Shots in the Dark
Japan, Zen, and the West
In the years after World War II, Westerners and Japanese alike elevated Zen to the quintessence of spirituality in Japan. Pursuing the sources of Zen as a Japanese ideal, Shoji Yamada uncovers the surprising role of two cultural touchstones: Eugen Herrigel’s Zen in the Art of Archery and the Ryoanji dry-landscape rock garden. Yamada shows how both became facile conduits for exporting and importing Japanese culture.
First published in German in 1948 and translated into Japanese in 1956, Herrigel’s book popularized ideas of Zen both in the West and in Japan. Yamada traces the prewar history of Japanese archery, reveals how Herrigel mistakenly came to understand it as a traditional practice, and explains why the Japanese themselves embraced his interpretation as spiritual discipline. Turning to Ryoanji, Yamada argues that this epitome of Zen in fact bears little relation to Buddhism and is best understood in relation to Chinese myth. For much of its modern history, Ryoanji was a weedy, neglected plot; only after its allegorical role in a 1949 Ozu film was it popularly linked to Zen. Westerners have had a part in redefining Ryoanji, but as in the case of archery, Yamada’s interest is primarily in how the Japanese themselves have invested this cultural site with new value through a spurious association with Zen.
“Shots in the Dark is a delightful romp through the pratfalls and chicanery involved in the popularization of Zen in both Japan and the West. Focusing on two icons of twentieth-century Zen culture—Eugen Herrigel’s Zen in the Art of Archery and the so-called Zen garden at Ryoanji—Yamada’s authoritative yet feisty and entertaining book is essential reading for anyone interested in the cross-cultural genealogy of pop Zen.”—Robert Sharf, University of California, Berkeley
“A lively exploration of what Zen means for the Japanese and for Japanese culture as it is known inside and outside Japan. Shots in the Dark painstakingly excavates Zen explanations of Japanese culture to reveal how they obfuscate what they supposedly explicate and serve to emphasize the privileged positions of those who expound them. With fair-minded grace and humility, Yamada shows us how to acquire flexible thinking which can recognize the fake in our accepted images of the real Japan and discern real Japanese culture in the seemingly fake images we usually reject. Although originally written for a Japanese audience, Shots in the Dark will be of interest to any readers who wish to better understand the charm of a cultural other, whether it’s Zen or something else, and how it comes into being.”—William M. Bodiford, University of California, Los Angeles
“Shots in the Dark addresses an important cluster of issues concerning cultural translation and discursive formations of the ‘spiritual East’ and offers a perspective that is rare, possibly nonexistent in critical literature available in English.”—Tomoko Masuzawa, author of The Invention of World Religions
Preface to the American Edition
Introduction
1. Between the Real and the Fake
The Kitschy World of “Zen in/and the Art of . . .”
The Rock Garden in New York
The Moving Borderline
2. The Mystery of Zen in the Art of Archery
The Beginning of the Story
Spiritual Archery and Herrigel’s Meeting with Its Teacher
Becoming a Disciple
Breathing
The Release
Purposefulness and Purposelessness
The Target in the Dark
The Riddle of “It”
3. Dissecting the Myth
The Spread of Zen in the Art of Archery
The Moment the Myth Was Born
What is Japanese Archery?
The Great Doctrine of the Way of Shooting
What Herrigel Studied
4. The Erased History
The Blank Slate
Herrigel’s Early Years
The Japanese in Heidelberg
Homecoming and the Nazis
From the End of the War to Retirement
5. Are Rock Gardens Really Pretty?
From the “Tiger Cubs Crossing the River” to the “Higher Self”
The Neglected Rock Garden
The Rock Garden in Textbooks
Unsightly Stones and a Weeping Cherry Tree
Shiga Naoya and Muro Saisei
Are Rock Gardens Pretty?
Popularization and the Expression of Zen
Proof of Beauty
6. Looking at the Mirror’s Reflection
Another Japan Experience
Bruno Taut and Ryoanji
The People Who Introduced Zen and Ryoanji to the West
Isamu Noguchi
How Zen in the Art of Archery and Ryoanji Were Received
Does Zen Stink?
Kyudo, Zen, and the Olympics
I Knew It! It’s Zen!
Postscript
Translator’s Afterword
Appendix: Herrigel’s “Defense”
Kanji for Personal Names
Kanji for Japanese Terms
Bibliography
IndexAsian Studies: East Asia
History: Asian History
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