Category: Japan – Language

In Japanese, sitting in a circle is called kurumaza, literally, “wheel seating.” A kurumaza formation can put others off, since all they see of the people forming the circle is their backs, which seems to be saying, “The rest of you are outsiders.” To be sure, when the kurumaza is formed on the ground outdoors, a stranger standing on the outside of the circle can also see the faces of those on the far side. But the attention of those faces is riveted on the others in the circle. The stranger can be standing as little as a meter away from the ring, and still the group will pay virtually no attention. This obliviousness to others can easily be observed, for example, in the tightly packed groups of revelers that fill Ueno Park in Tokyo for flower-viewing parties under the trees during the cherry blossom season.

The above was taken from Sitting in a Circle: Thoughts on the Japanese Group Mentality, a lecture given a few years ago by Japanese poet and critic Makoto Ooka, at the Donald Keene Center of Japanese Culture at Columbia University (as part of the Soshitsu Sen Distinguished Lectures on Japanese Culture).

Ooka uses the Japanese word kurumaza (sitting in a circle) as the basis for a fascinating look at the oft-discussed “group” culture of Japan, seen not only in its systems (political, corporate) nor its cultural manifestations (karaoke, hanami), but also in its language and poetry. Ooka is most concerned with, to quote him, “how the traditional kurumaza society and the desire for solitude interact within the spirit of the poet….”

I was particularly struck by this paragraph of “poetic” etymology:

At one time I became aware of and took an interest in the major role the words au (to meet, to come together, to be in accord, to fit) and its derivative awasu (to bring together, to bring into accord) play in the Japanese language. What brought my attention to this was an observation that the Japanese language scholar Ono Susumu made during a round-table discussion in which we both took part. Ono pointed out that osafu, an old form of the verb osaeru (to restrain, to hold down), was formed as a compound of the verbs osu (to push) and afu, and earlier form of au. He gives a more precise explanation of the word in his laborious work Iwanami kogo jiten (Iwanami Dictionary of Classical Japanese): “To continue pushing, adjusting one’s force to that of the other party so as not to move the other party.” In other words, this single word—which is still in everyday use—has woven into it the awareness of a relationship in which the performer of the action senses the other person’s force and increases or decreases the amount of force applied so as to match it.

But read the whole thing. Rest assured, those tired old proverbial nails, you know the kind that stick up only to get hammered down, which are de rigueur in most articles about Japan and its group culture, aren’t mentioned.

aramusha — reckless-behaving person, daredevil, rude-mannered samurai

This was part of the headline on a recent Sumo monthly magazine, which featured a picture of Yokozuna Asashoryu after he won the recent Natsu Basho. Asashoryu had upset many sumo fans, and the Japan Sumo Association, with his disrespectful and un-Yokozuna like behavior after a losing performance in one of his tournament matches. There were actually two headlines on the cover of the magazine, the other reading tsukisusumu, which means “to push forward with force or vigor.” However, the aramusha headline was in bigger font.

tanshinfunin — to commute over a long distance

An example would be living in Hokkaido but working in Tokyo, perhaps flying home on the weekends. This particular example was the plight of a student I interviewed recently, who flew home once a week to see his wife and two young children in Sapporo.

futsukayoi — hangover

It’s funny how you can study a language for the longest time and never come across certain words or expressions seemingly essential to one’s vocabulary. This is such an entry. I didn’t learn it on account of having one myself (at least recently); actually, I can’t remember the why’s and wherefore’s of how I picked this up. But I’m sure it’ll come in handy one of these days. I love the fact that a literal translation of the word would read something like “drunk on the second day.”

uwasa o sureba… — speak of the devil…

I heard a student utter this when I walked into the classroom recently. I grilled her on what she had said and what it meant, but she was unable to explain the meaning in English. But she insisted it had positive connotations. Later when looking it up I of course realized it only has positive connotations depending on what was being said before it was uttered. uwasa on its own means “rumor” or “gossip.”

suisui — swimming smoothly, unhindered
rakuraku — comfortably, easily

These were both used in an train advertisement for monorail service to Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

netto shinjuu — internet-assisted suicide

A new term, found in the “Changing Japanese” section of a recent Japan Times newspaper (each Thursday’s edition features Japanese lessons and related articles on the language). netto means “Internet,” and shinju means “double suicide” or a suicide committed with others. This term is an outgrowth of the recent spate of group suicides involving people who met through Internet sites.

fuan — anxiety, unease

I was watching one of the weekend sports shows and they had a very long segment on Japanese baseball’s Hanshin Tigers, who from the sound of it are the Chicago Cubs of Japanese baseball. In other words, they haven’t won a penant in a very long time (well, since 1985 at least). This year, at least at this point, almost halfway through the season, the Tigers lead their division by 9 games, with arch-rivals Yomiurui Giants in second. But Hanshin traditionally starts strong, and then goes into the tank in the second half of the season. They did this last year. Thus, Hanshin fans right now are full of fuan, or unease, that their lead will not hold up. fuan rendered in katakana script means “fan, ” ironically enough.

Definitions were garnered from my Canon Wordtank 3000 (which uses the New Anchor Japanese-English Dictionary), and Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC (and the Japan Times, where noted). I’m pretty much flying solo these days with respect to my language learning, so I would be ever so grateful if those with a better grasp of the language than I, could contribute, via comments, to this post. I.e., if I’ve gotten something wrong, or there are alternative ways to say the above, or additional meanings that would be relevant, etc., please add a comment so I and other learners don’t stray too far down the wrong path. Thanks!

Perhaps this will be of help to some of my fellow Japanese language learners out there. I’ve been looking for some Japanese radio stations to listen to via Real Audio, in an effort to bolster up my at-the-moment flagging Japanese, and especially my listening skills. There are plenty of news programs out there, usually coupled with video (TBS maintains several linked here), but I just wanted something to listen to in the background while I’m scanning photos and what-not, and without a visual accompaniment, news programs are just too difficult. Certainly there are a slew of music programs available out there, but these are naturally heavy on music and light on talk. What I wanted was talk radio, conversations and interviews conducted in futsuu-kei (everyday Japanese using plain forms), on topics I already have some knowledge about so I’m not totally lost at sea.

I finally found something I was looking for, raji@, run by a company called Advanced Internet Integration (AII) (even more digital media content at their site). Every weeknight from 11:30pm – 2:00am, which also happens to be my prime computer usage time slot, there are 4 or 5 programs on topics like computers, gaming, music, movies, etc. Tonight, the program from Mikaka featured a discussion on blogging, and online community, which then morphed into a discussion of jisatsu buumu (“suicide boom”) and web sites that offer advice to folks contemplating suicide, which have been in the news a lot recently.

If others out there know of other resources out there like this one with which to improve my Japanese listening skills, well, I’m all ears.