Flower Petals Fall, but the Flower Endures

Life is short and transient. The feeling that this evokes is called mujōkan in Japanese. Rather than falling into the despair that is so prevalent in the present day, mujōkan allows one to accept transience proactively as a sign of vibrant life. In this book Takeuchi Seiichi examines this view of life from the perspectives of philosophy, literature, art, and religion. He delves into the Japanese concepts of grief and pain, life and death, reaching to the very core of the Japanese spirit. This book presents a full record of Takeuchi’s valedictory lectures in commemoration of his retirement from the University of Tokyo.

TAKEUCHI Seiichi

Born in Nagano in 1946, Takeuchi Seiichi graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1971 and entered the doctoral program of the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, but withdrew before receiving his degree. Over a long and distinguished academic career he has been a professor in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Tokyo, a professor at Kamakura Women’s University, and is now a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. He served two terms as the chairperson of the Japanese Society for Ethics. He specializes in ethics and Japanese intellectual history. His primary interest is the spiritual history of Japan and how that history is reflected in the lives of modern Japanese. His numerous books include “Onozukara” to “mizukara” (“Onozukara” and “Mizukara”; Shunjusha, 2004); Nihonjin wa naze “sayōnara” to wakareru no ka (Why Japanese Say “Sayonara” on Parting; Chikuma Shobo, 2009); “Kanashimi” no tetsugaku (The Philosophy of “Sorrow”; NHK Books, 2009); Aritenakereba (As Fleeting as a Dream; Kadokawa, 2015); “Yasashisa” to Nihonjin (Yasashisa and the Japanese People; Chikuma Shobo, 2016) and Nihonshisō no kotoba (The Vocabulary of Japanese Thought; Kadokawa, 2016).

*information as of time of publication

Japan Library series
Philosophy & Religion

Publisher:
Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture

Hardcover
¥3,000 + tax
ISBN 9784916055484
220 mm x 148 mm / 320 pp. / March 2015

Softcover
¥2,500 + tax
ISBN 9784866580692
188 mm x 128 mm / 208 pp. / January 2019

eBook
ISBN 9784866581422 (ePub)
ISBN 9784866581415 (PDF)
September 2019

Preface / 1. Mujōkan in Contemporary Japan / 2. What is the Meaning of Tōtoi? / 3. Re-Visiting "Flower Petals Fall, but the Flower Endures" / 4. What is Shiawase / 5. The Awai between Onozukara and Mizukara / Bibliography / Index

"The author also comforts the reader by convincing us of the fact that pain itself is impermanent.

Takeuchi introduces many poems and anecdotes on the topic of overcoming death (or pain), which make particularly enjoyable reading. Through his essays he explains how people have turned pain into words which continue to speak to us decades after. The concept of translating pain into language is a gift from the author that I, and hopefully others who read the book, will carry on into our lives from now on."

Ami Eldridge
Japan Forward

どの言葉や、「無常」の思想を哲学・文学・宗教から丹念に紐解く。「無常」に生きる意味を見出す日本人の精神の核心に迫る。日本思想史の第一人者による東京大学最終講義。

竹内整一
1946年長野県生まれ。1971年東京大学卒業。同大学大学院人文科学研究科博士課程中退。東京大学文学部教授を経て、現在、鎌倉女子大学教授、東京大学名誉教授。日本倫理学会会長を2期務めた。専門は倫理学・日本思想史。日本人の精神の歴史をたどりなおしながら、それが現在に生きる日本人に、どのようにつながっているのかを探究している。著書に『「かなしみ」の哲学』（NHKブックス）、『日本人はなぜ「さようなら」と別れるのか』（ちくま新書）、『「やさしさ」と日本人』（ちくま学芸文庫）、『「おのずから」と「みずから」』（春秋社）、『ありてなければ』（角川ソフィア文庫）、『日本思想の言葉』（角川選書）などがある。

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