ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the general notions of selfhood in Japan through a brief examination of assumptions embedded in language. The most obvious, general, and logically compelling entrée into Japanese conceptions of selfhood is through language. Japanese expresses a series of successive layers of intimacy and distance, formality and informality. The Rinri movement arose during the dislocation of post-war occupied Japan, in response to what the founder, Maruyama Toshio, found to be the deterioration of the moral fiber of the Japanese people. Cleaning is a standard ingredient of spiritual education in Japan. Cleaning as spiritual discipline was also the lesson of “refresh time,” a special event held on the second day. Conforming to social roles, submitting to strict discipline, arising early in the morning, sitting on rocks, running marathons are fully acknowledged to be demanding tasks. Yet kuro, hardship, has a paradoxically salutary effect.
