"Encoffiner", a window to quickly understand Japanese culture

The Japanese film "The Embalmer" won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009. The film tells the story of a Japanese rural youth who wants to make a career and buys an expensive cello and comes to Tokyo to pursue his dream. After four months of orchestral performance, what he finally got was the bad news that the orchestra was disbanded and a huge debt to buy musical instruments.

As a last resort, Dawu and his wife Meixiang returned to their hometown and lived a life of poverty. Dawu, who was forced to make a living, found a job as an embalmer through a recruitment advertisement.

The recruitment advertisement is very artistically written (NK agency, travel assistance, no age limit, high salary and short working hours), and the recruitment process is also dramatic (President Sagi Iruei did not read his resume and made the decision without saying a word) Hired Dawu, avoided talking about the work content, and gave Dawu his wages for the day).

The next story is how Xiaolin went from being despised by the people around him to gradually liking and finally gaining people's respect and winning back the love of his wife.

Drucker's "The Effective Manager" has a famous management story about two people moving rocks. A passerby asked, "What are you doing?" What are you busy with?" One of them replied, "I am moving stones"; while the other replied, "I am building a church."

A few years later, the difference between two years was huge. The person who answered the question was still moving stones, but the person who answered the question of building the church had become an expert.

In the same story, when the famous musician Tan Dun first arrived in the United States, his life was difficult and he made money by playing violin on the streets. Together with a black fiddler, he fought for the most profitable site - the entrance of a commercial bank, where people were coming and going and it was bustling.

After a while, after Tan Dun made some money, he said goodbye to the black fiddler. Ten years later, Tan Dun once passed by that commercial bank again and found that his old friend, the black man, was still playing the piano in that "most profitable place". And 10 years later, Tan Dun was already an internationally renowned composer. Musician and conductor, he often performs in famous concert halls.

The mentality of the two people who are both street performers must be very different, which will lead to the difference between heaven and earth in the future.

The so-called help travel is actually to help the deceased do makeup before entering the coffin. After Dawu learned about this seemingly unseemly job, he hid it from his wife Meixiang in order to make a living.

The first time I went out with the president, I saw the president burying a lonely old woman whose body was in a state of decomposition. She kept vomiting and was so disgusted that she vomited out on the spot. After his wife found out about his occupation, she ran back to her parents' home without saying "dirty". At this time, Xiao Lin thought of resigning.

The president enlightened Xiao Lin and talked about his philosophy of life while eating puffer fish. After a while, Dawu gave up the idea. Yubai acted as a bargaining chip in the negotiation between President Dawu, and the effect was huge. The president said that if you don't want to die, you must eat, and if you eat, you must eat well. The fish whites are so delicious that they make you feel uncomfortable. They symbolize the joy of life. Enjoying the fish whites means treating life well.

Burying the dead and maintaining their dignity is also one of the ways to treat life kindly. In this way, during various ceremonies, Dawu became familiar with the work of the undertaker, and he felt very fulfilled and proud.

Everyone will be the one who bids farewell and the person who is bidden. With the respect that the encoffiant has for the deceased, he wins people's respect at the last moment and changes the encoffining industry. Encoffining is a final stage preparation for the deceased, and it is a job to create the quiet beauty of death.

As an embalmer, Daigo Kobayashi is actually still an artist. The so-called extraordinary is to do an ordinary thing well thousands of times!

Mr. Kenichi Ohmae, a famous Japanese strategist, mentioned in his book "Professionalism" the "Hippocratic Oath", which has nine specific contents. In medical school, those who aspire to become doctors Students are expected to take this oath.

These nine oaths also have far-reaching significance for thinking about professional issues. Please consider doctors as "professions" and patients as "customers" during the reading process.

The etymology of expert is "profess", which means "swear to God, make this a profession". The Hippocratic Oath does exactly that.

Kenichi Ohmae believes that professionalism is the way to survive in the 21st century. From an external perspective, professionalism is first reflected in professional attire. The president and Kobayashi in the movie always wear professional attire every time they appear on the scene. There is a small detail in the movie. After the president finished smoking, Put the remaining cigarette butts into the ashtray you carry with you.

Professionalism requires a sense of ritual with a work mentality, and a reverence for the work in the heart. The entire enshrinement process is full of a sense of ritual. Before each work, Dawu must put his hands together, burn incense, wash hands, bow, etc.

Professionalism requires standardization and proceduralization of work content.

To this end, the president has specially produced the "Entombment Guide", such as dressing the deceased from right to left, and then wiping the body with cotton cloth soaked in disinfectant, etc.

Professionalism means rich experience in the industry. The president can tell how the deceased died by looking at his appearance. He was poisoned by gas and showed no pain.

Professionalism needs to be persevered. Faced with the intimidation from his friends and wife, Xiaolin chose to persevere.

Professionalism is a job that cannot tolerate unprofessionalism. At the end of the movie, Dawu and his wife rushed to handle his father’s funeral. Xiaolin saw other employees of the funeral company trying to kill him even though he hated it 30 years ago. When his father, who had run away from home at the age of 18, was hastily laid to death, he ordered them to step aside and he could finish his father's burial.

The movie "The Embalmer" opens a window for us to quickly understand Japanese culture, which is worth savoring.