Implicit Meaning 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.

From Mind to Mind

Ishin denshin (以心伝心): from mind to mind. In Zen Buddhism, passing on the deepest teaching from the heart of the master to the heart of the disciple, without words or writing. In everyday use, understanding each other without words.

The Vocabulary of Indirection

Iwanu ga hana (言わぬが花): not saying it is the flower. Leaving something unsaid has more charm than saying it.

Kūki o yomu (空気を読む): to read the air. To sense the mood of a situation and act to suit it.

Hito o tateru (人を立てる): to put a person in between. In a negotiation, to let an agent or go-between step in between oneself and the other side. It also means stepping back so that another person keeps face.

Tea Over Rice in Kyoto

A popular belief holds that when a Kyoto host asks a guest, Bubuzuke demo dō dosu? (How about some rice with tea?), the real message is “Please go home.” The rakugo story Kyō no chazuke plays on the offer. An Osaka merchant is always offered rice with tea by a Kyoto customer’s wife but never served it. One day he arrives at lunchtime, determined to eat it.

The writer Nakamura Kiyoshi calls the “go home” custom an invention.