Great Construction

Debt

     The twenty some-odd years from my middle age could indeed be called an era of history suffering under debt. I will never forget around the time I was thirty-five or six and experienced a great business failure and began my relationship with debt. From that time I tried very hard to cut the ties, but as much as I endeavored, the debt only increased, and it came to the point where my property was attached by several loan sharks. Actually, the property was attached six or seven times. For those who have not experienced having property attached, it may be difficult to understand, but it is most unpleasant. The bailiff comes and puts strange stickers on all outstanding furniture. Particularly disagreeable are the stickers on the chests of drawers. Stickers are placed so that the drawers cannot be opened. Because the bailiff told us that damaging the stickers would result in legal action, the situation was hopeless, and we were at wit’s end.
     I became the defendant in several court cases, petitioning and negotiating with the usurers to the point where more than ten years had passed. Naturally, the agony from the debt during that period was not ordinary. In any case, there were several people to whom I owed money, among which were those known at the time as unscrupulous, so it was not easy. There were also times when I had to pay daily interest from about ten to fifty sen [US$0.20-US$0.50 in 1920] for renewing promissory notes. There was also one time when I was declared bankrupt. This is another thing that those who have not experienced will not understand, but bankruptcy is really burdensome. First of all, you cannot deal with a bank and are put on internal, secret reports. In those days I was an accessories dealer and quite widely known, but once bankruptcy was declared, transactions became cash only and promissory notes could not be used, which was the most troubling. Not only this, all mail personally addressed to me had to go first to the liquidator who read it before it came to me, extremely unpleasant.
     That was my life in debt until it was settled when I was past sixty years of age, so I had struggled with debt for twenty-four or five years. I read in a book somewhere that the late Kihachiro Okura on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday on the topic of “the secret to a long life” wrote that if you want to live a long life, you should not incur debt, that nothing shortened life as much as debt. In this sense, people like me have probably shortened our lives by more than a little due to debt.

Assorted Reflections, Jikan Library, Volume 5, page 7, August 30, 1949
translated by cynndd

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“Shakkin” originally appeared as the fourth chapter of Jikan Zuidan (Assorted Reflections), Jikan Sōsho (Jikan Library), Volume 5, August 30, 1949, and while Meishu-sama was still alive, was reprinted in the essays anthology for ministers Goshin Sho: Shūkyō Hen (Divine Writings: Volume on Religion), page 317, March 25, 1954. As far as is known, “Shakkin” has not appeared in translation.