There is a Japanese phrase, Giri-Ninjo. Personally, I am not fond of this expression. It creates an impression that duty (giri) and human feeling (ninjo) are a single, inseparable entity, whereas I believe they are distinct. As long as we are human, we possess ninjo, but we cannot survive on emotion alone; a society governed solely by raw human feeling would lack order. I see giri as a framework that provides structure to the often-chaotic nature of ninjo, thereby maintaining social order. Historically, Japanese society used giri to bring such order to human emotions.
While we often think of law as the primary force for social order, laws focus mainly on restricting human behavior. It is not law, but rather social customs—such as rituals and etiquette—that provide order to ninjo. In Japan, giri has historically played this vital role. I suspect that while Japan relied on giri and ninjo, Western societies found their equivalent for giri in religion. While Japanese religion primarily deals with nature, Western religion is often described as a religion of people. In the West, myths and religion were what shaped individual ninjo. The fact that Western mythology often contains visceral, “muddy” human dramas suggests that these stories were intended to address and structure human emotions to create order.
However, in modern developed nations, including Japan and the West, these frameworks that once organized ninjo are fading. To “order by giving form” means providing a medium through which individual emotions can be shared and harmonized. Ninjo is the sentiment and emotion inherent in people. While “emotion” emphasizes sensory feeling, ninjo does not necessarily rely on the senses. Human sentiments essentially need to be shared, and this act of sharing inherently brings order to human society. Yet, in contemporary society—driven by the development of education and media—individuals have their own independent ways of thinking and choose their own preferences. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find common ground for sharing sentiment. Phenomena such as internet “buzz” or social media “flames” can be seen as symptoms arising from the loss of the traditional structures that once gave form to our emotions.
Music is another ancient technology used to create order by giving form to sentiment, as evidenced by its historical use in Western religion. While music does not govern the entirety of social order, it remains one of the easiest and most powerful ways to bridge human emotions. This is reflected in how a world-famous country singer is said to hold significant influence in U.S. elections due to their popularity.
As argued above, what is required in the modern age is a medium that enables the sharing of ninjo, or the act of sharing sentiment itself. Language is, of course, one such tool, but it is not always easy to use and often requires significant skill. If ninjo is not shared, it withers away; and without ninjo, we lose our humanity. Sharing emotions brings order to human society. A state of “order” is not simply everyone following a set of rules, but rather the existence of a foundation (yoshiro) through which problems can be resolved. While the law serves as a foundation for behavioral issues, is there such a foundation for ninjo? How we handle human sentiment in modern society remains, I believe, one of our most pressing questions.
