ABSTRACT
Kaison the Priest of Hitachi describes the fundamental existential situation that lies at the root of the post-shingeki movement. It is that in an age of “total war,” when humanity is more vulnerable than ever before, vulnerable even to the threat of extinction, people need to be able to perceive some transhistorical meaning to their existence, to be able to sense some continuity in life that will transcend death. The problem is that many of the traditional immortalizing symbols in Japa nese culture had become unavailable in the modernization process; and those like emperor-centered nationalism that had been fabricated to take their place had been discredited by the experience of defeat. As I indicated in my introduction to this anthology, this quest for immortal izing symbols in a world where traditional symbols had been discredit-
ed was a major preoccupation in Japanese culture in the 1960s. Kaison stands at the beginning of the post-shingeki movement be
cause with it Akimoto Matsuyo broke the taboo on evoking traditional symbols of immortality and showed how the Japanese continue to need and remain susceptible to archetypal figures like the venerable Kaison, who offer them an avenue of escape from the pressures of historical being. Her motives were not simple. She recognized that while they offer transhistorical meaning and the promise of immortality, assimila tion to archetypes like Kaison means an abandonment of historical creativity and responsibility and surrender to the siren’s call of end lessly repetitive, unchanging time. The only choice, she suggests, is to cease being Japanese, to flee Japan; but even this alternative is fraught' with danger, for how can a Japanese imagine flight from his cultural identity except as a Japanese'! What models does he have except those provided by his culture? And does this not mean that he will inevitably reconstruct his tradition wherever he goes? These questions fascinat ed other post-shingeki dramatists,2 and to an important extent a con cern with them defines the post-shingeki movement.
