The Allure of the Essay
President, The Nihon Essayist Club
Satoshi Omura
Amid the swirl of various tasks, humans sometimes stumble upon moments that give rise to the stirring of unexpected emotions. By recording such as they occur, we give ourselves a chance to revisit and relive them later. If the opportunity to record them via the written word is not taken, they are easily forgotten, and the associated fleeting emotions slip away. What is more, while we should aspire to write with excellence, such is a skill not acquired overnight.
The late Kazumasa Nakagawa, a Western-style painter whom I deeply admired, once said: “The skilled serve as models for those who are not, while those who are not are models for the skilled.” Likewise, as The Analects posit, “those who understand the Truth are not equal to those who love it; while those who love it are not equal to those who find in it joy.” Thus, it is most important to cultivate a sense of enjoyment in the crafting of essays.
The Nihon Essayist Club was established in 1951 by several leading figures including Tsunego Baba (a journalist and the president of Yomiuri Shimbun), Shinnosuke Abe (a journalist, essayist, and NHK chairperson), and Ukichiro Nakaya (a physicist and essayist). Personally, I was fortunate enough to join the club in 2001, and over the intervening twenty-plus years, I have enjoyed reading countless essays written by people from a wide range of professions, each work offering its own distinctive voice. Looking to the future, I hope the club will continue to welcome new members, deepen its internal friendships, and enrich lives through a shared joy of essay writing.
Recipient of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
What is an Essay? Why a Club?
Satoshi Omura, the current president of the Nihon Essayist Club, shares his thoughts.
Our club is a community that enjoys freely expressing thoughts on the various themes encountered in everyday life, using plain and accessible language. The charm of the essay lies in its role as a crystallization of the reflections of those who have walked a unique path. It not only encourages the reader but also entices the writer to discover the joy of writing.
Our philosophy is thus explained in our quarterly journals.
The essay is a form that, while employing plain and accessible language to explore everyday experiences, subtly reveals both the spirit of the times and the author’s way of life. Each piece is a richly distilled reflection of personal insight. Our club is a gathering of like-minded individuals who cherish such expressionism, seek to share its beauty more widely, and are committed to preserving the elegance of the Japanese language.
In the club room located at the Secretariat of the Nihon Essayist Club, the bookshelves are lined with the works of past members. They hold the accumulated reflections of over seventy years, including those essays that have won the Nihon Essayist Club Prize.
In recent years, the wider world has seen momentous change. For example, social media now allows for both easy and almost immediate self-expression. Meanwhile, the use of generative AI—capable of producing content whose quality rivals the human hand—has also become widespread. Paradoxically, there is now a growing concern about the decline of traditional print culture.
In light of such developments, the role of the Nihon Essayist Club in preserving the beauty of Japanese literary culture has become more vital than ever.
