Chapter 5.5: The Power of Words |

Mr Shintaro Ishihara was the Goethe of Japan. I was his pupil, someone in the same profession, and his escort runner. In this last chapter, I have woven together more of my private recollections, spanning as long as twenty-plus years, and "my unfulfilled promise" to him. ー Shin Ushijima

Chapter 5.5: The Power of Words

Read earlier chapters in My Mentor, Shintaro Ishihara

Shares of a privately held unlisted company can be transferred quite easily if the shareholder is not an individual. For example, there are cases where the shareholder is a joint-stock company, a type of corporation. It can easily carry out the transfer of ownership of a company whose shares it owns by conveying its shares, as a minority shareholder, to another unlisted company.

Let's use Takayuki Nishiwaki as an example to consider this situation. Say he is the majority shareholder of an unlisted company that owns shares in the first business. Because the shares of the first privately held company are owned in Nishiwaki's company's name, he can change their ownership simply by conveying shares of his own company to a third company. Truth be told, I sometimes meet with people in such positions in my legal practice.

Of course, I explained this to Shintaro Ishihara. He simply said, "Ah, I see," as if implying that he was unconcerned and didn't need to know the details because he was relying on me for the legal motifs.

There would be nothing unusual about holding the shares in the name of an entity rather than an individual, for example, for capital increases, inheritance tax measures, etc. After listening, Mr Ishihara said, "If you say it's no problem, then it's okay. Anyway, Nishiwaki is a huge group company like Takenaka. Quite possibly, the asset management companies of each of the two brothers would be the shareholders. That's feasible, isn't it?"

Nonetheless, the phrase "emergency shareholders meeting" appears in the novel, through no fault of my own. If I had seen the entire galley proof beforehand, I would have been able to catch that and advise him to use the correct term, "extraordinary shareholders meeting" instead.

*Shintaro Ishihara (©Sankei by Minoru Oyama, 2013)*

Men of Letters

Mr Ishihara may have had reservations about asking me to explain things, except when it was something he couldn't make heads or tail of. Thinking about it, I can see the situation.

On November 15, 2006, Mr Ishihara called me for the last time about Island of Fire (Gentosha, 2008). Before he hung up, he very hesitantly asked me, "May I call you again if I find something that I don't understand?" In hindsight, the voice on the other end of the line sounded a bit uncertain, almost anxious.

I replied, "Of course, please call me anytime. But if I cannot take your call, please leave a message with the time and phone number to return your call."

Ultimately, there was no ensuing phone call about Island of Fire. I figured he had come to terms with it in his own way.

Mr Ishihara may have dreamed of grooming me to become an Akutagawa Prize novelist, just as he himself had been backed by Sei Ito in making his successful debut as a writer.

Just as Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was launched by Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) to take his place among literary circles.

Likewise, Ryunosuke Akutagawa was extolled by Soseki Natsume, who had laid the foundation for Akutagawa's rise to fame.

And Kafu Nagai pushed Junichiro Tanizaki to enter the world of letters.

In my case, I had been obsessed with entering the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law and achieving that goal, devoted to my legal practice, which was also the source of my income. Albeit by choice, the man I am has been entangled in the duties of that profession. Making my debut in the literary world as a lawyer by winning the Akutagawa Prize might have seemed attractive. But ultimately, it was merely an unfulfilled dream.

Polished and Sophisticated Words

That hasn't changed even now. I am not just a lawyer. I'm the leader of an organization of about one hundred people. And as a legal professional, I'm responsible for the fates and futures of many companies and individuals.

Even so, when something pops up in my mind, I cannot help but put it into words. And because of such a drive, I have continued weaving words into text without ceasing.

Or, possibly, could it have been that, for Mr Ishihara, I was simply a convenient tool like a dumbbell to pummel such foolish writers who identify themselves as new novelists? Perhaps he thought that I, a lawyer and writer, could be useful for that purpose, to squelch up-and-coming writers with "the awesome depth of power and lingering impact of polished and sophisticated words."

This phrase of Mr Ishihara's reminds me of the phrase, "The power of writing is eternal." That expression was introduced by Ryunosuke Akutagawa in his book, Words of a Dwarf (侏儒の言葉, Shinchosha Co Ltd, 1968), where it was attributed to Wang Shizhen, who lived during the Ming dynasty. In the story, Akutagawa criticizes Wang Shizhen's phrase, "Paintings last 300 years, calligraphy 500 years, but the power of writing is eternal."

But at least relatively speaking, the power of writing is eternal. We still read Homer, and we debate the Records of the Grand Historian of China. The Vedas (of India) date back 3500 years. They prove the power of writing…the power of polished and sophisticated words.

Unmet Expectations

On my New Year's cards for 2003, I wrote, "I have set myself a great goal for this year." But I was told to "wait for one year."

Mr Ishihara told me he would give me a year to work hard so that I could win the Akutagawa Prize. Therefore, to inspire myself and to register my eagerness and Mr Ishihara's expectations, I daringly put it in words on my New Year's cards for the following year. Of course, those who received cards from me could have no idea what I meant.

I was the one with the goal, and the person who told me to wait a year was Mr Ishihara.

It seemed as though I intended to bind myself to the expectation.

In the same card, I wrote, "In autumn, I walked around in Paris. I ordered croquet-monsieur from a middle-aged lady at a café near the Picasso Museum and ate it alone." As the lawyer for a French company, I was in Paris to help it buy a Japanese life insurance company. That meant attending the board meetings of the company once a year in Paris as the company's legal counsel. Taking the opportunity, I walked around in Paris that autumn.

The acquisition was completed in 1998 ー November 1998, to be exact. It almost coincided with the first time I met Shintaro Ishihara.

Was Work So Important?

I no longer remember how much remuneration that job as a lawyer brought me. But such remuneration was nothing more than a small nugget of gold ore extracted from a seemingly endless deposit. Yet, however small it seemed, if I kept digging, I believed the deposit would stretch on infinitely.

This was the natural perception of a leader of a law firm, and still should be. That is, my personal freedom was restricted, and is still. It was an absurd setting for a writer. Furthermore, the situation was doubly complicated by the fact that my law firm was a medium-sized sole proprietorship. My time no longer belonged to me alone.

But what mattered most was not the remuneration or the deposit.

It was my responsibility as a lawyer. I had, and still have, unlimited responsibility for the legal work undertaken by my colleagues and me.

*Book cover, "Island of Fire" by Shintaro Ishihara.*

Politics, Passion, and Sensuality

For that reason alone, the fact that Mr Ishihara wrote Island of Fire while serving in public office as the Governor of Tokyo was an awe-inspiring achievement beyond my imagination. That was why I compared him with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

In the column, "Talk About Books," the editor asked Mr Ishihara, "How do you balance writing novels with your duties as the Governor of Tokyo?"

He responded, "Just as novels have sensuality, I think politics ought to have sensuality, too…that is, passion."

"The management of politics is aimed at the glory of the nation. … When politicians willingly undertake their true duties, the nation responds in kind. That connection transcends even the relationship between a man and a woman in love with each other, even a passionate romance."

"Just as a woman will fall for the man who devotes himself to her, even by committing a crime, the nation as a lover will clearly reveal its allure to the politicians who have cared for it throughout history." (The Illusion of a Nation, My Counter-Recollections of Politics, Bungeishunju, 1999, at p 667)

This statement brought back memories of Mr Ishihara's regular reminder that "Novels are about passion, intoxicating emotions mixed with whimsy and caprice."

In the interview, he said: "It's not interesting at all to be a recluse in my study, where the world I live in becomes smaller. Serving as a politician keeps my mind active. My work as the Governor of Tokyo won't always bring me materials for my novels, but to write, it's necessary to keep my mind active." (Ibid)

That was the peroration of Mr Ishihara's answer to the editor's questions.

I then understood why Mr Ishihara expected me to write the novel, and why he shared with me his criticism of Saburo Shiroyama.

Eternal Words

One cannot write good novels if "your world becomes smaller." Put another way, you cannot penetrate deeper into sensuality. That must have been his reason.

I wonder what Goethe would say about Mr Ishihara's statement.

When we first started discussing the plot of Island of Fire, Mr Ishihara remarked, "Miyakejima erupted just about the time I became the Governor of Tokyo." Indeed, Miyakejima erupted in 2000. It was soon after Mr Ishihara became the Governor of Tokyo.

Could it have been karma or a twist of fate?

Anyway, Mr Ishihara has passed away. I recall Baudelaire's poem: Adieu, vive la clarté de nos étés trop courts! ー Farewell, vivid light of our too-short summers! (translation by Mr Richard Stokes). The sun went down. But as Ryunosuke Akutagawa also said, "Life is not worth a single line of Baudelaire."

Mr Ishihara's works will surely survive, and their words continue to shine, transcending his life for eternity.

The End

Find earlier chapters through the Table of Contents

(To read the book in Japanese, please visit the publisher's website.)