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     Not only as a world literary figure, but as one who was respected as a great global personality, the recently deceased Bernard Shaw was someone who has been a favorite since my youth. For these reasons, let me write about a few aspects of Shaw that I remember.
     When critiquing Shaw, most people only mention that his work abounds in irony and epigrammic witticisms, and these aspects are of course a part of his work, but I think it regrettable that people remark only on these facets and do not look at the man as a whole. From my perspective there is no one else comparable who can accurately grasp the truth and get straight to the point. Of his sarcastic wit, he produces clear and sharp epigrams. They are short and frank. Such a manner of expression is like that of one with a superior religious sensibility. I write briefly from memory, but of his works, there is the well-known The Devil’s Disciple. I saw this at the theater, and it was indeed interesting and affected me deeply. The story is about a vicar in a small village in England. While the vicar was away, a police officer came to his house. He had a warrant to take the vicar to the police station, and since he was away, the officer told the wife of the reason for his visit. The wife was quite astonished but also became quite fearful and did not know what to do. It was just at this time that a little while before there had come into the village a young man. He had such a bad reputation that it can be easily imagined why he had been nicknamed “the Devil’s Disciple.” The Devil’s Disciple could not stand to see the vicar’s wife trembling in front of the police office, and all of a sudden, he blurted out that he had committed the crime, came forward and asked the officer to be taken away. The police officer thought that given the man’s reputation, it was probably so, and with no qualms, took the Devil’s Disciple to the police station.
The poignant Devil’s Disciple
     Soon after, the vicar returned and when he heard the story from his wife, his complexion paled, so obvious it was that he was in some kind of psychological pain. Within his struggle day and night on what measures to take to avoid paying for his crime, there had welled up within him self-reproach for his own cowardice. As if deriding his own mean spirit, he thought who was it that had volunteered to sacrifice himself but the Devil’s Disciple! Even the vicar could do nothing for his feelings of shame. As a disciple of the most sacred God he realized he was inferior to the Devil’s Disciple, and, as well as confessing to his wife, hurried to the police station to help the Devil’s Disciple and get him released. As his crime was considered minor, the vicar was immediately released and returned home with the Devil’s Disciple, whereupon he immediately expressed his appreciation to and praised the Devil’s Disciple. I believe that was the plot. I was quite impressed when I saw this and it remains in my memory.
Pacifistic, satirical theater
     Next is the work Arms and the Man, also known as Chocolate Soldier. The story is set after the First World War. It is a pacifistic, satirical play in which one soldier is stationed in a certain village, living each day carefree, befriending the children of the village, and always giving them chocolate. I remember it as having a continuous string of bitter aphorisms on the merits and demerits of war. Next is the work Twentieth Century which also takes place post-war, in England, and reflects the currents of thought contemporary then. The main character of this play is a retired army colonel who could be called a representative of conservative England, the feudalistic type who is liable to fly into rages. In Japanese terms, this character is like the old-fashioned sort in the Meiji era who continues with Edo-period ways. He is stubborn, self-centered, and quite annoying to his family, so the household has a dark, gloomy atmosphere, and behind his back, family members stick their tongues out at him. The plot as I remember it goes something like this. His son and other family members try to introduce new ideas to him once in a while, but the old colonel cannot understand. As the story develops, several problems come up, the father gradually softens, and in the end capitulates totally. In any case, a long time has passed since I saw these works, but that is what they were about. I will leave Shaw’s works at this extent and move on to other aspects of his outlook. Let me introduce a few.
A great literary figure of unparalleled honesty
     Here are my opinions of his comedy. Of course, the goal of comedy is to elicit laughter, and there is a knack to triggering laughter. That knack is disillusionment. For example, suppose a character with a powerful build had a magnificent beard and rode by on a majestic horse. If the scene changed and he were to ride the horse completely naked, the disillusionment would provoke laughter. In such a way, the coverings of society such as ornaments, bluster, and tradition are peeled away without hesitation to show the plain, raw facts. That is what has been called the secret to comedy. Of course, this viewpoint is at the center of Shaw’s irony and aphorisms. Put simply, he does not pull punches and lays all bare. His honesty is reality as it is to the core. His character was the same. I do believe there has not been a man of letters as honest as Bernard Shaw. Thus, his irony is not for the sake of irony. As described above, it is an irony to expose reality. Here is another example.
     This is something that occurred one time when he was giving a lecture before a large audience. All of a sudden, he said words to the effect that the audience gathered together for the lecture would probably not be able to understand what he had to say due to the level of their intelligence. It is said the entire hall burst out in booming laughter which shows his intriguing charm. Ordinarily, the average person bombarded with such an insult would be greatly angered, but the fact that he could elicit the opposite reaction vividly shows how much he was revered by the people.
     Another episode is when a well-known woman author said to him words to the effect that if someone with such a great head as her were to marry someone like him, they would have a wonderfully clever child, to which Shaw immediately replied, no, not at all. If someone with an ordinary head like you were to marry someone with a strange face like me, the child which would be born would probably be useless.
     But the aphorism I thought extremely interesting was the one in which he said that if everyone followed his thinking, romantic love would be for the survival of the species as a necessity bestowed by God. How clever! There has probably been no one as full of self-confidence as he. It is reported that he was always saying that yes, Shakespeare is said to be the greatest in England, but, truth be told, he was the greatest. This is probably not showing off or boasting. The fact that he himself thought so probably shows he was simply being honest. That he could say something that appears so megalomaniac which passed through his lips without any scent of self-conceit and be so readily received was his greatness. When we observe that in later years intellectuals made it a point to hear his opinion whenever problems of various sorts arose in England suggests how much of a presence he was. Bernard Shaw is certainly one who should be counted as one of the great ones of the twentieth century.
The secret of a long life—vegetarianism
     On a different topic, the direct cause of Shaw’s death was a kidney operation. About this, I express my opinion. Because he had fractured a femur when he fell in his garden, he was operated upon, and this operation did not threaten his life, but because the chronic kidney condition from which he had suffered worsened, his kidney was operated upon which became the cause of his death. To tell the truth, the reason his kidney disease occurred was due to the fracture of his femur, and was only temporary, so if his kidney had been left alone, he would have healed. Present medical science, however, does not understand even this much and so operated upon him. Thus, the cause of his death was as a victim of error by medical science. If he had not undergone an operation, there is no doubt he would have lived an even longer life. That is because unlike many Caucasian peoples, Shaw had been a strict vegetarian for a very long time. Vegetarianism is the secret to a long life, and the fact he had a surgical operation was very regrettable.

Translation note: English readers may be aware that Meishu-sama’s descriptions of Shaw’s plays do not accord with the original English texts of Shaw’s works that are available today. Please note that as he writes in the essay, Meishu-sama did not read these plays, he saw their actual productions in Japanese in Japan and is writing from memory. Because of this, there are several points to consider: As far as is known, no Meishu-sama organization has made a study of the history and contents of the production of Bernard Shaw’s works in Japan at the time when Meishu-sama would have attended their performances. The editor has read that a production of The Devil’s Disciple was performed in Japanese at the Teikoku Theater (which Meishu-sama is known to have frequented) on November 28, 1913. What is not known is how closely any production then would have followed Shaw’s English script. Remember that Western drama is still in its infancy in Japan. Nowadays Japanese audiences are quite sophisticated and often very familiar with original scripts, but as can even be seen in modern productions, those in charge of producing a Western drama may feel the need to change aspects which they think their audiences will not be able to follow. Also, there is no record of a play by Shaw titled Twentieth Century nor does the contents described seem to fit the contents as is of any of Shaw’s plays. It is possible that the Japanese producers cobbled together a melange of plots and language from several of Shaw’s works to make a production. Remember, Meishu-sama is describing what he saw and heard, not what he read.