Photo/Illutration Saneatsu Mushanokoji in 1962 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Author and artist Saneatsu Mushanokoji (1885-1976), who is remembered for his many words of wisdom, lived to be 90.

I am particularly partial to one poem written late in his life. It starts to the effect, “It rained/ That’s good/ I can read books.”

I truly love how Mushanokoji faced old age squarely and simply wrote what he felt, without resorting to any sophisticated literary technique.

“I am turning 85 soon,” he continues, as if mumbling to himself at his Tokyo residence, his chosen forever home. “I marvel at the fact that I am still alive/ I am glad to be alive/ I do not want to die.”

From around his 88th birthday, he was said to have become hard of hearing and his hands shook noticeably. But he remained creative and wrote about six months before his death: “I am still alive/ I am living to the fullest/ I do not want to live a lie/ I want to live with utter seriousness.”

The honesty and bluntness of his words indicate the ease with which he looked back on his own life, and also suggest the solemnity with which he contemplated death.

“Life is not easy, but let’s say that’s what makes life interesting,” he goes on. “Life is not easy.”

Humans struggle and somehow manage to keep living. I am reminded of the famous words of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) from “Emile”: “The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life.”

Sept. 16 is “Keiro no Hi” (Respect-for-the-Aged Day) in Japan this year. I feel inspired by the strength and subtle beauty in how our elders, who have gone before us, continued to contemplate life and death.

I would like to reflect quietly on my own aging, too, on this day.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 16

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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