This article, dated April 27, 2020, draws on essays in the monthly magazines WiLL and Hanada to discuss European culture, the Chinese attitude toward lies, and Tadao Umesao’s insight into China’s essence. It reflects on Umesao’s view that Japan is not Asia but closer to countries such as Britain, and argues that Japanese people must recover the ability to see the truth.

April 27, 2020
In the above-mentioned monthly magazines, there was a passage contrasting nervous Europe with Chinese people who do not regard lies as lies.
The other day, I was speaking with an acquaintance who is unquestionably one of the elites and, at the same time, a man of character.
He is also a reader of this column.
“I was surprised by that matter of IQ 150 and so on……”
So I told him the circumstances of how, when I was in the fifth grade of elementary school, I was called to the principal’s office and told, “You have produced an astonishing score.
The result is that you already possess the ability of a second- or third-year high school student.”
In my high school days, the teacher who made me stand at the lectern and give lectures twice, when he passed me in the hallway, so to speak strictly ordered me, “You must remain at Kyoto University and carry that university forward on both your shoulders.”
The monthly magazines WiLL and Hanada, released on April 23 and essential reading for all Japanese citizens, are filled with the labors of genuine men and women of speech who teach the truth of matters that people who merely subscribe to newspapers such as the Asahi Shimbun and watch television news programs such as NHK can never understand.
Those people are beyond help because they do not even know that they are information weaklings, and instead think they are well informed.
They are people before whom one truly bows one’s head.
It would be no exaggeration to say that their manuscript fees are a mere pittance compared with the appearance fees of those who appear on television and speak irresponsible things that harm the nation.
There can be no question that all of them are “national treasures” as defined by Saicho.
On the other hand, if I were to define them in place of Saicho, the employees of newspapers such as the Asahi Shimbun, the employees of television stations such as NHK, and the radio-wave geisha who make their living on wide shows and the like, are undoubtedly “traitors to the nation.”
I sincerely hope that heaven and hell exist.
In the above-mentioned monthly magazines, in a dialogue about the world to come, there was a passage contrasting nervous Europe with Chinese people who do not regard lies as lies.
Perhaps because a person has a high IQ, he takes an interest in all things in the universe.
If he is a humanities-oriented person, he will also excel in sensitivity toward the arts.
In particular, his understanding of the arts will deepen.
That Europe and art are inseparable is something one can silently understand by watching one of my favorite programs, NHK’s “Airport Piano.”
On pianos placed in airports and stations in various parts of Europe and America, travelers passing by and local people, men and women of all ages, take turns playing the piano.
Kazumi Takahashi once wrote, “The foundation of originality lies in diversity, and the foundation of diversity lies in constancy.”
What happens if a person of exceptionally high IQ is born into the opposite of constancy, that is, into a home where clamor never ceases?
He is wounded in a way ordinary people cannot understand.
For reasons readers know, I, so to speak, strayed from the main road of life.
The first time I encountered Tadao Umesao, that is to say, the first time I recognized him, was when I went with my closest friend to Expo ’70 Commemorative Park to photograph plants, although I had chosen Osaka as the stage of my life and yet had never visited that park at all.
I think it was after he had passed away.
At the National Museum of Ethnology, an exhibition was being held to look back on his achievements.
I was struck by thunder.
Readers know that in this column I have deliberately mentioned several times that I am Nobunaga living today, and Kukai living today.
A hero knows a hero.
The truly first-rate knows the truly first-rate.
I wanted to remain in that place as long as possible.
I visited again as well.
At the exit, I purchased several of his books.
He conducted fieldwork in almost every province of China.
In sharp contrast to scholars sitting at their desks, or scholars who go to the field only a little and pretend to know, he lived there for years and made his observations.
I agreed with lightning speed with his conclusion that China is a country of “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies.”
I shared, in an instant, the truth and depth of that conclusion.
The rare talent known as Tadao Umesao transferred itself into the rare talent that had strayed onto a side road.
I ask readers to understand that I no longer need to be reserved.
There is one more thing.
I also agreed with lightning speed with his words, “Originality is repetition.
To repeat is originality.”
Since I appeared in this way in July 2010, it would be no exaggeration to say that there has never been a time when I did not write about the “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies” of China and the Korean Peninsula.
Furthermore, I also agreed with lightning speed with his statement that “Japan is not Asia.”
He concluded that Japan is not Asia, but rather is closer to Britain and similar countries.
Those who have seen the special program on Venetia, who now lives in Ohara, Kyoto, should feel this in their bones.
This article will continue.