Sasshi (察し): sensing. The Nihon Kokugo Daijiten defines it as perceiving, being considerate, inferring. Ichi o kiite jū o shiru (一を聞いて十を知る): hear one, know ten. To grasp the whole of a matter after hearing or trying only a little of it.
Warming the Sandals
One winter day, according to a famous story, the warlord Oda Nobunaga went outside and found that his sandals were missing. He asked Saru, Monkey, as he called his young servant, where they were. The servant took them out of his robe and said that he had warmed them. The servant later became Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the ruler of Japan.
The story first appears in Ehon Taikōki, a popular illustrated biography. The magazine Waraku notes that no other source has it, so it cannot be called true.
He Does Not Say It
In 2012, the catcher Tanishige Motonobu of the Chunichi Dragons told the sports journalist Ninomiya Seijun what he had learned from his former manager, Ochiai Hiromitsu. “There is something about him that makes us think on purpose. He does not say it aloud.”
Kagaya
The inn Kagaya at Wakura Onsen ranked first for 36 years in a row in an annual ranking of Japan’s hotels and inns chosen by professionals. In the ranking announced in December 2016, it fell to third.
Its idea of service is egao de kibataraki, a smile and quick attentiveness. Kagaya tells its staff that guest satisfaction is half the manual. The rest should be brought to 100 by their own sense and their work on the spot.
Kagaya has been closed since the earthquake on the Noto Peninsula on January 1, 2024 damaged it. It is building a new building.
Three Cups of Tea
A well-known story tells how Ishida Mitsunari entered the service of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi stopped at a temple and asked for tea. A temple boy first served a cup almost full of lukewarm tea. Hideyoshi asked for more. The boy served less tea, a little hotter. The third time, he served a small amount of quite hot tea in a small cup. Hideyoshi was impressed by the boy’s attentiveness and asked the abbot for him.
The story is known as sanken no cha, the three offerings of tea. It first appears in Bushō kanjōki, published in 1716, and was later retold in Ehon Taikōki and Meishō genkōroku. It is most likely a later invention.
Inferring the Wishes of Others
Sontaku (忖度) means to infer what is in another person’s mind. In 2017, it shared the grand prize of the annual buzzword award, the Shingo Ryūkōgo Taishō, with insuta-bae, looking good on Instagram.
For the award, the word stood for the Moritomo and Kake Gakuen issues, in which officials were said to have anticipated the wishes of the prime minister’s office. Testifying in the Diet, the chairman of the Moritomo Gakuen school operator said: Sontaku shita no deshō. They probably showed sontaku. The prize was accepted by the president of a company that sold sontaku manjū, sweet buns.
Rikyū’s Seven Rules
Seven rules for the tea ceremony are traditionally attributed to the tea master Sen no Rikyū. They are known as Rikyū shichisoku. Make tea so that it is good to drink. Lay the charcoal so that the water boils. Arrange flowers as they grow in the field. Make it cool in summer and warm in winter. Be early. Have an umbrella ready even when it is not raining. Be mindful of the other guests.
A children’s tea ceremony leaflet from the town of Chikujō in Fukuoka explains each rule. The first teaches kikubari, attentiveness. The rule on summer and winter teaches omoiyari, consideration for others.
The Snow of Xianglu Peak
In Makura no sōshi (The Pillow Book), Sei Shōnagon recalls a day of deep snow at court. Empress Teishi asks: Shōnagon yo, Kōrohō no yuki ika naramu. Shōnagon, how is the snow of Xianglu Peak? Sei Shōnagon has the lattice raised and lifts the blind high. The Empress smiles.
The question quotes a line by the Chinese poet Bai Juyi: the snow of Xianglu Peak, I lift the blind to see. The other ladies admit that they knew the line and had even used it in poems, but it had not occurred to them. The Empress had not asked for the blind to be raised.
Advice on Consideration
In 1982, Kōdansha published Kikubari no susume (Advice on Consideration) by Suzuki Kenji, a former announcer of the public broadcaster NHK. Kikubari means attentiveness to others. The book became one of the great bestsellers in the history of Japanese publishing.
It also drew criticism, because it treated kikubari as a technique.
From Mind to Mind
Ishin denshin (以心伝心): from mind to mind. In Zen Buddhism, passing on the deepest teaching from the heart of the master to the heart of the disciple, without words or writing. In everyday use, understanding each other without words.