Before the advent of typewriters and email, letters were a form of handwritten communication using pen and paper from sender to recipient, in which the sender’s purpose, intentions, and feelings were written down in writing according to certain etiquette and customs, and the letter was delivered by a postman or other means.
Writing a letter is a form of self-expression, and the process can provide an opportunity to organize emotions and thoughts, make unexpected discoveries, or reaffirm things. Furthermore, because the letter is written with the recipient’s feelings in mind, it may lead to an awareness of the importance of consideration and emotional connection.
Evidence of letter writing can be traced back to ancient civilizations; in Mesopotamian civilization, cuneiform writing was used on clay tablets, and in ancient Egypt, letters were written with pens made from papyrus reed stems or bird feathers.
In the ancient Roman Empire, a postal delivery system (cursus publique) was developed to facilitate communication between colonies and serve as a key element of its administrative and military systems, delivering mail at a speed of 272 km per day. As letters became more frequent, this system played a role in developing the style of official Roman letters, a style that would later be passed down to papal notices and other documents.
In Japan, writing on wooden tablets was the standard method of communication, but around the 6th or 7th century, the method of making paper was introduced from China, and later, during the Heian period (794-1185), as papermaking became widespread throughout the country, writing on Japanese paper became common among aristocrats, and the means of communication gradually shifted to letters. Among the stories, diaries, and essays of this period are many excellent Heian letters with literary value.
The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, Japan’s oldest story and possibly the world’s oldest science fiction novel, is thought to have been written between the late 9th and early 10th centuries. Five letters appear throughout the story, but the letters from Princess Kaguya to the Emperor and the Bamboo Cutter in particular are written in exquisite prose, expressing her heartbreaking feelings and thoughts.
Let me summarize “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter.” It is a little long, but it shows that letters filled with gratitude and compassion play an important role.
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Once upon a time, an old bamboo cutter was out gathering bamboo in the mountains as usual when he came across a shining bamboo. Inside the bamboo sat a cute little girl, about 10 centimeters tall, and he took her home and raised her in a bamboo basket with his wife.
After that, the bamboo cutter continued to go into the mountains to collect bamboo as usual, but he began to find gold inside the bamboo, and before he knew it, he had become very rich.
The girl grew quickly, and in about three months she had grown into a beautiful young woman, so she had her hair tied up and was dressed in her coming-of-age ceremony (裳着, mogi).
Akita of Mimuroto Imube (三室戸斎部の秋田) acted as godfather, and the girl was named Nayotake no Kaguyahime (なよ竹のかぐや姫, Princess Kaguya of Graceful Bamboo), and a grand celebration was held.
Princess Kaguya, an unparalleled beauty who has become the object of admiration for men all over the world, receives marriage proposals from five noblemen through the old bamboo cutter. She was reluctant, but tells each of her suitors through the old bamboo cutter that if they fulfill her wishes, she will be able to gauge the depth of their love for her.
The items requested by Princess Kaguya:
* To Prince Ishitsukuri (石作皇子): a stone bowl for the Buddha (仏の御石の鉢).
* To Prince Kuramochi (車持皇子): a branch of a tree on Mount Horai with silver roots, a golden stem, and white jade fruit (蓬萊の玉の枝).
* To Minister of the Right Abe no Miushi (右大臣阿倍御主人): a fire rat fur coat from Tang China (火鼠の裘).
* To Dainagon Otomo no Miyuki (大納言大伴御行), a five-colored jewel on the dragon’s neck (龍の首の珠).
* To Middle Counselor Ishigami no Marotari (中納言石上麻呂), a baby’s nest shell held by a swallow (燕の産んだ子安貝).
In order to find the items that Princess Kaguya desires, each of the noblemen tries their best to find the items that Princess Kaguya desires, but none of them manage to complete this difficult task.
In the meantime, rumors of Princess Kaguya’s beauty and the hardships imposed on her suitors reached the ears of the Emperor, and he sent a messenger to the bamboo cutter’s house requesting an audience at court, but she stubbornly refused.
The Emperor tried to get an audience with her through the old bamboo cutter, but she continued to refuse, so he visited the old bamboo cutter’s house under the guise of hunting, and tried to take her away.
However, when Princess Kaguya transformed into light, demonstrating that it would be difficult to take her away, the Emperor realized that she was no ordinary person and gave up, asked her to return to her original form, and then left.
After returning to the palace, the emperor composed poems featuring trees and flowers of each season and continued to send letters expressing his feelings to Princess Kaguya. In response to his sincerity, she replied, and the two of them shared a heart-to-heart relationship, and three years passed.
From early spring that year, Princess Kaguya began to gaze at the moon, and on the night of the full July night she would sit on the veranda, lost in thought. One night close to the night of the full August night, she broke down in tears and confided a secret to the worried old bamboo cutter.
* That she is from the Moon Capital.
* That she has come to the human world in accordance with a promise she made in the Moon Kingdom.
* That the time has come for her to return, and that people will be coming from the moon to pick her up on the fifteenth night of the month.
* That she has been unable to tell this to the old bamboo cutter couple who raised her, as it would make them sad, and she has been troubled by this.
Rumors that Princess Kaguya was returning to the moon reached the ears of the emperor, and on the 15th, 2,000 elite soldiers were dispatched to the old bamboo cutter’s home.
* That she is sad to return without repaying the kindness they have shown her.
* That she regrets not being able to be filial to them, and has asked the king of the moon kingdom to postpone her return for a year, but her request is denied.
* That the people of the moon kingdom are very beautiful, do not age, and are free of worries.
* That she is not at all happy about returning to the moon kingdom.
* She is deeply saddened by the fact that she is no longer able to care for her elderly and frail foster parents.
As the evening passed and around midnight, the heavenly beings descended on clouds and stood in a line 1.5 meters above the ground.
The king in his carriage urged Princess Kaguya to return to the lunar capital, and the door to the storeroom opened, the tightly secured latticework slid open, and she slipped out of the arms of the old bamboo cutter’s wife, who had been embracing her, and stepped outside the house.
Princess Kaguya left a letter for the old bamboo cutter couple to read whenever they felt nostalgic. The letter said, “If I had been born on Earth, I would have taken care of you for as long as you two lived, but this is no longer possible. Please consider the kimono I leave behind as a memento. On moonlit nights, please look up at it from earth.”
The heavenly beings presented Princess Kaguya with a box containing the heavenly robe and the elixir of immortality, and urged her to drink the medicine to wash away the impurities of the earth. Princess Kaguya licked a little of the medicine and then tried to wrap it in the kimono she was leaving for the elderly couple as a keepsake, but the heavenly beings stopped her.
Princess Kaguya had heard that once she put on the heavenly feather robe, her heart would no longer be that of a human but that of a celestial being, so she told the celestial being that there was something she had to write down before putting on the robe, and she wrote a letter to the emperor.
* That she was sad and regretful because she had to return to the Land of the Moon.
* That it was because of these circumstances that she had disobeyed the imperial command, and that if this was considered rude, she would regret it.
* As she puts on the heavenly feather robe and heads home, her heartfelt yearning for the emperor is welling up inside her.
The soldier commander was entrusted with delivering Princess Kaguya’s letter and jar to the emperor, and the celestial being quickly put the heavenly feather robe on her, and all the memories and emotions she had felt on earth disappeared from her mind.
The emperor was deeply moved when he read Princess Kaguya’s letter, and composed a poem saying that the elixir of immortality was worthless because he would never see Princess Kaguya again, and had the letter and the jar containing the elixir burned on the summit of the mountain closest to heaven in Suruga Province (駿河).
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This elixir of immortality was burned on the mountain of immortality (不死の山, fuji no yama), also known as Mount Fuji, and there is also a theory that Mount Fuji was named after the sight of Tsuki no Iwakasa (調岩傘), who was ordered to carry out this mission, leading a large number of soldiers up the mountain (a mountain full of warriors, 士が富む山).
In any case, it can be said that letters from the Heian period were entrusted with special value in terms of organizing and expressing feelings, conveying thoughts, and connecting people.
There is a time gap when exchanging letters, which do not arrive immediately, and it is precisely because the words are carefully chosen that it is possible to maintain a sense of distance that is important to cherish, and it is also because of this gap that certain feelings can be seen or felt.
In social life, people unconsciously adjust the distance between themselves and others to convey their emotions and intentions, and it is said that the comfort and depth of the relationship change depending on that distance; this is known as proxemics.
As an aside, during the 2019 Virus Turmoil, implementers forced people to maintain distance from others under the pretext of avoiding droplet infection of the virus, and they also forced people to call it social distancing, claiming that maintaining a certain physical distance was good manners for living a healthy social life.
Distance refers to the spatial separation between two points and originally has only a physical meaning. However, the deliberate addition of the word “social” suggests a malicious psychological manipulation intended to rapidly spread anxiety and fear within communities and control behavior.
Moreover, according to the narrative, the virus had spread seamlessly throughout the air in every region of the planet. If that were the case, maintaining a six-foot distance would not have prevented infection in the first place. So, it can be inferred that social distancing was a tactic intended to incite negative emotions and confrontation by increasing physical distance from others and encouraging the interruption of social relationships.
Returning to the original topic, it was Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) who expressed the fact that being interested in something is what makes one human by using the German word Ent-fernung, which means distance.
Humans are beings who create relationships with things by taking an interest in (or caring about) something, and the distance that indicates this inherently has the meaning of preventing separation.
In other words, the act of people meeting and engaging in dialogue is premised on what Heidegger calls distance, and this distance can be seen as preventing separation and fostering mutual interest, rather than in the sense of physical or spatial separation.
Not only Princess Kaguya’s letters, but all the letters exchanged in the past likely contained elements that maintained emotional distance from oneself and expanded or contracted the psychological distance between oneself and the other, and boundaries that should not be violated were implicitly protected through moderation, restraint, and morality.
This is because finding the right distance is essential for maintaining peace of mind and for healthy interactions with others. For example, being too close can make one feel suffocated, while being too far can make one feel lonely. Blurred boundaries with others can leave us exhausted, or we can be hurt when our expectations are not met.
In recent years, the “Like” button has further exacerbated the tendency to distinguish between self and other, identifying oneself through others and worrying about their opinions. Furthermore, it seems that online posts can lead to flaming, as people confuse the feelings and expectations of others with their own, invade their territory too much, or allow others to encroach on their own.
It can therefore be said that being conscious of maintaining an appropriate distance is essential for survival in the present.
1. Clarify boundaries.
The ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus (c. 50 – c. 135 AD) encouraged people to clearly distinguish between what they can control (their own thoughts and judgments) and what they cannot (the opinions and events of others). Practicing this consciously may help us maintain healthy boundaries.
2. Deepen self-understanding
Investing in yourself through meditation and introspection will not lead to social isolation; rather, it will help you understand the needs and limitations of your relationships with others.
3. Distinguish between empathy and identification.
Having the kindness to empathize with the feelings and suffering of others is different from taking on those feelings and suffering and identifying with them.
4. Treat expectations as possibilities.
Respecting the free will of others and viewing expectations as mere possibilities rather than clinging to them can help prepare people and avoid unnecessary disappointment.
Maintaining an appropriate emotional distance from others does not mean cutting off ties with them and becoming isolated, but rather it leads to increased self-esteem and acceptance of others as independent beings.
Waiting for a letter to arrive or be delivered is not just a matter of the passage of time, but also involves complex psychological feelings such as expectation, anxiety, desire, patience, hope, and attachment.
While waiting, behavior may be voluntarily inhibited, psychological activities such as thinking, expectation, fantasy, and anxiety may intensify, or psychological effects of tolerance or control and acceptance may arise, which lead to the assignment of meaning.
Expectations for some anticipated reward may increase, stress may arise from uncertainty about the near future, cognitive control and restraint may occur against impulsive behavior, or cognitive restructuring may occur as a result of assigning meaning to the waiting.
“Waiting” is said to be a non-cognitive ability, but in today’s world, where people are becoming increasingly impatient due to changes in social structure and technological advances, it may be that our brains are becoming increasingly reluctant to wait. Furthermore, when things don’t go as planned, when there is nothing you can do, when you have no choice but to be still, a loss of sensitivity and patience may make waiting more painful.
Kanadehon Chushingura (仮名手本忠臣蔵), also known as 47 Ronin, is a Bunraku (文楽, puppet theater) and Kabuki (歌舞伎) play that dramatizes the true events surrounding the Ako incident and premiered in Osaka in 1748.
The incident begins when Asano Takumi-no-kami, the lord of the Ako domain, unable to tolerate Kira’s cruel harassment, slashed at him in the Pine Corridor of Edo Castle, wounding him in the forehead. Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, disregarding the custom of punishing both parties in a quarrel, ordered Asano to commit seppuku that same day and issued a decree that Kira be given no punishment. Furthermore, the Ako domain is abolished, and 47 former Ako samurai who have become ronin decide to avenge their lord, making bloody efforts and conducting espionage, as they prepare to enter Kira’s residence.
After many twists and turns, finally, on a bone-chilling, snowy night, 47 ronin led by Oishi Kuranosuke break into Kira’s residence and successfully avenge their master. The ronin then go to Sengaku-ji, the family temple of the Ako domain, to mourn the soul of their late lord. They then await the Shogun’s decision, and honorably commit seppuku in return for their crimes.
Many letters appear in this story, and the act of waiting, created by the lag between sending and receiving information, adds to the sense of tension.
During the Edo period, when travel was by foot, it typically took 14 days to travel from Edo to Kyoto. Ako was even farther from Edo than Kyoto, approximately 620 km (385 miles), and it was said at the time that it would take six days, even if one ran constantly, day and night.
To inform the domain’s senior officials of the incident, fast palanquins carrying messengers were immediately dispatched to Ako. While a normal fast palanquin would take about a week, it is said that the messengers arrived in Ako in about four and a half days. The first fast palanquin only reported the sword attack within Edo Castle, while the second reported Asano’s seppuku and the abolition of the Ako domain.
The shogunate’s decision to abolish the Ako domain caused turmoil within the domain, and in order to avoid economic chaos affecting the common people, Oishi took the initiative to convert the domain notes into silver before they became invalid.
Meanwhile, the samurai, who would lose their homeland and their jobs, engaged in heated debate over how to respond, with the following points at stake:
1. One proposal was that, even though it was an order from the shogunate, they were vassals of Asano, not the shogunate, and could not easily surrender the castle; therefore, their loyalty as samurai required them to hold out in the castle and fight bravely against the shogunate.
2. One proposal was that as proof of loyalty to the late Asano, they should all follow their late lord and commit seppuku in front of Ako Castle, as samurai, with honor.
3. One proposal was that as proof of their loyalty, they would avenge their lord Asano by killing Kira, who had forced him to commit seppuku.
During the Edo period, it was an officially recognized custom among the samurai class to avenge the death of those who had killed their lord, parents, siblings, etc. However, in this case, taking Kira’s head could be seen as treason against the shogunate.
In parallel with the discussions within the castle, Oishi submitted a letter to the shogunate pleading with them to reconsider Kira’s punishment. Oishi likely expected the shogunate to refuse to reconsider, and at the same time likely considered ideas for revenge, but he maintained his position of not making any decisions or taking any action until he received a response from the shogunate.
One can imagine that every moment spent “waiting” for the shogunate’s response must have felt extremely long, triggering complex psychological reactions for the vassals who had suddenly lost their lord and found themselves without a home.
During this time, Oishi decided that all of the remaining retainers would commit seppuku in order to maintain their loyalty as samurai, but at the same time, this also served to gauge the seriousness of those seeking revenge, and ultimately weeded out those who volunteered due to the atmosphere and peer pressure, leaving only 47 loyal ronin.
Although it takes time for a letter to be delivered after being mailed, there are anecdotes of people who arrived at their destination before the letter was delivered, thereby saving their personal assets from being frozen.
The early 1855 period, toward the end of the California Gold Rush, saw numerous bank failures and a commercial crisis. Banks such as Page, Bacon, Adams, Wright, and Robinson collapsed, leaving many businesses struggling.
On February 23 of that year, later known as “Great Depression Day” or “Black Friday in San Francisco,” runs on banks occurred, leading to the closure of several prominent financial institutions. Adams & Company, in particular, closed its doors while still holding large amounts of gold bullion, causing the greatest disastrous impact on its depositors.
Sacramento rancher Louis Remme, who had become wealthy by selling cattle to miners during the California Gold Rush, lost all of his assets, which he had deposited with the local Adams & Company Bank, in the financial panic. Louis had a certificate of deposit proving he had money in his account, but no California bank would accept it.
Meanwhile, Louis learned that the Adams & Company bank branch in Portland, Oregon, had not yet closed, and that the steamship Columbia had departed from the Golden Gate Bridge for Portland that morning with information about the bank’s closure.
The only way Louis could get his money back was to get to Portland before the steamship arrived and present his certificate of deposit at the bank’s branch there.
In a race against time for the letter to arrive, the portly Lewis rode north on horseback from Sacramento to Portland, 665 miles (approximately 1,070 km) away. Along the way, he crossed swollen rivers, waded through snowdrifts, and escaped Native American attacks, riding at full speed for six days, completing the 143-hour ride, reportedly had only about 10 hours of sleep.
Incidentally, the Oregon Trail was one of the main routes taken by pioneers in North America, and it is said to have taken five or six months to travel the 2,170 miles (3,500 km) from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. It was in use from 1841 to 1869, but it is said that there were hardly any settlements along the trail until the 1850s, so even when Lewis headed north in 1855, it was probably still a wilderness that was almost completely unexplored.
In the end, Lewis was able to present his deposit certificate to the Portland branch just 100 yards and 100 seconds before the letter arrived, and withdraw his deposit before it was frozen, which is also said to be the fastest journey by horseback.
In any case, letters can be said to connect distances that are physically or psychologically far apart, such as between individuals, between points in space, between the outer and inner psyches, or between distant places. This does not indicate a relationship in dualistic terms, but rather a non-dualistic distance between each entity as an individual.
In the film The Postman (1997), set in a time of devastation caused by nuclear war and the use of biological weapons, a postman delivers a letter from faraway lands, and becomes a special figure by sharing what he sees and hears along the way with people who are unable to travel and have little information.
The Beatles’ 1963 cover of “Please Mr. Postman” is a classic song that depicts the heartbreaking feeling of longing for a letter from a lover, and its motif is the unbearable feelings of the “gap” before the letter is delivered.
Whether it be time, psychology, or physical space, the gap between things piques people’s curiosity about whether there is something there or not, and it can be said that letters are also a way to enjoy such gaps.
Furthermore, the expressions of distance used in letters can elicit respect and various other emotional effects.
* Creates a sense of closeness and relieves tension.
* Conveys respect and reverence.
* Conveys the depth of emotions such as love and friendship.
* Conveys an attitude of respect and consideration.
* Conveys a sense of aesthetics and cleanliness.
In Japanese, “time (時間)” is written as “toki (時) no ma (間),” so there is an inherent element of interval, but it was the French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) who considered the “space between points in time.”
According to Bergson, the future is the result of an accumulation of present existence; it is the past, not the future, that gives present existence meaning, and the past as memory determines actions toward the future. Paradoxically, a person is not a product of the future in the sense that their present is determined by the future, but a product of the past in the form of memory.
Heidegger viewed the future as distinct from human limitations and interpreted the present from the perspective of the future, but Bergson took the opposite approach.
Bergson’s present is not understood as a subjective point, but as a continuation of connections with a certain temporal breadth, and perception is established within this continuation, and perception is entangled with memories of the past and also relates to the future in the form of a response to perception. The present is not an isolated subjective point, but a continuation connected to the past and future.
Furthermore, the present is occupied by sensation, the primordial form of perception, and because sensation is the basis for the reality of matter, it is no different from the solid impressions that the senses have.
Because an object is perceived (sensed) through the body, sensation can be said to be based on the materiality of the body. Perception is formed when memory, as a mental entity, is combined with this material sensation. Therefore, perception is the result of a collaboration between the present and the past. Since perception is not realized instantaneously but rather arises within a continuous sensory span, becoming is a temporal phenomenon. The present can therefore be seen as the progression of the past penetrating into the future.
When considering where humanity came from, rather than a top-down view that says we were created from nothing and have evolved “between being and non-being,” it is a view that sees us as “between the present and the past, the present connecting to the future,” which can be said to be an idea related to “between.”
Sophie’s World (1952) by Norwegian author Jostein Goaddar tells the story of a 14-year-old girl named Sophie who, after receiving a mysterious letter asking, “Who are you?” and “Where does the world come from?”, begins to explore the true nature of herself and the world while learning about the history of philosophy.
One of the practices of Western philosophy has been to continually question the relationship between subject and object, based on the premise of the observer (= subject) and the observed world (= object).
Sophie ultimately realizes that she is a character in the story and escapes from that reality, but this is by breaking away from a certain sense that the world is nothing more than how the self perceives it. Through Western philosophy, she imagines what lies outside of that sense, and escapes from a solipsistic world that exists as a framework that is both visible and limited.
This outside refers to the world of ideas, the world of things in themselves, the eternal world before it is abstracted by the sensory organs; in other words, the world outside the infinitely repeating loop of worlds in which the universe repeatedly expands and contracts.
Letter writing was once a wonderful way to build special bonds, both spiritually and psychologically, and across distance. By carefully conveying feelings of gratitude or appreciation that could not be expressed in everyday conversation, letters served to bridge or bring closer the distance between the past and present, or between individuals.
The sense of space that letters once contained is something that must never be hindered in today’s ever-accelerating and hyper-densifying society. This means that even in harsh times, one thing that must not be lost and must be maintained is emotional leeway.
Sincerely grateful for your financial support.
Sources and references:
Time and Free Will – Henri Bergson
