As the story of the Buddha’s “Great Renunciation” suggests, it is very difficult for urban people to face aging, sickness and death. Urban culture seeks to cover up and ignore these misfortunes and many modern people in the city live without religion. Yoshimoto Takaaki, who wrote The Last Shinran, was able to disengage himself from urban culture and face death as Shinran did. However he was unable to enter the gate of religion. For him religion is already established and negates his identity. Beyond religion, he longed for the foolishness of the Last Shinran. But to be foolish like Shinran, it is necessary to deconstruct the self. Shinran deconstructed not only the old religious systems but also experienced the deconstruction of his self. This deconstruction is conversion. Conversion does not mean to exchange one thought with a new one, but to be born as a new self through self-deconstruction. But one cannot deconstruct oneself. Only the Other Power can negate the self. Has not Yoshimoto experienced the deconstruction of his self when he disengaged himself from urban culture? Because he experienced the deconstruction of his self and became a fool, he could discover Shinran’s foolishness before the gate of the religion.
