日本レフティゴルフ協会 NALG JAPAN

Guided by Todd and Mie

You might see the land of Japan from your airplane window. Most of the land is covered by forest. It is an unusual situation in the world. Japan’s forest cover 60% of the land. It is much higher than the world average of about 30%.

When you travel across Japan, you will often see a tree decorated by a rope with paper and a sign in the shrines. They are called Japanese God Trees. Japan worships nature highly, the trees, rivers, oceans, breezes, and mountains.

Western Religions believe that man is the caretaker of the Earth and Nature, chosen by God to control it. This is a completely different Philosophy from Japanese indigenous religions.

Japan feel spirituality exists in Nature. All food comes from life in nature which is worshiped. The phrase “Itadaki-masu”, which is said before consuming anything translates basically into “Thank-you for your life. I am about to eat”. The finishing phrase “Gochiso-sama” translates to “Thank-you for making this or growing this food to the famers, butchers, fishers and cooks”.

Most of us will agree that traveling deep into nature provides us with a connection to something pure, innocent and transcendent of ourselves. This power is represented by the regal ropes on the God trees which are of venerable ages.

Throughout History, Japan has held high regard for its environment.

A Kenyan woman, Wangari Muta Maathai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in the Environmental field for the first time, introduced the world to a Japanese Phrase in her speech “Mottai-nai” at the U.N. conversion in 2005. It covers many situations with many meanings. This Phrase covers all ecological situations including the 4 R’s; Re-duce, Re-use , Re-cycle and Re-pair. She said there is no other Phrase in any language that encompasses the 4 R’s in their entirety.

The scale of “Mottai-nai” is the idea of “Don’t waste anything” starting with the withered vegetable in your garden and rising all the way to the gifts of life, precious time, people and opportunity. This feeling is carried in the daily life of Japan applicable to every situation small and large. This daily philosophy is directly connected to Japan’s environment and religion.

There was a growth of industrialization after the World War Two over several decades that peaked in what is called the “Bubble Era”. The founder of Panasonic, Konosuke Matsushita, who is worshipped as a business genius, started in a small factory making electric light bulbs without a High School Education.

Famous words he expressed were “We will produce goods that provide luxury as endlessly as water from a water tap”. It was the start of materialism in Japan on the backs of starving people in broken and burned cities after the war. He created many household appliances and the economy became strong as Japanese brands became household names around the world. Salaries and jobs improved. Interest rates on savings for one year recorded as high as 8%, well, now it is 0.3%.

The Japanese government, fearing the rise in inflation, started making restrictions and the Bubble Economy collapsed. It brought back the reality that money is not the key to everything. A renewed focus on nature and spirituality brought back the “Mottai-nai” philosophy.

In today’s super market, meats and fish are already cut and packaged, so many children don’t know the reality of where it all comes from.

Some schools created the idea of keeping chickens hatched from eggs in the school yards for eventual slaughter and consumption. It is considered an “Education of life”. When the chicken is killed, the children are instructed not to look away. At first the children are scared but then realize where the food comes from and how precious a gift it is. They appreciate  and thankful for the animals sacrifice.

No matter how many clothes you may have, you will always choose two or three from your closet that are the most comfortable to wear. Likewise a simple uncluttered life might give you a purified life.

Ironically, if people sincerely put the “Mottai-nai” philosophy into practice, the world economy could get worse as mass consumption would decrease.