Uchiyama Gudō, The Self-Awakening of the Ordinary Person

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Original manuscript:

内山愚童『平凡の自覚』未完稿、1909–1911年頃（推定）.

Uchiyama Gudō. Heibon no jikaku 平凡の自覚; “The Self-Awakening of the Ordinary Person.” Unfinished manuscript, probably composed during Gudō’s imprisonment, ca. 1909–1911.

What do I mean by “ordinary” and by “self-awakening”? Before answering that question, let me first say a little about what I mean by self-awakening.

Self-awakening means awakening for oneself. To awaken for oneself does not mean discovering something that nobody else knows. Nor does it mean that something is no good if you have learned it from someone else. Whether you have learned something from another person or discovered it yourself makes no difference. When something has been deeply digested within your own mind and has truly become your own—that is what I call self-awakening.

And yet, if we were to distinguish different levels of self-awakening, we would find any number of higher and lower forms. The self-awakening of a religious person cannot be said to be the same as that of a politician. The self-awakening of a philosopher may differ from that of a religious person. Indeed, even among religious people themselves, we cannot say that they have all been the same, East and West, past and present; it differs from person to person.

Thus there are countless varieties of self-awakening according to person, time, and place. But surely there must be something common to them all. Surely there are interests that we share simply by virtue of living together as human beings. Learned or unlearned, high or low, rich or poor, there must be something that all of us together need to awaken to. This is what I call the self-awakening of the ordinary person.

Conscious Action

The development of an individual and the development of a polity appear to follow the same course.

For example, when an individual is still a child, all matters affecting his interests are left to the wishes of his parents, elder brothers, or other elders. But when he grows up, rather than blindly obeying them against his own will, he acts consciously, according to his own awareness. In the same way, when a polity is still in its infancy, people submit to those with great physical strength—

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people with greater knowledge, and people of greater wealth. But once we have advanced to the point of awakening to the power of freedom, each individual comes to participate in politics—on a small scale, in the government of a village, and on a large scale, in the government of a nation. At first we were taught that we, the people, existed for the sake of the monarch, and we blindly obeyed. But we have now awakened to the fact that government is an institution that works for us, the people. Thus we have come to advocate minponshugi or democracy.

I do not know what the self-awakening of religious people or scholars may be. But for those of us who are content with the self-awakening of the ordinary person, I believe it is enough if each human being awakens to this point. Accordingly, in the chapters that follow I shall discuss the self-awakening of the ordinary person.

1. Self-Awakening of the Individual
2. Self-Awakening of the Family
3. Self-Awakening of Municipalities
4. Self-Awakening of the Nation
5. Self-Awakening of the World
6. Self-Awakening of the Factory

Self-Awakening of the Individual

If we look back over the long history of humanity, we find that at first human beings lived content with the fruits provided by nature, or with fish, birds, and animals. To shelter themselves from rain and dew, heat and cold, they had no choice but to live beneath trees or in caves, and they remained in such circumstances for a very long time. Yet we human beings have as our progenitor an inscrutable sacred spirit that cannot rest until it has advanced to the utmost limit. Our progress may be as slow as the steps of an ox, but we have transmitted this imperishable sacred spirit from generation to generation and have struggled against the vast forces of nature. As a result, we have gradually arrived at the present condition: for clothing, food, and shelter, we have agriculture, animal husbandry, and industry to satisfy our wants; and for the realm of the spirit, we have schools, churches, and books, enabling our sacred spirit to advance and develop ever further.

And yet our sacred spirit is not satisfied even with this. Day and night, it continues to struggle against the circumstances that surround us.

How far, then, must we struggle before we can stop? It is not entirely impossible to know the answer.

If we look at the traces left by our ancestors and consider the sacred spirit transmitted in the hot blood coursing through our veins—

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we hear there, resounding without cease: “Freedom! Freedom!”

Indeed, consciously or unconsciously, our ancestors have struggled for this freedom.

And because we have inherited the same sacred spirit as our ancestors, no matter how powerful the oppression of nature or how brutal the tyranny of rulers, we must continue to struggle until we have overcome it.

What, then, is the freedom gained through such struggle? To put it simply, it means acting in all things according to one’s own will, without ever being obstructed by others. It means respecting one’s own will to the utmost while respecting the will of others equally, and thus living together in peace. In short, humanity’s ultimate goal lies in independence and self-government, and in mutual aid. To put it another way, it lies in the realization of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

If we look at the evolution of politics, law, religion, and morality, we find that these too have developed from external regulation toward self-regulation. To govern oneself, to discipline oneself, and then to use one’s own surplus to make up for what others lack—this is the natural course of development, and it is the ultimate ideal of human life.

Everyone must struggle and strive toward this goal. Yet many people seem to doubt whether all human beings really do progress in this way. They argue that since humanity is itself a species of living creature, so long as we possess these physical bodies we can never eliminate the animal nature that seeks to exclude others in order to satisfy its own desires.

But as the old saying has it, “Pull the weeds from the field and leave them there as fertilizer.” In the same way, as the very spirit that strives to satisfy our limitless desires develops, it advances to the point of recognizing that nothing is better than sharing our enjoyment with the multitude.

How can we know this? Because among our ancestors there have been many such people. As the saying goes, “Sacrifice oneself to realize benevolence.” You all know that there have been many people who went so far as to give up their own lives in order to relieve the suffering of their fellow human beings.

Today, throughout the country, hundreds of thousands of young conscripts live as soldiers, prepared at any moment to give their lives for the nation.

When we consider these facts, we see that human beings are not like cattle or horses, incapable of living unless governed by some coercive authority. Rather, we are beings who ought to live and act independently, governing ourselves, directing our own lives, and exercising freedom without restraint. This is the self-awakening of the ordinary person.

No matter how far government may develop, and no matter how kindly government officials may guide us, it can never ultimately satisfy our reason. Indeed, the more complicated government becomes, the more corrupt it becomes. And is it not the same with the courts? Unless offenders themselves repent and restrain themselves, nothing will suffice. No matter how skillful judges may become, they can never know the facts better than the offenders themselves. In particular, there is no trial more dangerous than one in which judgment is made on the basis of fragmentary—

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evidence. Politics and the courts as they exist today can function only by disregarding human personality. Yet since this is merely a stage in the process of development, our self-awakening must struggle against it.

There are people who preach the absurd doctrine that women, unlike men, have no need to learn the means of earning a living directly, and that it is enough for them simply to manage the household and raise the children. This is a serious mistake. It is an especially serious error today, when the system of private property has produced such an enormous gulf between rich and poor.

Women are not appendages of men. When a man and woman establish a household as husband and wife, it may be desirable, as a division of labor, for the man principally to endeavor to obtain the means of livelihood and for the woman, as his partner, to manage the household. But human life is impermanent. No one knows when circumstances may bring separation from a husband, whether in life or through death. A woman who can live on her husband’s property at such a time will face no particular difficulty. But among the great majority of people today who must live by the labor of their own hands, women too will need an occupation. Especially when a woman is left with children and must provide for their upbringing and education, the lack of an occupation of her own can cause heartbreaking suffering.

Someone may say that in such circumstances she can simply remarry. But this is precisely where the tragedies of human life so often arise. Others may object that this does not happen to every woman. That is certainly true. I am not saying that women must learn an occupation merely in anticipation of separation or bereavement.

Men and women are equal as individuals. For that reason, each must perform enough labor to support their own children and parents. Women, of course, already labor. But rather than continuing to perform subordinate labor as appendages of men, as they have in the past, they must learn an independent occupation.

There will undoubtedly be many arguments against this. Long-established customs in particular will make it difficult to put what I am saying into practice. Nevertheless, we must advance with this determination and make the effort.

We human beings must establish ourselves firmly upon this self-awakening and reflect upon our present condition. And with the same degree of resolve with which people are prepared to sacrifice their lives for the nation, we must struggle for this freedom that never ceases to develop.

Among the countless varieties of human beings, some will be far from this self-awakening, while others will have drawn near to it. There may even be those who have gone beyond this ordinary self-awakening and stand at still greater heights. But in the end, everyone must advance at least this far. Even those for whom the sun has set while they still stand at the foot of the mountain path have no reason to despair. They can surely advance, one step and then another, toward the summit of self-awakening.

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Is this not so? If we look back over the path we have traveled, we can see that the wise and the foolish, the rich and the poor alike, each according to their circumstances, have been making their way toward the shore of freedom.

From the standpoint of such self-awakening, then, how should we human beings act as individuals? First, adult men and women who are capable of leaving their parents and elder siblings and becoming independent must learn to manage their own affairs for themselves. When what one person desires comes into conflict with what another desires, they should discuss the matter together and endeavor to yield to one another. In other words, we must cultivate the habit of doing for others what we would have them do for us.

If we proceed in this way, then no matter how many groups may be formed, we will be able to live together peacefully and harmoniously, each developing their own distinctive qualities without harming others.

The family, the nation, and the world are all aggregations of individuals. So long as each individual acts with a spirit of independence and freedom and with a sincere heart that helps the weak and loves one’s neighbor, everyone will be able to live together in peaceful and harmonious communities. We human beings must therefore develop to the utmost the spirit of independence, self-government, and mutual aid, and must struggle against those who oppose it, even at the risk of our lives.

Self-Awakening of the Family

The family is the community closest to the individual. If it were composed entirely of self-awakened individuals, it could advance smoothly, day by day, toward freedom without any particular difficulty. But a family is not made up solely of people who have awakened. There may be a grandfather or grandmother born in the feudal age; there may be a wife who comes from another household with different customs; and there may be children born to them. The family is the community formed by all these people together. The head of the household, who stands at its center, must make a tremendous effort to lead them toward the light of freedom.

First, the self-awakened head of the household must conduct himself in everyday life with the intention of educating each member of the family: parents, grandparents, younger brothers and sisters, and wife.

The head of a household of three or five people should, of course, take all three daily meals together with the family and, except when unavoidable circumstances prevent it, should refrain from eating elsewhere. This may not always be possible simply at the discretion of the head of the household, but one should endeavor to preserve the good custom of the family eating the same meal together. Specially softened food should be prepared for the elderly, and, preserving the custom of respecting one’s elders, everyone should give priority to them—

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When there are guests, moreover, meals should especially be taken together with the family. There may be inconveniences in doing this, and some may think it discourteous to the guest. But the self-awakened head of the household should cast aside such pretensions and break with old customs, sharing both joy and sorrow with the family.

The management of household finances presents difficulties for ordinary families. Suppose, for example, that entertaining a guest requires an extraordinary expenditure of fifty sen. The self-awakened head of the household should instead calmly spend those fifty sen on a treat for the entire family. By doing so, one can see how fully the happiness of the household may be brought to fulfillment.

Needless to say, the self-awakened head of the household should never consume harmful substances. By harmful substances I mean alcohol, tobacco, and the like.

Thus, clothing, food, and shelter should be shared equally, while each person takes an appropriate share of the household work. Once a week, or perhaps once a month, a household meeting should be held, at which the entire family discusses and debates matters affecting the household, with the head of the household bringing these discussions together. Whether rich or poor, such a household may truly be called a little heaven.

Next, when a child is born, it will ordinarily be raised by its mother from infancy. But the self-awakened head of the household must by no means simply leave the matter to her. As the saying goes, “The character of a three-year-old lasts until a hundred.” From the time the child is still in swaddling clothes, one must never forget to instill in it the sacred spirit to which one has oneself awakened.

To this end, while taking proper care to protect the child, one should endeavor to cultivate in it the habit of doing for itself, as far as possible, whatever it is capable of doing.

Later, in the child’s education and choice of occupation, the parent should discern and guide its particular qualities, but must never resort to compulsion.

The same is true when the time comes for the child to choose a spouse. Its freedom should be respected, and it should be guided toward struggling against the enemies of freedom.

The greatest difficulty within the family, however, lies not with one’s wife, younger brothers and sisters, or children, but with parents or grandparents who belong to a different age. People who have long maintained old customs and become firmly attached to fixed ways of thinking are not easily influenced.

The head of the household must therefore hold a family gathering at least once a week and give a talk there, gradually helping such people attain self-awakening.

Truth is ultimately victorious. There can be no doubt that the light of freedom will eventually illuminate the entire household and allow everyone within it to partake of its blessings.

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Self-Awakening of the Villagers

Villages, towns, and cities constitute the smallest units of local self-government. In particular, townspeople more than city dwellers, and villagers more than townspeople, have maintained relationships reaching back to the time of their ancestors. After the family, these are our most intimate communities.

There are even villages in which virtually everyone belongs to a single family. If we trace their ancestry, we find that many of the inhabitants either descend from the same family or are connected with it.

A village, therefore, is simply an enlarged family. One might expect it to be the most harmonious and peaceful of heavens, with no very great distinctions of rank or wealth. Yet under present conditions things do not work out that way.

If we investigate the causes, one is the vanity fostered by the great currents of society—the desire to push others aside and succeed by oneself. But another cause, and I believe an even more powerful one, is the system of private property.

If we go back into the distant past of a village, we find that land, its foremost form of property, was held entirely in common. As the population increased, however, the land itself could not increase, and so a system of private ownership naturally came into being. At first, A and B alike possessed land in equal proportions. But human life does not remain unchanged year after year and generation after generation. Over the course of time, natural disasters and calamities, differences in individual physical constitution, and other circumstances sometimes brought about the dispersal of entire households.

Meanwhile, there were also those who took advantage of other people’s misfortunes to satisfy their own desires. In this way, a village that had originally been equal developed distinctions between rich and poor, eventually producing the conditions we see today.

Whatever else may be said about human beings, clothing, food, and shelter exert an enormous influence upon our physical existence. It follows inevitably that differences between rich and poor, which are intimately connected with clothing, food, and shelter, will affect people’s physical constitution and character.

Even in trivial matters, the rich come to regard the poor as dirty and base: they find even speaking with them distasteful, as though it were somehow defiling.

The poor, for their part, are irritated by the airs put on by the rich. Behind their backs they say: “What are they? Blow on them and they’d fly away! They couldn’t produce so much as a single grain of rice. Money changes hands. They shouldn’t think they can lord it over us just because they happen to have money.”

Even under today’s system of local self-government, some inhabitants of the same village possess civic rights while others do not. Those with civic rights can participate in village government; those without them cannot. And even among those who possess civic rights, first-class and second-class electors enjoy different degrees of political power.

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Thus, even when it comes to governing their own village, its inhabitants are divided into three different classes. Beyond this, who can say how greatly the differences between rich and poor damage the individuality of children attending school? The same is true even of the festivals at the village shrine.

In short, people who, as inhabitants of the same village, ought to live together in the most intimate and peaceful relations fail to do so. The primary cause is the distinction between rich and poor, and what magnifies that distinction is the system of private property.

What, then, should be done to remedy this? To put it plainly, the existing system of private ownership should be abolished and replaced by a system of common ownership. Since this will be difficult, however, we should begin by persuading influential people to establish as many public facilities as possible within the village, so that all villagers may enjoy their benefits.

Institutions should be established to provide the knowledge needed to increase the village’s productivity. As for public health, since infectious diseases are so serious a problem, hospitals should be established by the village or through cooperative associations, so that sick villagers can be admitted without charge. Next, a public hall should be built in the center of the village for weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies. It should also serve as a place where villagers can strengthen their bonds with one another and where the elderly, young people, housewives, young women, and others can hold their meetings. All such expenses should be met from public funds, allowing people to gather regardless of their individual wealth or poverty.

Needless to say, harmful substances should be prohibited, just as in the self-awakened household. No matter how perfectly administered a village may be, if harmful things such as alcohol and tobacco, as well as gambling and the like, are simply allowed to continue, it must be said to have ruined a nine-fathom achievement for want of the final basketful.

Self-Awakening of Municipalities

Whether we speak of city dwellers, townspeople, or villagers, there should of course be no difference in the nature of their self-awakening. The only difference is that distinctions between rich and poor and high and low are greater in cities and towns. Unless those who take the lead possess the highest degree of self-awakening and make the strongest efforts, it will be difficult for cities and towns to attain self-awakening.

To accomplish this, mayors and members of municipal assemblies must cultivate a public spirit, respect the individuality of every inhabitant, and provide a full range of public facilities. In particular, they must ensure that there are adequate institutions for vocational education, the foundation upon which both men and women can become independent and self-supporting. They should strive to increase the basic public assets of the municipality, thereby enabling its inhabitants to enjoy peaceful lives and more elevated pursuits.

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Self-Awakening of the Industrial World

What do I mean by the industrial world? Before discussing this, it may be useful to say something briefly about the development of industry. In modern times, industry developed from the age of household production to the age of handicraft production, and from there advanced to the age of industrial enterprise. Industrial enterprise can be divided into two forms: domestic industry and factory industry. Does this mean, then, that all industry will become industrial enterprise? By no means.

Just as, when a measuring box has been filled with soybeans and there is no longer room for another soybean, there may still be room for millet or sesame seeds, so even when large-scale industrial enterprise flourishes, household production and handicraft production will undoubtedly continue to exist. Broadly speaking, however—and particularly with respect to the ordinary necessities of life, such as clothing, food, and shelter—production will increasingly be supplied by large factories. This may be regarded as a natural law of economic development. What I call the self-awakening of the industrial world should therefore be understood as referring primarily to these large factories.

A self-awakened society requires an orderly arrangement. What should that order be? First, health; second, convenience; third, ornament. And these must be made equally available to everyone. Since the industrial world is responsible for supplying the things society needs, industry itself should be organized according to this order of priorities.

First, the demand and supply of the entire world should be estimated, and each region should, of course, engage in those industries for which it is particularly well suited. Wherever possible, production should take place near the sources of its raw materials. This would be the natural state of affairs.

Today, however, the industrial world is organized on the basis of national economies. Nations insist that they must be self-sufficient and, to this end, adopt protectionist and tariff policies in order to engage in international competition. From our standpoint this is truly a ridiculous state of affairs. Perhaps it is unavoidable as a stage in the process of attaining self-awakening, but we must abolish this useless and harmful international competition as soon as possible. The extent to which its continued existence obstructs the construction of heaven is beyond calculation.

As a first step toward putting this into practice, enterprises engaged in the same industry—whether spinning, weaving, or something else—should form worldwide associations. They should estimate annual demand and allocate production among the various factories so that this demand can be fully met. This will of course be difficult for the self-seeking crowd under today’s system of private ownership. Nevertheless, this is the point toward which the entire industrial world must ultimately converge.

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An opponent may object that this would create a single enormous trust: because the means of production would be in its hands, consumers would be forced to pay unjustifiably high prices. Certainly, viewed from within the present system, such a concern is not entirely unreasonable. This is precisely why common ownership of the means of production must be advocated. Leaving aside artistic luxury goods, all necessities indispensable to everyone—clothing, food, shelter, and other essential goods—must ultimately be supplied by communal factories.

We must awaken to this point and act with it as our compass. Whatever stands in its way, great or small, must be cut down and swept aside.

As for how this is to be accomplished, it is conceivable that the way will be opened by self-awakened capitalists and self-awakened workers.

The self-awakened capitalist will reject as an old evil the practice of living from capital and will awaken to the truth that every human being should obtain food and clothing through labor. This is what the sages of old called heaven or the divine realm. The capitalist should devote all of his capital to productive use without seeking any return from it for himself. He himself should live by his own abilities and labor, and should consider how best to devote himself to bringing about the construction of heaven as quickly as possible.

What, then, should self-awakened workers do? Each should develop their natural abilities, master the occupation or craft that suits them, and strive to bring tyrannical capitalists to reflection.

To accomplish this, workers must first strengthen their solidarity. Capitalists should be made to contribute, and the workers themselves should also contribute, so as to eliminate as far as possible the harm caused by natural and human-made disasters.

Collective educational institutions should be established so that workers’ children can receive an education as easily as possible. A system of insurance should also be devised to protect the elderly and disabled; communal hospitals should be established to meet unexpected needs; and communal clubs should be created to refine people’s tastes and develop their knowledge. Advancing further, the factory should become the common property of all its workers. In this way democracy will be realized in the industrial world. This is the first step toward heaven.

Needless to say, although it is easy enough to speak of such things, the road to their realization contains mountains and valleys and will not allow us to pass easily. The blood of many people devoted to the cause will have to be shed. Self-awakened workers must go ahead of the others and test the crossing.

However long a person may live, merely living a long life is of no avail. Those who fail to awaken, and those who awaken but do not act in accordance with the direction of their own will, enter into extinction; but even one who dies at the age of seven enters into eternal life. This is what Confucius meant when he said, “If one hears the Way in the morning, one may die in the evening.” For such a person has had a hand, however small, in the construction of heaven.

Yet conscious action may require one to part from one’s parents, abandon wife and children, be misunderstood by friends, and taste innumerable hardships. Nevertheless, the destruction of one individual is for the happiness of the many in society. As the saying goes, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies—

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and remains alone; but if it dies, it will bear much fruit.” This is what the saying means. In order to overcome countless difficulties and act upon our self-awakening in this way, we must repeatedly cultivate ourselves in everyday life so that we may be bathed in the Holy Spirit of our self-awakening. Through this, even obstinate capitalists and the ruling classes may come to awaken to the evils they have hitherto committed. Self-awakened workers must strive toward this end.

Self-Awakening of the Agricultural World

Judging from the fact that agriculture arose before industry, it might seem that agriculture should also have attained self-awakening before industry. In fact, however, this has not been the case: the industrial world appears likely to attain self-awakening before the agricultural world.

Industrial workers originated among agricultural workers. The reason for their departure was that the land upon which agricultural production depends is limited in extent, while the growth of population knows no such limit. The resulting surplus population therefore tends to move to the cities and become industrial workers. Moreover, in the feudal age, when there was no freedom to move from one place to another as there is today, the second and third sons of many farming families were unable to establish independent households and instead spent their entire lives living as dependents within the family home.

For these reasons, those who leave the countryside tend to possess a progressive and enterprising spirit, while those who remain in their native places and carry on the occupation of their fathers and ancestors tend to be conservative. Viewed as a whole, therefore, the agricultural world has been slower to awaken.

But just as, when spring arrives, even though the lingering snow in the valleys has not yet disappeared, the young shoots of grass beneath it will not fail to emerge, so too, as the industrial world awakens, the agricultural world will awaken in turn.

The self-awakening of the agricultural world must begin, above all, with common ownership of the land. This depends upon the self-awakening of both landlords and cultivators, but landlords in particular must examine the matter deeply.

No one doubts that land originally exists by nature. There are various legal arguments concerning how rights of ownership such as those that exist today came into being. But if we look at the matter historically, the land was cleared by our distant ancestors and became the cultivated fields of today through the accumulated results of their long labor. It must therefore be regarded as a grave evil for those who are today called landlords simply to possess this land and, by virtue of that possession, appropriate half of its produce for themselves.

Those who oppose this argument say that today’s landlords acquired their land by paying a proper price and therefore cannot be accused of injustice. But the very act of buying such land is itself fundamentally unjust. If we were to regard it as just, then we would also have to regard those who buy and sell stolen goods as acting justly—

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Moreover, the money used to purchase land is itself accumulated labor, but much capital has been accumulated by stealing the rightful fruits of labor. That is, it has been acquired by using power to squeeze the blood of the weak.

If landlords wish to enter into self-awakening and partake of the happiness of eternal life, they must not resort to such distorted arguments.

To put it plainly, human beings should live by their labor. Landlords must awaken to the fact that stealing the labor of others and living from it merely by virtue of their ownership of land leads to eternal destruction. Land should therefore be held in common, so that the produce obtained through labor belongs to those who labor. Landlords themselves should obtain food and clothing through their own abilities and labor and dwell securely in a happy and peaceful world.

Agricultural workers, for their part, must reflect upon the truths set forth above and endeavor to bring landlords to an examination of their own consciences. As a first means of accomplishing this—

[The manuscript breaks off here.]