Ikigai

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Ikigai ( Japanese 生 き 甲 斐 meaning of life ) is loosely translated as “that which is worth living for”, “joy and the goal in life” or, to put it casually, “the feeling of having something that is worth getting up for in the morning”.

In Japanese culture, the often lengthy and thorough self-exploration in the pursuit and search for Ikigai has an important meaning. It is a very personal process and the result can therefore be very different from individual to individual. If a person finds or has his ikigai , it gives him a feeling of joie de vivre and thus inner satisfaction .

In connection with the self-image of the cultural identity of Japanese society , discussions are held in the media there on the questions of which social ideals should serve as the basis for Ikigai , what can be regarded as Ikigai (and what not) and whether people can be searched for according to Ikigai should (or not) help in an organized manner.

Development and meaning of the term

Over time, the term ikigai has had various meanings. It appears in Taiheiki as early as the 14th century, then found use in the story Kōjin ( 行人 , 1912) by Natsume Sōseki and was mainly related to emperor and nation until the end of the Second World War in the sense that ikigai was synonymous with Shinigai ( 死 に が い , "that which is worth dying for"). It was not until the mid-1960s, when the standard of living in Japan was improving as a result of the economic boom, that an “ Ikigai boom” set in for books and magazines, which continues to this day.

Ikigai can have two different connotations , which one also finds in this differentiation in Japanese literature. On the one hand, there are certain objects of interest, activities or special living conditions that make life worth living ( 生 き 甲 斐 対 象 , ikigai taishō ); Below are visual examples that are mentioned in connection with Ikigai :

  • Nature - garden
  • Family - children
  • Art - painting
  • Earth - travel
  • Favorite sport - gate ball
  • Music - playing an instrument
  • Partnership - familiarity

On the other hand, Ikigai also describes the feeling of having reached this state of joy in life ( 生 き 甲 斐 感 , ikigai kan ). In this meaning, it corresponds from a western point of view to a subjective feeling of well-being that includes the feeling of a meaning in life (a determination ) and includes "the joy of being alive", somewhat similar to the state that psychologists see as a healthy passion (" fervor of life") or what is paraphrased in French as la joie de vivre and raison d'être .

The individual for himself and in the group

Various authors have commented on Ikigai , depending on their ideological point of view and the associated view of Japanese society - either on the basis of Ittaikan ( 一体 感 , '(group) sense of belonging', 'oneness with the group' ), or on the basis of Jiko Jitsugen ( 自己 実 現 , 'self-realization'). Hamaguchi has been using the terms kanjin since 1985 , a person whose identity lies in the relationships between himself and others , which corresponds to the sociocentric Japanese identity, and kojin , a person who sees himself as an autonomous being , as is more common in the western world Culture. Children are already taught this self- image : while in Japan children at all stages of development learn shūdan seikatsu ( 集 団 生活 , 'group life'), in the West the individuality of personality is promoted more.

Examples of different perspectives

The clinical psychiatrist Kamiya Mieko (1914–1979) was of the opinion that Ikigai cannot only be found in adapting to a social role , for example as a mother . In her book, which was published in 1966 and has meanwhile reached more than 12 editions, she points out that there are people who consciously give up their previous social position in order to lead a completely different, a new life, for example by taking on a calling then become a missionary or leave family and friends behind as a researcher to live and work in a foreign country with a foreign culture. According to Kamiya, Ikigai is "absolutely individual", should be sought out of one's own fascination for the goal of one's own satisfaction and not only understood as a purely functional common good. From their existentialist point of view, Ikigai is the justification for the life of each individual, whereby the knowledge about the transience of all material and ideal goods, suffering and one's own death enables people to have a positive feeling for being alive to develop.

The Buddhist Nikkyō Niwano (1906-1999), founder of the organization Risshō Kōseikai ( 立正 佼 成 会 "Society for the Establishment of Law and Interpersonal Relations") and an advocate of Ittaikan , saw above all the family and their environment - and therein also the external work , family-internal productivity, responsibility, free time, solidarity and altruistic sacrifice - as the natural source for Ikigai . In his unreferenced treatise from 1969, for example, he writes that seniors should also continue to actively contribute to community life in this context and “rather do something for others than let others do something for them”. Nikkyō advocates a democratic , (not militarily) disciplined Japan, in which the ikigai of the individual grows primarily through their role in the group.

The psychiatrist Tsukasa Kobayashi (* 1929) supports the view of Kamiya, but argues in a sharper tone against the conventional norms of Japanese society. Many company employees acted like work robots who would succumb to the illusion that their actions were supporting their family, their company and Japan and that they would find their Ikigai in it . But at the end of the work process , they would find that they could be exchanged easily and that in reality they would not have had any real life . Ikigai cannot be reached through material goods, but requires "freedom of spirit". Ikigai is not only falsely associated with “work”, but also erroneously equated with, for example, “ gateball ” ( ゲ ー ト ボ ー ル , Gētobōru , a popular senior sport ), “flower growing” or “writing haiku ”; The former is Hatarakigai ( 働 き が い , the feeling that one's own work is worth doing ), the other examples are Asobigai ( 遊 び が い , gimmicks that are worth the time you spend with them ). But Ikigai is more: On the basis of human life experience and knowledge , it is the feeling of satisfaction of desires and expectations, of love and happiness - alone or together with other people - i.e. the overall perception of the value of (one's) life. Like Kamiya, Tsukasa also represents a more western point of view in which he sees Japanese society as an America freed from negative aspects, without violence, drugs and cynicism, in which the individual - without being forced by society - to create his or her own dream. can live.

The American Gordon Mathews , professor of anthropology , compared the presentation and perception of Ikigai in the Japanese media in the early 1990s and at the same time conducted on-site interviews on the subject. He noted that in magazine articles and books over time more and more Jiko Jitsugen came to the fore, while in his interviews personal ikigai more with Ittaikan was brought in connection. Mathews interprets this in his publications as a slow change in Japanese society, which, however, is individually accepted and perceived with a delay (lag phase) .

Ikigai as a challenge in retirement

For several decades, efforts have been made in Japanese companies to help older employees find Ikigai . The need for this support from employers is illustrated by the example of the "Shōwa-hitoketa men" ( 昭和 一 桁 ), who correspond to the generation of those born around 1926 to 1935. It was this generation who, through hard work and without much free time, laid the foundation for Japan's later booming economy after World War II . Shōwa-hitoketa men are characterized as "... cannot dance, cannot speak English, only know how to obey orders, eat everything that is put on their plate, and only find their ikigai at work" . When they reach retirement age and the familiar routine of work ceases, they also lose their ikigai , they are prone to depression and they become a burden for those around them - especially for their wives.

The organized external help in the search for Ikigai also has opponents who take the position that in such a personal matter of self-discovery and self-realization, assistance or Ikigai training is ridiculous and in principle contradicts the actual concept.

Ikigai in the affluent society

In the late 1980s and early 1990s - during a phase of clearly perceptible material abundance in Japan - newspaper articles dealt with the "difficulty" of finding Ikigai in a situation where everything is available in abundance at all times. Since this situation changed again due to a downturn in the economic situation, the media discussion of this “problem” took a back seat.

Studies

Ohsaki study

Toshimasa Sone and colleagues from the Department of Medicine at the University of Tōhoku , Sendai , Japan, carried out a seven-year longitudinal study with 43,391 adults (ages 40 to 79 years) from 1994 , who they also interviewed with regard to Ikigai . The researchers described the term as “Belief that one's own life is worth living”; possible answers were yes , unsure, or no .

3,048 test subjects (7%) died during the study period . In the following statistical analysis, factors such as age , gender , education , body mass index , cigarette and alcohol consumption , physical fitness, employment relationship, perceived stress , medical history and a self-assessment of the test subjects with regard to their health were also taken into account. Almost 60% of the study participants said yes to the feeling of Ikigai and these persons were mostly married, had an education and were in an employment relationship; they stated that they were less stressed and rated themselves healthier.

The analysis of the deaths showed that people who answered no to Ikigai had a higher mortality rate than those who answered yes . By categorizing the type of death, no- sayers had a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease and death from external factors; in death from cancer , no significant difference was found between yes and no sayers. The study was published in 2008.

The study concludes that the indication of a sensation from Ikigai has the quality of a predictive value : 95% of people with Ikigai were still alive after 7 years, compared with about 83% of those who did not experience Ikigai . Similar statements - a positive attitude to life is linked to physical health and thus to a higher life expectancy - are also confirmed by other authors.

literature

  • Kamiya Mieko: Ikigai ni tsuite ( 生 き が い に つ い て ; About Ikigai ), Misuzu Shobō, Tōkyō (1966), ISBN 4622081814
  • Nikkyō Niwano: Ningen no ikigai ( 人間 の 生 き が い ; Engl. The Meaningful Life ), Kōsei Shuppansha, Tōkyō (1969), ISBN 4333010276
  • Tsukasa Kobayashi: Ikigai to wa nanika ( 「生 き が い」 と は, 何 か: 自己 実 現 へ の み ち ; What is Ikigai?), Nihon Hōsō Shuppan Kyōkai, Heisei 8, Tōkyō (1996) ISBN 4140015799
  • Gordon Mathews: What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds , University of California Press (1996), ISBN 9780520201330
  • John W. Traphagan: The Practice of Concern: Ritual, Well-Being, and Aging in Rural Japan , Carolina Academic Press, 2004, ISBN 9780890894064 .
  • Takashi Fukino and Yoshimi Kataoka: A Structure of Narrated “Meaning of Life”: A Quantitative Analysis of Answers to an Open-ended Question in the Survey in Hilly and Mountainous Areas . June 2012, p. 15–26 ( shimane-u.ac.jp - Japanese: 語 ら れ た 「生 き 甲 斐」 の 構造 構造 中山 間 地域 調査 調査 に お け る 自由 回答 の 数量 的 分析 .).

Web links

Individual evidence and explanations

  1. ↑ 生 き 甲 斐 . In: デ ジ タ ル 版 日本人 名 大 辞典 + Plus at kotobank.jp. Retrieved February 9, 2013 (Japanese).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Gordon Mathews: What Makes Life Worth Living? How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds , Chapter 1, pp. 12-26
  3. ↑ Harro Albrecht: Community as Therapy , Die Zeit, 23 September 2009.
  4. ^ A b Christopher Peterson: The Good Life. Positive psychology and what makes life worth living , Psychology Today , September 17, 2008; Retrieved February 8, 2013.
  5. ^ RJ Vallerand: On the psychology of passion: In search of what makes people's lives most worth living Canadian Psychology (2008), Volume 49, pp. 1-13
  6. ↑ Hamaguchi Esyun: A Contextual Model of the Japanese: Toward a Methological Innovation in Japan Studies , J. of Jap. Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2 (1985), pp. 289-321
  7. ↑ Thomas P. Rohlen: Inside the Japanese system: Readings on Contemporary Society and Political Economy , Stanford University Press (1988)
  8. ↑ Kamiya Mieko: Ikigai ni tsuite (1966)
  9. ↑ Nikkyō Niwano: Ningen no ikigai (1969)
  10. ↑ Tsukasa Kobayashi: Ikigai to wa nanika (1996)
  11. ↑ Tsukasa differentiates that in the case of Masaoka Shiki , a famous nineteenth-century haiku poet who gave up his studies to write haiku exclusively, and who after suffering from tuberculosis in his last seven years and even his own Death camp wrote poetry - he died at the age of 35 - and left behind a unique work, "Haiku writing" could very well be Ikigai .
  12. ↑ Kobayashi Tsukasa: Ikigai - jibun no kanōsei, kaikasaseru katei , Nihon Keizai Shinbun, April 4, 1990
  13. ↑ Toshimasa Sone, Naoki Nakaya, Kaori Ohmori, Taichi Shimazu, Mizuka Higashiguchi, Masako Kakizaki, Nobutaka Kikuchi, Shinichi Kuriyama and Ichiro Tsuji: Sense of Life Worth Living (Ikigai) and Mortality in Japan: Ohsaki Study , Psychosomatic Medicine (July / August) 2008), Volume 70 (6), pp. 709-715
  14. ↑ C. Peterson and LM Bossio: Health and Optimism , Free Press (1991), New York