Between Emotion and Reason: A Dialogue between Kiyoshi Oka and Terumi Azuma in 1977

Between Emotion and Reason: A Dialogue between Kiyoshi Oka and Terumi Azuma in 1977

It was 1977, a time when Japanese knowledge was still alive in our daily lives. The unusual meeting of mathematician Kiyoshi Oka and actress Terumi Azuma made the headlines in weekly magazines. The dialogue between the two about reason and emotion was more than just an eccentric project; it symbolized a shift in the intellectual landscape of postwar Japan.

Kiyoshi Oka, already in his 70s, was known for his "philosophy of emotion" and was inclined to explore the spiritual world beyond mathematics. On the other hand, Higashi Terumi was active in TV dramas and movies, and was attracting attention as a new type of actress who spoke frankly about the way women live their lives. The setting for the dialogue was tense, as if standing on the borderline between knowledge and sensibility.

Oka said, "One cannot live by reason alone. Without emotion, we cannot feel the world." Higashi responded with a laugh, "But women often lose out if they live their lives according to their emotions. The old scholar's contemplation and the young actress's sense of reality seem to be at odds with each other, but somehow deeply resonate with each other. In the moment when Oka's solemn words were suddenly unraveled by Azuma's light-hearted response, the reader felt the air of a new era.

The fact that this dialogue appeared in a weekly magazine is itself a sign of the changing times. It was the late 1970s, when the university struggles had ended and ideas were coming down to town. Television and magazines made learning entertaining, and both scholars and TV personalities were lined up as "the same talkers. The profound philosophy of Kiyoshi Oka and the unrestrained sensibility of Terumi Azuma were discussed in parallel, and this was the germ of the democratization of knowledge.

When Yasutaka Tsutsui wrote in his diary that he "fell to his knees" after reading this dialogue, it was probably because he recognized the "lightness of knowledge" of this era that lay behind the irony and laughter. Authority was collapsing, and learning was coming down to the words of the common man. Oka's phrase "emotion beyond reason" was no longer read in philosophy books but as a headline in a weekly magazine.

This dialogue reflects the image of Japanese people standing in the space between knowledge and emotion. It was a time when rigorous speculation and worldly conversation breathed together in the pages of the same magazine. The conversation reflects the temperature of that era, when intellectuals and entertainers recognized each other's existence, but still felt an unbridgeable gap between them.