I am Satoshi Kanisawa.
For over 50 years,
I have been researching the field of geology.
First, I’d like to explain what geology is all about.
Then, I’d like to explain what connection geology has with
“Oku no Hosomichi” (“The Narrow Road to OKU”, translation by D. Keene).
So, what kind of field is geology?
Geology is the study of the Earth’s history.
Here, we have the unit: 10×108 years,
but in geology, we calculate by
referring to time in units of
millions or even billions of years.
There is another earth science called geophysics,
where we study and predict
the phenomena on earth such as earthquakes and the weather.
Its method tries to analyze the phenomena
and serve us human beings.
With geology, we also consider the axis of time.
For this, in order to study geology,
we need to go outside and observe rocks.
Let’s go back to “Oku no Hosomichi”.
Oku no Hosomichi records
the travel of Basho, who left Edo in 1689,
went beyond Shirakawa-seki,
passed Matsushima onto Hiraizumi,
crossed over to travel along the Sea of Japan
through Echigo, Kaga,
and finally Ogaki of Gifu Prefecture.
The writing consists of just 30 to 40 pages,
400 characters each.
“The months and days are the travelers of everything. The years that come and go are also voyagers.”
You may have forgotten what comes after this passage, but
this famous passage matches the belief of geology.
Basically, this means the months and days are extremely long,
while the human life is actually quite short.
The original of this passage is a quote from the Chinese poet, Li Bai.
The quote says that,
while the history of Earth and Heaven is everlasting,
the human life is very short compared to it.
Here’s a more specific story.
The history of the Earth began 4.6 billion years ago.
Homo Sapiens appeared on Earth 250,000 years ago.
This means we, humans, have only lived for 250,000 years.
What about this next number, 300?
This is the number of years from the industrial revolution up till now.
What do these numbers show?
These numbers are all quite hard to comprehend,
so let’s mark 4.6 billion years ago
as January 1, 00:00
and our present time at December 31, 23:59.
Then, we can say that,
from here, we entered the Industrial Revolution
and begun our mass consumption of fossil fuels.
We’ve exploited a lot of oil and coal
in just two seconds of this whole year.
And we believe that we have enriched our lives
in just these two seconds.
Yet, when was oil and coal created on earth?
(y axis = oil reserves, x axis = time, one unit = 100 million years)
The era between 100 and 200 million years ago is when dinosaurs roamed the world.
In the geological age, this is the Jurassic and the Cretaceous period.
It’s the same period as the movie “Jurassic Park”.
300 to 400 million years ago was the Carboniferous period.
What the plants and creatures have created
from their remains 300-400, or 100-200 million years ago
we have exploited them in just 300 years.
Currently, there is much debate over
how long the current supply of oil would last.
Yet, shouldn’t we first look back
and feel ashamed of what we have done?
In this graph, there are several periods where, based on the attributes of living things,
they gradually increase in number
and when they reach the maximum, they suddenly diminish.
There are several dips where the arrow points.
Creatures have evolved and increased in number.
However, this shows that
a certain species has suddenly become extinct.
The first arrow on the left is 65 million years ago.
The second arrow from the left is about 240 million years ago.
As you all know, a meteor struck 65 million years ago.
As you all know,
a meteor struck 65 million years ago.
Due to this, the earth’s climate drastically changed,
and all major reptiles, especially dinosaurs,
became extinct, as their bodies were too large.
Then it became the era of the small mammals,
which had been living under these dinosaurs till then.
This graph shows such periods of ebb and flow in life.
This links with Basho’s poem,
“Summer grasses, all that remains, of warriors’ dreams”,
which he wrote after seeing the glory of the Fujiwara clan.
We humans are currently fascinated by our era,
but is this a good thing?
As I mentioned earlier,
ever since the industrial revolution,
especially since the 20th Century, whether it be oil or coal,
there has been the development of the automobile civilization.
Currently, there is much debate on “how much longer will it last?”
Here, we have the principle of immutability and fluidity.
It means there are things that change, and things that remain the same.
For example,
Basho believed the cycles of
the sun and the moon are unchanging.
Amongst that, the lives of humans are fleeting.
Right now, we are living the present,
constructing roads with concrete, railroads with iron,
and our lives are becoming ever more convenient.
Yet, the earth is moving. The earth is alive.
We do not know how long the world of humans would last.
Yet , if we try to think about 100 million years from now,
it is difficult to imagine what organisms would be existing then.
If there are geologists like us in that era,
they may think that,
100 million years ago,
there were creatures called the homo sapiens,
which buried the whole earth with concrete and railroads.
If we think about how those creatures 100 million years from now
would evaluate us,
Shouldn’t it be time that we start thinking of whether
it is good to carry on with how we are living now?
This is the last of Basho’s philosophy,
as well as my final message and assignment for you all.
“The heart that sees life as fleeting”
This is related to Basho’s principle of immutability and fluidity.
"Our soul, which defines all living creatures as being connected,
and cherishes and admires them."
I would like all of you to question
the true meaning of this quote by Basho.
And right now, we are enjoying the benefit of living a good life.
We have been inflicted with great damage on March 11.
Yet, another reason why I talked about “Oku no Hosomichi” here is because,
given the March 11 disaster,
I wanted all of us to rethink Basho’s line
that I have mentioned earlier:
“The months and days are the travelers of everything.”
And, as I have also mentioned earlier, “the Earth is alive”.
Is the future ever-changing? Can we not do anything about it?
Basho does not believe in impermanence;
he comprehends things in a very positive tone.
Hence, “the Earth is alive”.
What will we do with this living Earth?
This is the question which I would like all of you to think about, and which I would like to leave off of today.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)