Dreams, Nightmares and Confucian Humanism: Reflections on a Future Modernity in the Wake of Tohoku

Dreams, Nightmares, and Confucian Humanism: Reflections on a Future Modernity in the Wake of TohokuJohn A. TuckerThe Tohoku Earthquake-Tsunami-Nuclear disaster of March 11, 2011 (Higashi Nihon daishin-sai) has been the focus of numerous discussions, formal and informal, regarding the relationships of traditional religious and philosophical thinking to the disaster. Most of these have focused on the new religious movements such asTenrikyo and Kofuku no kagaku, others have been more traditional, relating Buddhist responses to the disaster. The relevance of Japanese Confucianism to the disaster has yet to be explored. Taking Kurosawa's anti-nuclear films - I Live in Fear and Dreams -- as starting points, the presentation seeks to explore Confucian thinking about humanity and the natural work in relation to thinking, and cinematography, about ways in which, in the wake of the Tohoku nightmare, Japan and the world might pioneer and future modernity.