[shina]
by onkoona
A Really Tall Hat (The Edo files, part 1)
"I see a shadow!"
Sai raised his non-existing head at the sound. A human voice! It had been he-knew-not how long since he'd heard a human voice!
"Where are you?" he cried out.
"Can't you see the shadow, Mother?"
Sai moved towards the voice. "Help me!" he cried. Then he slammed into something and was dazed for a moment.
That moment changed everything
Looking around revealed his nothingness had transformed to trees and grass and sky and sun. Sun! Warm sun on his face! He happily basked in it for a moment.
"Who are you?" a voice came.
Sai looked towards the source and found a little boy sitting next to him on the ground. He bent over to take a closer look.
"You can see me? Am I real? Where am I?" he asked in rapid succession.
The boy stretched out his chubby hand and said, "You have a tall hat!"
Oh!
He couldn't understand a word the boy said. He must be outside of Japan, he reasoned. It didn't sound Chinese to him, not any of the Chinese dialects he had heard before, when Chinese visitors had come to court.
The boy was wearing something not unlike what the Samurai children wore on summer Palace picnics, where the warrior class was allowed to mingle with the nobility.
Sai briefly looked around. He recognised most of the plants, but not all. The shape of the pine trees reminded him of drawings of the more southern islands of Japan. But if he was in Japan, how come he couldn't understand the little boy? Was the dialect of the south so different?
The boy spoke again, "I am four years old," he held up 4 fingers.
Sai opened his fan and covered his face in sadness. He was he-knew-not-where and couldn't understand the speech here. How was he ever going to play go again?
The little boy made a grab for Sai's fan but his hand passed right through it. The child stepped back and asked animatedly, "Are you a ghost?" and smiled, clapping his hands together in delight.
"Are you not afraid of me, little boy?" Sai asked, concerned.
But the boy had jumped up to run rings around him, stepping forward to grab at Sai's hat and fan, then after his hand had passed through each of them, he stepped back to giggle. He tried again from a different angle, alternately crying "boshi-desu," and "sensu-desu" as he swiped the hat and fan.
"My son, come in to eat!" a female voice came from behind them.
Sai turned around and spied a modest wooden house behind a clump of pines.
The boy shouted, "Yes!" and ran off towards the house, seeming already to have forgotten the ghost
Sai was contemplating what to do next when he felt a irresistible pull towards the little house. Then he found himself moving against his volition, until he, to his own shock, passed through one of the walls and found himself intruding upon a domestic lunch scene.
The little boy was there and so were three women and an older man. The boy looked up from his bowl and smiled at Sai, but the others totally ignored him. He bowed to the man, hoping that that would the right choice, (it would be if he were in Japan, but was he?) and said: "Good afternoon, I'm so sorry to intrude..." he trailed off as he realised he was still being ignored.
Puzzled, Sai decided to test out a little theory he was forming. He stepped forward, passing through the low table. He waved his fan first in front of the man and then, as he got no response, he let his hand drift through the man who was obliviously slurping his soup. The little boy, however, was nearly choking on his soup, and laughed even harder when Sai pulled a disdainful face.
"Boy, go outside if you can't behave!" the man sneered at the boy and then buried his face back in his bowl.
"What a rude man!" Sai exclaimed.
The boy plunked down his empty bowl, jumped up and made to run out of the door, before turning around and beckoning Sai to follow.
Since Sai had no inclination to stay around this rude man, he followed the boy out into the next room of the dwelling.
This room was shaded from the noonday sun and looked like the best room in the house. There were mats on the floor and as a centre piece there was a large scroll on the wall that immediately drew Sai's attention. He moved towards it and studied its beautiful calligraphy for a long moment before his thoughts were interrupted by the boy.
"That's a really tall hat also!" the boy said and pointed to a painted silk panel, sitting on a stand in a dark corner. It depicted two nobles discussing poetry in an imperial palace setting, but not any room Sai recognised.
The boy pointed at a detail of the drawing and insisted "Boshi-desu! Boshi-desu!"
Boshidesu? Did the boy mean the <>ebösh<> on the one noble? The hat that was in the style of his own?
The boy pointed at Sai hat and repeated "boshi-desu!"
"Bo-shi-de-su?" Sai repeated doubtfully.
"Hai! Hai!" the boy enthused.
Sai frowned, boshidesu was a hat, a ebösh as Sai had called it all his life. So the boy had been speaking some kind of Japanese all the time... A shaft of relief went through him as he realised he had ended up in his beloved Japan after all.
He collected himself for a moment, setting his mind to learning to speak this different Japanese. He turned to what would be his teacher here, as the little boy was the only one who, so far, could see or hear him.
He sat down before the boy and deliberately pointed at his hat and slowly articulated "bo-shide-su...?"
"Hai!" the boy exclaimed and clapped his tiny hands.
Sai pointed at his fan and tried "sensh-desu...?"
"Sensu," the boy corrected.
"Sen-suu" Sai tried to elongate the end of the word.
"Hai!" the boy clapped his hands.
Sai started to point out objects around the room and tried to make a guess. The boy would subtly correct each attempt. Some were totally different from what Sai knew, but most words were elongated versions of the words as Sai knew them. He quickly found that the -desu at the end was used for nigh on every word that referred to an item.
The game came to an abrupt end when Sai spied the wooden board in the corner.
"Igo desu!" the boy said.
A goban. Sai fell silent as his hands yearned to touch the kaya wood, his heart fluttering at the thought of playing again. The moment was shattered as his hand passed through the board.
Sai raised his fan to hide his pain.
"Sensu desu!" the boy exclaimed, pointing at Sai's fan, still playing the game of point and name.
Sai closed his fan and looking at the boy sadly, he said, "igo" and pointed the fan at the board.
"Oh, do you know this game?" the boy asked.
Sai just pointed again and repeated, "Igo...de-su...?"
The boy hesitated for a moment, knelt and drew out two wooden bowls. Sai clapped his hands together in glee as the boy laid a black stone on one of the star points on the goban. Sai used his fan to point to a position next to the boy's stone. It was a move designed to draw out the boy, so Sai could gage his level of play.
As the boy contemplated his next move, Sai contemplated his new life after death. This wasn't bad at all; he was playing go again. And in realising he was so far away from his home that the people talked strange here, he let go of the hurts done to him in his old life.
He glanced up at the scroll on the wall and smiled. It read:
Am I a man who dreamt I was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?
Author's comment:
The Japanese language, like most other languages, experienced a sound shift. In the case of Japanese it put in a lot more vowels, especially at the end of the syllables. It occurred in the Heian period.
I talked to a linguistic friend of mine and between us we made an guesstimate of what the word boshi (hat) might have sounded like in the Heian period. An eboshi is now specifically that black tall hat of the Heian period; back then it might have been the normal word for hat
A Really Tall Hat (The Edo files, part 1)
"I see a shadow!"
Sai raised his non-existing head at the sound. A human voice! It had been he-knew-not how long since he'd heard a human voice!
"Where are you?" he cried out.
"Can't you see the shadow, Mother?"
Sai moved towards the voice. "Help me!" he cried. Then he slammed into something and was dazed for a moment.
That moment changed everything
Looking around revealed his nothingness had transformed to trees and grass and sky and sun. Sun! Warm sun on his face! He happily basked in it for a moment.
"Who are you?" a voice came.
Sai looked towards the source and found a little boy sitting next to him on the ground. He bent over to take a closer look.
"You can see me? Am I real? Where am I?" he asked in rapid succession.
The boy stretched out his chubby hand and said, "You have a tall hat!"
Oh!
He couldn't understand a word the boy said. He must be outside of Japan, he reasoned. It didn't sound Chinese to him, not any of the Chinese dialects he had heard before, when Chinese visitors had come to court.
The boy was wearing something not unlike what the Samurai children wore on summer Palace picnics, where the warrior class was allowed to mingle with the nobility.
Sai briefly looked around. He recognised most of the plants, but not all. The shape of the pine trees reminded him of drawings of the more southern islands of Japan. But if he was in Japan, how come he couldn't understand the little boy? Was the dialect of the south so different?
The boy spoke again, "I am four years old," he held up 4 fingers.
Sai opened his fan and covered his face in sadness. He was he-knew-not-where and couldn't understand the speech here. How was he ever going to play go again?
The little boy made a grab for Sai's fan but his hand passed right through it. The child stepped back and asked animatedly, "Are you a ghost?" and smiled, clapping his hands together in delight.
"Are you not afraid of me, little boy?" Sai asked, concerned.
But the boy had jumped up to run rings around him, stepping forward to grab at Sai's hat and fan, then after his hand had passed through each of them, he stepped back to giggle. He tried again from a different angle, alternately crying "boshi-desu," and "sensu-desu" as he swiped the hat and fan.
"My son, come in to eat!" a female voice came from behind them.
Sai turned around and spied a modest wooden house behind a clump of pines.
The boy shouted, "Yes!" and ran off towards the house, seeming already to have forgotten the ghost
Sai was contemplating what to do next when he felt a irresistible pull towards the little house. Then he found himself moving against his volition, until he, to his own shock, passed through one of the walls and found himself intruding upon a domestic lunch scene.
The little boy was there and so were three women and an older man. The boy looked up from his bowl and smiled at Sai, but the others totally ignored him. He bowed to the man, hoping that that would the right choice, (it would be if he were in Japan, but was he?) and said: "Good afternoon, I'm so sorry to intrude..." he trailed off as he realised he was still being ignored.
Puzzled, Sai decided to test out a little theory he was forming. He stepped forward, passing through the low table. He waved his fan first in front of the man and then, as he got no response, he let his hand drift through the man who was obliviously slurping his soup. The little boy, however, was nearly choking on his soup, and laughed even harder when Sai pulled a disdainful face.
"Boy, go outside if you can't behave!" the man sneered at the boy and then buried his face back in his bowl.
"What a rude man!" Sai exclaimed.
The boy plunked down his empty bowl, jumped up and made to run out of the door, before turning around and beckoning Sai to follow.
Since Sai had no inclination to stay around this rude man, he followed the boy out into the next room of the dwelling.
This room was shaded from the noonday sun and looked like the best room in the house. There were mats on the floor and as a centre piece there was a large scroll on the wall that immediately drew Sai's attention. He moved towards it and studied its beautiful calligraphy for a long moment before his thoughts were interrupted by the boy.
"That's a really tall hat also!" the boy said and pointed to a painted silk panel, sitting on a stand in a dark corner. It depicted two nobles discussing poetry in an imperial palace setting, but not any room Sai recognised.
The boy pointed at a detail of the drawing and insisted "Boshi-desu! Boshi-desu!"
Boshidesu? Did the boy mean the <>ebösh<> on the one noble? The hat that was in the style of his own?
The boy pointed at Sai hat and repeated "boshi-desu!"
"Bo-shi-de-su?" Sai repeated doubtfully.
"Hai! Hai!" the boy enthused.
Sai frowned, boshidesu was a hat, a ebösh as Sai had called it all his life. So the boy had been speaking some kind of Japanese all the time... A shaft of relief went through him as he realised he had ended up in his beloved Japan after all.
He collected himself for a moment, setting his mind to learning to speak this different Japanese. He turned to what would be his teacher here, as the little boy was the only one who, so far, could see or hear him.
He sat down before the boy and deliberately pointed at his hat and slowly articulated "bo-shide-su...?"
"Hai!" the boy exclaimed and clapped his tiny hands.
Sai pointed at his fan and tried "sensh-desu...?"
"Sensu," the boy corrected.
"Sen-suu" Sai tried to elongate the end of the word.
"Hai!" the boy clapped his hands.
Sai started to point out objects around the room and tried to make a guess. The boy would subtly correct each attempt. Some were totally different from what Sai knew, but most words were elongated versions of the words as Sai knew them. He quickly found that the -desu at the end was used for nigh on every word that referred to an item.
The game came to an abrupt end when Sai spied the wooden board in the corner.
"Igo desu!" the boy said.
A goban. Sai fell silent as his hands yearned to touch the kaya wood, his heart fluttering at the thought of playing again. The moment was shattered as his hand passed through the board.
Sai raised his fan to hide his pain.
"Sensu desu!" the boy exclaimed, pointing at Sai's fan, still playing the game of point and name.
Sai closed his fan and looking at the boy sadly, he said, "igo" and pointed the fan at the board.
"Oh, do you know this game?" the boy asked.
Sai just pointed again and repeated, "Igo...de-su...?"
The boy hesitated for a moment, knelt and drew out two wooden bowls. Sai clapped his hands together in glee as the boy laid a black stone on one of the star points on the goban. Sai used his fan to point to a position next to the boy's stone. It was a move designed to draw out the boy, so Sai could gage his level of play.
As the boy contemplated his next move, Sai contemplated his new life after death. This wasn't bad at all; he was playing go again. And in realising he was so far away from his home that the people talked strange here, he let go of the hurts done to him in his old life.
He glanced up at the scroll on the wall and smiled. It read:
Am I a man who dreamt I was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?
Author's comment:
The Japanese language, like most other languages, experienced a sound shift. In the case of Japanese it put in a lot more vowels, especially at the end of the syllables. It occurred in the Heian period.
I talked to a linguistic friend of mine and between us we made an guesstimate of what the word boshi (hat) might have sounded like in the Heian period. An eboshi is now specifically that black tall hat of the Heian period; back then it might have been the normal word for hat