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Japan: The Land of The
Sons of The Sun
K. Ashraf
Dr. Khawaja Ashraf and Dr. Manzur Ejaz of
Pakistan Weekly visited Japan from December 8 to December 18th. In Japan
we spent time in Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kyoto.
 In
Tokyo Dr. Arshad Ali welcomed us with a warm heart and big smile. He
organized and managed our activities in Tokyo. Dr. Arshad Ali is a
Geochemist by profession. He has PhD in Geochemistry from a distinguished
Japanese university. Currently he is in Japan on a scholarship to work on
several governmental geochemistry projects.
In Tokyo, we had the honor of meeting
three distinguished Japanese scholars. Dr. Shinji Tajima is an
internationally acclaimed expert in children’s literature. He is a
representative of International Center for
Literacy and Culture (ICLC). ICLC is an organization of Dr. Shinji Tajima
who has served the Prime Minister Literacy Commission of Pakistan for
three years as an advisor by JICA. He has produced several books
based on folk legends of different countries for children. His world-over
popular books are: Gaudi's Ocean, The Legend of
Planet Surprise, Little Mary and The Blue-Eyed Doll. He traveled to
Pakistan many times and interacted with Pakistani children through various
local organizations. He taught Pakistani children how to manufacture
paper. He presented many pictures of Pakistani children which they drew on
the paper which they manufactured with the help of Dr. Shinji Tajima. Dr.
Tajima loves Pakistan and intends to return to Pakistan with the aim of
developing educational projects for rural Pakistani children.
Mr. Sato is another Japanese scholar who
welcomed us in Tokyo. He spent quite a bit time with us and enlightened us
about the various aspects of Japanese life style, culture, history and
language. He took us to a dinner in a local Dhaba style Japanese
restaurant where he entertained us with variety of Japanese food and Sake
wine which is considered a popular Japanese wine. It is made out of rice
and has spectacular taste.
Mr. Sato is an Urdu scholar who studied at
Karachi University and lived in Karachi for quite a few years. He taught
Urdu to Japanese students at Tokyo University. Now, he is retired from the
Tokyo University, but still teaches Urdu at various government institutes.
He speaks Urdu fluently with predominant Karachi accent. During his
academic years, he also lived in Lahore. But he liked Karachi because of
availability of abundance of sea food. Sea food is major component of
Japanese daily diet. Japanese love to eat raw fish and octopus. However,
they use different sauces to flavor up the fish before it melts away in
their mouths.
 Dr.
Asada teaches Urdu at Tokyo University for foreign studies, Tokyo. He is
the head of Urdu department. While walking in Shinjuku streets, we
discovered a Pakistani restaurant called Jinnah. Late at night we had our
dinner at Jinnah restaurant with Dr. Arshad Ali, Dr. Atiq and Dr. Asada.
The discourse was wonderful and the food was great. Dr. Asada spoke Urdu
real well. He enlightened us about the state of Urdu at Tokyo University
for foreign studies. The Urdu department at Tokyo University for foreign
studies had a long history. It was established roughly fifty years before
the creation of Pakistan. Later, when Pakistan came into existence in
1947, University’s Urdu department was also divided in Urdu and Hindi
departments to signify the division in the subcontinent.
After spending three days in Tokyo, we
took world renowned bullet train [it is known in Japan as Shinkansen] to
Osaka. With a population of 2.5 million, Osaka is Japan's third largest
and second most important city. It has been the economic powerhouse of the
Kansai region for many centuries.
Osaka was formerly known as Naniwa. Before
the Nara period each new Japanese emperor moved his capital. Naniwa was
once Japan's capital city, the first one ever known.
In the 16th century, Emperor Toyotomi
Hideyoshi chose Osaka as the location for his castle, and the city may
have become Japan's capital if Emperor to kugawa Ieyasu had not terminated
the Toyotomi lineage after Hideyoshi's death and moved his government to
distant Edo (Tokyo’s old name)
Osaka University also has a well
established Urdu department. Well known Urdu scholar, writer, critic and
linguist, Dr. Tabassum Kashmiri heads Osaka University’s Urdu department.
He has been teaching Urdu in Osaka University for the last 23 years.
Within next few weeks he is about to retire from the University and ready
to return to Pakistan.
Dr. Tabassum Kashmiri received us at
Shin-Osaka railway station. He spent that evening with us at hotel Osaka
garden. Next day we went to Dr. Tabassum’s house, where Dr. Tabassum and
his wife Mrs. Gul served us delightful dinner along with Sake wine. Before
serving sake, he warmed it in traditional Japanese style and then served
it in small cups in Japanese fashion. He told us Japanese add letter O
before anything to revere it. That is why some time they add O to Sake and
call it O-sake to revere the wine.
 Next
Morning, we again hopped on bullet train and went to Hiroshima. Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture and the largest city of the Chugoku
region, the westernmost region on Japan's main island of Honshu. It is
home to about one million people. In Hiroshima, we visited the site where
United States’ bombers dropped first atom bomb in the human history
against civilians on August 6, 1945. The bomb exploded up in air about 330
Meters above the prefecture metal lab. The structure of the lab stayed
very much intact, however, everything else in two miles radius turned into
ashes. About two hundred thousand people evaporated in thin air after the
explosion. A beautiful river flows adjacent to the prefecture metal lab.
About 50 thousand people jumped in the river to escape the effects of atom
bomb, but the river water did not help them. They also immediately died
because of radiation and burning.
Japanese students have built a tower near
the prefecture metal lab in memory of atom bomb. Audio cassettes in
Japanese and English remind the visitors about the horrible event of
explosion of atom bomb.
 From
Hiroshima, we went to Kyoto which is used to be the capital of Japan
before Tokyo. Japanese emperors lived in Kyoto from 794 to 1868. It is now
Japan’s seventh largest city with a population of 1.4 million people.
Kyoto is known for its temples, shrines and imperial palaces. The golden
temple (Kinkakuji) which was built in 16th century is the most
beautiful temple. It is located on a very vast estate in between
triangular mountain range. The whole estate of Golden Temple is extra
ordinarily cold because of heavy moisture due to the presence of lot of
centuries old trees. Golden Temple looks like an old Chinese structure
with a shiny gold exterior.
Old imperial palace in Kyoto comprises
many simple hall style structures which used to serve different purposes.
The main hall contains three imperials large size chairs which are carried
to Tokyo on special occasions. Those chairs are also considered sacred
because they are used by emperor who is revered as god by Japanese.
Japanese royalty is right now going through a crisis like situation,
because the next heir in line is a female who has to marry a commoner
because no bridegroom is available for her in the royal family. By law, if
a royal female marries a commoner, she becomes commoner. Japanese
legislators are considering changing the law to accept the commoner as a
royal if the princess marries one.
Japanese have very interesting history.
Japanese generals, who were called Shoguns, ruled Japan almost for two
hundred fifty years. Two hundred fifty years of Shoguns’ rule destroyed
Japan socially, economically and politically. The Japanese lamented over
the destitution of their country. They mounted tremendous pressure on
Shoguns and forced them to resign. The Shoguns (generals) resigned and
handed over powers back to the emperor.
In the middle of 19th century,
Emperor Meiji took revolutionary steps to modernize Japan. He gave a
constitution to Japan and reformed her education, economic and political
system. He sent Japanese to Western countries to learn the modern
technology and work for the technological advancement of Japan. His
economic reforms helped Japan to distribute its resources and economic
opportunities equally among the masses of Japan. He opened up Japan for
the outside world. He even allowed foreign teachers to come to Japan and
teach in Japanese schools and colleges.
Politically he turned himself into a
constitutional monarchy with almost non significant role for the emperor.
To administer the country, he introduced democratic system in Japan.
Japanese elect their representatives to the parliament which is
responsible to run the state affairs through a prime minister. Japan
turned into a global power in result of Emperor Meiji’s reforms. Emperor
Meiji died in early 20th century in 1910. Japanese still revere
Emperor Meiji like a god. In Tokyo, there is a shrine which is known as
Meiji Shrine. Meiji Shrine is a visitor’s spot where a large number of
foreign and Japanese tourists pay homage to Emperor Meiji.
Japanese visit Meiji Shrine to pray for
fulfillment of their prayers. They come to Meiji Shrine and write their
prayers on small wooden tablets which they hang on small board out of
Meiji Shrine. Once that wall is full of tablets, the old tablets are
removed, and people start hanging new tablets on the wall. One can stand
next to the wall and read people’s prayers inscribed on those tablets.
Japanese also use Meiji Shrine for tying
marital knots. Japanese brides and bridegrooms come to Meiji Shrine in
traditional Japanese dresses and go through the marriage rituals right at
the shrine.
At various shrines and temples, one can
discover the spiritual side of Japanese society. Japanese mostly believe
in Buddhism but some still believe in their older religion Shinto. “Shinto
("the way of the gods") is the indigenous faith of the Japanese people and
as old as Japan herself. Shinto does not have a founder nor does it have
sacred scriptures like the sutras or the bible. Propaganda and preaching
are not common either, because Shinto is deeply rooted in the Japanese
people and traditions.
Shinto gods are called Kami Sama. They are
sacred spirits which take the form of things and concepts important to
life, such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans
become Kami Sama after they die and are revered by their families as
ancestral Kami Sama. The kami Sama of extraordinary people are even
enshrined at some shrines. The Sun Goddess Amaterasu is considered
Shinto's most important Kami Sama.
In contrast to many monotheist religions,
there are no absolutes in Shinto. There is no absolute right and wrong,
and nobody is perfect. Shinto is an optimistic faith, as humans are
thought to be fundamentally good, and evil is believed to be caused by
evil spirits. Consequently, the purpose of most Shinto rituals is to keep
away evil spirits by purification, prayers and offerings to the kami Sama.
According to Japanese, before Buddhism’s
arrival in Japan, they believed in 68 thousand different gods, so they did
not mind embracing another one in Japan. Thus they adopted Buddha as a god
as well.
It is amazing how Japanese have preserved
their spiritual side regardless of tremendous industrial development.
Before entering in any shrine one has to wash his hands and mouth with
water flowing from fountains in front of all shrines. By washing hands and
mouth you prepare yourself to enter in the holy shrine where spirit of god
resides. Mostly shrines do not have images or statues in them, but some of
them do. Particularly Buddha temples do have Buddha statutes. Once you are
in the temple or shrine you have to clap both hands to catch god’s
attention. After clapping you join palms of both hands and silently pray
for whatever you like.
Japanese society not only has a spiritual
side, it also has superstitious side. For example, the Sony’s head (well
known International Corporation) donated the outside big gate for Asakusa
temple. The people who visit Asakusa temple in Tokyo, they light
Agarbaties in a big pot outside the temple and then rub the smoke coming
out of that pot on their hands, face and body. Similarly, about three
million Japanese pass through Meiji Shrines main gate between January 1st
and January 3rd every year. Japanese think passing through the
Meiji Shrine’s main gate on these specific dates (O-Shogatsu) would
arrange their salvation.
After spending three days in Osaka,
Hiroshima and Kyoto, we returned to Tokyo where Dr. Arshad and Dr. Atiq
arranged a meeting of Punjabi Baithak a night before we left for USA on
December 18th.
Punjabi Baithak, as the name identifies,
is an organization of lovers of Punjabi language and literature. This
organization has about 13 members. Most of them are PhDs in different
sciences. They frequently meet at different places in Tokyo and discuss
Punjabi poetry and literature. They are particularly interested in Punjabi
Sufi poetry. Bulleh Shah and Waris Shah are their favorites.
 Dr.
Arshad and Dr. Atiq arranged this meeting in our honor at the beautiful
residence of Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh who has PhD in Philosophy of Buddhism. He
has extensive knowledge of Punjabi language and literature. He made a
comprehensive and comparative presentation about Granth Sahib, Bulleh Shah
and Waris Shah. Dr. Manzur Ejaz elated people by singing Bulleh Shah’s
blissful poetry in traditional Punjabi tunes.
This beautiful evening ended with a
delicious dinner served by Dr. Gurbakhsh Singh. Although his family was
away in India he had hired a local Sindhi Chef to do the cooking. The Chef
indeed did a good job by preparing delicious and spectacular dinner for
the guests of the Punjabi Baithak.
The Punjabi Baithak is planning to arrange
an International Punjabi conference in Tokyo in 2005. We have already
committed to Dr. Arshad and Dr. Atiq to return to Japan and attend the
International Punjabi conference.
Japan is indeed a beautiful country.
Japanese are beautiful people. If you ever visit Japan you will love the
country and the people.
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