Mujou Essay!

Lauren Schwegler
Paper #2 – Mujou
4/7/2010

As our class has discussed many times, mujou is transience and immutability. Mujou governs the flow of the world and is consistent only in that it is always inconsistent. Groups in power will inevitably fall and someone will move to replace them as leaves will fall and grow again each year. That current is ever shifting and a person would be wise not to resist. I argue that by flowing with mujou, meaning living decently and humbly, it is possible to find contentment if not happiness. Because mujou will do as it wills, hard work, morals, and adaptability do not guarantee success or happiness. I believe, however, each greatly improves a person’s chances for a favorable outcome. Mujou is difficult, but ultimately beneficial and how humans respond is their choice.

The Tales of the Heike begins with echoing bells that warn of life’s mujou and remains a prominent theme throughout the stories. Stories such as that of the dancer Giou and the death of Atsumori feature the nature of mujou. Giou is a shirabyoushi dancer and has the fortune to win the favor of Kiyomori, the Taira clan’s head. Lady Hotoke, another dancer, decides to try performing for the court, but Kiyomori refuses to see her. Although Giou knows another dancer could and will someday take her place in court, she kindly insists Hotoke be allowed to perform for the court after making the effort to visit. Kiyomori concedes and impressed by Lady Hotoke’s performance, replaces Giou with Hotoke the very same day. Giou works hard at her art and behaves kindly, but nonetheless lost her position through no fault of her own. Mujou demands change; nothing lasts forever and so it goes with Giou. On the other hand, Giou leaves gracefully and as a result, is able to stay peacefully with her family. Lady Hotoke also remembers Giou’s kindness and in time, leaves to join Giou and her sister in devoting themselves to Buddha.
Furthermore, the story concludes each woman achieved rebirth in the Western Paradise. That feat gives high praise for each woman. Mujou may demand constant change, but will favor those who go along gracefully.

Like every person, my life is also subject to the whims of mujou. Progressing from childhood to college, I have experienced change and death. I moved from Philadelphia to the suburbs when I was around 11. I was reluctant to leave my friends behind, but with the large change came parks to play in, better education, and new friends. My first experience with death was at fifteen, the passing of my grandfather who lived with us and after him, two cats. My grandfather’s death dramatically changed home life and the house remains changed. Each cat’s passing also changed our home if more subtly being family animals. In each case, I had the choice to either cling to grieving over the way things were or adapting to what I could not change. In each case, I grieved for a time, but ultimately chose to move on as best as I could. We miss my grandfather each day, but are thankful for his life and that he went peacefully. Every life must fade away; mujou does not care how precious something is to you. I also had the choice of whether or not to attend my grandfather’s funeral. Thankfully, I decided to face my sorrow and although much more difficult, I was able to say good bye and eventually make peace with his passing. I know that he had pass away to make room for the children I or my brothers might have someday, but that does not make it easy. Mujou took him from us, but we benefitted from coping with what had to happen.

Returning to Japanese literature, Kenkou also writes about mujou in his Essays in Idleness, or Tsurezuregusa. The changing of the seasons is another example of mujou in the works. Leaves must die and fall off, the leaves return, flowers will bloom, petals will fall, and the weather will change from warm to hot to cool to cold to warm again each year. As humans, we can either enjoy the variety and adapt to the seasons, or spend the season we dislike most moaning how we wish it was a different season. Many traditional Japanese authors mourned winter and wrote about it. Undoubtedly, their gloom lingered as they focused on it for their writings. Kenkou on the other hand, spends a section of his Tsurezuregusa praising the individual beauty of each season and even their passing. He lovingly describes the falling of leaves in the fall, spring’s warm sunlight and growing plants, and summer festivals. Of winter, Kenkou writes “Winter decay is hardly less beautiful than autumn” (TJL 827). Many Japanese consider fall or spring to be the most beautiful season and yet Kenkou equates them. As a result, Kenkou enjoyed each season in its passing instead of focusing on remorse things were not a preferred season. Tsurezuregusa shows that Kenkou accepted mujou, he also found it difficult to cope with. “World as Unstable as the Asuka River” describes how mujou changes houses from occupied to abandoned, the falling of places of memories, Kenkou’s nostalgia, and his remorse for those changes. Kenkou laments knowing the owners of a now empty house and yet, his grief is not debilitating. He walks the line between grieving as humans will, but not letting his sorrow figure most prominently in life. Kenkou illustrates the optimum balance between suffering from mujou and yet taking life good naturedly. Such a balance is key part to contentment in life.

Conversely to the lives of most people, mujou can be unusually cruel to individuals and not because of any choices they made. People may suffer from the happenings of mujou because they were born at the wrong place, time, or wrong family. Epidemics, people dying early, and natural disasters like earthquakes do not occur because the people were behaving boorishly or going against mujou. Those happenings are the unfortunate fate mujou dealt them as unfair as that can be. The world is not perfect so awful people can be born rich while another who spent their life working will die hungry. In Ueda Akinari’s Lust of the White Serpent, a woman named Tomiko marries the protagonist Toyoo and ends up being possessed by a serpent. The serpent is successfully exorcised, but Tomiko in the end dies anyway. She did nothing wrong, simply did her duty as a daughter and married as her family wished. The serpent just happened to pick her because she married Toyoo whom the snake was set on. There is little to nothing to be done in those situations, but comfort the survivors. Fortunately for most people, it is a minority who are born with such ill-fated lots. Both horrible and wonderful things happen to whomever and that is the nature of mujou.

Mujou can be cruel and kind. A fortunate few will experience mostly kindness, some very unlucky people will suffer at the hands of fate, and the majority of us will experience both. Mujou may not serve justice, but that is the way things are for better or worse. What a person takes from life will heavily depend on what they put into. The people who work hard and live karmically will likely fare better than the cruel or lazy will. It may be best for people that no final judgments are passed and as most people progress through life, the opportunity is always there to change for the better. Finally, Mujou benefits people by keeping them from stagnating. Mujou calls for death, but that also makes room for life. The seasons march on because of mujou and as a result, plants receive a rest and people have the opportunity to enjoy four different kinds of beauty each year. Mujou, whether people want it or not, ultimately acts for the world’s benefit.

(4 pages double-spaced)