Vol.14

Medical Doctor, Doctor of Medicine, Author, Project Professor of the Graduate School of System Design and Management (SDM) at Keio University
Toshiro Inaba（part 1）

The word “out-of-the-box” might be the best way to describe this man. While specializing in the latest catheter-based medical treatment, he has been involved in a wide range of activities to expand the boundaries of medicine and connect it with art and traditional performing arts to help people recover from their physical and mental health. His wisdom as a medical doctor and the knowledge of art he absorbed in his youth led to his unusual selection as the art director of an art festival. Around the time when he completed his role as the art director for the third time last year, he quit his career as a doctor. Now, he is exploring a new possibility of medicine and art in a way that is more closely connected to society. Visiting Dr. Toshiro Inaba in Karuizawa, where he lives with his family, we discussed a wide range of themes, including traditional medicine, Eastern philosophy, Shinto, and how to approach beauty care and love.

“If we can choose how we want to be, it will surely lead to mental and physical health.” (Shigeta)

Masakazu Shigeta: In the “Idealism” series this year, we want to set several themes, one of which is how we can have the mindset that we can choose our way of being as we wish. If we can choose how we want to be, it will surely lead to both mental and physical health. It is a little bit vague, but that is how I feel. Of course, I know it isn’t easy, and I also understand that many people mentally and emotionally suffer because they can not make their own choices.

Dr. Inaba, you have been thinking about the health of mind and body from the medical viewpoint. Besides, you are well-versed in art and music while having a background as a medical doctor, and you are energetically involved in initiatives to connect medicine and art. So, first of all, I would like to know what brought you where you are now.

Toshiro Inaba: I think my origin is in my childhood. Since I was physically weak, I was in and out of the hospital repeatedly. But for some reason, I became healthy later, and by the time I was a junior high school student, I could attend school normally like other children. Probably due to such an experience, I became vaguely interested in why the human body sometimes naturally gets better and sometimes does not, or why some people die and others do not from the same conditions.

When I was to decide on my future path, I chose medical school because it would be better to learn something that would be related to my future job to some extent. But when I started learning medicine, I realized it was not what I wanted to do, and I felt the contents covered in the lectures were pretty narrow. For example, what we study in medical school is basically Western medicine. While it is certainly important to study it, I was interested in traditional medicine cultivated in history. Although human history is about 6 million years old, things that have been cultivated alongside that history are almost ignored, and only recent Western medicine is covered in the medical world. I felt there was something wrong with it, but nobody there could answer my question after all. So, I ended up joining the mountaineering club as a way to escape from human society.

——You said in your book that the mountains were the compass of your life.

Inaba: The mountaineering club owned a mountain rescue clinic, and I would go up the mountain and get involved in medical practice during the summer. I could learn more from the experience there than from the lectures at the university. The facility had only monitors and IVs. In addition to dealing with the patient’s bad physical conditions, such as altitude sickness and broken bones, we thought hard about how to encourage those who are almost in despair from the injuries. I believe the act goes to the root of the medicine. On the other hand, in Western medicine, you check the patient’s condition, treat them, prescribe medicine, and go through the process repeatedly for months. I thought it would be tough for me to keep doing it, and I found myself out of the conventional framework in the end. (laughs)

This year marks just 20 years of my medical career. I felt it would be a good time to quit a medical doctor. I have been engaged in the medical profession since I have the license, but that is just one of the ways to achieve people’s health and happiness, and there are many other ways to do it. The reason I was involved in the Yamagata Biennale thrice until last year as the art director is that I wanted to create a point of contact between medicine and art and think hard about how to achieve it. It was a great opportunity, and with that experience, I realized there was something more out there that I could do.

Shigeta: What specific insight did you find as to the potential of medicine and art to make people healthy and happy?

Inaba: There are a variety of possibilities, but if I were to choose, I would say it is important to have something like a philosophical outlook on things, after all. To begin with, there is no such thing as a way of thinking in Western medicine. Oriental medicine, in contrast, has influences from the thoughts of Laozi and Chuangzi, and we can learn a lot of their thoughts on the theme of the difference between consciousness and unconsciousness, or surface consciousness and deep consciousness, which I have been exploring myself.

I was interested in things like meditation before it became popular, and I did much training to dive into deep parts of consciousness. Through practicing them, I came to think that the place where consciousness and unconsciousness overlap is the same as the world of art.

The healing power of the human body is activated when you reach an altered state of mind through exposure to things like art and music, or probably also religions. I wanted to update it to a more modern form connected with the current culture rather than doing it in something like a yoga-like world, and that is why I have started to focus on the possibilities of art and culture. I am exploring if it is possible to express something that connects medicine and art in the gradation where consciousness and unconsciousness overlap.

“People misunderstand that things that can be scientifically proven are everything. That is one of the things that make people unhappy.” (Inaba)

Shigeta: As for Oriental medicine, I have had a sense of connectedness to it since my childhood. When I was a first-year high school student, I was taking a nap during the summer vacation, and suddenly, I started hyperventilating. The oxygen level in my blood dropped to that of a dead person, and I was taken into the intensive care unit. The next day, however, I recovered to normal condition as if nothing had happened. I later heard that my mother was looking for a priest to calm the Benzaiten located on the premises because she thought that was the only way to save me.

Inaba: It is more like a religious idea beyond the range of Oriental medicine.

Shigeta: One of my acquaintances is familiar with the martial arts medicine of the Heike family. It was developed in the Heian period to quickly heal warriors who had fallen off a horse and get them back to the horse. I heard it is more like osteopathy.

Inaba: I think it is a kind of Ryojutsu, or Japanese folk therapy. Ryojutsu was banned in Japan around the time of the Meiji Restoration. Around the same time, the national exam for medical practitioners was introduced, and only those with the medical license were allowed to call themselves doctors. Before the system was established, there seemed to be many people who described themselves as Ryojutsu therapists, but their therapy often lacked a scientific basis, and the knowledge of Ryojutsu gradually disappeared. Of course, their skills and ethics were a mixture of good and bad.

I think skills and techniques are important, but if they are not something everyone can use, they are not universal. On the other hand, there are skills you can acquire through training or personal growth, and I think medicine originally existed only with such skills combined with ethics and moral values. However, in this day and age, you can do something similar with knowledge and PC, even without ethics and morals. I believe it can be easily replaced by AI. To be honest, I strongly feel uncomfortable about it. The reason why I quit being a doctor and distanced myself from the medical industry is my form of resistance to the situation.

Shigeta: You just said that Ryojutsu has little scientific basis. But first of all, where is the boundary between the scientific and the unscientific?

Inaba: I don’t really like the word “unscientific,” so I prefer to use the word “proto-scientific” instead. The word “unscientific” somehow gives me a negative impression. Speaking of the boundary between the two, the scientific fields deal with things that can be quantified or digitized, while proto-scientific fields deal with things that can never be quantified or digitized.

Shigeta: I think there are two things that coexist: things stored as data with reproductivity and things in the proto-scientific realm. I suspect the number of things that can be quantified is overwhelmingly limited in reality.

Inaba: I agree. I think many people must have instinctively sensed it, but as livelihoods are based on the quantified and digitized world, people misunderstand that things that can be scientifically proven are everything. I believe that is one of the things that make people unhappy.

Shigeta: I can’t agree more with your idea. To start denying the proto-scientific is the starting point of unhappiness. The other day, I read an article saying that the mother and the child are quantumly connected even when they are apart, but most people do not believe it. In short, people do not believe things that are not scientifically proven.

Inaba: In the first place, I believe everything starts from acceptance. Since I am the type of person who thinks in that way, I do not see things negatively. Seeing things negatively does not bring anything. I am afraid many of those who see things negatively might take their life pessimistically. I think it is just fine to select what suits you and what doesn’t after embracing everything first. That attitude is not a rejection. You accept everything first and affirm it. However, many people start from judging.

“The word “artist” might refer to those who keep the zero state.” (Shigeta)

Shigeta: I always say that I am not an artist. This is because I do not create things with a sudden motivation inside me. Although I have created a lot of things, my motivation has always been my desire to create something that will make people happy when they hold it in their hands.

Inaba: So, your motivation is interpersonal relationships.

Shigeta: Exactly. So, I want to know the source of the artists’ ideas. What are your thoughts?

Inaba: The other day, I went to the Ise Jingu (the Ise Grand Shrine) and talked with Mr. Tatsumi Yoshikawa there for the first time in a while. What I felt from talking with him was that the Shinto is about bringing people back to a zero state by purification. Just by being alive, human beings receive negative things such as sin and impurity, which cause them to gradually deviate from the normal state. Shinto is about returning people to their normal state.

By returning to a zero state, or a neutral condition, you can make the right decisions, and it becomes easier to have more intuition and inspiration. I felt keeping the zero status was what Shinto was all about. I thought the sense was quite medical-like. Not limited to artists, inspiration is something that comes up when you are in a zero state.

Shigeta: I guess the word “artist” might refer to those who keep the zero state.

Inaba: There are few people who can maintain such a state. There are many people who are unable to do this and deviate from their original selves. Those who have some ways to return back to their original state, that is, to the innocence they had in their childhood, and who can periodically come and go should be someone who can continue to be active in the world of art for a long time.

Shigeta: On the other hand, in today’s modern society, the act of returning to your childhood can be considered socially inappropriate, especially within organizations.

Inaba: Yes, it must be challenging to do that within organizations. Organizations have now become artificial and rigid nowadays. If you have difficulties in life working in an organization, you have no choice but to go for independence. But if you find it more lively to live independently, that is the way you go. I think people are finally starting to notice the fact.

Shigeta: What do you think is the factor that has made people notice it?

Inaba: There was no technological base to realize it before, even if you wanted to take action. For example, online meeting tools such as ZOOM is one of them. Japanese people in the post-war era were bound by the place where they lived. The idea of protecting your land is important, but it has taken a long time for conventional wisdom, which values stability, to change while the flow of people becomes more international and fluid. You had no choice but to physically commute to a company because you could not do your job in other places, but now you have new options. I believe the changes brought about by science and technology are significant for many people.

Shigeta: While people now have flexible options for how they work, the number of people who get mentally sick from their jobs is also increasing. First of all, I would like to ask what exactly the process of becoming mentally ill is. There should be no one who is mentally ill from the beginning, and most of the time, people gradually fall into the state. If we can understand the process of mental illness, I believe it will be possible for us to control the appearance of the symptoms.

Inaba: I think so, too. That is what I tried my best to explain clearly in my book “Karada to Kokoro no Kenkogaku (The Health Science of Body and Mind),” published by NHK Publishing. Basically, the discrepancy between the head and the body causes mental illness. If you go in a comfortable direction when you move your body, you are basically healthy. But if you force your body into a place that the body does not want, you will become unhealthy. When you get sick, your body gives you a warning signal. If you do not listen to the voice of your body and only the words from your mind become excessive, the body can not hold any longer and stops functioning as if it is on strike, and your state moves toward depression. I think it is the function to protect your body and mind.

“What medical doctors essentially need to do is convey the message of the body, just like translators do.” (Inaba)

Shigeta: What I have been paying attention to this year is reflecting on myself in the past. It is something like I am writing my autobiography in my mind. The reason I started it is because I realized that memory is overwritten more often than you think. I suspect that when I talk about the past, I may be conscious of other people’s image of me, which is that I have about 200 employees, have public elements, and like to make people happy. What I have done and what has happened through my actions is reality, but the mental and psychological condition behind the scenes can be overly exaggerated. I had a sense of danger that, if that is the case, I might end up losing sight of what I really want to do. I am 48 years old now, which is almost the halfway point of my life. When I think about how to live from now on, I feel it would be really dangerous to make decisions based on the dramatized memories of the past. To avoid it, I thought it would be a good idea to think about myself in the past without being influenced by anyone.

——How is the result so far?

Shigeta: Actually, I suffered from a kind of depression for several weeks at the beginning of this year. I suddenly had pain in my back with the symptoms of depression, and I was even reluctant to wake up in the morning. However, my mental condition became more stable after I started reflecting on myself in the past. I am not sure about it since I just started it, but I believe my condition will get better if I continue doing this. I recommend it to others if it works well.

Inaba: Those who have a sign of depression often try to solve everything in their head and end up going around in circles. However, just as the pain in the back is one of the signs, I want to tell them that depression is a matter that can be solved from the physical side. Actually, many people find that it is a problem of the mind and try to solve it on the mental side, leaving the physical side behind. Therefore, as a medical doctor, I have always said to patients that “depression is a signal from the body, and once the body tells you to do this or that, all you do is follow what the body wants to do without seriously thinking about it in your head.”

What medical doctors essentially need to do is convey the message of the body, just like translators do. Just telling them that “Listen to your body” is fine. If they can not sense the voice, we just help them to notice it. However, most medical doctors consider medical practice to be giving medicines or practicing surgery, and they often try to somehow force patients into the process. They set huge stories that the patients can not resist, which makes patients unable to listen to the voice of the body.

——It is not that you try to understand it in your head, but you should just follow the direction the body wants to go.

Inaba: Exactly. You can find the answer only where the body feels comfortable. Just like the relationship with people or the place in the organization, you always have a comfortable distance or place, and that is the best place for you. As long as you keep looking for the best place by paying attention to comfort and pleasantness, there are always places where you feel at home. If you are too lazy to do this most important part and think it will be just fine to find the answer on the internet, it should not be easy to get out of the deep hole you are in.

In order to liberate your common sense and habits, I think it would be effective to have health resort therapy or a change of air, like traveling somewhere you don’t know or taking a walk somewhere a little far away from everyday life.

Shigeta: The older you get, the easier it becomes to find the position where your body feels comfortable, I think. If you can think in that way, getting older is not a bad thing.

(to be continued to the second half)

Notes:
The Yamagata Biennale
An art festival organized by the Tohoku University of Art and Design every two years. The official name is “The Art Festival of Michi no Oku: Yamagata Biennale.” The festival was first organized in 2014, and as of 2024, it has been organized six times, including the one held online during the COVID period. In 2024, the festival changed its location from the central part of Yamagata City to the Zao Hot Spring area, with the aim of creating a festival where people can restore their physical and mental health through art experiences in the hot spring area. Dr. Inaba served as the art director three times in 2020, 2022, and 2024.

Shinto
Shinto is one of the Japanese religions that arose in people’s lives. It worships Eight Million Gods and believes gods reside in all natural objects. It is characterized by the absence of the founder and, hence, the absence of teachings and the scriptures. While the religious facility of Shinto is the Shrine, that of Buddhism is the Temple, and there are various differences between the two in what and how they worship.