Building Trustworthiness in a Society That Lacks Trust

By Tom Reed, dojo cho

I read the piece below as part of a larger commentary that a friend sent to me. This is the last part of it, and the part that concerns budo and bushido. It is about trust. The code of bushido can be summed up in the symbolism of the seven pleats of the hakama. There are several interpretations of the qualities associated with the pleats, but they are all valid aspects of a refined human, especially those in military, law enforcement or the work of protecting others, in which codes of ettiquette and honor are required to offset the tendancy towards bravado and bullying.

I found this writing online (author unknown) that describes the qualities of bushido:

"The meanings of the hakama pleats vary depending on the source. There are also differences of opinion as to how many pleats should be counted with five being more common than seven, although seven is considered a lucky and auspicious number. Please find the most popular interpretations below:

"Hakama have seven deep pleats, two on the back and five on the front. The pleats are said to represent the seven virtues of bushido, considered essential to the samurai way. Although they appear balanced, the arrangement of the front pleats, (three to the right, two to the left) is asymmetrical, and as such is an example of asymmetry in Japanese aesthetics.

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According to Saito Sensei (lifelong stundent of Ueshiba O Sensei) in "About hakama in O Sensei's dojo in the old days" there are seven pleats, representing the traditional virtues of the samurai, that are divided into five on the front and two on the back of the hakama. The five on the front are asymmetrically placed with three to the right and two to the left. The five front pleats represent Yuki (courage, valor, bravery), Jin (humanity, charity, benevolence), Gi (justice, righteousness, integrity), Rei (etiquette, courtesy, civility also means bow/obeisance) and Makoto (sincerity, honesty, reality). The two pleats in back represent Chugi (loyalty, fidelity, devotion) and Meiyo (honor, credit, glory; also reputation, dignity, prestige).

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According to "The Hakama and It's Meaning" from "The Principles of Aikido" by Mitsugi Saotome there are seven pleats (5 in the front, 2 in the back) and that these represent the seven virtues of Bushido/Budo: Jin - BenevolenceGi - Honour, JusticeRei - Courtesy and RespectChi - Wisdom, and IntelligenceShin - SincerityChu - LoyaltyKoh - Piety

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According to Mr. Wayne Muromoto, publisher and editor of "Furyu Magazine: The Budo Journal” there are five pleats representing five virtues. His opinion is based on "Ken No Koe" (The Voice of the Sword) by Kendo master Inoue Masataka. The five virtues; gotoku, of Japanese traditional society, with the one in the back representing all five virtues are actually one major one, that of being a complete human being. The five are: Chu: loyalty Ko: justice Jin: humanity; compassion Gi: from giri; honor Rei: respect "

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Now, apply these concepts to the situation described below, and it will be clear that budo is one form of rectifying the human experience on Earth. That is,

budo is a way of teaching us to be trustworthy:

"Social trust has declined significantly in the United States. Surveys find that public trust in institutions and the professional classes that dominate those institutions has cratered. (See chart below.) Social trust — our confidence that other people are trustworthy— has also fallen to multidecade lows.

This was not the case in decades past. Americans maintained high levels of trust in their institutions, government and fellow citizens. The decline in social trust is across the entire spectrum: Our trust in institutions, professional elites and our fellow Americans has declined precipitously.

The causes of this decay of social trust can be debated endlessly, but several factors are obvious:

1. Institutions forfeited the trust of the citizenry by withholding/editing realities to serve the interests of hidden agendas and insiders' careers. The Vietnam War was pursued on fabrications, as was the second Gulf War to topple Saddam. Watergate eroded trust on multiple levels, as did the Church Committee's investigation of America's security agencies' domestic spying/overreach.

2. The managerial/professional elites at the top of the nation's institutions no longer put the citizenry's interests above their own. The public's trust has eroded as institutions are primarily viewed as vehicles for self-enrichment and career advancement.

Health care CEOs pay themselves millions, higher education is bloated with layers of non-teaching administration, defense contractors and the Pentagon have greased the revolving door to the benefit of incumbents and insiders and so on, in an endless parade of self-serving cloaked with smirking PR claims of "serving the public."

A low-trust society is an impoverished society, economically stagnant and socially threadbare. That's where we are now, and the more fragmented, greedy, self-serving, desperate and deranged we become, the lower the odds that we'll find the means to rebuild trust."

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This situation demands ways of producing trustworthy people. Budo can be one such way, if followed in a traditional manner.

As we have seen over the past two years, many students have come and gone, some left due to physical inabilities, some becuase ot time restraints, but most because they could not tolerate the strict code of etiquette in a traditional dojo. Indeed their ego (small self) was so delicate yet deeply entrenched that they could not lower themselves to bow and use an honorific suffix when addressing a teacher. These are the typical Americans that the writing above describes, and who are the ones that need something like budo if our society is going to be darned back to an interwoven fabric held together by trust.

When someone is loyal, we trust them. When someone courageous is we trust them. When someone has homor, we trust them. When someone is compassionate, we trust them. When someone is respectful, we trust them. When someone is benevolent, we trust them. When someone is sincere, we trust them. When someone has integrity, we trust them.

Throughout my decades in the Japanese arts I have sought to develop these qualities.

As a result, twice in my life I have been asked to take 51% ownership of all the assets of men (a doctor an a lawyer) who faced a legal challenge they were not confident of winning. Of all of the people they knew, they chose me. They had trust in me.

I encourage you to develop the qualities of bushido. They are the qualities of tengu ryu. I can request this, I can assist you in this. But only you can make the decision to attain trustworthiness.