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