Minamoto no Sanetomo

The calligraphy on the print gives us the title by which Sanetomo is usually known today - 'Kamakura no Udaijin'. The second son of Minamoto Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura shogunate, he became shogun in his turn when his elder brother died, only to then be assassinated at age 28. It seems that poetry was a major interest of his, and my textbooks refer to him studying under Fujiwara no Teika, and make numerous references to poems of his being included in well-known collections.

This is a very interesting poem for me. Even though our society today is vastly different from that of Sanetomo, I doubt very much that there is much difference between people of his day and ours in basic human outlook and emotions. I don't know much about his personal history, beyond the fact that it must have been pretty turbulent, but it seems that at the moment that he wrote this poem at least, he was content and happy. Reading his wish in the poem that he would be able to 'stop the clock' and preserve that happy moment reminded me instantly of a story I read many years ago. It was about a man who had somehow obtained a 'magic watch'; there was a button on this watch that, when pressed, would indeed 'stop time', and the man would then be able to live forever in that condition.

The story followed him through many stages of his life. Sometimes, at some moment when he was very happy, he brought the watch out of his pocket and considered pressing the button, but he then thought about something else that he wanted, but did not yet have, and so put the watch away without using it. He was always unable to decide if 'now' was really the happiest time of his life; he knew that if he pressed the button he would miss out on what was 'next' ...

How would you act if you had such a watch? Remember - it doesn't allow you to go back and choose a happy time in the past; that would be easy for any of us I'm sure! Even one of my daughters, who are here staying with me for the summer months, said just this morning while looking through old photo albums 'Oh, I'd like to be able to go back to those days. We were so happy!' But even as she said this, we were laughing and happily enjoying our time together. The very idea that she could have 'stopped time' at such a young age is awful to contemplate. To miss all those happy times that are coming as she grows up and creates her own life and family ...

So while it is very easy for me to say that my daughters should never consider using such a watch, because I can 'see' something of the future that is in front of them, for myself I am not so sure what to think. Here I am at 46 years old, still young and healthy, and approaching the climax of one of the most important parts of my life, the end of this long print series. If I owned such a special watch, you can be sure that I would now be holding it in my hand, contemplating that button ... Surely this is the time to press it ...

I suppose I should tell you what happened to the man in the story. He never did push the button, and reached the end of his natural life without using the watch. There could have been no other outcome for the story of course; that is our fate, always to move forward to whatever comes next. No matter how happy and content we may be at any moment, we know that unlike in a story, in real life it is impossible to 'stand still' - our present happiness will inevitably be taken away from us. The only solution is to continually create more ... and the only way to do that is through creative and productive work, and by sharing good times with friends and loved ones.

But here I am holding the watch ... What do you think I should do, press the button now ... or wait just a little bit longer? What should I do ...?

July 1998