Why Do You Stick To That?: Selecting Your Life By Yourself Opens The Door Of Freedom

Hi everyone! It’s Pentleman (@pentleman_blog) here!

These are common problem when working for a company.

No, that’s happening everywhere around the world.

I hope this essay can expand your sense of life.

Let’s see the topic of the day!

What is the First Figure Model of Japan?

Akihabara is the holy ground of ANIME!
When going to this world famous anime spot, you can see character figures all around.

“What was the figure created in Japanese history?”
This was the question that I raised last weekend.

Dogu (土偶) is the answer.

After ice age had passed, these types of figures appeared 10,000 years ago in Japan.
However, then production of these odd figures suddenly disappeared 2,000 years ago, which was categorized as Jomon period.

In April of 2021, a book came out, entitled “Reading Dogu”.
I learned 20 years ago in a social class that the general designs of Dogu were believed to be deformed women. Women and pregnant women were popular designs because women have holy power to give birth.

Is it convincing? Does it make total sense?
I was never convinced even since junior high school.

Let me go straight to the point, the designs are just PLANTS , based on the book.

Roots and stems are humanized to form Dogu, which is popular in history, called as anthropomorphization.

Surely, we can recognize the diversity of Dogu motif as plant and its harvest.
The detail is passed to the book in this blog anyway.

Statue Kinjiro; Symbol of Diligence

Here is another popular figure, which is called Kinjiro Ninomiya, as a statue reading a book while carrying firewoods on his way back home.

We can find this type of statue everywhere in primary schools.
This statue symbolizes diligence and tells students that being diligent is suitable for Japanese people and one of the virtues that is highly valued in this society.

However, this culture is becoming outdated and the demand for the statue is decreasing.

On the contrary, elderly people order a miniature Kinjiro for their houses.
I guess it reminds them of their youth.

Kinjiro’s presence stimulates happiness for elders, who experienced high economic growth in Japan.

News about Kinjiro & Smart Phone

That story continues to current trend of smartphones. In 2016, a news titled,

“ Kinjiro promotes texting while walking.”

came out. That title caught my interest.

The article said that the action of walking while reading a book inspires students to walk while on the phone.

Indeed, there are a lot of accidents relating to smartphone these days.

“That’s why we made Kenjiro statue SITTING down and reading a book.”

I partially agree with a principal of the school, but only partially.

Kinjiro is not there to tell students “walking while on something”, but an attitude of diligence.

“Pokémon Go!” was the first sparking location-based application, following Dragon Quest Walk.

Now we should know that Kinjiro was not walking while reading a book, but reciting what he learned, that it.

Experience of My Boss in Early 2000‘s

This is a story of my boss working as a researcher in early 2000’s.

“Your current generation is much better than mine!”

Suddenly in a drinking party, she mentioned to me some personal anecdotes during her researcher life.

As a researcher, she did experiments everyday, 24/7.
Doing experiments was her main duty.
However, as a scientist she also summarized data and created reports on the results in a regular basis.

One day, she had to prepare reports submitting in 3 days on her desk.

While she was working on that report, her boss suddenly went up to her and kick her chair, and told her calmly,

“I can introduce suitable departments for you, if you would like to sit down.”

He was like Japanese mafia, yakuza. I realized that even in the field of research where highly talented and skilled people could get the job, there are unsociable personalities existing.

After the case, she only did experiments while she was in the laboratory.

That means she “paid” a lot, filling in the hole of time to prepare her reports on weekends, of course, for free.
Thanks to her “reading air” attitude, her boss looked happy and got nice results that let him to be promoted.

In other words, her time while in the laboratory only teated her boss well, not herself.

That was exactly the same of military style, saying “Yes, Sir!”.

No question asked.

My Experience in early 2000’s

On the other hand, at the same period, I belonged to a baseball club.

Baseball is one of the most common sports in Japan and it’s the only sports being broadcasted during TV golden time, 6~9pm regularly.

Another feature is strictness.

Managers are being feared by students, and the people who handle and select players who are able to play in a match are unfriendly.

Historically, baseball was use to be recognized as a discipline and that produced a famous anime ”Star of the Giants (巨人の星) ” in 1966.

The father, a manager, worked his son out with a training cast.

“Strict” was the value and that can make a person successful.

Let me go back to the years in 2000’s. One day, I made an error play during practice.

My manager scolded me, saying,

“You can go home! Now!”

Then I said,

“Yes, Sir.”

Of course, he expected me to say,

“I would like to practice, PLEASE!”,

but I wouldn’t say that.

I thought playing baseball feeling uncomfortable wasn’t on the first priority in my life.

Baseball was just one of the options for me juggling other sports, swimming and snowboarding, which I was high rank of competitions in.

To tell you the truth, as a primary student I thought that studying was the best way to invest with good cost performance to my future. That was not sports for me, sorry.

“Knowledge Society” is the trend word.

Intelligence divides Japanese society into two groups dipolarly. The same is happening all over the world.

A Way to Escape the Dead-End of Diligence

Diligence is probably a typical image of Japanese people.

Some recognize that working is the reason for living, not for financially, at least elders had such kind of life value.

”Karoshi (過労死)” was booked on the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002.

That means “death brought on by overwork or job-related exhaustion – a reflection of the strains imposed by Japan’s strong work ethic”… how disgraceful it is.

I would ask them,

“Why are you sticking to it? Is it OK to get the Japanese common disease, depression?”

The Japanese feature, diligence became a household word only a century ago, Meiji period.

Having choices is the easiest escape from bad things, including uncomfortable people.

If you always have options, you don’t have to work until passing away.

The most important point is to have an alternative way out.

It’s more like Magic the Gathering, discarding a card and then you get a next option.

At least, the 9 year old me believed that “to choose was the best way to get satisfaction”, discarding the card of baseball.

Staying at the same and uncomfortable place wouldn’t lead to happiness.

I haven’t had any regrets to discard the unreasonable card anyway.

*MTG: A strategic trading card game. 20 minion players all over the world.

Pentleman’s photo travel

@Kiyotsu Gorge, Tokachimachi, Niitgata in September