Life, the universe, and pregnancy

There are a number of replies in which the words standing for images of inochi are simply listed. The following are examples of this.

Images coming to my mind: a baby, a human being, pregnancy, love, to live, death, something important, dignity, impossible to resuscitate, the universe. (20-29/female/housewife/—)

1. Myself 2. relatives 3. friends 4. humans 5. the earth 6. the universe 7. myself. These images come to mind nearly in this order. I think of them as imortant. (30-39/male/retailer/—)

Children, adults, human being, food, nature, the sea, the sky, a mountain, the murmur of brook, the sound of the wind, eternal inochi, the ground, something destroying nature, nuclear power plants, war, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bikini Atoll, environmental disruption, radioactivity, pesticides, the earth, the universe, the phoenix by cartoonist Tezuka Osamu, something warm, something I want to treasure, the exploitation of the wilderness for resorts, mother’s love, seimei, the ground, the inochi of all creatures, finiteness. There are many other words. However, I will stop writing here because the series can go on forever. (30-39/female/primary school teacher/no religion)

The images spread widely from oneself to the universe, from humans to all creatures and the earth itself. Some replies like the third one, refer to ‘radioactivity’ and/or ‘pesticides’. We cannot ignore the influence of Japanese anti-nuclear power plant protests and ecology movements which have used the word inochi as one of their key concepts in recent years (28). It is impressive that all three cited replies mention the image of the universe. In a sense, we can conclude from this that the three respondents grasp inochi in some religious context, though they do not have any [90/91] particular religion. Many women say that images of a baby and a state of pregnancy come to their minds when hearing the word inochi, while most men don’t. The third reply is interesting in that it contains two completely opposite concepts: namely ‘eternal inochi’ and ‘finiteness’.

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The Concept of Inochi (life) (1991)
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