The Silver Spoon (26 page)

1
The war between Japan and China—the Qing or Manchu Dynasty at the time—over Korea's sovereignty that began in July 1894 and ended in May 1895.

2
Xiyouji
or
The Record of a Westward Journey,
or as Anthony Yu who made the first complete English translation calls it,
The Journey to the West
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980). As Yu explains, it is a story “loosely based on the famous pilgrimage of Xuanzhuang (602–64), the monk who went from China to India in quest of Buddhist scriptures.” A collection of wondrous tales put together probably by Wu Cheng'en (ca. 1500–82), it features a monkey, a pig, a
kappa
, and a horse, all with magical powers, as guardians of the traveling monk. Arthur Waley's
Monkey: Folk Novel of China
(Grove Press, 1994) is an abbreviated translation.

3
A proverbial saying. A variation: “A man is allowed to cry only when he is born and when his parents die.” Another: “A man is allowed to cry only three times in his lifetime: at birth, at his parent's death, and when his shin's hit.” A similar variation: “A man is allowed to laugh only once every three years,” because to laugh is to lose male dignity.

4
Yamato damashii.
Yamato, originally a small area in today's Nara, finally came to designate all of Japan. Ueda Akinari (1734–1809) characterized something like
Yamato damashii
—that which the people of one country regard as the spiritual essence of their being—as the “stink” of that country. In Part 6 of
I Am a Cat,
Natsume Sōseki makes fun of this indomitable Japanese spirit by having the main character announce mockingly that every Japanese, from the victor at the Battle of Tsushima, Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō, on down, has it: a pickpocket, a fishmonger, confidence man, a mountebank, a murderer.

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

6
Yojō (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.

7
See note 140 in Episode 1.46.

8
See note 128 in Episode 1.41.

9
Fugutaiten
(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.”

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

11
Hōjō 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.

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

13
Shiji
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.

14
Kan'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
.

15
Uesugi 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.”

16
A 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.”

17
Kibasen,
“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.

18
Mizukamakiri,
“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.

19
Tagame,
“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.

20
Vaisravana 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.

21
Shō
-
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.

22
One 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.”

23
Sasa
: 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.

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

25
Sesarmops 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.

26
Kidōmaru, “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.

27
Shōnen 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.

28
Mizuhiki
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.

29
Kunugi (Quercus acutissima)
.

30
A catfish-like fish.

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

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

33
Nishidotchi
—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.

34
The 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.

35
Aa 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.

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

37
Kōkō
(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 RyÅ«,
Tōyōjin no hiai
, pp. 150–51.

38
A 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.”

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

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

41
Nihonbashi, “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.