“To know life in every breath, every cup of tea ...
that is Bushido.”
“The perfect blossom is a rare thing,you could spend your life looking for them.And it would not be a wasted life.” --from The Last Samurai
I sat at their low table covered with a shitgake*, joining Miuki Hadano’s family for a traditional cup of tea. Arranged by the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund, it was my first homestay in Japan. At the kotatsu table with me were her two children, her parents, her sister and two children, a traditional three generation Japanese household.
*Usually found in the center of the home, the modern kotatsu involves a low table with a special shitagake table cover placed over it. An electric heater is attached beneath which keeps your lower body toasty warm. In attempts to save energy the Japanese heated table and blanket concept has taken off in a big way. Cheaper to run than an electric heater, it’s a wonder that much of the rest of the world hasn’t caught on to the joys of taking a book and a cup of tea under the kotatsu. https://japanobjects.com/features/kotatsu
Her father, Tokuji-san, I found sitting across the corner from me quietly stopped the conversation and beckoned me to take a sip of tea. All was silent. He followed sipping his tea. Then he beckoned me to have a taste of dessert pastry. He followed again then said:
“Like life.” he said, “bitter, [sipping the tea again] and sweet.” [tasting pastry].”
Looking back across my 9 trips to Japan, all the families I stayed with were living in 3 generation households.** At the end of the war, 100 percent of families lived in three generation homes, today ...
**In Japan, 58% of people 60 years of age and older lived with at least one of their children in 2001, a figure 3 to 10 times greater than that found in comparably developed Western societies such as the United States.
** https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article/62/5/S330/570920
Click HERE for more about Miyuki Hadano and her family (Scroll down to 2005)
With Miyuki and her family I felt...
with each visit
吐く息 一つ にも 生命 が 宿る
"hakuiki hitotsu ni mo seimei ga yadori"
a lifetime in a single breath
The Japanese phrase "hakuiki hitotsu ni mo seimei ga yadori" was made popular in the movie "The Last Samurai" and this is a direct quote. The phrase is composed of the word 吐く息 (read hakuiki) meaning "one's breath", 一つ (read hitotsu) being a counter for "one". So this is "one breath". The grammatical element にも (read nimo) means "even in". So far we have the phrase hakuiki hitotsu nimo meaning "even in every breath". The next word is 生命 (read seimei) meaning "one's life; one's existence" and が (read ga) is a grammatical element specifying the previous word as the subject of the verb. The verb yadori is the present form of 宿る (read yadoru) meaning to "to dwell; to exist within".
“To know life in every breath, every cup of tea,life in every breath... that is Bushido.”“The perfect blossom is a rare thing,you could spend your life looking for them.And it would not be a wasted life.” --from The Last Samurai
to paraphrase from the Last Samurai:
“Remember our ancestors who have held this sword and what they lived for." We cannot forget who we are, or where we come from. Let me tell you how they lived.
Live, deeply. Find a small measure of peace, which few of us will find.
Do you believe we can change our destiny?I think we should do what we can until our destiny is revealed.[holding a samurai sword] I belong to the teacher in whom the old ways have joined the new... this is Bushido
https://www.etsy.com/listing/459118150/life-in-every-breath-japanese-scroll#:~:text=The%20Japanese%20phrase%20%22hakuiki%20hitotsu,this%20is%20a%20direct%20quote.&text=So%20far%20we%20have%20the,or%20%22in%20every%20breath%22.
