Something Like an Autobiography - Akira Kurosawa [36]
I liked my grammar teacher, Mr. Ohara, very much, but I was also fond of my history teacher, Mr. Iwamatsu Goro. According to my class report, I was a great favorite of this teacher as well. He was a wonderful teacher. A really good teacher doesn’t seem like a teacher at all; that’s exactly how this man was. If someone looked out the window or started whispering to his neighbor during class, Mr. Iwamatsu would throw a piece of chalk at him. He would fly into a rage and throw one piece after another, so he was always running out of chalk. Then he would say he couldn’t give his lessons without chalk, so he’d smile and settle into an unstructured chat. His rambling talks were always far more instructive than any textbook.
But the heavenly perfection of Mr. Iwamatsu’s personality displayed itself in the most vivid fashion when the term-end examinations came. Each classroom where the exams were held was visited by a succession of teachers who administered the tests. Care was taken that the supervising teacher had nothing to do with the subject of the exam being given. But if it was Mr. Iwamatsu who walked in the door, a roaring cheer would fill the room. The reason was that Mr. Iwamatsu was unable to do something so formal as proctor an examination.
If a student showed distress over one of the exam questions, Mr. Iwamatsu would come and peer over his shoulder at the problem. Then the following events invariably transpired: Mr. Iwamatsu would say, “What’s the matter, can’t you do that? Listen, it goes like this,” becoming completely involved. Then he would say, “You still don’t understand? Blockhead!” At this he would go to the blackboard and write out the whole solution, saying, “Well, now you understand, don’t you?” Sure enough, after his careful explanation, even the worst idiot would have the answer. I am very poor at mathematics, but when Mr. Iwamatsu proctored the examination, I got a hundred percent.
At the end of one term I took a history examination with ten questions. There wasn’t much I could do to answer any of them. The proctor was of course not Mr. Iwamatsu, since he taught the subject, so I was ready to give up. But in the utmost desperation I decided to take a stab at one of then: “Give your impressions of the three sacred treasures of the Imperial Court.” I scribbled about three pages of nonsense, something along these lines: I’ve heard a great deal of talk about the Three Treasures, but I’ve never seen them with my own eyes, so it isn’t really possible for me to write my impressions of them. Take for example the legendary yata-no-kagami sacred mirror—it is so holy that no one has ever been allowed to see it, so it may in reality be not round but square or triangular. I am only capable of talking about things I have looked at closely with my own eyes, and I believe only things for which there is proof.
The day came when Mr. Iwamatsu had finished grading the exam papers and returned them to the students. He announced in a loud voice, “There’s one paper here that’s very curious. It answers only one of the ten test questions, but this answer is most interesting. This is the first time I’ve ever come across such an original answer. The fellow who wrote this shows real promise. One hundred percent! Kurosawa!” He thrust the paper at me. All eyes turned on me at once. I turned bright red and shrank down in my chair, unable to move for a long moment.
In my day there were many such teachers who harbored a libertarian spirit and a wealth of individual qualities. By comparison with them, among today’s schoolteachers there are too many plain “salary-man” drudges. Or perhaps even more than salary men, there are too many bureaucrat types among those who become teachers. The kind of education these people dispense isn’t worth a damn. There’s absolutely nothing of interest in it. So it’s no wonder that students today prefer to spend their time reading comic books.
In primary school I had a wonderful teacher in Mr. Tachikawa. In middle school I had Mr. Ohara and Mr. Iwamatsu, who were