Communication Archives - understand-culture

Snow Country

Kawabata Yasunari’s novel Yukiguni (Snow Country) opens with one of the best-known sentences in Japanese literature: Kokkyō no nagai tonneru o nukeru to yukiguni de atta. Word for word, it says: “Passing through the long tunnel at the border, it was the snow country.” The sentence does not say who or what passes through the tunnel.

The English translation by Edward Seidensticker has to supply a subject: “The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country.” The novel first appeared in the magazine Bungei Shunjū in January 1935, before it even had its title.

The Moon Is Beautiful

A popular story says that the novelist Natsume Sōseki once corrected a translation of “I love you.” A Japanese person would never say such a thing, he supposedly said. Translate it as Tsuki ga kirei desu ne, the moon is beautiful, isn’t it.

There is no record that Sōseki ever wrote or said this. The magazine All About calls it an urban legend with no known source. The earliest known printed version reportedly appeared in a magazine essay in 1977.

Morning Glories

A well-known story about the tea master Sen no Rikyū tells that Toyotomi Hideyoshi heard that morning glories were blooming beautifully in Rikyū’s garden, and went to see them. When he arrived, there was not a single morning glory in the garden.

In the tearoom, one flower of vivid color stood alone in the alcove. Hideyoshi was delighted, and Rikyū received a generous reward.

Allusive Variation

Honkadori is a technique of classical poetry. The poet takes a phrase or two from a well-known older poem, so that readers think of the older poem while reading the new one. It flourished in the time of the Shin Kokinshū anthology.

Fujiwara no Teika wrote: Koma tomete sode uchiharau kage mo nashi Sano no watari no yuki no yūgure. There is no shelter to stop my horse and brush off my sleeves, at the Sano crossing, on a snowy evening. Its older model is poem 265 of the Man’yōshū, about rain falling at the same Sano crossing, where there is no house.

How Is Everyone?

In 1988, Nissan launched a new sedan, the Cefiro. In its television commercial, the singer Inoue Yōsui drives the car along a winding highway. He opens the window and says: Minasan ogenki desu ka? Shitsurei shimasu. How is everyone? Excuse me.

The line does not mention the car. The campaign slogan, written by the copywriter Itoi Shigesato, was kuu neru asobu: eat, sleep, play.

The Character’s Feelings

Japanese reading lessons and tests often ask: Kono toki no tōjō jinbutsu no kimochi o kangaete kakinasai. Think about how the character felt at this moment, and write it down. The text does not always state the feeling. The student has to infer it.

A teacher writing in Gendai Business noted that many children left the answer space empty. He came to believe that unless the text expresses the feeling directly, the correct answer is “I don’t know.” Another Gendai Business article, on middle school entrance exams, says that at the exam “I don’t know” will not do.

Guidelines on Keigo

In February 2007, the Council for Cultural Affairs of the Agency for Cultural Affairs issued Keigo no shishin, Guidelines on Honorific Language. It divides keigo into five types: sonkeigo (respectful language), kenjōgo I (humble language), kenjōgo II or teichōgo (courteous language), teineigo (polite language) and bikago (refined language).

The traditional classification had three types: respectful, humble and polite.

Tanaka, Not Manager Tanaka

The Agency for Cultural Affairs answers a common question about speaking to people outside the company. An employee may refer to a superior simply as Tanaka, or as buchō no Tanaka, the manager, Tanaka. To say Tanaka buchō, Manager Tanaka, is inappropriate, because it does not treat the manager as a member of one’s own side. In a formal setting, the employee can also say heisha no buchō, our company’s manager.

Verbs change in the same way. Inside the company, an employee says that the president osshatte imashita, using a respectful verb for “said.” To people outside, the employee says that the president mōshite orimashita, using a humble verb.

Your Company

Japanese has two respectful words for “your company,” onsha and kisha. Their meaning is the same. Onsha is used in speech, and kisha in writing.

Part-Time Job Keigo

In restaurants and shops, staff often use a characteristic way of speaking called baito keigo, part-time job keigo. Kochira wafū pasuta ni narimasu: this becomes the Japanese-style pasta. Sen en kara oazukari shimasu: I take from one thousand yen. Ijō de yoroshikatta deshō ka: was that all, in the past tense. A human resources glossary notes that the standard form is yoroshii deshō ka.

In a 2017 survey by a university teacher, 73.5 percent of students in the Kantō region accepted sen en kara oazukari shimasu as correct. In a 2020 survey, 62.4 percent of all students did.