Mikiso Hane > Quotes

“As for the significance of my nihilism…in a word, it is the foundation of my thoughts. The goal of my activities is the destruction of all living things. I feel boundless anger against parental authority, which crushed me under the high-sounding name of parental love, and against state and social authority, which abused me in the name of universal love.
Having observed the social reality that all living things on earth are incessantly engaged in a struggle for survival, that they kill each other to survive, I concluded that if there is an absolute, universal low on earth, it is the reality that the strong eat the weak. This, I believe, is the law and truth of the universe. Now that I have seen the truth about the struggle for survival and the fact that the strong win and the weak lose, I cannot join the ranks of the idealists and adopt an optimistic mode of thinking which dreams of the construction of a society that is without authority and control. As long as all living things do not disappear from the earth, the power relations based on this principle [of the strong crushing the weak] will persist. Because the wielders of power continue to defend their authority in the usual manner and oppress the weak—and because my past existence has been a story of oppression by all sources of authority—I decided to deny the rights of all authority, rebel against them, and stake not only my own life but that of all humanity in this endeavor.
For this reason I planned eventually to throw a bomb and accept the termination of my life. I did not care whether this act would touch off a revolution or not. I am perfectly content to satisfy my own desires. I do not wish to help create a new society based on a new authority in a different form.”
― Mikiso Hane, Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Rebel Women in Prewar Japan

“Los críticos ven en los poemas la expresión de los sentimientos naturales humanos que prevalecían en el país antes de la incorporación de los ideales confucianos de corrección y moderación.”
― Mikiso Hane, Breve historia de Japón

“Haiku – a seventeen syllable poem – also emerged as a popular form of poetry among the townspeople. Its composition and appreciation were not limited to the townspeople. The greatest haiku poet, Matsuo Bashō (1644–94), a member of the samurai class, wandered around the countryside as a Buddhist monk.”
― Mikiso Hane, Japan: A Short History

“For the haiku to be effective, Donald Keene explains that there should be two electric poles between which the spark leaps. For example, “The ancient pond. A frog leaps in. The Sound of the water.”
― Mikiso Hane, Japan: A Short History

“The life of austerity and frugality that was the old samurai ideal was not adhered to in the years of Tokugawa peace. The samurai’s income was fixed in terms of rice stipends but their expenses grew as they adopted a less austere lifestyle. They tended to live in fine houses and wear quality clothes. Many pursued hedonistic lives attending kabuki performances or frequenting expensive brothels and patronizing “geishas.”
― Mikiso Hane, Japan: A Short History

“The most significant cultural development in the Tokugawa period was the culture of the townspeople. The creative energy of the townspeople was manifested in all areas – prose fiction, haiku poetry, kabuki theatre, woodblock printing, and ceramics.”
― Mikiso Hane, Japan: A Short History