In How Do You Live, Copper our hero, and his uncle are our guides in science, in ethics, in thinking. And on the way they take us, through a story set in Japan in 1937, to the heart of the questions we need to ask ourselves about the way we live our lives. We will experience betrayal and learn about how to make tofu. We will examine fear, and how we cannot always live up to who we think we are, and we learn about shame, and how to deal with it. We will learn about gravity and about cities, and most of all, we will learn to think about things-to, as the writer Theodore Sturgeon put it, ask the next question.
Foreword by Neil Gaiman from How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino
I recently discovered this book How Do You Live? first published in 1937. It was written in Japan by Genzaburo Yoshino. The Japanese title is Kime tachi wa do ikiru ka? In English, it is translated as How Do You Live? After I read it, I couldn’t believe I had never heard of this book before. It was one of those surprises when you find something amazing. I found this book quite by accident. I was searching for another book by my favorite author Neil Gaiman and in the google search, this book came up because he had written a foreword to the first English translation of this book published in 2021.
In the foreward, Neil Gaiman writes, “This is such a strange book, and such a wise book.” With just that sentence, I bought the book. For Neil Gaiman to say a book is both wise and strange, really made me want to read it. Neil Gaiman writes stories and books that are hard to categorize, and I think they could be described as being both strange and wise. He is the author of adult fantasy books and graphic novels, and he has also written several books for children or at least on the surface for children, such as “Coraline” and “The Graveyard Book”. However, his books transcend the basic storyline into a much deeper conversation of how we live as human beings, even though his characters are not always humans.
This book by Genzaburo Yoshino is a story about a young boy in the Japan of 1937. This was the time that Japan was beginning its imperialistic rampage Asia. It was a time of intellectual suppression and a cancel culture, not that dissimilar from the situation we now find our United States in. This story is a guide on how to live as a true and real human being. Religions should also give instructions on how to be a true and real human beings. I believe Buddhism is a guide for living life as a human being. It is a guide because it is not a black and white explanation for how to live. It is a guide and metaphor for all of our lives. There are religions that tell you what you should do, such as Christianity and most of the Abramaic faith traditions. However Buddhism is a religion of suggestion and choices. For example, this month on April 8, we are celebrating Hanamatsuri. In Japanese Buddhism, April 8 is recognized as the birthday of Siddartha Gautama. In the story of his birth, Siddartha is said to have taken seven steps and then pointed to the heavens and declared, “In the heavens above and Earth below, I am the honored one!” I really have my doubts of this event happening as described. However, I consider this a metaphor to life and how to live it. These seven steps represent moving beyond the six realms of existence: Jigoku (hell). Gaki (hungry ghosts), Chikusho (Beasts) Ashura (Fighting spirits) Ningen (Human being) and Tenjin (Heavenly beings) into becoming Buddha (The awakened one).
This book How Do You Live is about a young boy named Junichi Honda. His nickname is “Copper” shortened from Copernicus. Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance mathematician, astronomer and expert on Catholic law. He is famous for explaining the Earth is not the center of the Universe. In a similar manner Copper makes the realization that the Universe does not revolve around him. The book is comprised of incidents from Copper’s life, followed by comments from his Uncle, who has been asked by Copper’s father, who was dying, to help his wife raise his son to be a true and real human being. An example of the Uncle’s comments to Copper is as follows:
“…when you are an adult, you will understand this. In the world at large, people who are able to free themselves from this self-centered way of thinking are truly uncommon. Above all, when one stands to gain or lose, it is exceptionally difficult to step outside of oneself and make correct judgments, and thus one could say that people who are able to think Copernicus-style even about these things are exceptionally great people. Most people slip into a self-interested way of thinking, become unable to understand the facts of the matter, and end up seeing only that which betters their own circumstances.
Still, as long as we held fast to the thought that our own planet was at the center of the universe, humanity was unable to understand the true nature of the universe—and likewise, when people judge their own affairs with only themselves at the center, they end up unable to know the true nature of society. The larger truth never reveals itself to them.”
The title from this book is derived from the last line of the book when the author breaks from the story to directly ask the reader, “How will you live?” This is a question that you should ask yourself before studying Buddhism. In this last chapter of the book, Copper writes,“I think there has to come a time when everyone in the world treats each other as if they were good friends. Since humanity has come so far, I think now we will definitely be able to make it to such a place.
So, I think I want to become a person who can help that happen.”
I hope this conclusion we can each realize when asking ourselves, “How will I live?” Happy Hanamatsuri.
- Rev. J.K. Hirano