Food and the Heart

2

The gradual change of attitude in the observation of these lives, especially the tendency to go into remote areas and remote islands which have not been reflected upon in the recent systematic surveys, can only be fully appreciated by those who, like ourselves, have long refrained from general dogmatism, though disappointed by the void of material. The current method of promoting local studies tends to tempt children with candy. At least, it is contrary to our experience that if we can know a certain limited local area in detail, there will immediately be a great deal of understanding and sympathy for the previous period, or some new content can be added to local education in that area alone as early as possible. If that were possible, only the village where the old, knowledgeable man lived, or where the kind comrades worked for a long time, could have been a little happier. Those who are optimistic about such an immediate direction and inadvertently fall for the solicitation will be disappointed at one point. Otherwise, they would certainly end up deceiving themselves. The increase in knowledge always leads to suspicions that are practically unexpected. If the discovery had not led to any unexpected contradiction and had not shaken the root of the conventional contemplation of their lives, it would not, strictly speaking, have been a discovery, and therefore could not have fulfilled their requirements. The new know-it-alls were ill-prepared for this anguish apparently, but the ultimate place they should reach was never near enough for a day trip, and the process required a great deal of "comparison" and exchange of knowledge at least with those who lived farther from home. Those who had preached the urgency of local studies in the past neglected to specify this essential condition, but fortunately, their voices reached all corners of the country at one time, and it became a little easier, incidentally, for each region to cooperate and accomplish each other's research objectives. In this sense, the unification of academic education should be celebrated, and I recognize that isolated local studies that don't take advantage of it are deeply regrettable.

dogmatism（名）独断主義、独断的態度

void（名）空隙、隙間

tempt（動）誘惑する

great deal......沢山の

comrade（名）同志

optimistic（形）楽観主義の、楽観的な

immediate（形）すぐそばの、当座の、手近な

inadvertently（副）うっかりして

solicitation（名）教唆、懇願

deceive（動）だます

practically（副）実際は、事実上

contradiction（名）矛盾

contemplation（名）沈思、熟考

know-it-all（名）知ったかぶり

ill-prepared（形）準備不足の

anguish（名）苦悩、煩悶

comparison（名）比較

preach（動）説く

urgency（名）緊急性

specify（動）明確に述べる

unification（名）統一

On a fair level, the limited questions of a region are usually minor. Some of them are only still worrying about it, and many of them have already solved it in the rest of the world or read a book to find out what it is, or else they will solve it by themselves, and you can leave them alone until they finally don't understand it. There is no need to start grandiose local studies just for this purpose. However, when it comes to major issues, not only in Japan but also in the yellow and white races of the world, there are quite a few problems that haven't been solved for thousands of years. Since institutions are the brainchild of man, it is natural that a part of what was once perfectly clear becomes difficult to understand later, and it often becomes natural to ask again why this is the case. It is this kind of problem that fatigues the hearts of everyone and actually binds their daily lives. Moreover, a single invention of an individual is not necessarily sufficient to instruct many people who have never seen it. As long as you do local studies, you can't help but confine yourself in the rural areas where you live without sharing these common questions and be conceited by fragmentary knowledge. Or it may be that the academic style has accumulated so far, but it is a problem that the humanities abhor the growth of problems and want to rush to solutions that cannot be regarded as solutions. It will be some time before the real evils of this affect education, and I think there will come a time when the public will not be aware of it, but what is more regrettable is the waste of young people's labor, the fact that the results of their studies will never be the scope of their essays, and the fact that people will compete to collect only curious and easily observable materials, and that materials which cannot be observed unless they are fundamental and important in Japan will become more rare and difficult to capture. Those who have a great desire to start this work all over the country need to pay attention to the merits and characteristics of each region in advance, to set a plan for the division of work moderately, and to be vigilant not to narrow the frontage of research by themselves due to an easy fashion.

grandiose（形）大げさな、壮大な

institution（名）制度

brainchild（名）発案物

confine oneself to......～に閉じこもる

humanities（名）人文科学

abhor（動）忌み嫌う

observable（形）観察できる

moderately（副）適度に

vigilant（形）用心深い、慎重な