The Internal Structure of “Will” in Kiyozawa Manshi’s Rōsenki

Abstract

This study elucidates the internal structure of the will in Kiyozawa Manshi (1863-1903)’s work, Rōsenki. Kiyozawa was inspired by the Stoic philosopher, Epictetus (c. 55-c. 135). Kiyozawa accepts Epictetus’s distinction between things in our power and things not in our power as the distinction between the things that are in our will (nyoi-narumono) and the things that are not in our will (funyoi-narumono).

With this distinction, one can freely determine oneself by one’s will (inen), but cannot control one’s properties, honor, and body by one’s will. In Rōsenki, Kiyozawa always confronts new situations, which he cannot control by his own will. For example, he recognizes that his situation before birth and after death is incomprehensible and uncontrollable. In this case, he leaves himself to the absolute infinite power and rests in the present situation. In this moment, he attains self-recognition within the infinite power. This self-recognition is expressed as Rakuzai (which literally means “a fallen being”) and Reizon (literary “a spiritual being”) something being beyond birth and death. Thereafter, he discovers the new mode of his will, which is deepened by self-recognition. This is the structure of the development of the will in Rōsenki.