March−2001

No.27
NEWSLETTER&京都国際文化協会
京都市左京区吉田河原町15−9

京大会館116号

TEL. 075−751−8958 FAX. 075−751−9006 〒606−8305
e-mailkicainc@mbox.kyoto-inet.or.jp

URL

http://web.kyoto-inet.or.jp/org/kicainc/会長 西島安則 ・ 理事長 千 宗室

■国際交流講座 ─ 日本語教師養成講座

日本一を誇る教授陣とシステム
玉村文郎（同志社大学教授・当協会理事）
現在国内には「日本語教師養成講座」と称されるものがずいぶんたくさんありますが、息長く活動を続けていると
ころは、それほど多くありません。そういう中で、1983年
秋にスタートした当協会の「日本語教師養成講座」は、京阪神在住の第一線で活躍中の有名教授を講師に迎えて、理「日本語教師養成講座」授業風景

論面・実践面での充実した内容を盛り込み、当初から〈密■Japanese Lessons

度の高さ随一〉という高い評価を得てきた講座です。各地

KICA tailors Japanese lessons on your requests. Theの講座の多くは、週２回制、あるいは２年連続性、１回４class report appears on page 5.

時間（午前午後）制をとっていますが、当協会の講座は、学生・院生・社会人・主婦の方々にも大きな負担をかけず

KICA Private/Small Group Lessonsに受講して頂けるように企画してきました。いわば〈最小8:00〜21:00 at your convenience

時間で最大の効果を〉というのが、この講座のねらいです。

Fees: ¥2,000/hour

今年度、①国内国外で日本語教育の推進を図っている機◆Call KICA Office (TEL 075-751-8958)

関や当該部門の担当者による〈教師活動の実際〉に関する講義を加えたこと加えたこと②海外主要地域での教授実態の講義を

The Kyoto City International Community House offers③講座Ⅲ（冬学期）の回数を増やしたこと

Japanese Classes for Beginners on Fridays:の３点の改善を行いました。しかも、受講料は据え置きです。大学の外国人留学生の倍増も叫ばれており、ますますFirst Steps in Japanese

日本語を教えるチャンスが増えることが予想される新世紀

13:00〜15:00 and 18:00〜20:00の幕開けに、日本語教師としての条件をととのえる絶好のSecond Steps in Japanese 15:30〜17:30

講座として、ふるって当講座を受講されるよう、案内する

Fees: ￥3,000 for 12 weeks

次第です。

◆Call the Kyoto City International Community House
Information and Programming Section(TEL752-3511)◆次頁の講座カレンダーをご参照ください。

◆特別企画 ─ 講演「日本語の未来」
６月４日（日）京大会館に加藤秀俊先生（国際交流基金
日本語国際センター所長）を迎え、表題の講演会が開かれました。「いまや日本列島の局地的な言語ではなくなってしまった日本語に求められているのは何か」「『国語』か『日本語』か」「日本語が世界化するためには日本人はどうあるべきか」についての興味深いお話があり、聴衆からも質問や意見が出て活発な討論が交わされました。

特別講演−加藤秀俊先生

1

2001（財）京都国際文化協会
国際交流講座─日本語を教える人のために

主催：7京都国際文化協会
共催：京都市
後援：京都府・国際交流基金

日本語教師養成講座／講座カレンダー
2001

国際交流講座−−日本語を教える人のために

月

日本語教師養成講座!

日

2002

日本語教師養成講座Ⅲ

１ ４．17

日本語概説

玉 村 文 郎１ １．15

日本語学と日本語教育

玉 村 文 郎２

外から見た日本語

玉 村 文 郎

２

22

社会言語学

真 田 信 治

29

24

３ ５．１

日本語の普及と日本語教育

清 水 陽 一３

音声・音韻総論

壇 辻 正 剛４８

言語のしくみ吉 田 和 彦４ ２．５

コリア語話者に対する日本語教育

泉

５

15

日本語の文法（助詞・助動詞） 加 藤 久 雄

５12

中南米諸語話者に対する日本語教育

大倉美和子

６

22

日本語の文法（構文）加 藤 久 雄６19

中国語話者に対する日本語教育

徐

７

29

日本語の語彙

前 田 富 祺７

26

ヨーロッパ諸語話者に対する日本語教育

乙 政

文 明
甲 申
潤

８ ６．５

日本語の文字・表記

玉 村 文 郎

８ ３．５

文法総論

糸 井 通 浩９12

日本語の音声・音韻壇 辻 正 剛

９

12

語彙総論

前 田 富 祺10

19

日本語の歴史前 田 富 祺10

19

日本語教育の現場から特別講師（海外技術者研修協会）

1126

日本語の位相浅 野 敏 彦1126

日本語教育総論

玉 村 文 郎12 ７．３

教授法と教材松 井 嘉 和13

10

異文化理解と言語教育

泉

文 明

14

17

求められる日本語教師

徐

甲 申

15

24

日本語教育の内容

玉 村 文 郎１ ９．11

音声・音韻の指導◆全コースの講義科目を日英両文で記載した受講証明書を発行します◆講座Ⅰ、Ⅱ、Ⅲの各コースにおいて、所定時間の受講者に該当コースの受講終了を認め、上記受講証明書に捺印します◆全コースの修了者には、見学と実習の場を用意しています

日本語教師養成講座Ⅱ
杉藤美代子

２

18

聴解の指導

土 岐

３

25

語彙の指導①

玉 村 文 郎哲

４ 10．２

語彙の指導②

玉 村 文 郎５

９

文法の指導①

佐 治 圭 三６16

文法の指導②

佐 治 圭 三７

23

文字・表記の指導

泉

８30

近・現代語の形成①

玉 村 禎 郎文 明

９ 11．６

近・現代語の形成②

玉 村 禎 郎1013

日本語学と対照研究

玉 村 文 郎1120

日本語と中国語

大河内康憲

12

27

日本語とコリア語

泉

13 12．４

日本語と中南米諸語

田 辺 加 恵14

日本語とヨーロッパ諸語

田 辺

青年海外協力隊の日本語教師

特別講師（JICA）
・
玉村文郎

15

11
18

会場：京大会館（京都市左京区吉田河原町15-9）
日時：毎回火曜日 6：30〜8：30p.m.
費用：協会年会費
05,000円
受講料 講座Ⅰ
30,000円
講座Ⅱ
30,000円
講座Ⅲ
25,000円
お問い合わせは：（財）
京都国際文化協会

文 明
保2

■国際文化講座―ＫＩＣＡセミナー■ KICA Seminar

京都府後援の当セミナーには在洛の外国人研究者をお招きして、専門分野のお話とともに日本や京都との関わりを伺います。
５月16日にお招きした国際交流基金フェローの歴史学者
ジョン・アレン・タッカー準教授は、「赤穂浪士は忠臣」との通説の陰で忘れ去られた江戸儒学者らによる議論を紹介されました。17世紀半ば、幕藩体制は安定期を迎え、儒学が盛んでした。宋の陳北渓による『性理字義』などを学んだ学者たちは、「忠臣義士とは主君への忠誠を尽くす武士であり、殉死した忠臣は手厚く神社に祀られる」と考え

Prof. Tucker talks about “chusin gishi”.

ましたが、この立場から論議すれば、「浅野家家臣は吉良義央討ち（1702年）によって幕府の治世を乱した者たちで

Dr. John Tucker, the first lecturer for ’00 KICA Seminar

あるから、忠臣義士にあらず。よってその死後神社に祀る

on May 16, spoke about the Tokugawa Confucian debateに値せず」と断じました。事件を真似た不満分子の台頭をover chūshin gishi. The Tokugawa Shogunate had entered

危惧してのことでした。やがて時が過ぎ、赤穂浪士は「忠the politically stable period in the mid-17th century, and義の手本」として人々から愛され、儒学者らによる議論はConfucianism fairly flourished. Early-Tokugawa discourse,

忘れ去られて、現在に至っているとのお話でした。

especially flavored by Neo-Confucian writings such as

11月18日は、チェコ共和国のカレル大学出身のディタ・Xingli ziyi by Chen Beixi, understood chūsin gishi to signify

サロヴァさんが日本語でチェコの昨今を紹介しました。分a kind of loyal and righteous self-sacrifice, which warranted

離後７年が経って、子供たちは互いにチェコ語、スロバキ

apotheosis. The debate about the 1702 vendetta was, in

ア語の理解に困難を感じているとか。また、社会主義の崩

part, a religious one over the posthumous status of Akō

壊で女性を取り巻く環境も変化。雇用差別や保育所入所年

Rōnin. The Tokugawa Confucians denied that they were

齢の引き上げが、女性の社会進出を妨げています。「西」

worthy of such apotheosis, with the fear that worship ofからの資本流入は雇用を生む一方、古く美しい街並みを変them might have provided the beginnings of a cult of貌させます。大きな歴史の変動の中、伝統が守られている

martyrs around which Bakufu opponents might rally.

のはクリスマスです。ご馳走は鯉の唐揚げとポテトサラダ

Dr.Tucker concluded that the Rōnin were eventuallyが定番。イエス生誕を祝う「馬小屋の飾り付け」を楽しみ

worshiped as exemplars of a kind of self-sacrificingに、チェコの子供たちが家族と一緒に教会に出かけるのは

loyalism, while the Tokugawa Confucian debate came to be

この先も変わらないことでしょう。

lost over time.
Ms. Dita Salova, a graduate of Charles University in the
Czech Republic, introduced her country and Czech
Christmas in Japanese at the Seminar on November 18.
Seven years have passed since the splitting of
Czechoslovakia and now it seems that children on bothsides have a hard time to communicate in Czech andSlovak with each other. The environment around women
has also changed because of the collapse of socialism. Sex
discrimination and the rise of children’s age for entering

Ms Salova talks about Czech Christmas.

3

「シルクロードの国々」と題して、12月９日にお迎えしnursery schools have prevented women from equal

たサルタナット・イブラインさんは日本語と現代ウイグル

opportunity in employment. During the tremendous

語における格助詞の類似を修士論文にまとめられたとこ

historical change, it is only Christmas that people share aろ。５年前の来洛以来研究、出産、育児と多忙な留学生活

traditional celebration. People enjoy a special dinner ofの傍ら、新彊ウイグル自治区の歴史、文化、現状を紹介し

deep-fried carp and potato salad. Czech children are sure toてこられました。水の確保も不自由なウイグル南部での暮

go to church with their families, looking forward to seeing

らしに比べ、便利で快適な日本の生活に驚きと羨望を感じ

the ornamented manger, which is made in commemoration

たこともあるサルタナットさんですが、思いやりを忘れな

of Jesus Christ’s birth, and will continue in the future, too.

いウイグルの人たちを懐かしみ、ふたつの文化の架け橋に

On December 9, we invited Ms. Saltanat Ibrien who had

なりたいと締めくくられました。

just finished her master thesis on similarities of uses ofウズベキスタンのリズヴァングルさんとナジロフさんはparticles in Japanese and modern Uighur languages. She

国際交流基金関西センターで日本語を、グルノーラさんと

has been active in introducing her culture to the Japaneseとアフマールさんは京都大学で薬学と医学を研修中。青くpublic since she came here five years ago besides doing

輝くモスク、オアシスの花々、くだものにヨーグルト、手research, giving birth to her son and raising him.

仕事から生まれた生活用品。スライドからは、歴史遺産と伝統に基づいた人々の生活が伝わってきます。熱心に日本語を学び、日本との交流を希望しているウズベクの人々。
翻って私たちの興味関心の在り方を考えさせられますが、民族衣裳の４人に誘われて加わったウズベキ舞踊の輪はやさしく私たちの心を開いてくれるものでした。

Ms. Ibrien talks about her hopes.
Earlier in her stay, she felt a little envious of the highly
technological conveniences in Japanese daily life, but she
often thought of her own people and their simple lives with
nice and warm memories. She concluded her talk with her
hopes to continue bridging the two cultures.
On December 17, Ms. Lizvangul and Mr. Nazirov, from
Kansai Center of the Japan Foundation, Ms. Beguvaeva andMr. Maglufov from Kyoto University gave talks on their
Everybody enjoyed Uzbeki dance.

home country, Uzbekistan and showed us interesting slides
through which we were able to learn their rich historical■ 日本語個人／小グループレッスン

inheritances and traditions.

1995年から始まったこのプログラムで日本語を学んでいOn seeing their enthusiasm in studying Japanese andる人たちは、立場や母国語、日本語のレベルや学習目的もexchanging ideas with the Japanese, we reflected andさまざまです。「日常生活のために」「なんとか意志を通じ

wondered if we were as interested in their culture as they

させて暮らしているがきちんと基礎から学びたい」「大学were in ours.

4

院入試のために」「日本語能力試験受験のために」「仕事や■ KICA Private/ Small Group Japanese Language Lessons

研究上の必要に迫られて」など。それぞれのニーズに合わ

People who have studied Japanese in our program since

せてカリキュラムを準備し、学習の時間帯と場所を設定し1995 have different backgrounds, mother tongues, levels ofています。昨年度の学習者数は約30人、ほとんどはプライ

Japanese skill, and purposes for studying; “for daily life”,

ベートレッスンですが、２〜５人のグループもあります。

“for mastering the proper way of saying though not feeling

1998年度「日本語教師養成講座」を受講、現在はボランテ

inconvenience in communication in Japanese”, “preparation

ィアで教えておられる土井茂さんからクラスレポートを寄

for entrance examination of graduate school”, “preparation

せていただきました。

for the certification examination in Japanese”, “urgent
needs for work or research”, and so on. Our curriculum,＊

schedule, and classroom are set flexibly for each student’s「脱線もまた楽し」needs. We had nearly 30 students last year and most of
土井茂them studied in person-to-person lessons. The following is

海外の方たちと接する機会が増えるにつれて、70年近く

the class report by Mr. Shigeru Doi, who participated in

も日本語を母語として生活してきたのに、自分自身「日本the classes “Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language “ in語」を余り知らないのではないかという危惧の念から協会

the academic year 1998 and now teaches Japanese as aの講座を受講しました。クラスを持つようになった今も外volunteer staff member.

国の方に日本語を教えるというより一緒に勉強していると＊いった気持ちでレッスンを楽しみにしています。
クラスでは「人間に国境はない」という思いにかられる—Going off the Rails is also Exciting—

ことが度々あります。言葉、文化の違いに橋を架けるのは、

Shigeru Doi

言語の習得だけではなく、人間としての触れ合いが一番大事ではないかと思われてきます。今の生徒さんの多くが留With the increasing opportunities of meeting with thevisitors from abroad, I was getting uneasy about myshallow knowledge of Japanese. That is why I started
taking the classes of “Teaching Japanese as a Foreign
Language” organized by KICA. I was close to 70 years oldthen. Now I am a volunteer teacher, having the pleasure oflearning together with the foreign students and theirfamilies in the private lessons.
I often find similarities between them and us in theclasses. Therefore communication is, I think, a top priority
over the acquisition of Japanese language for the purpose ofbridging the gap caused by the involved cultural

Shigeru Doi with his students

differences.
学生の奥さん方ということもあって、私のレッスンはテキ

These days many of my students are housewives, I teach

ストから脱線することがしばしばで教室というより談話室

things beyond the text in a relaxing atmosphere like a chatの感があります。雨や風の日には「雨冠」の漢字や擬声語

party. On rainy days I introduce Kanji with ukanmuri andに枝分かれしてゆきます。日本、とりわけ京都の風習や伝

onomatopoeia. For small talk, I bring beans for Setsubun

統行事の話に花が咲く時もあります。やがて立春、節分のand sakuramochi for Girls’ Festival as visual aids. City5

福豆のあとは雛あられや桜餅が教材になります。地図やバ

maps and route maps of busses are also used as

ス路線図も立派な副読本です。皆さん熱心に日本を知るこ

supplementary texts. I explain about the local customs andとに取り組んでおられます。やり甲斐があります。いつのtraditional events, particularly preserved here in Kyoto at

日か、お正月に百人一首でも一緒にとれれば、と楽しい夢

particular times. All the students are so enthusiastic in

を描いております。

learning about Japan that I find satisfaction in teachingthem. Now I have a dream of playing cards of one hundred■ 外国人留学生交流プログラム

famous Japanese poems, Hyakunin-isshu, together with my「留学生と作る世界の家庭料理」は、関西電力のアミュ

students at a New Year’s party someday in the future.

ージアムとスタッフ宅で開きました。王冬梅さん、賈輓輝さん、張榮さんの指先からは餃子が形よく包まれて出てき◆ KICA tailors Japanese lessons on your request. Call theます。茹で上がった皮はとても柔らかく、いくつ食べても

office and make an appointment for interview.

飽きません。ノルウエー科学技術大学のシグネ・ケルツラ
ップ先生はカリフラワーのスープとタラのバター焼き、フルーツサラダを紹介してくださいました。ノルウエー特産のサーモンは輸出用なので、めったに家庭の食卓にのぼる■ KICA Program for Foreign Students and Families

ことはなく、フルーツサラダは最近まで特別のご馳走だっ

Our program “The Joy of Cooking with Students from

たとか。李さん、朴さん、洪さん、元さんは若い研究者のAbroad” invited a wide variety of people from many

奥さんで、協会の教室で日本語を勉強中。実家のお母さん

different areas including Ms. Wong, Ms. Xa, and Ms. Changを思い出しながら教えてくださった海鮮チジミは簡単に作from China who demonstrated their exquisite arts ofれます。焼きたてがほこほこと美味しく、冷たい水キムチ

making jiao zi, and Prof. Signe Kijelstrup from Norwegianはさっぱりと爽やかです。アルタンツェッグさんが教えて

University of Science and Technology who with her

くださった肉まんじゅうはミルク紅茶の中でゆっくり煮ま

husband, Prof. Dick Bedeaux from Leiden Institute ofす。故国モンゴルの雪害に心を馳せるツェッグさんのお人

Chemistry introduced buttered fillets of cod, cauliflower

柄そのままに優しい味でした。

soup together with fruit-salad on which she added a special
comment that this was “her child-day feast”.
Ms’s Wong, Lee, Park, and Hong are wives of young andpromising researchers from Korea who taught us how to
fix their famous ethnic pancake, “chijimi”, and kimcheedrink.
Mongolian meatballs tasted nice and warm after being
simmered in a pot of milk tea just like the wonderful smileof Ms. Altantzeg who introduced the recipe to us. We
thank the Museum of Kansai Denryoku Company for theirkind cooperation.
One of our staff members invited friends from abroad to

The joy of making jiao zi

her home and cooked a typical early summer Kyoto meal.
日本人の食卓に興味を持った留学生やその家族に初夏のParticipants all enjoyed the Japanese ingredients and how

献立を紹介する集まりも持ちました。刺身と海藻サラダ、

to prepare them as well as her collection of tableware and

焼きなす、豆ご飯、そして赤だし。食器つかいや盛り付け

art of table setting.

6

も楽しく実習して好評でした。
歌舞伎鑑賞教室、博物館見学、いけばなインターナショ
ナルのデモンストレーション、工房見学など恒例の「交流プログラム」には沢山の参加がありました。伝統の手法で襖紙を刷って見せてくださった「唐長」さんは日本で唯一の手刷り工房。江戸時代から伝わる版木は数百枚も。紙の伝来については中国の王さん、ヨーロッパとの文様交流についてはライデンから来られたディック・ベドー先生からコメントが。「唐長」さんとの活発なやりとりが参加者のItalian students at “fusumagami” studio

心をはるかな時空へ誘ってくれました。寄木を解いて仏像の胎内や瞳の造りを説明してくださったのは「平安仏所」

We organized guided tours to two studios of Kyoto’sの江里康慧さん。仏像の裳裾を飾る伝統技術「截金」は、traditional arts. We were able to enjoy the beauty of

佐代子夫人によって現代工芸の世界にも見事に活かされて“Fusumagami”, paper for sliding door hand-made in “Kara-

います。プログラム参加者の希望に応じて、書道や日本画

cho” only because the family had passed down theの手ほどきを、そして能楽や伝統音楽鑑賞への案内も行な

hundreds of wood blocks and the skill of printing since the

いました。府立嵯峨野高校の夏のフィールドワークに協会

Edo Era. Accomplished sculptor, Mr. Koukei Eri kindly

紹介の留学生が招かれました。王さん、賈さん、張さんがshowed us the inner structure of images of Buddha in his

水餃子を、ネパールのバッタさん夫妻とニルマラさんがチ

studio “Heian Bussho”, and his wife, Sayoko-san, showed

キンカレー作りを指導。食後はバッタさんと徐結苟さんを

us contemporary works of hers using the traditional skill of

交えて異なった文化に興味を持つことの大切さを語り合い

shredded gold leaf, or “Kirigane.”

ました。プログラムは好評で、秋にもお招きがあり、今度は、李さん、朴さん、洪さん、元さんが海鮮チジミを紹介して高校生と交流しました。国際交流基金関西センター
で日本語を研修中の南イタリアのレッチェ大学日本語学科の学生さんは観光ガイドや通訳をめざして勉強中とかりん
くうタウンからの上洛を受けてスタッフが京都の町を案内しました。このプログラムは当協会理事長千宗室氏の支援を受けています。

Mr. Eri shows his works.
Our friends from abroad were invited to Sagano
Prefectural High School several times and introduced theirown cultures to the young students.

Our group ofJapanese language teachers also enjoyed meeting thestudents of Japanese from Recce University, Italy.
We are very grateful to Dr. Soshitu Sen for his generous
at Ikebana International Meeting

support of this program.

7

■ 国際茶会
10月21日、第21回国際茶会（国際茶道文化協会共催、裏千家後援）が開かれ, 裏千家センターに350名が集まりました。開会式の列席者は、千宗室家元・当協会理事長の心からの出迎えを受けて会場に。西島安則当協会会長と伊住政和国際茶道文化協会理事長それぞれの挨拶を受けました。参加者は順に茶室へ通り、薄茶を一服。お手前、お運
びは裏千家で茶道を学ぶ外国人留学生グループ「みどり会」の皆さんです。会場に用意された下鴨茶寮のお弁当には秋の味覚がやさしく添えられ、お椀の中にも秋の景色が。く
Each guest enjoyed a bowl of tea offered by Midorikai.

つろいで午後を楽しむ交流の輪が広がりました。

■ International Tea Gathering■ 2000 KICA論文コンテスト｢日本―私の視点から｣International Tea Gathering (jointly sponsored by

第23回論文コンテストは、10月14日に発表審査会が京大

Chanoyu Cultural Foundation and supported by the

会館で行なわれ、次の入賞論文４編が選ばれました。

Urasenke Foundation) was held on October 21 with anattendance of some 350. Main guests who attended the

京都国際文化協会賞／KICA PRIZE

副賞¥100,000

opening ceremony received greetings from Yasunori

Aya Kanai(USA)Nishijima (President of KICA) and Masakazu Izumi

副賞¥50,000(Chairman, Board of Director of Chanoyu Cultural

Daniel Bürgin(Swiss)

Foundation) after entering the banquet room with a very

Ciaran Murray(Ireland)heart-warming welcome from Sen Soshitsu (Grand Tea“Reflection of a Moonface”
奨励賞／Prize for Effort“A Summer Night’s Matsuri”“A Borrowed Vista”｢日本の女子学生―私の視点から｣

張墨竹（中国）

Master of Urasenke School, Chairman, Board of Directorsof KICA). Each guest enjoyed a bowl of tea offered by

今回は応募総数40編､うち11編が日本語での応募でした。

Midorikai, the group of non-Japanese students who study『紀ノ川』の華子に自身を投影するカナイさん。来日後、Chado, the Way of Tea, at Urasenke. And the guests

人形劇の研究を通じて仲間との触れ合いを重ね、今後は二appreciated the beautiful autumn scenery that was also

つの文化を大切に自分らしい未来を切り開きたいと話しま

found in the seasonably arranged lunch by Shimogamo-

す。夏祭りの露店が並ぶ境内を歩くブルマンさんの心は、

Saryo. There was a harmony among the people who

川端や芥川や三島の世界に。いまどきの若者や古き良き時

enjoyed the luxurious afternoon.

代のすべてを捨ててしまったかに見える現代社会を憂いつ
つ、死者の魂を迎える真夏こそもっとも日本らしいと語ります。マーレイさんは18世紀の英国庭園のルーツは日本の庭ではないかと興味を抱き、謎の言葉「ソロワジ」を鍵に、東西の庭園の歴史を探ります。張さんは日中女子学生の比較論を。日本の女子学生がオシャレで、気軽に仲間を褒めるのに驚きます。好印象を演出して、人間関係を円滑にする彼女たちのしたたかさをこれからは見習いたいと話しました。
◆2001年度は６月から募集を始めます。問合せは協会まで。

Prize winners and judges at the party held after the contest

8Just write it! - our essay contest
Masayasu AOTANIOur essay contest has three groups of very active“participants”. They are the contestants, the organizers,
and the judges. We have a format that allows andencourages intimate interaction among all three parties
involved, and that is the secret behind our success.

This process greatly enhanced my understanding of theessays. I don’t know how else I could have picked thewinner with conviction. Every finalist had submitted an
excellent essay full of personal experiences and cultural
analyses.

While the contest is the culmination of a concerted effort
by all participants, the volunteer organizers contribute by
far the most. Considering that this contest is being run bya handful of hard-working female volunteers, theorganization and the attention given to detail are truly
impressive. I would like to take this opportunity to express
my great admiration and heart-felt appreciation for their
devotion.

After the ceremony, was the dinner, which gave us anotheropportunity to talk to the participants. Greek philosophers
were quite right when they said that the best way to get toknow one another is to eat and drink together. It was madeparticularly attractive by the presence of the organizers andthe judges in addition to the finalists. This friendly
gathering was very symbolic of the kind of charm thiscontest offers.

A successful contest requires a solid main theme, and thisone is no exception. One can see that a lot of thought went
into our choice “Japanese Culture — My View”. It is
intentionally broad, if not vague, in order to encourage
people with diverse backgrounds and experiences to apply.
Making personal experience the focal point of the essay
helps writers to freely express their views on Japaneseculture in their own words. The key here is “my view”.

I don’t know how many of the organizers are actuallymothers, but their motherly love shines in everything theydo. Their warm hospitality and dedication to helping otherparticipants make this feel like a big family reunion. I hopethat this contest will continue to attract highly qualified
participants with even more diverse backgrounds in the
future and maintain its great family atmosphere.
Organizers, contestants, and judges all made it amemorable experience for me this year. I personally assure
you that similarly great experiences will await all future
participants of this contest.

Among the finalists this year were a young JapaneseAmerican woman who was studying Puppet Theater, an
Irish professor of literature, an IT manager from
Switzerland, and a student from China. It is because of theprudent choice of the main theme that we are always
blessed with participants with such diversity.

Our hope is that, by writing essays, the contestants will
get a chance to reflect on both their own cultures and thatof Japan and to realize the value of their multiculturalexperience. This contest will be a smashing success if wesomehow manage to help each contestant with even thefirst step in that direction.

I mentioned above that judges are also active participantsof the contest. Indeed, they do much more than justreading essays and presenting awards.

I would like to close with a friendly advice for prospective
contestants. What I want to see in your essays are
significant personal cultural experiences, your interpretationof those experiences, clear descriptions and explanations,and enthusiasm. That is it. Simple. Right? Right. Good luck
to you all!

After the preliminary selection, the finalists were brought
to Kyoto for a presentation. It was only after this process
was completed that the winner was chosen. The judges
were given an opportunity to ask writers questions face toface. I took full advantage of this and tried to make it a
discourse rather than a simple questions and answers. The
writers responded to this with very clear and intriguingcomments. The exchanges were casual but informative.

Thank you for reading. See you there this year.
(Associate Professor, Kyoto University)

9

Reflections of a Moonface

Aya Kanai
PART I:

home from school, swimming practice or dance class. I had
no way of understanding at that time why such a thing would“This child saw Japan with the eyes of a foreigner andbe useful and after a few years, recognizing my disinterest,

was always discovering something new, such as a

my parents did not force me into dedication to those studies.

particular shade of green or blue and the blossoms of

Therefore, my level of Japanese language skills remained incherry or peach. On the other hand, her grandchild

child-like stages: limited phrases and vocabulary, no

was not really a foreigner. She was a Japanese whoknowledge of writing, reading or kei-go, but decent

has no links to her Japanese heritage.” (1)comprehension of conversation. I could usually understandthe general idea of what people were talking about but always

Ariyoshi Sawako’s novel, The River Ki, follows the lives of

had a problem with expressing my thoughts. I just didn’t

three women of the Matani family, Hana, Fumio and Hanako,

have the words.

through the historic transitions that World War II brought toJapan. Hanako, Fumio’s daughter and Hana’s granddaughter,

Born and raised in America, I did not have other American

grows up in the years right before the War and because of her

Japanese friends but it never felt awkward to me. It was only

father’s job as a banker, she receives her primary education

in my pre-teen years that I was teased for my Asian features;

outside of Japan. When she visits, it is to accompany hersome gems that come to mind are “pushed-in face” or, mymother, who is going to have another child and wants to givefavorite, “moon face.” But once I got past that phase of youth,birth in her own country. Hanako develops a romantic

where even a small birth mark would make a girl feel like she

passion for Japanese traditional culture and spirit. Hana,came from another planet, I did not feel that my being

quoted above, marvels at what a different experience her

Japanese was necessarily an impediment to my perceptions ofgranddaughter has had growing up abroad.

myself or others perceptions of me. We used to makesarcastic remarks when a Caucasian and African-American

My parents used to make a joke that “Aya is Japanese until

friends and I were together, that we looked like a Benneton

she opens her mouth.” I am a first generation American born

advertisement, the multicultural poster children. But at thewith full Japanese blood. Although I grew up in New Yorksame time, I would say that I have experienced more covert

City, I did visit Japan as a child and young adult on various

forms of prejudice, because of the extent to which Asianoccasions to see family members. During those visits and in

women are made objects of desire in American popular

my New York home, the Japanese language did find a place in

culture. The mystique of exoticism that would disallow an

my brain although my formal training slowly went from not

Asian woman to be seen as a full human and rather some sortrigorous to nonexistent. In my grade school days the lastof a “secret from the east.” These are two somewhat

thing I was interested in was studying Japanese when I came

contradictory sides of the same experience. There is a way

10that something can so profoundly effect every moment of yourChronicle, offer the perfect opportunity to try on, in my mind,

experience that it can be ignored if one chooses. My Japanese

the roles of the female characters I read about. But none fit

identity can at times be everywhere and nowhere. I believe

right. Similarly, when I meet Japanese women I am always

that it was resolved, for me, by choosing not to address or

curious about what they value and why. I wonder the

resolve it. At that time it was not interesting to me to grapple

questions; “If I had been raised in Japan, would I have beenwith such issues and I put it aside in the same way that I put

like you? How are my ideas about the world different fromaside learning Japanese as a child, tossed into a mental folder

yours?” All these pursuits and inquiries come from the same

marked, “to be dealt with later.”place within me; Japanese culture and heritage is written allover my body, but in what way has it effected how I look at

It was not until college that I started to think about andmy life and the choices that I make? I feel the presence of

become frustrated with the fact that I had so little knowledge

multiple possibilities and multiple persons that could beof Japanese language and history. The issue of “looking

within me. There are so many different directions my life

Japanese until I opened my mouth” became more of a

could have gone in the past and therefore could go in theconcern. I took a Japanese language course my first

future.

semester, but I breezed through it on my previous knowledge
and realized that the teaching style of learning Japanese in the

In Japan I feel there are moments when I am changed on

American college setting was inappropriate for me, someone

the inside. I am in situations that rarely occur when I am inwhose original learning of the language was of a more organic

America and therefore make me feel, to some degree, like anature. It was again put aside. By the end of my college

different person. Two specific ways I often feel altered would

career I did have an “East Asian Studies” Minor to throw on

be the heightened sensitivity to ancestry and a more distinct

top of my other Majors but that was largely because of myawareness of my womanhood.

shift in that department to studying Japanese history.
Although I only have a couple of months of distance andFirst, with regards to the feeling of lineage, when I come toperspective from my college experience now, I realize that,Japan, I am nearly smacked in the face with the reality of mywithout fully recognizing it at the time, I was searching andfamily history through the quantity of people with whom I

continue to search for a mirror for the many ways I see

share blood. Such a feeling is in no way a part of mymyself. In studying Japanese history, I have a feeling ofexistence as an American citizen because the only other blood

responsibility towards events, people and places. This is therelative that I have in America outside of the immediate isbackground that I am supposed to know. In my often

one uncle. So to come to Japan is a shock that I am nevervoracious reading of modern Japanese literature I am looking

quite prepared for. My American experience is often one offor the place where an author has previously described myfloating amidst the numerous possibilities of selves. Coming

experience. This comes in many different forms; searching

to Japan shakes the ground on which I stand, because it

for a character that resembles me, for chunks of information

reminds me of how far back my family goes. It also makes methat offer me insight, or even for a minor trait that I might see

wonder in what ways it would have effected my past choices

in myself.

living with that knowledge as a daily reality. Perhaps if I had
grown up in Japan, I would feel more of an inclination to follow

I often feel like I am role-playing. Books such as The

a path that the older women of my extended family have. I

Makioka Sisters, A Personal Matter, or The Wind-Up Bird

feel a responsibility towards those family members; some11

friends might drift in then out of one’s life, but family doesn’t

in my brain from my observations of and participation in

go away. As basic of an idea as that is, this is something thatJapanese and American society.

is only made real to me when I am in Japan.
The best analogy I have found to describe the experience ofSecondly, in Japan, I have a different experience of myall the selves that play in my mind is that of putting on awomanhood. My lifestyle in America is one where genderkimono. It makes tangible the feeling that usually remains

roles are more ambiguous than they seem to be amongst theinside me. In my adult life, the first time that I wore a kimono

Japanese women and men that I have met. Consequently I

was for the seijinshiki. I was not able to do it in precisely thefeel a simultaneous desire to be more “lady-like” and tocorrect manner on January 15 of the year I turned twenty

overly demonstrate how unlike a Japanese “lady” I am. The

because of the academic schedule of my American College.

push and pull between these two feelings has much to do with

But I did do it during the summer of my twentieth year. I

the fact that I am taller than most Japanese women. I am tallknew that it would make my grandparents, who live in Tokyo,

even by American standards and my body has a larger framevery happy and I too was excited about the ceremonythan Japanese women do. When I walk on the streets of

however belated. I wore the kimono that my grandmother onJapan, many women seem so narrow and delicate that they

my mother’s side was photographed in when she was my age.

are almost transparent. It is as if a light push would send

It was worn as one of the numerous oiro naoshi changes forthem toppling over, like mannequins in the window of aher wedding ceremony. Putting on the kimono with the aid of

department store.

So in a way the differences andthe two professional dressers was one of the most memorable

contradictions that lie within me are also written on my body.

experiences of my life. Layer upon layer from the primary

Additionally, my body language has not been trained in theplain white cotton undergarments, to the binding of my chest,

manner of many Japanese women who might, for example,

to the layering of towels to build up my chest, to the morecover their mouth with a handkerchief when they laugh. I

ornamented undergarments, and to the heavy silk decorated

didn’t even own a handkerchief until recently and only use it

kimono, the process took almost an hour and a half. During

to wipe the sweat off my forehead in the heat of an Osaka

the time, I watched in the mirror as I was pushed and pulledsummer. But as I stated, the balance shifts between

in various directions. The reflection was not the person whom

adherence and assertion even though my version of

I normally looked at in the mirror. It was certainly not theadherence would probably pale when compared to the popularcollege student that dove out of bed to run to class without

Japanese standard of womanhood in polite society. The

brushing her hair. It was a dressing process where the ways I

unavoidable observance of such women on a daily basis canfelt and acted were changed forcefully. I was literally

cause involuntary shifts in the ways I act. Although I know

restricted from such common actions as taking long strides orthat there is no chance that I will ever look or act like one ofslouching while seated. I felt permanently posed. But I dothem, I cannot help myself from observing their behaviors andnot mean to imply that these were feelings that I disliked attrying them on in my imagination. The people I see on thethat moment. In fact, I loved the experience. I treasured

street and the characters in Japanese novels are

wearing a work of art. And there are not too many times in

undifferentiated, like paper dolls in my mind, because neither

one’s life when one can feel literally encased in a symbol of aare people that I will ever know. So they dance before mypast they never knew. But most of all, I enjoyed feeling,mind’s eye as I think of where I fit in amongst all these bits

looking and acting like a stranger to myself. It felt appropriate

and pieces of mannerisms and dispositions that I have stored

because the role-playing, that I often feel privately, wasth12brought to the surface as a physical reality: something thatbetween cultures is assuaged by her memories of visiting her

can be turned on and off like a kimono can be put on and taken

grandmother in Wakayama City. Hanako’s confusion gives

off.

way to greater stability because she is able to maintain abalanced relationship between the tradition that she searches

Having a familiarity with two vastly different cultures has

after, the part of herself that she resurrects from within, andallowed me to see how strongly influenced we are by who andthe future that she will create. Hanako recognizes andwhat surrounds us. It seeps into body language andrespects her heritage but at the same time is looking towards

mentality. Perhaps this could also be called “shape shifting,”

the future. Knowing she has the women’s lineage of thean expression in English which usually has negative

Matani family as a foundation, she can understand better her

connotations. But I think it is unavoidable at least to be aware

place within ‘the modern lifestyle.’ Ariyoshi reveals inof the different faces, by that I mean different roles that exist

Hanako’s letter to Hana:

for any person. The amount of faces increases exponentiallywhen one has been exposed to two cultures from a young age“According to T.S. Eliot, tradition negates all thatand I begin to wonder if there is an authentic me underneathpreceded it and will be negated by all that follows. And

all the cultural influences. The choices are vast as they

yet I feel I know what that means when I think of thestretch across oceans and nations. But here I will contradictbond between you and me. The ‘family’ has flowed

myself again because I have a feeling of belonging in bothfrom you to Mother and from Mother to me...however

Japan and America and at the same time in neither, evendifficult the present may be for me, I must live forthough my Japanese language skills have improved

tomorrow. Now I know why I feel nostalgic for

tremendously. To chose one can sometimes be seen as to

Wakayama, I could not have made this discovery or

negate or devalue the other. I wonder what I should be

experienced this peace of mind or happiness if I had

looking for to solve the questions that revolve in my mind. I

never been close to you.” (2)have the appropriate face to put on top of a furisode, but whatof the mind inside that is fascinated by beginning to study
PART II:

shodo and kei-go, the mind that did not learn how to write hername in kanji until just this year. My education, formal andinformal, often contradicts Japanese values, but there is a

These days, as I live in Japan, I feel increasingly more like aplace inside me that does want to know where my past, which

participant, not an observer of daily life here. I feel some ofis written on my body, meets the directions I will choose in

the ideas I expressed in Part I are changing. The Japanesethe future. I am at a point in my life where I am trying toauthor, Murakami Haruki, called Tokyo, “fathomlessly

expand my world as much as possible. Even knowing that

huge,”(3) which is a sentiment I have been having for the past

doing so causes one to ask more questions, as I am doing

months. It is difficult to believe that such varying landscapesnow. I am trying to make my world as big as I can, looking

and a population of over 28 million could all fall under thebehind and ahead. Trying to find all my faces.

name Tokyo. Through learning about the different areas andliving on my own in Tokyo for the first time, I feel people are

The character in literature that I feel closest to would be

no longer the flat cardboard cutouts that they were when I

Matani Hanako of Ariyoshi Sawako’s The River Ki. Hanako’s

was a mere visitor. The seemingly heartless crowds andcomplicated relationship to her past as a result of growing up

rushed atmosphere of train stations still make me feel as if I

13

live in a toy world or an ant farm. However as I live in Japan

one hand, I was responsible for representing the company tolonger, people have become the animated complex humans

the American visitor and in relative terms a part of it but onthat we all are. In this “fathomlessly huge” city I have met

the other hand, I could relate better to the American. I was

Japanese women and men that have defied my preconceived

trying to act as “Japanese” as I could by humbling anything I

notions of the country and the people. As a part of mysaid with respect to myself while sitting with my legs tucked

present fellowship research in puppet theater, I have been

neatly underneath me. But I felt as clueless as he surely did.

working at a Tokyo marionette company. Through getting to

Yet I was in a position where I was expected to understandknow the members of the family-run company I have learned

how to conduct myself. In that event, I was dealing with twothat this huge city holds individuals and I cannot anymore

languages, multiple loyalties, plus different cultural codes forthink of them as the paper dolls I used to see in train stations,speech and body language all at the same time. Similar to how

or characters in novels. My vision of Japan has gone from flat

I described wearing a formal furisode kimono as “being

to round and I am thankful for it.

encased in a symbol of a past I never knew,” during my brief
experience as a translator I felt I was representing something

Recently the marionette company was performing at theexternally that I didn’t myself quite understand. Even

Edo-Tokyo Hakubutsukan, a historical museum of the Edo

without the kimono I often feel bound by what it symbolizes.

period. The establishment surely tries to capture the feelingof the period in Japanese history. However, I have no idea

In Ariyoshi Sawako’s novel, The River Ki, the reality thatwhether this particular venue achieves its goal because I did

Hanako, the youngest character, lives in is one of anothernot step foot in the museum. I spent my day at the Edo-country but she also searches after Japanese culture,

Tokyo Hakubutsukan running about in the basement

traditional and modern, the part of herself that she chooses topassageways that surround the performance space andresurrect and strengthen from within. Like Matani Hanako, I

helping make the puppet stage for the evening’s performance.

am happy to have this search, as I learn more about Japanese

I don’t regret missing out on the museum. I can leave that for

culture and find new ways of thinking about the past and theanother time. I am studying in such a unique Japanese

future. In a recent conversation with an Argentine-Americancompany and I would gladly take hours of working there overfriend who shares similar sentiments on the issues ofa museum exhibition any day. Everyday I learn more aboutbicultural heritage, she stated “In a way I feel the search itself

the tremendously complex inner mechanisms of this Japaneseis guiding me.” I couldn’t agree more. I am growing andtheater company that was established in 1635. These arechanging within this search, which makes a conclusion seem

precious lessons in Japanese culture.

beside the point.

My position as an American-Japanese visitor to theFootnotes:

marionette company can be described in an experience I had
on my third day. An American puppeteer came to visit arehearsal and I was assigned the task of translator, a1 Ariyoshi, Sawako. The River Ki (New York: Kodansha

laughable position for someone of my level of Japanese.

America Inc., 1981) p. 183.

However, it was interesting to have the presence of another2 Ibid. p. 222.

American to show me how different I could be when I was

3 Murakami, Haruki. The Elephant Vanishes. (New York:with the Japanese. I felt such conflicting loyalties. On the

Vintage Books., 1993) p.232.

14

A Summer Night’s Matsuri

Daniel Bürgin
It sprang to my mind that Japan is at its most Japanese insummer’s matsuris leave the impression of an eternal Japan,

summer when humidity lies heavy on my chest like aof things Japanese – everlasting for also the Japanese

suffocating cushion. The air is oppressive, saturated fromthemselves. I feel like under a magic spell when visiting aheat and moisture, so much that one feels that an elusive hazesummer matsuri for I can see old Japan alive.

lies between ones eyes and things watched. In this haze thesouls of olden days, ghosts of the past come back to life andWhilst visiting Kyoto’s Yasaka Jinja at night during thissojourn to important places of their lives. The cutting noise

year’s Gion festival, I would wish to be a ghost myself:of the semi penetrates the ears as it swells and then ceases.

restless and invisible. I would frequent the shrine’s old

Their perpetual noise is an integral part of Japan’s summer

vicinity, with its merry festival under the old trees along theheat and humidity. Maybe the cicada is the medium thatchiselled path towards the jinja. The path is lined with foodallows the dead to return; year after year through eternaland entertainment stalls, visited by many Japanese old andtimes Japanese. They implore the spirits of the dead fromyoung. The evening emanates timelessness. I would wish to

unknown faraway places to join with the living who remember

only be voyeur, devouring my surroundings while tenderly

them through praying in shrines and temples, and at home.

caressing the texture of the past, which I sense in this lively

Summer is the time of the year when most festivals takeplace. I never want to leave, I am enchanted by Japan’s

place in Japan during sweltering heat and the festival of obon,

atmosphere on a summer night’s matsuri. Here they are

the returning of the dead, is near.

within the shrine’s precinct, the souls of the past. They
confuse me. I can perceive them and absorb all their ambient

When dusk settles and night conquers the souls as theytenderness through their lofty presence. It occurs to me thatdance, they will then gather and frolic and glide between

this is the very place, and the nights that the spirits of thoseyukata clad young ladies. The spirits of the dead impregnate

who wrote so eternally about Japan, and who lived so muchthe moist air with reminiscences that even I, a foreigner, canfor the past, gathered. They talk through the leaves, theysense. Maybe for this reason obon happens during August,move on the wind and call on the shrill of cicadas. They move

Japan’s hottest month because already now in July cicadasin shadows of foodstalls and people. They mingle with humanstart calling the dead and the atmosphere has the rightbeings, overhearing talk and watching scenes similar to those,physical composition to host them. Probably for this reason

they ones created in their novels. They kill their time byso many matsuri take place in July, baiting with gaiety the

becoming onlookers of what they once lived themselves, ofpassed souls to return and visit, to re-unite with their families

what they wrote and confronted us with. They are the spirits

during obon before parting again. Festivals in Japan areof the poets. It might well be them who soak my T-shirt withalways of religious origin, however condensed the religious

sweat, which have my hungry eyes consuming the timeless,moment might be. All of the above might be the reason thateverlasting effervescence of a summer festival’s night. The

15

souls of those dead writers.

readers to think of what could have happened to theprotagonists after one had lost their sight. The geisha and her

Japan, I see anew at its most Japanese in summer when semi

companion left me imagining my own story of them. Left me

drill through the hot and sticky air. I am held prisoner. I can’t

deciding – if I would have had the courage – their faith. As

leave anymore. I sense the dead poets. They have returned.

may be, Kawabata never found the courage to state all theI watch across the path the small stand where one can throw

motives of his characters and thereby judge them. Morefor three hundred Yen old metal rings over targets of modern

likely he never wanted. More likely he was too wise to do so.

kitsch. It seems to me that Kawabata would enjoy theMaybe for that reason he quit life and its beauty, as there is

unfolding scene as part of an unwritten novel. A geisha in

no answer to life, like there were no answers for thesimple white yukata, with blue pattern and a contrasting

responsibilities of the heroes in his novels. They lived an

elegant saffron-yellow obi tries her luck. Her danna stands ainvented life which, I as a reader, would not dare to judge.

bit aside. He is full of pride. His eyes are hidden behind a

His characters are too human, too close to who I am.

camera lens which only focus is she. The geisha elegantly

Kawabata escaped like one of his heroes for having the reader

plays with the old metal rings in her hands, moves themnot daring to ask why.

between long fingers like a rosary. Then at leisurely intervals
she throws the rings clumsily, yet graceful without reallyI, the infinite anachronism, move so familiarly between

wanting to hit the target. In fact, the target is her companion,

gushing steam from yaki soba drenched in soy sauce andand he innocently takes the bait. He confidently takes off his

colour patches from yukatas without touching anything or

eggshell coloured jacket and plays the iron rings himself toanybody. I am often very close to people but, like a miracle,

impress with his manly skills – although with no more

without any contact – as if I couldn’t be seen, as if I would be

success – yet still a hero. He trapped himself in the thin web

one of these ghosts I can sense. Japanese people seem toof her admiration and the self-adorning belief in his own

have this natural skill, more than other nationalities, ofvigour. The geisha’s beautiful hair is perfectly coiffured. All

keeping ones body away from others – even in the biggestof a sudden she develops an expression of irritation, and acrowd. People seem to falter without changing their posture

faint look of surprise is reflected for a brief moment in her

and pass amid human obstacles. Yet, if I would bump into

widening eyes. A thin lock of her black hair has escaped thesomeone by accident, I would almost be thrown aside by thetight hold of the coiffure and has fallen from her right temple,

way Japanese move with their balance and weight located inflirting with her cheek. The slight disorder makes her lookthe hip and not the chest. Japanese are more bound to earth

girlish, and with a childlike movement of her hand shethan Westerners. - Whilst thinking of other people’s centre oftentatively fixes the lock whilst quickly casting a look at her

gravity, a young woman’s face floats by.

companion. Is it possible that Kawabata’s soul touched her,as his spirit watches over the two? He perhaps would have

Afterwards I only remember her face rising from a colourful,

thought how to build the scene in one of his novels. At one

bright summer yukata. I have forgotten the colour, but it

point, if in a story, Kawabata would have left his readers

appeared buoyant and delicate, thereby emphasising the whitebehind, as the geisha and her companion left me when they

texture of the woman’s skin in contrast to her jet-black hair.

walked away. Likewise Kawabata would have abandoned his
heroes and his readers on the scene without any other answer

The collar of her yukata underlines her face like a subtle

than that of life; genuine life. Kawabata would force hisframe. Her shiny hair is tightly combed back so that it

16

glistens like a crow’s wing. Whilst passing, our eyes meet fora certain distance, an observer rather than somebody beinga short moment. Her eyes are wide open and gleaming as

involved in the life described. What life does is not chance.

they reflect the light of the night like in a mirror, or off theLife rehearses. Akutagawa might have made me alert to see

surface of a pond. I meet these eyes for only a fraction of athe woman’s gaze, and to teach me the meaning of his

second, yet she recognises me. Interest. Her recognition

narrative where the rattling noise of a train drowns over thelasts an instant and something from deep inside shimmers

story’s end and over Yasukichi’s thoughts. Yet, I was not an

through this polished surface of her dark eyes. Her gazeobserver, I was involved.

leaves a mark in my memory – a fleeting moment of bothcomprehension and oblivion. Once in a while I can encounter

Close to the shrine’s main gate gathers a group of youngsters,such looks, and I always wonder if it means curiosity for alaughing and chattering like a noisy crowd of sparrows

foreigner. The locking of eyes, however brief, is a custom notassembled in trees before dusk. A new youth – still many inbeing perceived well mannered in this country. Vaguely one

yukata and geta. However, this group is different to theof Akutagawa’s short stories comes to my mind: the story of aothers. It tries to stand out by already committing to a newman encountering a young girl on the platform of a local train

uniform, a new standard. They are a group, one of many.

station on a daily basis, every morning during a certain period

They are young people who don’t want to be oppressed, andof his life. One day he sees her unexpectedly in thepressed into the tight model of social norms. They cry aafternoon. Their eyes meet and he bows unconsciously. If I

silent cry despite their noise, because their rebellion isremember correctly the hero’s name was Yasukichi. Shinyalready dressed in a uniform. It seems to me that most ofeyes locked for a brief moment before they split, before they

them have already lost the revolution they loudly, yet gently

cast downwards again. An encounter. He is disturbed by his

try to bring to bare. Most are already subdued; are tamed

own behaviour. For him, the brief encounter created a

without knowing. Most will bend and find their place inrelationship. Hence it could be likely that only Yasukichi’ssociety despite the girlish look, shrill colours and gangfantasy was preoccupied with the girl whilst she had alreadybehaviour. They gather but without communicating together.

forgotten him. Maybe she had never noticed him consciously;

They all use keitais, with “Hello Kitty” thongs and covered

him a face among thousands. The hero of the story thenwith cute stickers of mini-photographs of themselves with

nervously awaits the next morning and again, she is on thefriends, which replace traditional face-to-face interaction.

platform. They pass, facing each other, looking into each

Kawaii – cute: the girls most applied and generic word forother’s eyes and Yasukichi feels an urge to indicate a bow.

anything they consider worth branding as “in”. The word is

But nothing happens beyond this short look and his impetus

hissed in a high-pitched voice, almost timed and preferably into bow. His thoughts remain with the girl for some moreunison between two or three girls. Cute thus seems to betime whilst the rattling noise of the train closes the story.

what they can control, what is younger and smaller than

Maybe like Yasukichi I had an encounter.

Like inthemselves, what is another gadget and another flirt with

Akutagawa’s story, I was wondering whether I left a trace ofadolescence. The list of things “kawaii” is open-ended andmy thoughts in that woman’s memory. If this evening’s

ranges from babies to yellow dyed hair, from platform shoes

matsuri is a meeting point of souls from the past, perhaps

to the latest i-mode portable phone. The girls use malethen Akutagawa was standing next to me. He might havelanguage mistakenly thinking it means emancipation andobserved us, might have entered our minds and perceived amaturity. Talkative like sparrows, vulgar and loud, I watch

scene of his story re-enacted. Akutagawa tells his story fromthese deeply tanned “Hello Kitty” faces and I cannot help

17

wondering whether they modelled themselves after icons

invisible mass had slipped between them and inflated intofrom girls’ manga. Makeup is carefully plastered over young

something dark, triggering violence. The girl with theand old age bronzed skin. Eyelids are painted ice blue in line

shortened yukata giggles, which seems to heighten thewith the latest fad, which seems to have evolved into atension. Others try to mediate, but most avoid with laughter

standard. These youngsters have chosen the place of the

an increasingly violent quarrel. A dark current entered thismatsuri to enjoy themselves - and exclusively for themselves.

timeless place, casting shadows, and shadows are watching: A

They chose a location where people meet, but not so muchbulky middle-aged man is an onlooker close by, his facethe event itself. They are the event. This group of teenagers

expressionless. He absorbs the scene without a sign ofis the contrast to the eternal ambience of the summer

approval or disapproval. He makes me think that maybe too

matsuri. They stick out like a portent for how much Japan

often only the beautified surface of human beings appears.

could change. They could be the colourful spots on the lid of a

Maybe this man with his sturdy face hides another spirit

Pandora’s box containing the disaster of a society out ofgaping over his shoulder, as sturdy and as familiar with thecontrol. Unless – they falter; unless they yield to the rules ofunkempt. Had Nakagami Kenji still been alive, I think headult society. What they paint in front of my eyes during thiswould understand. Nakagami would have confronted a scene,

hot summer night uses opposing colours to what a novelist

he could adopt and further dramatise towards a climax, whichlike Kafu might have created to describe the same place. The

leaves the reader with an uncomfortable feeling ofyoung use his place of past to exhibit their seemingly modern,sympathising with the irrational and often violent side of

unconventional style. They fight the unruly game with their

human nature.

youth but I can’t help, after all they still somehow fit. Most

unnecessary outbreak of the brawl I watch, yet in a novel ofwill fit one day anyway, and I think most already lost theirhis, the dark side of human nature might erupt as an

struggle to resist the rules of adulthood. Some however, willelemental part of human life. For him, the dark side ofremain on the other side of the rift and will eventually lose

mankind has its own sentimental beauty; has its own

their place in adult society. These might never be yielding

justification. Like the two belligerent youngsters at thebut possibly breaking.

festival, his protagonists are often reactive in a situation

Nakagami might feel sad about thewhere others left them. Nakagami would have written a story
In the group is a girl in bright, Hawaiian patterned yukata,of those failing in Japan’s society, of those being on the wrong

with the hem just above the knees, this year’s latest attemptside of what Japan is so proud of, the orderly. But still hisof re-inventing the traditional to something modern. Next toheroes would have their own ways of being tender, their

her and her girl friends stands an equally sized group of young

methods of healing wounds. Maybe Nakagami’s spirit, themen. I guess some kind of boy friends, hair coloured, like thepresence of somebody who himself was not at ease withgirls in the same hues of ash and yellow. The hair is brushed

society, might have acquiesced the brawl which eventually

into the eyes or standing up erect but short, as if it would be

brought those in conflict back to peace; for one more time.

an attribute of power to simultaneously attract and scare away
those of other tribes. Earrings, pierced lips. Their finery is

By now I feel hungry. My mouth is completely dry and yet

the shocking. Then suddenly a brawl erupts. Voices bark in

my T-shirt clutches against my body. I hardly dare to breath.

territorial behaviour. One guy is grabbing his fellow opposite

With my eyes I still absorb everything, which surrounds me.

at the collar of his lose shirt and shakes him, cigarette

Why are the nightly colours of a matsuri always the same? In

between lose lips. The two start to push each other as if an

any place, any year? A reiteration, occurring almost like a18

secret ritual. Colours around food stalls for example, have anthink it logic that for this reason the upcoming obon festivals,orange-shaded hue and are of yellowish warmth like a patina

the rites of welcoming the dead, must happen during thewhich superimposes all other colour, leaving a trace of its own

hottest month of the year. It might well be for that reason

on whatever lies underneath. This particular hue appears tothat I now stand here and perceive the vibrations of life, of thecome from the naked sixty-watt light bulbs at most of theeternal. Calling the dead home…

stalls. Simple light bulbs, yet they seem to radiate a peculiar
light which I never encountered anywhere else than in Japan.

The lights at the nightly food stalls lining the chiselled road to

The difference from other light bulbs in other places is subtle

the shrine flirt with the dark and give birth to floatingand hard to substantiate. Possibly it exists only in myshadows. Whilst I buy some tako-yaki, a naked light bulb

imagination. However, it might well be that the light’s

swings gently next to my bent head throwing long shadows ofreflection in the red colour of a food stall’s noren, in thethe old man behind the counter against the softly moving tent.

brightness of a person’s kimono, or maybe the moist night, isWhilst I am paying my food, I seem to suddenly hear thewrapping the luminescence of the naked bulbs with a softwhispers of those which accompany me through this night.

gaze. The light does amalgamate with the cosy gleam of theWhispers of those who passed away but allow me to see withmany paper lanterns, white and red vertical stripes with

their eyes. Those I never met. Tanizaki would stroll by. He

beautiful black characters naming sponsors. The lanterns arewould feel comfortable here in the dark amongst the shadows

lined up above my head winding their way to the shrine like aand his eyes would absorb all about him and his thoughts playlong gleaming serpent which guides the faithful safely throughwith what he saw. The shadows, for what they accentuate by

all the earthly amusement to the sanctum to bring the gods

hiding, would fascinate him. He would still think it a Japanese

small offerings and prayers. How often did I innocently try tocharacteristic. Tanizaki would feel that some things were left

catch the ambience of the moment in pictures - without

to be the very way he recognises them.

success. Is it the missing humidity, which cannot escape fromphotographs? Or is it the background noise of the clattering

Tanizaki would watch the three men walking a few steps insound of wooden getas on the chiselled path which gently

front of me. They swagger and something in their demeanour

contrast to the hissing sound of semi? The sound of getas on

makes people give way to them. They expect that people givechisels has a deeper meaning to me. It is cleansing ones soulway. The three men shovel their way through the crowd.

to be purified in front of the gods, and the noise they create

One of them, dark with permed hair and in his mid forties

does truly empty ones mind and might alert the kami to the

speaks with a boisterous voice. I notice that his language isfaithful approaching their abodes. The light, the cicadas andvery basic and when he talks, words spit from his throat withthe sound of wooden clogs mould the evening into a Japanesea barking sound. He wears a heavy gold bracelet around his

event, firmer, more determined than any other Japanesewrist. Does he talk in Kansai dialect? – I am not sure. The

tradition. It is all so evanescent yet incessant; all sothree step into the shade next to a yakitori-ya. One of thempeculiarly human. - Japan’s summer is as much a summer ofstrolls to the food stall and buys some meals and beer. I

sounds as of views. I imagine that if I would hear thesenotice that his right hand holding a beer is short of the tip ofsounds again after many years of interruption, they would act

his little finger. The others wait on tiny stools for the food.

as a catalyst, a ritual recalling all what I will have thought

Did he pay the bill? Only now do I notice two women who

forgotten. They would refresh my memory to feel past life.

were already sitting there. They seem to have waited. I

Timeless life. Japanese life, with neither start nor end. I

think they look too elegant to be acquainted with the three19

men. However, I am wrong: they do know each other. One

goldfish of their own. Many fish swim in a rectangular,of the three, as lean as a rake, takes off his shirt and reveals

narrow basin and children try their luck to catch one or

between his shoulder blades a part of a tattoo. It is notseveral of the red fish with a shallow cup of biscuit. A small

coloured but etched in his skin with blackish blue ink. The

girl squats in front of the basin with such a cup pierced on atattooed one grins in response to a pun. They all move a bit

handle of wire. She follows calmly with her hand an

back and start to eat. Shadows now swallow their faces andearmarked victim. An elegant lady in purple yukata steps byleave anonymous bodies exposed to the light. I stop

to watch the scene. The girl’s first attempt to shovel thewatching. These folks belong to the shadow side of Japanese

goldfish with the biscuit cup into a bigger plastic bowl fails.

society, regardless how public they are. The flow of people

Time ticks away as the cup soon will dissolve once soaked bypushes me slowly forward towards the shrine.

water. The lady gives advice, yet soon the cup is too weak tohold the weight of a fish. I can see the lady’s face slightly

A throng of women passes by, radiating a genuinely, leisurely

agitated while the girl is intensely watching the basin, and theatmosphere of Japanese gaiety. They seem ethereal andstallkeeper, an old man with cropped grey hair and a rolled

timeless in their brightly coloured yukata. They sway

towel around his head, gives the girl friendly words ofthrough the people, bare-feet, in lacquered geta. Coquetting

encouragement. I imagine the lady to be familiar with thebetween them, they spin a thin web of captive charm. Kafu

girl. Some faint interaction unfolds between the woman andseemed to have sympathised in his novels more with his

the girl. Not that of mother and daughter, yet very intimate.

heroines than his heroes. Kafu’s spirit might go astray when

The woman in the purple yukata appears very elegant with aclose to a fragrant cotton yukata, close by to some naked

single, silver hairpin in her coiffure. The two seem an unevenforearm, close by their faces with eyes cast down. He would

pair: the girl wearing Minnie Mouse socks and a pink skirt,

sense them like fruits. He would recognise those mature inand the lady dressed in the purple yukata. By now the cup got

life despite the cover of childlike coquetries. Kafu would try

soggy. The lady pulls a small purse from her bag and buys theto enter their thoughts, look for those among them, he thinks

girl a second chance. Maybe it was pity, maybe she

he could read like an opening blossom of some flower. In his

recognised her own childhood, maybe she shared the mood ofnovels, he would show compassion and let the reader knowa relaxed evening with the girl. Whilst distance and formality

his favourites. One can sense them when reading. He would

rules their interaction, I feel that a bond was established. Or

not unravel life per se nor would he be passive observer.

was it already existing before I saw them? Kafu would find

Kafu advocates for his protagonists, wishing everybody to seesome deeper meaning. Very likely he would imagine the lady

them through his eyes. For him describing the surroundings

to be a woman from the demimonde, as he described so often

wherein his heroes act, is as important as the story. It is

and for which he sympathised so much. Possibly, if in one ofnecessary for Kafu’s own longing, to rebuild the atmosphere

his novels, she would be in the search of her own childof Tokyo after the big earthquake. With a sentimental touchabandoned to foster parents after birth. Kafu would still be

Kafu is on a quest for lost time, trying to preserve what does

able to re-create his lost world from fragments of what he

not return. Yet reminiscences can still be found here today.

could see today. His spirit might epitomise through thisAlso for Kafu.

woman and the child, what the lost time meant for him. For
better, he still would find some bits and pieces and for worse,

He might now observe the booth, where for three hundred

would be sad by watching the remains.

Yen children buy the opportunity to catch and win a small

20

The souls and spirits of those that passed away are returningwith traffic lights and noise.

to earth. It is the time of the dead. The living welcome themback home at family shrines, at beloved places. They all comeSome spirits I could not find. Mishima. I couldn’t findback: myriad’s of generations. They are revered in theMishima. Maybe because I am not at peace with him. Maybe

shrines and temples, at home and in public. It gives comfort

because his life was a different longing for the past than thoseand security for what previous generations were. Nobody isof the others. Maybe the mood here was too relaxed for what

forgotten, everybody is looked after – and so we will be

he wanted to represent? Perhaps I just could not recogniselooked after one day. This is the thought. I think it is a kindhim? - Many I could not recognise. They hid in leaves andof victory over death. Looking after the dead also keeps their

gestures as inconspicuous as their names; lost through many

spirits at peace and protects those taking care of them fromgenerations. Those I met all gathered to regret the loss of

being haunted. In Japan people often say what the dead were

pastimes. To be alive is owning a future! They feast on whatfond of in life, they still enjoy in death. I felt that some of the

we living offer. The dead are amongst us during this hottest

dead poets’ spirits visited the place I was this evening, visitedpart of the year. They prepare for obon until we send them

what they enjoyed in life, many of them sentimental about theback, just to return again attracted from next summer’s ritual

lost Japan as they already must have felt it lost in life. I couldof calling the dead. As long as there are those remembering,call their names - yet by now their souls have disappeared. I

they will return.

have left the place and so did they. Ours was the longing forJapan, and what it was. The longing for what one loves mostJapan is at its most Japanese in summer for she reveals what

in life. The moist summer night still enthrals me, but now

is eternal. The cycle of life. For we are human.

21

A BORROWED VISTA

Ciaran Murray
I SAT in the garden at Entsuji. In front was a shipwreck ofpossible, that this, too, had been created as a foreground forrocks and moss, with a clipped hedge behind. Over this,the mountain beyond - that it was an example of shakkei?

through a dark stand of Japanese cypress, could be seen theThis question intrigued me all through our holiday, andlight blue of Mount Hiei, its peak, leaning to one side, cut into

when we travelled back to the U.S., where my wife was now auneven segments by the trunks of the trees.

student at Cornell University, and I was taking some courses,‘We call this “borrowed landscape”, or shakkei’, said theI dropped in on my professor of Japanese anthropology.

Japanese woman who had brought me there. ‘The mountain

There is a system called ‘office hours’ in American

has been “borrowed”, or taken into the garden, which isuniversities, where professors are available to their students

designed around the view’.

at certain times of the week; and, as I passed my professor’s
office, I saw that the door was open and there was nobody

We sat there for a long time as the peace of the place sankin. You would notice other details as you sat - for instance,

inside. On impulse, I stopped by to say hello.

the way the rocks in the foreground had been arranged to

He was the sort of person who remembered people’secho the shape of the mountain, but in reverse, the pattern ofnames and what they were doing, so in reply to my greeting

the rocks leaning one way and the mountain another. But all

he asked, ‘How was Ireland?’the time you came back to that distant object around which

I told him, and spoke of the experience I had had in thethe garden had been so ingeniously built, and which gave it

garden outside my hometown - how it had reminded me ofsuch unimaginable depth.

my experience in Kyoto. ‘It was’, I concluded, ‘a strange
coincidence’.

When I brought that Japanese woman, now my wife, back to
my hometown in Ireland, I wanted her to see such sights as‘Strange, maybe, but no coincidence’, answered myour small town had to show. One of these, just a little

professor. And he told me of a rare book which was kept in aoutside, is a park which was laid out in the style of thelocked cage in the library, and which told of an influence,

English eighteenth century. It has a classical house, with aeither Chinese or Japanese, on the English gardens of theview out over a lake with a wooded island. On that particular

eighteenth century.

evening, as it was winter, there had been an early sunset, andThe story began at the end of the seventeenth century,

you could see over the bright reflection of the lake to thewhen the Netherlands (Holland) was the only European

horizon - in this case the highest mountain in the area, whichcountry which traded with Japan. The Dutch in this country

now stood out against the cold brilliance of the sky.

were confined to a small artifical island, Dejima, in Nagasaki

Suddenly, it came back to me that the lake was artificial -harbour. But once a year they travelled up to Edo to pay theirthat it had been created solely to give interest to the view

respects to the shogun, and on the way stopped off at Miyako,

from the house. At that moment, the image of Entsuji

or Kyoto, for a few days of sightseeing. Among the sites theysuperimposed itself over it: rocks, hedges and trees. Was it

saw were the great temples and their gardens.

22

At this time, the British ambassador to the Netherlands

The oldest gardens we know are to be seen in Egyptian

was a man named Temple. Part of his work was to negotiate

paintings, and they are designed on the principles ofwith the company which handled the Japan trade. In this way,geometry.
Now let us move to another great civilisation, that of

he would have met people who had actually travelled here,

Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia means ‘between the rivers’, andand had sat in the gardens of Kyoto.
This ambassador, Temple, was himself a very keenthat is a very good description. The rivers are the Tigris andgardener, and, wherever he travelled, discussed the subject

the Euphrates, and they are very different rivers from thewith other interested people. After he retired, he wrote a

Nile. While the flooding of the Nile is regular, peaceful andseries of essays, among which was one concerning gardens,

creative, the flooding of the Mesopotamian rivers is irregular,

where he talked of the different kinds of design he had seen

violent and destructive. So the peoples in this area had to findand heard about. Among these was something he thoughtways to tame them - like a wild horse that, from being avery unusual: gardens that looked like nature, with small hills,

menace to human beings, is turned by training into one of thestreams, rocks and pools, all laid out with trees in irregularmost helpful of animals.
The Mesopotamians trained their rivers by turning thempatterns.
This is a point which Japanese people tend to find difficult

into canals, adding branch canals that could contain the flood-to understand. Why should a natural garden seem strange orwaters and carry them out over the land for agriculture.

unusual? Surely all gardens are natural? Surely that is the

These canals had to be designed to carry the water evenly

very meaning of a garden, that it provides a sense of natural

through uneven ground - that is, with a slight downward

landscape in a limited space?

movement, so the water would continue to flow.

True, but this was not the case in Europe three hundred

To do this, they had to become very good at mathematics;

years ago. Three hundred years ago, gardens there were

and the peoples of Mesopotamia, centred on their great city ofdesigned in straight lines. There were avenues of trees that

Babylon, were among the most skilful of all mathematicians.

were laid out mathematically. There were square andThey developed systems that we still use. For example, sixty

rectangular pools. Instead of streams there were fountains.

was a very important number for them - it combines two

Instead of rocks there were statues.

other important numbers, ten and twelve. Because of this,How did that happen? What did it mean? How had these

we still use sixty for the number of minutes in the hour andgardens become artificial? How had nature come to

the number of seconds in the minute. Yes, every time youcontradict itself?

look at your watch, you live again in Babylon.

For the answer, we must go back to the beginnings of the

One of the religious stories of Babylon tells how theEuropean garden. The great early civilisations sprang up

goddess of nature went down into the underworld and died -along the banks of rivers, which not only supplied water but

an image of the water shortages that always threatened toprovided transport and encouraged trade. The best-known

destroy nature in the area. But, the story continues, she

example is the Nile, which floods once a year, spreading richcame back to life again when she was sprinkled with water -mud over the land and making it fertile. This river does not

sixty times. So you see, it was not just water that made theflow through a green country like Japan. On either side of it

difference between life and death; it was the regulation ofstretch the desert sands. So when the people of Egypt

water, through the Babylonian crisscross of canals. And thewanted to store floodwater for the rest of the year, they madegardens of Babylon were designed in exactly the same style,pools in the most economical shape - square or rectangular.

with canals crossing in the centre. If you read the description

23

of Paradise in the Bible, you will find it is like this - that wasthat they were unbalanced. And the word he used for thishow people in the area thought of the perfect garden.

was sharawadgi.

This great civilisation had a strong influence on the ones

There have been a number of attempts to fit Chinese

which followed, so that their gardens too observed thecharacters - kanji - to this word, but none of them sounds

patterns laid down by the peoples of Mesopotamia. That isclose to sharawadgi, and none of them means what Temple

why we find the Mesopotamian type of garden today in themeant. However, an English teacher who lived in Japan 70

most distant parts of the world. One of the oldest gardens inyears ago, a man called E.V. Gatenby, suggested thatexistence is at the Alhambra, in Spain. Here, at the centre, issharawadgi was a Japanese word. He thought it might be thea beautiful stone courtyard in which two small streams crossolder form of sorowanai desho - that the two halves of a

- just as they did in Mesopotamia. Another famous garden isdesign did not match. This form was sorowaji.

the one which has been laid out in front of the Taj Mahal, inThat’s all he said. He was tracing words of Japanese origin

India. This is also designed around two crossing streams,

for the Oxford English Dictionary, and he never took thewith the squares between them divided into other squares,

matter any further. When I tried to do so, I immediately ran

and these in turn into other squares again.

into trouble. Historians of the Japanese language told me that

So it should no longer surprise us to find square gardens in

the form sorowaji died out four hundred years ago. Temple

Europe. Now we can understand why Temple was so amazedwrote a hundred years later. So how could he have heard ato hear of the natural gardens of Japan.

word which was no longer in use?

Why is this story not better known? Well, Temple, you

Now I was like the character in the Arabian Nights whosee, made a problem for us here. He said that these natural

cannot remember the phrase ‘open, sesame’ which will

gardens were Chinese. That’s right: Chinese, not Japanese.

disclose a door in the rock and give him access to a treasure

He had two reasons for this. One was that he had read a bookinside. I could sense the treasure inside, but the phrase I had

about China, and found there were natural gardens there too.

didn’t seem to be working. I puzzled over this for a long time,

The other was that people at that time thought China anduntil at last a friend who taught at Tokyo University

Japan were more or less the same place.

introduced me to Professor Kanai Madoka. Professor Kanai

Let me give an example. Europe imported plates andwas involved in copying the documents of Dejima, which aredishes from this part of the world, Japan as well as China. But

still kept in the Netherlands, and bringing a set to Japan. And

wherever they came from, they were known in English as

he was the one who supplied my ‘open, sesame’.

‘china’. They still are. A few hundred years ago, the word

Professor Kanai told me that yes, it was true that sorowaji‘japan’ was used in the same way. ‘Japan’, in the seventeenth

had died out four hundred years ago - but only in standard

and eighteenth centuries, was the English word forJapanese. It had stayed alive in the dialect of Kyushu. Now if

lacquerware - whether it came from Japan or China. So thatyou try to pronounce sorowaji in kyushu-ben, what do you

when Temple talks about something from China, he could justget? Shorowaji. And if you try to pronounce shorowaji in
Dutch, you get what Temple got - sharawaji. And Temple,

as easily mean Japan.

you remember, was ambassador to Holland.

How can we decide which he meant? Well, fortunately, hegave us a very important clue. As opposed to the geometricalThat is the first part of my story: how the natural garden

gardens of Europe, in which the left and the right sides werecame to Europe, and why it seemed so strange in the Europe

balanced, and looked exactly the same, he tells us that theseof that time. Now I’d like to go into the second part, andnatural gardens did not look exactly the same on each side -describe the adventures of the Japanese garden once it had

24arrived in Europe. And this is perhaps even stranger.

Temple’s account of Japan, and suggested that it be followed

This second part of the story also involves Temple. As

in England. The response was astonishing. Within a few

British ambassador to the Netherlands, he arranged ayears, the idea was taken up in books of garden design, and somarriage between a Dutch prince and an English princess,the eighteenth century was a time of natural gardens in

William and Mary. And when the English king of the time

England - gardens that you can still see, like that garden

tried to make his power absolute, and overturn the law, theoutside my hometown which made me think of Japan. You

English drove him out and brought in William and Mary asremember my American professor told me that this was notking and queen. But they were king and queen, now, in acoincidence. No, it wasn’t. The garden designs of England,different way from before. They could no longer overrule thewhich spread all over Europe, started from the gardens oflaws, as these were embodied in Parliament. Parliament now

Japan.

became a power in the land, in a system which has persisted

But there was more involved here than the garden.

to the present day, and been followed in many otherBecause he had suffered so greatly from lack of freedom in his

countries. The English at the time called their new systemfamily, Addison supported liberty in other ways as well. He

the rule of liberty.

supported the idea of emotional freedom. Just as he took theThat is the end of Temple’s connection with the story. He

straight line out of the garden, he opposed the idea of reason

has been more or less forgotten today. When we think of him

as the leading principle of human nature. As nature replaced

now, it is because of his secretary. This secretary of hismathematics in the garden, so feeling replaced reason in

wrote a famous book which I expect many of you have read,

Addison’s thinking about human beings. He described this -and which describes a visit to Japan. The book is Gulliver’s

natural feeling - as ‘nature’ too. In this way he began theTravels; and the secretary, yes, was called Swift.

return to nature in Europe that we describe as the Romantic
movement.

Swift had a very good friend named Addison. Addison wasparticularly happy about the revolution which had freed the

So you see what a tremendous influence the JapaneseEnglish people from the power of their king. He belonged togarden has had, starting from a Dutch description of Kyoto,a family which supported the king, and in which he himself

being carried from Holland to England by Temple, who also

had had very little freedom. While he was still a child, he ran

helped to bring about the English revolution, and so made itaway from home and lived in the woods. When he was a little

possible for Addison to combine the two ideas, the freedom of

older, he organised a rebellion at school. And when thenature and the freedom of human nature, in one of therevolution came about, he wrote in support of it. Because hegreatest artistic and intellectual movements of history.

was so talented a writer, he was taken up by the revolutionary

I have just come from a conference on Romanticism in theparty, and eventually became chief minister in theLake District of England. This beautiful region of lakes andgovernment. He was prime minister in effect, but that title

mountains could be called the Romantic heartland of England

did not yet exist.

- so much of its poetry was written there. Every year,

Addison wrote all his life in support of liberty, or freedom.

scholars of the Romantic movement gather in that area fromHe had noticed while travelling in France that the great

all over the world to discuss the latest findings in their

French geometrical gardens were designed to express the

subject. The theme of my lecture this summer was ‘The

power of the king. How could a garden be designed which

Japanese Source of Romanticism’. I had imagined that somewould express the English idea of freedom? Yes, of course:

at least of the experts there might not agree that theby turning it into a natural garden. Addison copied out

Romantic movement had a Japanese source - that the idea

25

would be too new, too shocking, too strange. Instead they

hills beyond, over which I liked to watch the sunset. The

offered enthusiastic support. They seemed to feel that at lastplace I sat is marked by the ruins of a seventeenth-century

the origin of Romanticism, which has been a very puzzlinghouse. All you can see today are the foundations, but while

subject, had been clarified. I am now confident that thethat house stood, it was lived in by Temple. At that time

Japanese influence will come to be taken as an accepted fact.

Ireland was ruled from England, and he represented my partAll of this is described in detail in a book I have written.

of Ireland in parliament. He went out from here to become

When I had finished, I gave a great deal of thought to the title.

ambassador to the Netherlands, where he heard a strange

In the end, I decided that only one title was possible. I calledstory about Japan. It was the story I have just told you.

it Sharawadgi.

When I sat at that place so many years ago, I thought I

I hope you have enjoyed reading of the adventures of amight one day like to write a history of my hometown. I could

Japanese word, and how it changed the world. For myself, thenever have imagined that, in order to do so, it would be

subject has one more personal meaning. When I was atnecessary to come to Kyoto, to sit quietly in one of its

school, I liked to go to a hill which looks out over mygardens, and to discover something of Japanese culture.

hometown. This lies in a river-valley, with another range of26日本の女子大生―私の視点から

張

墨

竹

Zhang Mozhu
My Views on Women College Students in Japan
Summary“Japanese girls are pretty,” was my first thought I had inrecognised. They meticulously find whatever merits others

Shinshu University. After half a year of international student

might have, admiring them by saying “You’re incredible,” tolife, I have managed to know something about the ways ofplease them. The third characteristic, the most common one

studying and living of women college students in Japan. They

among Japanese girls, can be found in their traits of hiding

are roughly classed into two groups: those who have unclear

true characters of themselves. I think that the thirdways and those who have steady ways. Most of them,characteristic causes them to perform actions of the types

however, make themselves look silly and hide true characters

mentiond in the description of the first and secondof themselves. Japanese girls make others feel good throughcharacteristics. When they praise others or tell pleasant

what they say and their appearance and at the same timestories, they tacitly let them know that they do not intend to

make their own living environments comfortable. I canbe their competitors. If their stories are believed by others,

personally point out at least three interesting characteristics

they can easily get several kinds of information from them.

of their psychology in their deep minds.

They build good surroundings for their own growing up underFirst, Japanese girls feel free and do not hesitate to showthat situation, and that they are careful enough for others nottheir beauty, which helps others get good impression of themto notice their growth.

together with their daily greetings in the morning and praises

Thus, women college students in Japan, contrary to theirgiven frequently to others. Second, women college students

appearances, have a very tough side in their characters. But I

in Japan put emphasis on human relations. Before a class of

think that it is not one of their negative characters. Each ofgeneral education course begins, students from different

them has experienced various situations in the Japanesefaculties get in the classroom one after another. All of thesociety and it is the secret of her way of living she has

women students exchange greetings as if they keep a certain

acquired in the course of this training. Although it is different

kind of rule. When they are walking in the campus and see

from any Chinese secret for living, it may be that I should

any of their friends, they never fail to say something to befollow it while I am in Japan.

27

１．はじめにが少ないわけである。

「日本の女の子はかわいい」これは、信州大学に来て、そこで筆者は当初、一生懸命化粧をしたり、すぐに人を始めての感想であった。去年の11月、中国の北京はもう晩

ほめたりするのは、日本の女子大生が甘いからではないか

秋の候、筆者は聴講生として信州大学にやってきて、初めと考えていた。しかし、その行動の裏には、様々な心理がての留学生活を始めた。キャンパスを散策していた時、笑働いているようである。多くの行動に接するうちに、そのいながら、おしゃべりを楽しみつつ歩く女子大生達をよく心理が見えてきたように感じている。本稿では、日本人の見かけた。彼女達の青春の明るさは、キャンパスの一つの女子大生の深層心理について、筆者の視点から、述べるこ風景になっていた。

とにする。

今年の４月、正式に入学し、経済学部の一年生になった。
２．「すごいネ」

勉強やサークルなどの活動を通し、多くの女子大生と知り合った。彼女達と一緒に遊ぶことや勉強することなどを通友人「レポートは進んでる？」、私「経済史のやつ？」、して、筆者は、何となくまだ中国にいるような印象を持っ友人「うん」、私「もう出したよ」、友人「すごい」。以上

た。日本の女子大生達と少ししゃべってみると、話の内容はある友人との対話の一つである。課題を出すことは学生から雰囲気まで、筆者の高校時代の友達との雑談と大きなとしての当たり前のことじゃないかと思うが、ほめられて差がなく、ホームシックのストレスも解消できた。しかし、気持ちがよかった。

日本の女子大生の外見は、中国の女の子達と全く異なって筆者から見ると、「すごい」という言葉は、日本の女子いることも気になった。例えば、日本の女子大生は、ほぼ大生の言葉の中で、使う頻度が最も高い言葉のように感じ

全てが化粧をする。もちろん、これは別に悪いことではなる。日本人の友達と一緒にいると、以上述べたような些細

いが、中国の大学では、珍しいことといえる。中国の大部なことであっても褒められる。初めのうちは、何をしても分の学生の考え方では、通常、個人的な学識が外見より重褒め言葉が聞こえてきて気持ちがよかったが、その後、次要と見られる。したがって、各種のテストでいい成績を取第に嫌になっていった。誰でもできることであっても、るために、皆、少々暗く見えるかもしれないが、努力して「すごい」という賛美の言葉を、むしろバカにされているいる。女の子も、勉強一筋に取りくんでいるのである。きんじゃないかと考えるようになった。そして、日本語のれいな薄い化粧をすることや、はやっているファッション

「すごい」という形容詞の使い方も、よく分からなくなっをしてアクセサリーを使い、自分をかわいく飾る女の子は、ていった。

かえってバカにされるかもしれない。また、日本の女子大

中国では、もし誰かまわりの人に褒められたら、とても

生は、よく人を褒める。女子大生が何人か一緒にいると、うれしいことである。まず、中国では、皆に「すごい」と○○さんはかわいくて話がどんなにおもしろいか、また思われるレベルにならなくては、絶対に「いい」とは言わは××さんの頭がどんなによくて成績がいいかという話がない。また、人に褒められることは、自分の努力が皆に認よく聞かれる。もしくは、誰でもできることなのに、よく、められることであり、したがってとても嬉しいことである。

「すごい」という賛美の話が伝えてくる。これは中国では、中国にいた時、筆者も周囲の人から褒め言葉をかけてもら

絶対にしないことである。筆者からみると、人を褒めるこうために努力していた。しかも、褒められることは、最もとは、相手のある部分が自分より優れていて、自分もそれ記憶に残る喜びである。しかし、日本に来て以来、筆者はが評価できると感じて口に出すことである。もし、相手の頻繁に褒められた。今では、筆者はこれらの褒めことばにことを無分別に褒めたら、自分を軽視することになるので

少々無神経になった。以前の喜びは全然なくなってしまっはないかと考える。また、中国の受験戦争は非常に激しいた。ある時など、「これは反語ではないか」と迷うほどでため、少なくとも口では「誰にも負けたくない」と言うのあった。その後、日本の女子大生との接触が多くなるにつである。したがって、中国の女の子の間では、褒めことば

れ、この「すごい」という言葉について、少し感覚がつか28

めるようになってきた。

修学旅行の学生達と交流会などを行うことになる。おしゃ新学期が始まってまもなく、筆者は、スポーツ実習の授べり会の際、筆者達はよく来訪の日本人学生に「将来の夢

業で、バドミントンを選んだ。以前中国で、友達ともバドは何？」という質問をした。答えの多くは「結婚」であっミントンをしたことがあったが、それは遊びに過ぎず、基た。これを聞いて、筆者は驚いた。中国の女の子の中では、本的な動作などが分からない。ある日、友達と昼食を食べ「仕事で一人立ちしてから、家庭を作る」という言葉が流た時、Mという友人にスポーツは何を取っているのか聞か行している。つまり経済的な独立は、非常に重要視されてれた。バドミントンと答えた。基本的な動作は全然できないるのである。学校を出てすぐ結婚することは、まだ社会いから、初めから勉強したくて、前期のバドミントンを取的にも経済的にも独立していないのに家庭にしばられるこったと続けた。今の授業では何をやっているのかとMが続とであり、悲しいことではないかと考えていた。このようけて聞いた。「ゲームの形でやっているけど、毎回の授業に考えれば、学校での勉強も無意味になり、もしかしたら、の始めは、基本的な動作を練習している。今、スマッシュ

彼女達は勉強しないのかもしれないと想像した。

をやっているの」と答えた。Mは「すごいネ」と言った。

日本に来たばかりのころ、この考えは正しいと思っていなぜ、ここで「すごいネ」を使うのだろう。今の授業は、た。新入生のオリエンテーションが終わったばかりの頃、レベルが高いすごいことをしているのか、と訳が分からな

多くの友達は各種のサークルのガイダンスに出るために忙くなった。おそらく、Mはバドミンドンをやったことがな

しそうであった。最後には、一人平均して少なくとも二ついので、スマッシュが難しいと考えたのだろうと推測した。

ぐらいのサークルに入ったようである。また、ほとんど誰

この数週間後、ゼミの時間に誰かがスポーツをやろうと提もがしている、週に２、３回のアルバイトを加えると、勉議し、皆で相談のうえ、バドミンドンをやることになった。

強する暇などないのではないかと予想された。筆者の本意

筆者は、仲がいいMとペアを組んで、ダブルスのゲームをでは、勉強に集中したかったので、サークルなどにはあま始めた。不思議なことに、Mはコートに入ると、まるでプり入りたくなかったのであるが、逆に考えれば、サークル

ロのようにジャンプし、スマッシュし、ネットの前で絶対や部活などに入れば、より多くの人と接触することができ、にとれそうもないシャトルを拾ったりしていた。実に自然多くの人と話せば、日本語の勉強になるではないかと考えにコートの中を移動していた。とても初心者などではなかるようになった。そこで、友達に誘われ、あるサークルにった。筆者の存在はかえって邪魔になったように感じた。

入った。

筆者は思わず「Mさん、すごい」と言った。

サークルで、Ａという女子学生と知り合った。Ａは非常

筆者からみると、日本語の「すごい」という言葉は、あに個性のある学生であり、筆者は、彼女の上手な化粧と欧いさつの言葉というよりも、人間関係を良好にこなすため

米風のファッションによくひきつけられる。Ａは、運動好の用語としたほうがよりふさわしいように感じる。日本のきでもあり、週に一回のスポーツの時には、ほぼ毎回、運女子大生が人を褒めるのは、相手を安心させ、自分は相手動場でＡの活躍している姿を見かける。Ａと少し話してみの競争の相手にならないことを分からせるためである。そると、話は「キャンプに行こう」のような遊びの内容ばかのようにして、相手との関係を良好に保とうとしているのりであり、勉強にはまるで関心がない様子であった。しかだ。

し、このことは、筆者がサークルに入った目的とうまく合致した。Ａとは仲良く遊ぶことができ、話すことができる

３．「私はトップになりたい」

ので、一緒にいれば日本語の上達もきっと早いだろうと考「日本の女の子は勉強しない」これは、筆者が中国にいえ、何回かの触れ合いの後、筆者とＡは親しい友達になった時に、日本の女子大生に対して持っていたイメージであた。

った。なぜならば、筆者の出身校では、第一外国語の授業

Ａとの付き合いが深くなるにつれ、筆者は、よく近くにとして日本語を教えるので、毎年、日本から来る数多くのいるＡが、以前イメージしていたＡと同じ人ではないとい29

うことに気づいてきた。筆者は図書館で資料を調べる時、の裏で、人にはバカな自分を見せる。努力していないよう

窓のそばの決まった席に座っている理学部・数学専門のに,勉強せずに遊んでばかりいるように見せる。こうして、Ａが、静かに、かつ真剣に計算をしている姿をよく見かけ周りの人の目につかないようにし、自分に警戒心を持たせる。また、同じ専門の他の女子学生がどんなに勉強しないないようにし、自分に有利な成長環境を作っているのであかを、たまにもらしてくれる。このような例から、Ａはおる。

そらく勉強に熱心な人だと感じるようになってきた。これ
４．｢モクちゃん、オース｣

は、グラウンド上のＡとは、全く異なる人間である。
ある日曜日に、Ａの提案に従い、筆者の部屋で、日本料新学期が始まってまもなくのある朝、筆者はぎりぎりの理教室を行った。私達はＡが作ってくれた肉じゃがを食べ時間まで寝ていたので、１限の授業の教室へ急いでいく途ながら、話し始めた。話は次第に受験勉強の話題になった。

中、突然、どこからともなく「モクちゃん、オース」とい中国の戦争のような受験競争を経験してきた筆者は、「中う明るい声が聞こえてきた。道を急いでいた筆者は、非常国に比べると、日本には受験勉強がない」と言った。するに驚いた。あたりを見回していると、10メートルぐらい離とすぐに、Ａは「ある。日本にも受験戦争は確かにある」

れている所に友達のＳと別の女の子一人が一緒にいるのをと応じてきた。そして「試験の前には、みんな、敵みたい見つけた。Ｓは私のほうを向いて、手を振っていたのであにお互いに話もしない。その時、私はよくクラスの男の子

る。筆者もすぐに反応して、向こうに手を振り返した。そに、私は君の入れない大学に入るつもりだと言っていた。」

れから、みんな各自の教室のほうへ向かった。その日は１と続けた。そのライバル意識に満ちた話を聞き、「Ａさん日、ずっと気持ちがよかった。おそらく、その朝のあいさ

は成績がよかったんでしょう」と聞くと、Ａは少々恥ずかつの効用のためだろうと考えている。それからもよく、キしそうに「成績からみると、私のテストの点数はトップ集

ャンパスの中で、バイト先で、ほとんど友達と会うたびに、団に入っていた。でも私の上にいつも３人の男の子がいた。

「モクちゃん、オース」と声をかけられる。私も「郷に入彼らの頭は私と同じレベルじゃなかった。彼らを追い越そっては、郷に従え」のように、「○○ちゃん、オース」とうとするのも私のストレスになった。本当は、頭から考え大きな声で言うことにしている。実は、筆者も次第にこのると、私は周りの女の子達にも及ばない。だから、頑張ら

あいさつの仕方に慣れてきたのである。また、日本人の友

ないと、成績がすぐに落ちるかもしれない」と言った。

達と一緒にキャンパスを歩いていた時、隣にいるその友達「ああ、Ａも努力家なんだ」と筆者は心の中で感嘆した。

が筆者と話しながらも、周囲に目をやっていることが気にＡは、確かに真剣に努力する人である。私達は仲が次第なった。その時、その友達は突然「Ｂちゃん、おはよう」に良くなるにつれ、一緒に勉強するようになった。筆者のと声をかけた。友達の視線に沿って、ようやく、前にＢが分からない数学の問題が出ると、Ａが丁寧に教えてくれる。

歩いているのを見つけた。Ｂはあいさつを聞いてすぐに、その際に、Ａの厳密な思惟方法に、筆者はよく感心させら「オース、オース」と連発した。Ｂとは簡単なあいさつをれる。しかし、図書館を出ると、Ａは再び以前と変わらなしてから、別れた。それからも、「Ｆちゃん、Ｆちゃん」、

い様子になり、友達との会話を楽しみ、よく笑い、話の内「Ｏちゃん、おはよう」といったあいさつが続けて飛び出

容も遊ぶことばかりの女の子になる。おそらく、私達は学してきた。短い道なのに、筆者もその友達の影響で、初め部が異なることで直接の競争関係にないために、Ａもまじて多くの人とあいさつを交わすことができた。体力的にも、めな話をしてくれるのだと考えている。そして、仮の姿だ

心理的にも、多少疲れがあるが、今までに感じたことがなけでなく、自分の真剣な姿も見せてくれるのである。

い愉快さを感じた。このことから、筆者は、自分の視野が日本の女子大生は、本来は持っている自分のライバル意

周りの女の子より狭いということを認識しだした。例えば、

識を内面に隠しているのである。誰を追い抜くと口には出筆者が人とあいさつしなければならないと考える範囲は、さないが、自分一人でこつこつ努力しているのである。そ日本人の女の子と異なっているのである。筆者の考えでは、

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自分を支点に、２メートル以上離れていればあいさつの範

主に三つ興味深い点があると考える。まず、日本の女の子

囲ではないと判断する。相手と遠く離れていてもあいさつ

は、自分の持っている美しさを、少しもけちけちせず、遠すると、相手は筆者のことが気になり、筆者がいる場所を慮せずに前面に出す。日本の女の子は、しっかり青春を楽探さなければならない。これでは、相手にも迷惑ではない

しんでいる。丁寧に化粧をすることや、ファッションの流かと考えていた。また、大声で、人の名前を呼ぶと、呼ば行に敏感に反応することなど、みんなが極力、自分の美しれた人が恥ずかしくなると考えていた。以上のような理由

さを人に誇示しようとしているようである。これは、朝、で、筆者は中国にいた時、自分の真正面にやってくる人に会ったときのあいさつ、及び頻繁に交わされる褒め言葉とのみ声をかけていた。これ以外の場合はあいさつしなくてともに、相手にいい気持ちを与える。二つ目に、日本の女も、失礼だと考えなかった。これに対し、日本の女の子の子大生は非常に人間関係を重視している。一般教養の授業「視野」ははるかに広いのである。知り合いが遠くにいての前に、学部が異なっている学生が続々と教室に入るが、も、会うたびに必ず声をかける。

みながルールを守るように、教室に入りながらあいさつを

在日期間が長くなるにつれ、筆者は、このあいさつの仕交わしている。したがって、教室の中には、やさしい友好方に慣れるようになった。最後には自分もこのようにする的な雰囲気が満ちている。キャンパスを歩いている時にも、のもいいのではないかと考えるようになった。大きな声で、知り合いに一人も漏らさずに声をかける。相手のいいとこ

相手の名前を呼ぶことは、相手にいいイメージを与えるころを細大もらさず見つけ、「すごい、すごい」と褒め、相とができ、自分のことを相手により注意してもらうためだ

手を喜ばせる。三つ目は、日本の女の子の中で最も共通しと考える。また、大きな声で呼び合うことで仲が親密だとている所だと考えられるが、本当の自分を隠しているこという態度を前面に出し、相手との関係をより補強し、さらである。失礼になるかもしれないが、上述した一つ目と二に周囲の人に、自分達の関係のよさを知らしめる意味があ

つ目は、三つ目のためにしているのではないかと考える。

るのではないかと考える。

相手を褒めることや、甘い話を聞かせるなどして、相手に自分が競争の相手ではないことを暗に伝える。もし、相手

５．結論がこの話を信じれば、相手から各種の情報を受け取りやす日本の女子大生は、あいまいな人としっかりやっているいようになる。そうしておいて、自分の成長に適した環境

人と、大きく２種類に分かれているが、ほとんどの人は、を作っている。しかも、周囲の目に気づかれないように成人にバカな自分を見せて、本当の自分を隠している。日本

長していけるよう,注意している。

の女の子は、自分の言葉や格好などで、相手にいい気持ち

このように、日本の女子大生は、外見とは裏腹に非常にを与えるとともに、自分が過ごしやすい生活環境を作ってしたたかな面もあわせ持っている。しかし、それは批判すいるのである。

べきものではないように考える。日本の社会の中で、各人半年あまりの留学生活を通して、筆者は日本の女子大生が様々な状況でもまれるうちに、体得してきた処世術なのの勉強態度や生活態度について、少々理解できるようになであろう。それは、中国の処世術とは異なるものではあるった。個人的には、日本の女子大生の深層心理について、が、日本にいる間は、利用してもいいものなのかもしれない。

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