of these arts are characterized by interaction and movement.

Transient in time and hard to conserve, they cannot be experienced by just viewing objects.

Up until the present day, certain practices, forms of expression and styles in these disciplines are closely associated with a particular ie. By way of example, one may consider the different schools of sadô: A particular style or school can be traced back to a master and follows the ie structure. To be associated by name with an ie is a privilege that establishes a personal connection to the school and the art.

Other Japanese art forms grew in the Edo period (1602 - 1868) from the popular-populistic entertainments of the bourgeoisie and town folk, for example, sumô 相撲 (wrestling, also associated with shintô), kabuki 歌舞伎 (popular theatre) and ukiyo-e 浮世絵 („pictures of the floating world“, or simply: hanga 版画 (woodcuts)). Sportsmen, actors and artists are subject to commercial pressure and short-lived trends. Contrary to high culture, it was usual to change name frequently. However, these individuals from often humble origins mostly had no financial reserves to speak of and no direct market access. For this reason, they arranged themselves with a well-known stable, producer or publisher, an ie. In addition, the ie structure can be found in the management and the networks of Japanese companies that grew from craft businesses and trading houses.

Two problematic ie aspects catch the eye of the modern and emancipated observer: its authoritarian character in general and the patronage of women. The latter essentially excludes half of the creative and economic forces of society from active cultural creation, whereas the former substantially limits the creativity of young people over a long period of apprenticeship, possibly to the extent that an individual’s natural curiosity and potential for spontaneous creation diminish. Or do these considerations miss the true intention: to conserve order and authority? Central tenets in the Confucian tradition are not personal freedom and self-directed realization but adjusting the individual to secure the success of the social collective.

The adaption of the ie system to a modern society therefore needs to considered: the Civil Code of 1947 grants equal rights to husband and wife, marriage and separation require only the consent of the partners, inheritance is shared amongst the descendants. In the post war period, Japan experienced a tremendous economic revival stifled only by the implosion of the bubble economy towards the end of the 1980’s. Political and economic developments went hand in hand with social change. The trend towards urbanization remains unbroken (2019: 92%), characteristic for the Heisei period (1989 - 2019) are the ageing society, decline in marriages and births as well as the (gradual) emancipation of women in the workplace.

Consequently, the most common family format today is the nuclear family, with and especially without children. Three-generation households living under one roof are found less and less, even outside of the urban centres. In 2013, 25% of married couples lived in the household of one of the parents (1920’s: 56%), the portion co-residing in the wife’s parents’ household has increased (marriage cohort 1920’s: 1:5; 1960’s: 1:3). Family members living separately enjoy more autonomy, leading to greater individualism.

4

Nakane advocated in 1972 to hold on to the socially beneficial aspects of the ie: „It is generally believed that as a consequence of modernization, particularly the enforcement of the post-war Constitution, the ie institution no longer exists. This viewpoint looks at the ie from an ideological angle that links it, in particular with feudal moral concepts, and does not give sufficient 7 consideration to its fundamental structure as a social group.”

In the form of communities of purpose, individuals could come together in a certain locality to effectively manage assets in the interest of society. Examples are: the tenant community of a shared house, rural cooperatives, and communal administration. The same realization should be transferable to the traditional schools for the transfer of cultural knowledge. These would emerge strengthened since there would be no disconnect to the legal practice – and way of life – of its contemporary members. While it would surely be productive to analyse actual examples of such realizations, this goes beyond the scope of the current essay.

Instead, we will turn to a different challenge: the survival of the ie, like every system, is tied to the survival of the fundamental social order. After all, with regards to Japan one refers not to the Meiji revolution but to meiji ishin 明治維新 (Meiji modernisation or restauration). By way of extreme alternative example, we may think of the forceful elimination of a civilization, such as it occurred in Middle and South America at the beginning of the 16th century.

Cultural knowledge transfer based solely (!) on the ie would hardly survive the slaughter of the social elite, enslavement of the populace, and widespread death from imported pandemics.

At this point, we should relativise that the conquistadores in their religious fervour simultaneously destroyed countless written records and art objects of the defeated civilization, ensuring that even these carriers of knowledge were lost for posterity.

Are there alternative, better methods to secure the transfer of cultural knowledge? The model developed by Shannon and Weaver for the telecommunications industry may be generalized to the transfer of knowledge. In contrast to an ie, sender and receiver do not reside in the same location. Nonetheless, the objective is the complete and error-free transfer of information and knowledge. Among other things, this requires robust encoding and decoding: sender and receiver need to possess the keys to or share a lexicon of the transmission’s cipher.

The model explicitly accounts for the possibility of interference in order to compare the quality of different systems of transmission. Quality depends on many factors, but for reliable communication it is particularly important to minimize the risk and impact of uncontrollable circumstances and of chance. In passing we may note that in the case of human interactions, chance and misunderstanding can be particularly potent sources of inspiration and innovation even when the price to pay is a large number of suboptimal results.

Could the model of temporally synchronous communications just described (i.e. where sender and receiver are present at the same time, if not in the same place), be modified for a temporally asynchronous transfer? This would require intermediary storage of information, of knowledge. Verification not just of the receipt of the message but of the recipient’s correct understanding by reversal of the information flow would be difficult or even impossible, if the sender is not in a position to receive at that particular time (e.g. because he or she is deceased).

7

NAKANE, Chie: Human Relations in Japan. Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1972, pp. 10-12.

5

The dilemma is well known to the field of historical research. Here one refers principally to written sources since these are considered authentic, direct and reliable – in contrast to knowledge passed down the generations in handshake fashion, by word of mouth and ritualistic practice. However, until recent times, the written medium was only accessible to a small, privileged group of society. Cultural knowledge gleaned solely from written sources is therefore prone to a lack of diversity and bandwidth. Hence, a conscientious researcher also looks for physical evidence, such as from excavations and visualisations of ruins, graves and artifacts. As a scientist, (s)he has an interest to develop an objective and comprehensive understanding of his subject matter. (S)he marks uncertainties and gaps in knowledge.

A direct conversation between the historian (recipient) and the source (sender) is not possible, as in the asynchronous model of communication. However, the recipient is aware that information – which in most cases was not intended for him/her – can be misunderstood outside of its original cultural context and coding: The author (sender) can hardly predict every possible setting of every possible recipient. To interpret symbols, words and images across cultures it is necessary to fall back on a common, timeless understanding of life and on one’s sense.

Moreover, the intention of the sender is often not the same as that of the recipient. Said claims Western anthropologists are institutionally prevented (due to being forced to reference “authoritative” predecessors of their own culture to carry the argument) from developing a true understanding of foreign cultures and instead end up justifying the imperial superiority of their own culture. The ie system can respond to this: human representatives of a culture stand in their tradition but also in the time of the anthropologist. They are available for live discourse, do not need second hand interpretation, can take issue with misrepresentations.

One might add that cultural forms such as the Japanese tea ceremony live in the moment and need to be experienced, that they are inseparable from human interaction and rely heavily on the senses, in this case, the hard to preserve sense of taste. On the other hand, traditional cultural forms are characterized by rigid formalisms: their effect should be perfectly repeatable time and time again. Only in this way can the degeneration of aurally or ritually transmitted knowledge be contained. In any case, the moment in which cultural knowledge is presented to an audience or customer is usually separate from the time in which the knowledge was acquired through rote learning, meticulous practice and imitation.

Has the ie system become redundant in view of modern technical innovations? Digitalization offers new possibilities for the capture, intermittent storage and presentation of knowledge.

However, this cannot guarantee the correct assimilation of cultural knowledge, nor perfection through (time) intensive involvement. In addition to knowledge access, cultural transfer requires facilitation, animation and moderation, in short, a school.

Cultural offerings can these days be disseminated virtually across the world using multiple channels; anyone can consume and comment at the touch of a button. This cultural pluralism is global, populistic and commercial. Cultural understanding, however, is subjective: one culture’s profound ritual may appear primitive, even ridiculous, to an observer from another culture. We require background knowledge, cultural grounding, acclimatization: schooling.

6

Institutional recognition of knowledge as cultural accords to the master prestige and honour, material reward is a lesser motivator. Since the 1950’s, Japan awards the title of ningen kokuhô 人間国宝 (human national jewel) to worthy individuals: Deutungshoheit, what is allowed to pass in a society as culturally wholesome, as well as who is allowed to communicate such cultural knowledge, remains of hegemonic significance. * To return to the questions we originally set out to answer: Yes, the ie system has shown itself robust and adaptable at ensuring the transfer of cultural knowledge. The ie structure has proven itself and there is sufficient evidence that as a Japanese system it is institutionally anchored and serving its purpose as guarantor and will continue to do so in future. Western historical and cultural research relies strongly on the written word and the study of physical objects, but many traditional forms of culture and art have transient properties that are hard to pin down and fully comprehend this way. The general challenges of asynchronous knowledge transfer were illustrated using the model of communication developed by Shannon und Weaver: New technologies offer increased possibilities for self-motivated cultural knowledge access but cannot replace the context, structure, humanity and the moment of reciprocal interaction using all the senses between teacher and pupil, artist and audience.

*** Literature References 1. BHAPPU, Anita D.: “The Japanese Family: An Institutional Logic for Japanese Corporate Networks and Japanese Management”. In: The Academy of Management Review. vol. 25, nr. 2 (2000), pp. 409 – 415.

2. DAVID, Roger, IKENO, Osamu: The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture. Boston et al.: Tuttle Publishing 2002, pp. 120 – 122.

3. KAKUZO, Okakura: The Book of Tea. New York: Duffield and Company 1906.

4. KATO, Akihito: The Japanese Family System: Change, Continuity and Regionality over the 20th Century. Max-Planck-Institute for Demographic Research, Working Paper, Mar 2013.

5. KELLER, Douglas: “Cultural Studies and Social Theory: A Critical Intervention”. 2014, accessible under: https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/papers/CSST99.htm (last accessed on 11.9.2020).

6. LO, Ming-Chen M. u. BETTINGER, Christopher P.: “The Historical Emergence of a ‘Familial Society’ in Japan”. In: Theory and Society, vol. 30, nr. 2 (Apr 2001), pp. 237 – 279.

7. NAKANE, Chie: Japanese society. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press 1970.

8. SAID, Edward: Orientalismus. Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer 2019, pp. 9 – 39.

9. SHANNON Claude E. und WEAVER Warren: “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”.

In: Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 27 (Oct. 1948), pp. 379-423, 623-656.

10. STEINER, Kurt: “Revision of the Civil Code of Japan: Provisions Affecting the Family”. In: The Far Eastern Quarterly. vol 9, nr. 2 (1950), pp. 169 – 184.

7