The Silver Spoon

by Kansuke Naka

  5Chanchan bōzu. During the Edo period the term referred to a boy with a Chinese-style hairdo and was not derogatory.

  6Yojō (Yurang in Chinese): a character that Sima Qian (145–86? B.C.) describes in “The Biographies of Assassins” of his The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji). In trying to avenge the lord who treated him well, Yurang changed his voice and appearance by swallowing charcoal and painting lacquer on his body in order to approach his enemy. When he failed to achieve his aim the second time, he stabbed himself to death. Hikan (Bi Gan) is a character mentioned several times in The Records as an example of someone whose proper advice to his master was rewarded with death—in this instance the tearing out of his heart.

  7See note 140 in Episode 1.46.

  8See note 128 in Episode 1.41.

  9Fugutaiten (Chinese: bujudaitian) is an expression that appears in the Chinese classic Book of Rites. Lit. “Not sharing Heaven together,” i.e., “Cannot live under the same sky,” “mortal” as in “mortal enemy.”

  10Setta, “snow footwear”: slippers of bamboo bark with soles of leather. Said to have been invented by the tea master Sen Rikyū (1522–91) for use in the snow, although the origin of the name is obscure.

  11Hōjō Tokimune (1251–84), regent of the Kamakura shogun and de facto ruler of Japan during the Mongolian invasions. Known for his “resolute, energetic character,” according to Papinot. He is also known for turning to Zen because of his inability to control his fear as a samurai. Daisetz Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture (Princeton University Press, 1959), pp. 65-66. At the time the role of Tokimune’s fear may have been downplayed.

  12Anesama-zukushi or simply anesama: Bride-dolls made of origami paper.

  13Shiji and Shibashilu in Chinese. The latter, Eighteen Summary Histories, was compiled toward the end of the 13th century. It is said to have been read more in Japan than in China.

  14Kan’u (Guan’yu in Chinese, d. 219) was a great warrior-commander during China’s Three Kingdom period (184–280). His reputation was such that his enemies are said to have run away from him without battle. He was entrapped and killed. After his death shrines were built for him as a deity of war. Chōhi (Zhangfei in Chinese, 166–221) was another great warrior-commander of the same era. The two became sworn brothers of Ryūbi (Liubei in Chinese, 161–223) and helped him become emperor. The stories of these men are famously told in Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi). Its first edition appeared in 1522.

  15Uesugi Kenshin (1530–78) and Takeda Shingen (1521–73) are warlords famous for their rivalry. As the historian Rai San’yō (1780–1832) tells it in An Unofficial History of Japan (Nihon gaishi), the salt episode goes like this: “Shingen’s province [Kai] did not have any coastline. He obtained salt from the Tōkai. Ujizane conspired with Hōjō Ujiyasu and secretly closed the supply routes for salt. Kai suffered greatly. When Kenshin heard this he sent a letter to Shingen and said, ‘I hear, sir, that Ujiyasu and Ujizane torment you by means of salt. This is cowardly and unjust. I fight you, but I fight with bow and arrow, not with rice and salt. I beg you, sir, that henceforth you obtain salt from my land. The quantity may be large or small, depending on your need.’ He then ordered merchants to supply Shingen with salt at an equitable price.”

  16A personal name originally used as a general term for a shop boy that then came to mean “fool” or “simpleton.” In his 1960 translation of Shanks’ Mare (Tōkaidōchū hizakurige), Thomas Satchell translates the term as “country bumpkin.” Jippensha Ikku (1765–1831) wrote the picaresque novel from 1802 to 1822. Naka’s friend, the philosopher and literary critic Abe Jirō (1883–1959), called his book of meditations on youthful angst in confessional style Santarō’s Diary (Santarō no nikki). Published in 1914, it was for a long time known as “an eternal book of philosophy for youth.”

  17Kibasen, “mounted combat”: A game in which four youths in a team form a horse with one of them as rider. The combat, which entails one rider grappling another down to the ground, may be fought one-on-one, as here, or as a group. In the latter case the rider who remains on horseback to the end is the victor.

  18Mizukamakiri, “water-praying-mantis” (Ranatra chinensis). A predaceous water insect that grows to be 1.5 inches long. Its front legs are shaped like pantographs (raptorial). It has two hairs at its tail.

  19Tagame, “paddy-turtle” (Lethocerus deyrollei). The largest water insect, it grows to be more than 2 inches in length. Its front legs, shaped like a pair of sickles, can grab a fish or a frog in a single sweep. During the night it flies to lights.

  20Vaisravana in Sanskrit: One of the Four Heavenly Kings and commander of the north side of Mount Sumeru where the True Law or Darma is kept. In Japan he is counted among the Seven Deities of Good Luck.

  21Shō-kokumin. A popular magazine for boys that started publication in 1889, at first monthly, from the second year twice-monthly, under the able editorship of Ishii Kendō (1865–1943). It carried articles on ethics, history, literature, and entertainment, all written in plain language. It was discontinued in September 1895, suggesting that the issue Naka’s brother bought him was one of the last.

  22One of the Seven Big Festivals in Japan, held on the 7th of Seventh Month. Casal: “If you go into the country on that day, you may still find rows of freshly cut bamboo stuck into the ground in front of the houses, or affixed to doors and eaves. They will be adorned with numerous pieces of gaily coloured paper: neat strips which twirl on a thread, and which, close inspection will show, are covered with inscriptions, poems in fact. They are all in praise of Tanabata, the Weaver Princess. On the eve of the festival the children sat around a table and with the help of their elders tried to compose them, as fine ones as possible; and where the poetical vein was insufficient they had recourse to well-known anthologies. Provided with India-ink and brush, they then laboriously traced the characters in their best hand on the goshiki no kami, the ‘papers of five colours’—green and yellow, red and white, and dark blue as a substitute for the primary black.”

  23Sasa: a low-growth variety in the grass family whose leaves resemble those of bamboo. As Casal says, the use of regular bamboo is more common.

  24Hotaru-sō, “firefly grass” (Bupleurum sachalinense).

  25Sesarmops intermedium. A species of crab that inhabits seashores and marshy places. It has a scarlet-red-brown square carapace well over an inch long. The crab’s name comes from the tough appearance of its carapace, said to resemble Benkei’s fierce-looking face. For Benkei, see note 121 in Episode 1.38.

  26Kidōmaru, “Demon Boy,” is a fiendish rogue who figures in the stories about the warrior-commander Minamoto no Raikō (Yorimitsu: 948–1021). In this scene he tries to waylay Raikō by hiding himself in the stomach of a dead bull or a bull he killed.

  27Shōnen taikouchi. A story of a boy drummer for the Ninth Regiment of Napoleon’s Army invading Russia that appeared in the August 1895 issue of Shō-kokumin. The boy was described as “exceedingly skinny, with only his head bigger than anyone’s.” See Horibe, pp. 184–46.

  28Mizuhiki or mizubiki: special paper cut into strips to be turned into decorative strings used on gift envelopes and boxes. The paper is dyed red and white. Here the dyed paper is being dried on wooden boards.

  29Kunugi (Quercus acutissima).

  30A catfish-like fish.

  31During its last, “five-sleep” period before making a cocoon, the silkworm requires 24-hour-a-day attention for about ten days.

  32Sweet bean paste. Regarded as an expensive gift item until not long ago, it came in a sizable rectangular box.

  33Nishidotchi—the pupa of a butterfly or moth is so called because if you squeeze its lower half, asking, “Which way is west?” it moves its upper body in one direction as if in reply.

  34The heroine of Japan’s oldest extant full-length tale, Taketori monogatari. She is found as a doll-like figure in a bamboo, grows to be the most beautiful woman in the land, and, after giving fabulously difficult assignments to five suitors, ascends
to the lunar world where she was originally from.

  35Aa Chūshin Nanshi no haka: the words that “Deputy Shogun” Tokugawa Mitsukuni (1628–1700) wrote on the tomb he built for Kusunoki Masashige (1294–1336) at the Minato River where he fought and was killed. Until Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, Masashige was Japan’s greatest national hero because he willingly threw himself into a hopeless battle out of loyalty to the emperor. As a boy Naka knew the words and the history that had inspired them. Here he used them to express grief for the silkworms.

  36The Japanese-style school of painting founded by Matsumura Goshun (1752-1811), so named because when Goshun started it he lived on Shijō Street, Kyoto.

  37Kōkō (Chinese: xiaoxing): The Chinese scholar-writer Zhou Zuoren (see the introduction) translated this section, along with the one on the Sino-Japanese War, into Chinese because he, like Naka, had a strong aversion to “filial piety.” In writing an essay on this subject, he agreed with the philosopher Watsuji Tetsurō (see the introduction) and the historian of Asia Naitō Torajirō (also Konan: 1866–1934) that the idea of “filial piety,” along with that of “loyalty” (chū; Chinese: zhong), was not indigenous to Japan but the deleterious result of Confucianism. In the essay on “the humane beauty of Japan” (Nihon no ninjōbi), Zhou observed: “The relentless advocacy of loyalty and filial piety have not just generated various tragedies among individual [Japanese]; it is also the principal reason for their being turned into a target of hatred.” See Ryū, Tōyōjin no hiai, pp. 150–51.

  38A saying dating from a textbook for children published in 1658. More fully: “Your indebtedness to your father is higher than the mountain; your mother’s virtues are deeper than the sea.”

  39Shōgi-daoshi. So called because the game is played with the pieces for the game shōgi.

  40Dōchū sugoroku: A board game played with dice that resembles Monopoly, except here, as the name suggests, the purpose is to complete a journey first.

  41Nihonbashi, “the Japan Bridge.” Originally built in 1602 as a wooden structure, it was considered the center of Japan from which all distances were measured. Nihonbashi is also the name of the district that includes the bridge. It had a large fish market. Hiroshige’s famous painting series of “The 53 Stations along the Tōkaidō Road”—between Nihonbashi and Kyoto—begins with a picture of the bridge with a few fishmongers in the foreground, though the tubs they carry appear empty.

  42The 35th of the fifty-three stations along the Tōkaidō Road. It’s in today’s Aichi. As every Japanese knows, the kind of misreading of kanji described here is common.

  43Kumazasa (Sasa veitchii): a variety of bear bamboo (see note 115 in Episode 1.36), though with much larger leaves.

  44Kōgaibiru, “hairpin leech” (Bipalium fuscatum). The Japanese name comes from the fact that it looks like a certain type of Edo-period hairpin and like a leech, but it is not a true leech. Usually 2 to 5 inches long, this animal grows to be as long as 32 inches. It has a velvety black back and grayish-white belly and is very slimy. It feeds on slugs, earthworms, and snails.

  45Dōji-gōshi, a design with alternating fat and thin stripes; so called because it is said to have been the design of the robe that Shuten Dōji, “Drunken Boy,” wore. For Shuten Dōji, see note 64 in Episode 1.18.

  46Tobi-gashira. Though here given as “a construction crew,” tobi originally referred to members of fire companies set up in Edo, in 1720. Later, firemen often doubled as construction workers and mostly formed mini-monopolies in their localities.

  47Also, hannya: a nō mask representing a woman’s face distorted with grief, jealousy, and anger. Contradictorily, prajnā, the original Sanskrit for the word in a Buddhist text, means “wisdom.”

  48A kite made to “fight” by tightening the balancing strings at the center so that it may rock as it flies. It moves swiftly.

  49Abura-zemi (Graptopsaltria nigrofuscata): a species of cicada—the only one with non-transparent wings. The name “oily cicada” comes from its shirring that resembles the sound of frying something in oil.

  50Minmin-zemi (Oncotympana maculaticollis): a species of cicada. Its name is onomatopoeic.

  51Hōshi-zemi, also called tsukutsukubōshi (Meimuna opalifera): a species of cicada. The name hōshi-zemi, “monk cicada,” comes from China. Tsukutsuku, in Japanese, is onomatopoeic.

  52Higurashi (Tanna japonensis): a species of cicada whose limpid shirring early in the morning and late in the afternoon is prized. Sometimes translated as “clear-tone cicada.”

  53Oshizemi: a female cicada. It does not sing.

  54Botan-kyō: Prunus salicina.

  55U no me taka no me: an old expression whose meaning is comparable to “hawk-eyed.”

  56Yusura (Prunus tomentosa).

  57Haku’unboku (Styrax obassia): Flora of Japan (Smithsonian Institution, 1966): “Small tree with horizontally spreading stellate-pubescent branches while young, becoming dark brown . . . ; leaves membranous . . . vivid green and usually glabrous above, densely white stellate-hairy beneath . . . ; the flowers stellate-pubescent; . . . fruit white.” The name “white-cloud-tree” comes from the clusters of white delicate flowers the tree puts on that resemble puffs of white clouds.

  58Chamberlain: “the tea of the lower classes . . . made out of chopped leaves, stalks, and bits of wood taken from the trimmings of the tea-plant; for this beverage is tea, after all, little as its flavour has in common with that of Bohea or [the choicest] Uji.”

  59Nanten (Nandina domestica): a shrub with white flowers that turn into red berries.

  60Tōshi (Tangzhi in Chinese): thick paper with designs printed into it. So called because it originated in China.

  61Chinju (chunshou in Chinese): a metaphor for longevity. In Chuang Tzu: “In very ancient times there was a tree called Great Camellia. It had 8,000 years worth of springs and 8,000 years worth of autumns.”

  62A tanka attributed to the famous Zen monk Ikkyū (1394–1481).

  63Kongōza, in which the Lord Buddha entered nirvana.

  64Saru mo ki kara ochiru, “Even a monkey can fall from a tree.” A proverbial saying cited in the haikai treatise-cum-anthology Kefukigusa, published in 1638, it normally means “even those most accomplished can make mistakes.” Naka uses it here in a somewhat different sense.

  65Rites in which a few passages from each of the 600 “volumes” that make up the Dai-Hannya (Great Wisdom) Sutra are recited. These rites used to be held frequently—the first and fifteenth days of each month, the first three days of the first month, and so on—and also to offer prayers for national security, for a good harvest, or for fire prevention. The sutra expounds the doctrine of emptiness.

  66A Buddhist utensil used by the leading monk in a service. A brush of long animal hair, it was originally used, in India, to flick away mosquitoes and horseflies.

  67See note 65 in Episode 1.18.

  68Kawaii ko ni wa tabi o saseyo: a proverbial saying born in the days when travels were difficult. A related saying went, Tabi wa ui mono tsurai mono, “Travels are depressing and painful.” The idea is that if you love your child, you must make him experience hardship in the outside world and not spoil him in the comforts of home.

  69See note 31 in Episode 1.12.

  70See note 50 in Episode 1.17.

  71The tubular foldable lantern with a wooden bottom and a wooden lid invented in Odawara, Kanagawa. It was convenient for travelers.

  72Jūman-oku-do: the number of Buddhist lands between this world and Paradise presided over by the Amida Buddha, thus indicating the great distance you must traverse before reaching Paradise. It also means Paradise.

  73Momenbari: May correspond to the “darning needle” or “finishing needle.”

  74A popular place for believers that is in the city of Nagano. Papinot: “Established in 670, it at first belonged to the Tendai sect, then passed to the Shingon. Towards 1630, it returned to the Tendai-shū and became a dependency of the great temple Tōei-zan of Ueno (Edo). It is dedicated to Amida, K
wannon and Daiseishi, whose statues according to legend have been miraculously carried there from Korea in the 7th century.” The saying, Ushi ni hikarete Zenkō-ji mairi, “Led by an ox you go to the Zenkō temple to pay respects,” means accomplishing something nice by sheer luck or unintentionally.

  75The province of Shinano (today’s Nagano Prefecture).

  76Daigasa: A hat or an umbrella put in a bag and carried at the top of a pole in a procession.

  77Eitai-kyō: Arrangement with a temple to have a sutra read on the anniversary of one’s death.

  78Kōbō Daishi (“Great Master for Propagating the Law”), the title given to Kūkai (774–835) who established the Shingon (True Word) school of Buddhism in Japan. Counted among Japan’s three greatest calligraphers. Hence the saying, Kōbō mo fude no ayamari, “Even a Kōbō makes mistakes with his brush,” and, conversely, another saying, Kōbō fude o erabazu, “A Kōbō doesn’t select his brush”—meaning that someone accomplished can work with any instrument, regardless of its quality.

  79The feminine aspect of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, the “Goddess of Mercy.” She is often depicted with a child in her arms.

  80Hongan: Originally the pledge of Amida or Amitābha, “the Buddha of Infinite Light,” to provide salvation to all people.

  81Jiriki: salvation through one’s own efforts. In certain schools of Buddhism, especially in the Pure Land School. The opposite is tariki, Other Reliance, which refers to the salvation through reliance on the Amitābha.

  82Gunpai: “Military fan,” a fan carried by the commanding officer in a battlefield. Today it is used by the sumō referees.

  83See note 28 in Episode 1.11.

  84In the old days public bathhouses had men whose job was to help customers, male or female, wash; in private houses maids and members of the family did the same work.

  85Fugu ni: Naka here uses an expression that is rarely, if ever, used as applied to the moon.

  86Citrus junos: a species of lemon whose rind mixed with pepper and salt is prized for its distinct spiciness.