ITADAKIMASU

"Itadakimasu" is an essential phrase in your Japanese vocabulary. It's often translated as "I humbly receive," but in a mealtime setting, it's compared to "Let's eat," "Bon appétit," or "Thanks for the food." Some even liken it to the religious tradition of saying grace before eating. 

This page courtesy of:  https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/itadakimasu-meaning/.

In Japan, there's a saying,

• お 米こめ 一粒ひとつぶ 一粒ひとつぶには、
• 七人しちにんの 神様かみさまが 住んです　　
• いる。
• Seven Gods live in one grain of rice.

This emphasizes the idea that each bit of food is important.

The heart of the itadakimasu ritual is one of gratitude and reflection, even if only for a moment. In this light, starting a meal with "itadakimasu" implies you'll finish all of it. Something gave up its life for the meal, so it can be considered disrespectful to leave big chunks of food behind. Next time you see one last grain of rice in your bowl, don't be afraid to spend time trying to get it out.

But as we've seen, the gratitude of itadakimasu reaches beyond the dinner table and into our everyday lives. Whatever you receive, be it a hat, a job, or a ride to the airport, receive it with appreciation. Because the heart of itadaku is a thankfulness for the things you've been given and a determination to make the most of what you have.  https://www.tofugu.com/japanese/itadakimasu-meaning/.

HOW DO YOU LIVE?

 Genzaburō Yoshino’s book

 君たちは  どう生きるか 

How Do You Live?The Japanese classic shines a light upon how we find our place in the world.

It is about to be made into Hayao Miyazaki’s last film.   

I had an epiphany this morning that bridges Yoshino’s book to a Japanese phrase I heard at my first homestay in Japan... itadakimasu, before eating a meal.  I was told that it is a “thank you” to the gods of the animals and plants from where our meal was derived. That it also included a thank you to all those who helped bring the food to our table.  Now when I am about to begin my serving of rice I thank the gods of the rice, the farmers who worked from before dawn each morning, the people that made the tools used by that farmer, the drivers that carried the rice to market, the person who stacked the market shelves, the cashier, the box girl, the people that built the grocery store... next time I’ll continue with thanks to the iron gods, the people who made the steel used in the machines to transport the rice and those who harvested it, the people who made the chopsticks, the gods that watched over the chopstick trees, the people who made the chopstick making machines and those who repair those machines, and thank you to all the families of the people who gave us the hard working people involved all the way back to the rice.  Oh thank you to the gods of sun, wind and rain that all helped the rice to grow.

Granted it was a shorter itadakimasu that I first heard but I understood the message: “be thankful to all the people who make our meal possible.” and on a more global level, thank you to all those making life itself not only livable, but meaningful.

So when Copper, one of the two main characters in the book discovers the Net Rule of Human Particle Relations, you will see echoes of itadakimas.

... some may feel,

as this reader did upon closing it,

inclined to affirm an unusual truth: 

“I am wiser for having read this book.”  

--Adam Gopnik New York Times Book Review

THE TOHOKU STANDARD

Courtesy of https://vimeo.com/70023533

Sumiko Inoue:  Copy and paste the address below to your browser and view a wonderful video of Sumiko.

https://vimeo.com/70023533

The Tohoku region has retained its “Mono-Zukuri” tradition or, simply put, Traditional Crafting Orientation, that was developed in its harsh environment and has been carried on to the present day. Behind it are people who have been evolving and passing down ingenuity, wisdom, and thought by deepening their traditional technologies. THE TOHOKU STANDARD stands for A View Point from which to look at “their Way of Living.” It has been rooted, and well-established in the Tohoku region and stands out as the axis for the Tohoku Mono-Zukuri orientation.

Ms. Sumiko Inoue was born in 1935 in Hokkaido. After having learnt Japanese and western dressmaking, Sumiko married the owner of Inoue Clothing Store. In 1971, she started Inoue Hand Knitting School after she obtained the Sakiori Teaching Certificate from the Nanbu Sakiori Preservation Society. In 2002, she was accredited as the Aomori Traditional Craft Master and, in 2005, she opened Hachinohe Nanbu Sakiori KOUBOU “CHOU” independently. Since 2011, Ms. Inoue has owned a craft shop at the Craft Studio of Hachinohe Portal Museum hacchi. There, she passes on Nanbu Sakiori to broad generations by sponsoring workshops and making Sakiori craft items. She wrote and published “Sakiori Textbooks, Primary, Intermediate and Advanced Grades” from LLP Gijutsushi Shuppankai, etc.

https://vimeo.com/70023533

“I have come to this place of my ancestors..

“To know life in every breath, every cup of tea ...

that is Bushido.”

 

“The perfect blossom is a rare thing, 

you could spend your life looking for them.

And it would not be a wasted life.”  --from The Last Samurai

 

I sat at their low table covered with a shitgake*, joining Miuki Hadano’s family for a traditional cup of tea.  Arranged by the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund, it was my first homestay in Japan. At the kotatsu table with me were her two children, her parents, her sister and two children, a traditional three generation Japanese household.

*Usually found in the center of the home, the modern kotatsu involves a low table with a special shitagake table cover placed over it. An electric heater is attached beneath which keeps your lower body toasty warm. In attempts to save energy the Japanese heated table and blanket concept has taken off in a big way. Cheaper to run than an electric heater, it’s a wonder that much of the rest of the world hasn’t caught on to the joys of taking a book and a cup of tea under the kotatsu. https://japanobjects.com/features/kotatsu

Her father, Tokuji-san, I found sitting across the corner from me quietly stopped the conversation and beckoned me to take a sip of tea. All was silent. He followed sipping his tea.  Then he beckoned me to have a taste of dessert pastry.  He followed again then said:

“Like life.” he said, “bitter, [sipping the tea again] and sweet.” [tasting pastry].” 

Looking back across my 9 trips to Japan, all the families I stayed with were living in 3 generation households.** At the end of the war, 100 percent of families lived in three generation homes, today ...

 **In Japan, 58% of people 60 years of age and older lived with at least one of their children in 2001, a figure 3 to 10 times greater than that found in comparably developed Western societies such as the United States.

** https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology/article/62/5/S330/570920 

Click HERE for more about Miyuki Hadano and her family (Scroll down to 2005)

With Miyuki and her family I felt...

I know this, 

the place of my ancestors
with each visit 

with each memory comes to me this feeling 

this is my Ishihara home, 

my Kobayakawa home, 

the land of my ancestors.

Thank you Miyuki.

吐く息    一つ    にも    生命    が 宿る

"hakuiki hitotsu ni mo seimei ga yadori" 

a lifetime in a single breath

 吐く息, one’s breath

一つ (read hitotsu) being a counter for "one". 

にも (read nimo) means "even in". So far we have the phrase hakuiki hitotsu nimo meaning "even in every breath". 

生命 (read seimei) meaning "one's life; one's existence"

が (read ga) is a grammatical element specifying the previous word as the subject of the verb. The verb yadori is the present form of 宿る (read yadoru) meaning to "to dwell; to exist within".

The Japanese phrase "hakuiki hitotsu ni mo seimei ga yadori" was made popular in the movie "The Last Samurai" and this is a direct quote. The phrase is composed of the word 吐く息 (read hakuiki) meaning "one's breath", 一つ (read hitotsu) being a counter for "one". So this is "one breath". The grammatical element にも (read nimo) means "even in". So far we have the phrase hakuiki hitotsu nimo meaning "even in every breath". The next word is 生命 (read seimei) meaning "one's life; one's existence" and が (read ga) is a grammatical element specifying the previous word as the subject of the verb. The verb yadori is the present form of 宿る (read yadoru) meaning to "to dwell; to exist within".

“To know life in every breath, every cup of tea,

life in every breath... that is Bushido.”

“The perfect blossom is a rare thing, 

you could spend your life looking for them.

And it would not be a wasted life.”  --from The Last Samurai

 

 to paraphrase from the Last Samurai: 

 

“Remember our ancestors who have held this sword and what they lived for." We cannot forget who we are, or where we come from.  Let me tell you how they lived. 

 

Live, deeply.  Find a small measure of peace, which few of us will find.  

to paraphrase: 

Do you believe we can change our destiny?

I think we should do what we can until our destiny is revealed.

[holding a samurai sword] I belong to the teacher in whom the old ways have joined the new... this is Bushido 

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/459118150/life-in-every-breath-japanese-scroll#:~:text=The%20Japanese%20phrase%20%22hakuiki%20hitotsu,this%20is%20a%20direct%20quote.&text=So%20far%20we%20have%20the,or%20%22in%20every%20breath%22.

20 words, only in Japan  https://www.etsy.com/listing/459118150/life-in-every-breath-japanese-scroll#:~:text=The%20Japanese%20phrase%20%22hakuiki%20hitotsu,this%20is%20a%20direct%20quote.&text=So%20far%20we%20have%20the,or%20%22in%20every%20breath%22.

dd

 

from the Nihon-bashi website.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZRPftcvClM/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

Do Italian Honeybees speak Japanese in their Okayama hives?

 

This Italian honey bee is in overdrive.

Honeybees, I've observed have four gears, four speeds.  

First gear is "overnight" the slowest movement, just enough to keep their hive warm and cozy.

Second gear is normal daytime activity that includes hive brood maintainance.

Third gear is nectar speed older sister field bees return to the hive and transfer nectar to their younger sibling hive bees.

Fourth gear is a kind of a bee hyper speed overdrive when the oldest super pollen carrier big sisters have returned home with bulging loads of pollen to unload. Their younger "tween" sisters pack the pollen away in a kind of rainbow over the brood nursery honey comb.

Shibui: “... summarizes all the best in Japanese life, yet it has no explanation and cannot be translated... the best approximation is... acerbic good taste." --James Michener

Inside Isetan in Shinjuku Tokyo, Patricia answers Jim Reed’s question: 

“What is the difference between Wabi Sabi and Shibui?”

Click on video to magnify.

Let’s start with Shibui (adj)

resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibui

 Shibumi (noun)

 Shibusha (noun)