| LOL. I expect the metaphor was used in that fashion at some point.
Until the Meiji Restoration, Japanese looked to China as the source of learning and fine culture, but adapted what was acquired to fit the unique Japanese view of the world and inter-personal relations. In many respects, it was the colonization of China through western countries' 'zones of influence' that set the stage for the Meiji Restoration and its determination to industrialize. If so great a center of civilization as China could be so treated, Japan would adapt the western ideas to maintain Japan's control of its own destiny. The fact that Japan made such rapid industrial progress in the 50 years following the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate has a lot to do with koi. The great Taisho Exposition of 1914 was a celebration of Japan's progress. And it gave cause for the people of Niigata to display the 28 (27?) fancy carp Crown Prince Hirohito admired. We cannot know how long it would have been for the peasants of Niigata to be able to earn income from their indulgence if that industrialization had not been undertaken. If the limited market for koi had not developed in the 1920s and 30s, the disaster of World War II might have wiped out what little there would have been. Of course, there would not have been a war in the Pacific if the Japanese had not adopted the western ideas of colonialism as well as the western focus on industrialization and projecting military power. ...Perseverance against adversity. A very Japanese notion of ideal conduct. |