Asian Education on Film, Episode 13
Red Beard (赤ひげ) (Kurosawa Akira / 黒澤明, Japan, 1965)
From a contemporary Japanese primary school, the setting for the film Monster, in this episode we move back in time to mid-19th century Japan and a very different educational context. Red Beard, by the great director Kurosawa Akira, portrays a public clinic in a city in late Edo-era Japan (that is, around the early or mid-19th century). It offers a classic portrayal of the sensei/deshi or teacher-disciple relationship typical of the deeply hierarchical educational culture of so-called ‘Confucian’ societies. As Confucius himself put it in one of his aphorisms: ‘A teacher for a day is a father for life’ (一日為師，終生為父). In other words, the respect one owes to a teacher forms a sacred bond of loyalty equivalent to that between a father and son.
That sort of hierarchical, rather authoritarian, teacher-disciple relationship is a feature of education in many Asian societies. We see it in Amitabh Bachchan’s portrayal of the guru-like college principal in the film Aarakshan. The immense patriarchal authority that teachers or professors wield in South Asia is reflected in the deferential habit of addressing teachers - and former teachers - as ‘Sir’ (or less frequently ‘Madam’). Similarly, in East Asia, senior professors enjoy enormous homage from former students, and the associational activity of academic life often revolves around the sage-like figure of a venerable scholarly patriarch.
Mifune Toshio’s character in Red Beard, the head physician of the clinic, Niije-sensei, is in one sense a sagely archetype of precisely this kind. The film revolves around Nike’s relationship with his impatient - and initially reluctant and disrespectful - young disciple, Yasumoto. The film charts the taming of Yasumoto, as he learns to appreciate the wisdom of his elder colleague, and finally realises that his supreme ambition is to emulate and serve him.
But Kurosawa films, things are seldom quite as straightforward as at first sight they might appear. Niije is certainly stern and rather autocratic, but he exercises his teacherly authority primarily by force of example. He himself exudes contempt for corruption amongst those in positions of power and authority. And far from insisting on undying loyalty, he smooths the way for Yasumoto to pursue fame and fortune elsewhere, only for Yasumoto voluntarily to reject that path and pledge himself to the service of his master.
The story also reflects a certain scepticism about the value of modern science. Yasumoto’s initial arrogance stems largely from pride in his modern medical expertise, lending him knowledge superior to that of his seniors. He has been studying in Nagasaki, the hub for exchanges between Edo Japan and the wider world, and the centre for what was called ‘Dutch Learning’ (蘭学). Niije is keen to discover what Yasumoto has learnt to derive knowledge that will be useful in treating his patients. But at the same time, the older doctor expresses scepticism concerning the curative power of medicine and science on their own.
For Kurosawa, that scepticism regarding the power of science carried a message, or warning, for the Japan of the 1960s, which was experiencing surging growth and rapid industrialisation and modernisation. He’s reminding those seduced by the power of science of its limits in the face of poverty and injustice. Rather than treating his patients as malfunctioning machines, as bodies to be repaired and retuned for productive labour, Niije-sensei is acutely conscious of how individual sickness can often be traced to the moral malaise of society.
So, Red Beard shows the completion of the education of a young man who thinks he knows it all, but who comes to appreciate how little books alone can teach him. Yasumoto learns that tending for the sick is as much a matter of understanding suffering and injustice as of knowledge of anatomy or science. At the same time, he is challenged to question the ultimate purpose of learning itself: Is it a route to profit and power, or a means of serving others? The learned man must confront a moral choice. Will he use his learning for self-aggrandisement, or for the benefit of his suffering fellow-men?
The film can be viewed here: https://archive.org/details/red-beard
Further reading:
Ronald Dore. 1984. Education in Tokugawa Japan. University of Michigan / Athlone Press.
Wolfgang Michel. 2007. ‘Border Crossing and Intellectual Curiosity: On the Modernisation of Japanese Medicine during the Edo Period’, Conference Paper. International Conference: 150th Anniversary of the Beginning of Modern Western-style Medical Education in Japan. Nagasaki University, 9 Nov. 2007. (available at https://api.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/opac_download_md/25942/michel-2007-border-crossing.pdf)
