The Silver Spoon

by Kansuke Naka

  33I.e., Chinese characters.

  34Kinkatō were candies made of white sugar formed into fish and other shapes then colored. Kingyokutō was a transparent summer candy made of gelatin, sugar, and spice, coated with granulated sugar. Tenmontō may have been asparagus roots pickled in sugar. Mijinbō was a candy shaped like a twisted stick made of baked rice-granules and sugar. For pictures of the kinds of cheap candies Naka is talking about, see “Naka Kansuke to dagashi” http://www.toraya-group.co.jp/gallery/dat02/dat02_047.html (retrieved Summer 2014).

  35More fully, O-Tafuku-san, “Miss Many-Blessings.” A smiling female face with a high brow, small nose, and fat cheeks. Here Naka is talking about the O-Tafuku-ame, a stick-shaped candy that incorporates the face in such a way that it shows no matter where you break it.

  36Derives from the Portuguese word alfeloa. A candy brought to Japan during the second half of the 16th century. It was made of sugar and wheat-gluten and came in the shapes of flowers and fruits or, as here, stick-shaped.

  37In quotes because in those days milk was still regarded as a kind of medicine.

  38Garagara. More fully, garagara-senbei, “rattling cracker,” so called because its hollow inside contained a tiny toy that rattled when you shook it.

  39The most important Shinto shrine, whose presiding deity is Amaterasu-Ō-Mikami or Tenshō Daijin, the so-called Sun Goddess. Luis Frois, S. J. (1532–97), who thought the deity was male, reported: “An almost incredible number of people flock from all the kingdoms of Japan in pilgrimage to this kami for he is the principal one; this multitude includes not only poor and lowly folk but also many noble men and women who have taken a vow to make the pilgrimage. And it even seems that he who does not go there cannot be counted among the ranks of men.” See Cooper, They Came to Japan, p. 299.

  40An imaginary castle at the bottom of the ocean ruled by this goddess. Famous for the legend of the fisherman Urashima Tarō, who went down to the underwater palace and married the princess.

  41One of the Twenty-Four Greatest Tales of Filial Piety in China, originally compiled during the Yuan Dynasty by Guo Jujing (dates unknown), but there are variations. Mōsō (Meng-sung in Chinese) once found a bamboo shoot in the snow, a rarity, and was able to feed his starving parents.

  42The red sea bream (Pagrus major), which can grow to be more than 3 feet long, has been prized in Japan as “the king of fish” because of its pretty color, shape, and taste. It is also prized because of its name, tai, which is part of the word medetai, “propitious,” “felicitous.”

  43Because the sea bream has large bones, an old saying had it: “The sea bream is equipped with all the agricultural tools in its bones.” Evidently, “the bones” referred both to those of the head and those of the whole body. The “seven tools” are sometimes specified; “seven” can also mean “all the necessary.”

  44One of the Seven Deities of Good Luck, he is the deity of marine transportation, fishery, and commerce, usually presented as a figure sitting on a rock, holding a large sea bream on the left side and a fishing pole in his right hand.

  45Kinomedochi.

  46Comparable to breaking up a sentence “Well, now, where, are you?” into individual words.

  47Mañjusrï in Sanskrit. His name meaning “deep virtue” or “great fortune,” he is the symbol of wisdom. Normally seen accompanying the Shakyamuni, along with Avalokitesvara, riding upon a lion and holding the delusion-cutting sword.

  48Samanthabhadra in Sanskrit: All-Compassionate One of Perfect Activity. Often seated on a white elephant.

  49A musical instrument used in the imperial court dance Gagaku; it consists of a pot into which are fitted seventeen bamboo tubes. A type of free reed instrument.

  50Andon: with a wooden frame and paper for the shade, the lamp used rape-seed or some other vegetable oil. Because of its economy, stability, and safety, it was used long after the Western-style lamp using petroleum was introduced to Japan and gained popularity. In certain areas, it continued to be used well into the 1920s, even though by then electricity was available.

  51The bedding is put away in the closet in the morning so the room may be used for some other purpose during the day.

  52Sai no Kawara; also, Sanzu no Kawara. Sanzu no Kawa, “Three-way River,” is the river that dead souls must cross to go to the netherworld. It corresponds to the Styx in Greek mythology. As Naka goes on to explain, its riverbed is the limbo where the souls of dead children are made to suffer, their task of building cairns constantly frustrated by demons. This folkloric notion, which became widespread during the Edo period (1600–1868), is said to have originated in a passage in “Expedient Means,” of the Lotus Sutra, which reads: “. . . even if little boys at play / should collect sand to make a Buddha tower, / then persons such as these / have all attained the Buddha way.” Watson, p. 39.

  53Ksitigarbha in Sanskrit: the bodhisattva who is given the task of giving salvation to every being during the period from the death of the Shakyamuni to the advent of the Maitreya. He has six manifestations. In Japan the worship of Jizō as the savior of wayfarers and children—especially children who died young—became popular during the Heian period (794–1185). Stone statues to him are found all over Japan. Papinot: “He is represented by the image of a bonze with shaved head, holding a gem in one hand, and a staff (shakujō) in the other, at the top of which metal rings are attached.”

  54Originally a nō play called Heavenly Drum (Tenko). After dreaming that a drum has descended from heaven into her womb, the married woman named Ōbo, “King’s Mother,” gives birth to a boy whom she names Tenko. Later a real drum also descends from heaven and when Tenko plays it, the sound is so heavenly every listener is filled with joy. Hearing the story, the emperor orders submission of the drum to the Imperial Court. Tenko hides himself with his drum but is captured and drowned in a river. The drum, taken to the court, refuses to make any sound. Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653–1724) wrote a convoluted jōruri play out of this story.

  55Originally a nō play called Brocade Drum (Aya no tsuzumi) that tells of an old gardener who falls in one-sided love with a court lady. The lady, learning this, sends him a drum made of brocade with the instruction that if he beats it and she hears the sound in the court, she will appear before him. The old man beats it all night, but because of its material the drum makes no sound. Despairing, he drowns himself.

  56The stories Naka’s aunt told were clearly variations of the original plays that had been further modified for children. One idea expressed by Tadanobu the Fox in Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees is a variation of the concept embodied in the Sai no Kawara story. In revealing his true self, Tadanobu explains that he has followed the drum because when his parents were killed, he was “an ignorant baby fox” and as a result “he didn’t have a single day to look after them” and that “in failing to return the obligations to his parents,” he was “inferior to pigs and wolves.”

  57Hyakunin isshu: an anthology of a hundred tanka, each by a different poet, which was originally compiled by Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241). It was adopted as a canonical text by the Nijō school of poets and during the Edo period it was turned into a card game. The game is played with two sets of a hundred cards, each card in one set carrying an entire poem with an appropriate picture—normally an imagined portrait of the poet—and each card in the other set carrying the lower hemistich of a poem. The latter set is spread on the floor and competitively grabbed up while poems are read aloud from the former set.

  58Tachiwakare Inaba no yama no mine ni ouru matsu to shi kikaba ima kaerikomu, by Arihara no Yukihira (818–93): “Upon Inába, / that tells us of our parting, / the pine-trees cluster, / should they ‘she pineth’ whisper, / I will return to love thee.”

  59No poem in this anthology verbally combines a pine tree with the snow. Possibly, Asaborake ariake no tsuki to miru made ni Yoshino no sato ni fureru shirayuki, by Sakanoue no Korenori (dates uncertain): “At dawn of day / meseemed there lay the hamlet / ’neath the moon’
s bright shimmer / upon fair Yoshino shining: / but ’twas the snow new-fallen!”

  60Okuyama ni momiji fumiwake naku shika no koe kiku toki zo aki wa kanashiki, by Sarumaru Dayū (dates uncertain): “Whenas men hear / the cry of wandering deer / the red leaves trampling / upon the lonely hillside / ’tis known sad autumn’s near.”

  61Chigirikina katami ni sode o shiboritsutsu Sue no Matsuyama nami kosaji towa, by Kiyohara no Motosuke (908–90): “Our sleeves with tears / were drenched as each we promised / the sea-waves o’er / the Pines of Suye should, ere / our love died down, be breaking!”

  62Awaji-shima kayou chidori no naku koe ni ikuyo nezamenu Suma no sekimori, by Minamoto no Kanemasa (dates uncertain): “Night after night must / Suma’s tired warders / lie list’ning wakeful / to the mournful cries of sea-birds / across the waters flitting!”

  63Ōe-yama Ikuno no michi mo tōkereba mada fumi mo mizu Ama no Hashidate, by Koshikibu no Naishi (d. 1025): “Or hill of Ōye / or road o’er Íkuno’s moorland / too far for me are— / nor foot nor scroll of mine hath / seen Amanohashidáte.”

  64Ōe-yama, or Mount Ōe, designates two places in Kyoto, one close to the city and the other farther northwest. Though Koshikibu’s poem refers to the former, Naka, as a child, mixed it up with the latter, the hideout of the legendary Shuten Dōji (Drunken Boy) who kidnapped people and did other evil things—the mix-up probably occurring because the poem seems to say something like “Mount Ōe is far away, and I haven’t seen letters.” The warrior-commander Minamoto no Raikō (also Yorimitsu: 948–1021) famously went there with his four “guardian kings” and subdued him. Shuten Dōji is thought to be a collective name for a bunch of marauding bandits.

  65Or Yoshimine no Munesada (816–90). His poem: Amatsukaze kumo no kayoiji fukitoji yo otome no sugata shibashi todomen: “O winds of heaven, / waft clouds to bar the sky-paths, / a moment would I, / these maids angelic staying, / their graceful dance admire.”

  66(1055–1135). His poem: Morotomo ni aware to omoe yama-zakura hana yori hoka ni shiru hito mo nashi: “O cherry-blossom! / our lot alike is mournful, / no other friend thou, / thou has but me, none other / but these, alas, have I!”

  67Semimaru means “Cicada Man” or “Cicada Boy.” Though Semimaru, usually presented as a monk, has spawned a number of legends, some regard him as a non-historical figure. His poem is homiletic and reads: Kore ya kono yuku mo kaeru mo wakarete wa shiru mo shirazu mo Ōsaka no Seki: “’Tis steep Ōzaka / men call the Hill of Meetings, / where to and fro / the endless throng is passing, / of friends and strangers passing.”

  68Sango-ju: sweet viburnum. Called “coral tree,” because it produces coral-like clusters of flowers and berries. Its Latin name is Viburnum awabuki.

  69Oshiroibana, “cosmetic flower”: so called because its pods contain white powder, the nutrient for its seeds. The English name derives from the fact that it starts to bloom late in the afternoon. Also called “the afternoon lady.” Its Latin name is Mirabilis japala.

  70Yama in Sanskrit. The “commander-in-chief” of the netherworld, according to the Zengaku dai-jiten (Taishūkan Shoten, 1985); the supreme arbiter of sins and crimes of human beings. Some say he is a manifestation of the Ksitigarbha (for which see note 53 on Jizō in Episode 1.18).

  71In Buddhism the lid of Hell’s Cauldron is lifted on the 15th of First and Seventh Months to release the sinners from tortures temporarily.

  72Chamberlain: “the great Buddhist festival . . . is often termed by foreigners the Feast of Lanterns, but might better be rendered as All Souls’ Day. The spirits of dead ancestors then visit the altar sacred to them in each household, and special offerings of food are made to them. The living restrict themselves to maigre dishes as far as possible.” Used to be held from the 13th to the 15th of Seventh Month; today during the same days in August.

  73Senja-fuda: bills carried by people visiting a thousand shrines; they have the carrier’s name, the province of his birth, and the name of his store.

  74See note 52 on Sai in Episode 1.18. As folklore has it, an old “clothes-stripping” man and an old “clothes-stripping” woman live by the river, robbing the dead people of their clothes before they cross it.

  75Nehan-e: on the 15th of Second Month, a rite is held to mark the anniversary of the entrance of the Shakyamuni into Nirvana. Nirvana: “The word, which means ‘blown out,’ indicates the state in which one has escaped from the cycle of birth and death. In Mahayana Buddhism, it is taken to mean awakening to the true nature of phenomena, or the perfection of Buddha wisdom.”

  76Asura: “A class of contentious demons in Indian mythology who fight continually with the god Indra. In Buddhism the asuras constitute one of the eight kinds of nonhuman beings who protect Buddhism.” Kimnara: A “heavenly being who excels in singing and dancing.” Dragon: “One of the eight kinds of nonhuman beings who protect Buddhism.”

  77The tree “grows in northern India, reaching a considerable height and bearing light yellow blossoms. Shakyamuni passed away in a grove of [sāla] trees on the outskirts of Kushinagara.”

  78A traditional jacket which, “once reserved by law to upper-class males, enjoyed a sudden and widespread popularity among men and women in all walks of life” during the Meiji period. Dalby, p. 64.

  79As Naka goes on to explain, there are two kinds of hōzuki: marine and land. Marine ones are usually egg cases of whelks; land ones are the fruits of a variety of Chinese lantern plants (Physalis alkekengi var. franchetii).

  80Matsumushi (Xenogryllus marmoratus): a variety of cricket. Prized for the twinkling sound it makes.

  81Suzumushi (Homoeogryllus japonicus): a variety of cricket. Prized for its quiet, limpid sound. In Japan it’s called “King of Singing Insects.”

  82Kirigirisu (Gampsocleis buergeri). The famous singing insect that is identified by this name in classical Japanese literature was probably what is now called kōrogi, cricket.

  83Kutsuwamushi (Mecopoda niponensis). May correspond to the “fork-tailed bush katydid.” Because the next insect mentioned is another name of this insect, Naka might have meant umaoi, “horse chaser” (Hexacentrus japonicus), a variety of katydid.

  84Gachagacha: another name of kutsuwamushi, a large variety of katydid. Its onomatopoeic name is said to derive from the noise a horse bit makes and is sometimes described as “noisy.”

  85The childhood name of the warrior Sakata no Kintoki (dates uncertain). One of the four “guardian kings” of Minamoto no Raikō (see note 64 on Ōe-yama in Episode 1.18). As legend has it, Kintarō was born of the Old Woman of the Mountain and a red dragon and was brought up playing with bears and other animals. His ruddy-faced boyhood figure, wearing only an apron and carrying an oversize ax, is still used as a symbol of health, strength, and courage.

  86Nitta Tadatsune (d. 1203). A vassal of Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147–99), Tadatsune killed Soga Jūrō Sukenari after the latter, along with his brother, Gorō Tokimune, carried out a vendetta, in 1193. Later, at the instigation of Yoritomo’s son, Shogun Noriyori, he tried to assassinate Regent Hōjō Tokimasa (1138–1225), but failed and was killed. In children’s books, Tadatsune used to be depicted as a valorous warrior who could subdue anything.

  87Sansukumi: an object consisting of three magnetic parts representing a snake, a slug, and a frog. As common belief in Japan has it, the snake is afraid of the slug, the slug of the frog, and the frog of the snake.

  88Tai-yumi: A simple bow-like toy with a small bream shaped in clay attached to its string so that when it was held up vertically the clay bream may descend, trembling, as if alive.

  89Papinot: “Hachiman under which the emperor Ōjin (201–312) is honored as a god. . . . Hachiman was the tutelary god of the Minamoto.” Also: “The name of the temples dedicated to the god of war.” The dates Papinot gives for Ōjin are in doubt, but Ōjin, who in semi-mythological accounts is the fifteenth emperor, is today recognized as the first emperor likely to have existed.

  90The mask of a male face with one eye exceedingly small
and the mouth shaped like a crooked tube. The word derives from hi-otoko, “man on fire.”

  91Okamoto Kansuke (1839–1904): explorer of Karafuto (Sakhalin) and Chishima Rettō (Kurile Islands), educator, and author of sixty books.

  92One of the “ring-play” songs, which originated in Edo and was most popular at the start of Meiji. After it appeared in textbooks, the song came to be known throughout Japan. Children make a ring and, turning round and round, imitate the way the lotus opens and closes. One child stays at the center.

  93Her real name was Okamoto Take (1883–96). That is, she was actually two years older than Naka, but, unlike Naka, she died young.

  94Itai-itai-kusa or ita-ita-gusa; another name of irakusa, stinging nettle.

  95A small wind instrument made of bamboo; used in Gagaku.

  96Sumomo: Prunus salicina.

  97Charumera: a simple, small wind instrument that originally came from Portugal in the second half of the 16th century, though the instrument later used came from China.

  98The carp (Cyprinus carpio) is usually regarded as a sluggish, bottom-feeding fish, but in traditional imagination it is a vigorous fish full of fighting spirit—the truth of which has been amply demonstrated by the carp from China accidentally introduced into the Mississippi River. As Chinese legend has it, thousands of fish and turtles tried to leap up the waterfalls of the Yellow River called the Dragon Gate, but only the carp managed to do so, and turned into a dragon.

  99Anesan-kaburi: a simple way of wearing a towel in lieu of headgear.

  100 The face of O-Tafuku-san, for which see note 35 on Ota-san in Episode 1.13.

  101 Yokayoka-ameya. These were often strolling performers who would visit cheap inns in the evening and do skits from the lives of famous people.

  102 Momo no sekku; also called hina-matsuri (doll festival), jōshi, jōmi. Held on the 3rd of Third Month (today March 3). Chamberlain: “On the 3rd March every doll-shop in Tōkyō, Kyōto, and the other large cities is gaily decked with what are called O Hina Sama, —tiny models both of people and of things, the whole Japanese Court in miniature. This is the great yearly holiday of all the little girls.” Many households used to have a set of such dolls. See Casal for a much fuller account.