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晴れてよし曇りてもよし富士の山
もとの姿は変らざりけり
hareteyoshi kumoritemoyoshi fujinoyama
motono sugata wa kawarazarikeri
Whether it be clear or cloudy,
Mt. Fuji is unchanging
– Yamaoka Tesshū (1836 - 1888)
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Yamaoka Tesshū was active from the end of the Edo period to the Meiji period and is famous for his important role in the Bloodless Opening of Edo Castle. His poem praises Mt. Fuji’s beauty, but an interpretation of it could be that all things, even ourselves, appear to change depending on their circumstances. However, despite the changes, there is always a fundamental, consistent root.
Tesshū worked selflessly to do what he thought would help Japan. However, the late Edo period was a time of deepening conflict over the opening of the country to the outside world and whether to support the shogunate or the emperor. Many people were distrustful of Yamaoka, who had been a supporter of the shogun, changing his convictions to support the emperor. He must have felt frustration at the way his decision affected the way his peers thought of him, despite the fact that he felt he had stayed true to his principles. However, the tanka also expresses not only frustration but also faith in changing one's position.
As Katsu Kaishu (1823-1899), who was the representative for the Tokugawa shogunate during the surrender of Edo Castle, said on his behalf, "As long as the spirit remains constant, the form can be flexible." He might have meant that sometimes changing one's position is the only means to protect one's beliefs.
We do not live alone, but in a community, and as such, we are constantly influenced by outside forces. Values and means progress over time. For example, standards of beauty evolve and the development of technology can render tools and methods irrelevant. If the cells in our body do not continue to die and be reborn, our bodies will rot away. In that light, maybe changing is actually a means to stay the same. Perhaps willfully trying to stifle change is impotently trying to defy the flow of time.
Yamaoka Tesshū responded with a sense of balance, not merely sticking to established thinking, to strengthen Japan as he lived through the upheavals at the end of the Edo period. We also have to stay true to our own fundamental nature while at the same time changing with dignity and grace.