Why I Write About Japan, Part II with Links

My Little Brother Learns Japanese
—For Mike, Watashi wa otouto ga daisuki desu.

In college, he learns to read
right to left,
practicing with Manga,
learns Kanji picture-words:
how the word for heart
can also mean indigo blue.

He learns to conjugate
verbs with no future,
and reads poetry that does not
begin with “I.”

He learns about weather reports
of sakura zensen,
the advance of cherry-blossom fronts
and finds that falling blossoms
can also mean dead soldiers.

He knows the word for bird
by its feet, and knows
a village connects hands to trees.
Little brother is a student,
and older sister
is a woman going to the city.

He learns in Japanese fairy tales
that siblings, not spouses,
are often saviors;
the older sister brings the dead brother
back to life
over and over again.

Continued from my previous post. My little brother minored in Japanese during his study of computer science at a Cincinnati Jesuit university called Xavier University, and it was here he encountered a wonderful, enthusiastic professor named Dr. Ayako Ogawa. My brother would tell stories of how she talked about the time she kept a pet raccoon (maybe a tanuki, or a Japanese variation on the raccoon that in English translates to “raccoon dog”) or how she would spend a class explaining how to do a tea ceremony correctly or the importance of handwriting to the Japanese written language. Like my high school European History teacher who would give us excerpts of books like “Sugar and Power,” photocopy 15th century versions of “Little Red Cap,” and discuss Machiavelli’s The Prince and “Dress for Success” in the same lecture, Dr. Ayako strove to communicate to her students more than just the language; she brought in art, story, traditions like flower arrangement, all aspects of Japanese culture that might help illuminate her world for an American student. She would eventually become a family friend and we would follow her stories of adventure (even now, she is an enthusiastic traveler.) Dr. Ayako graciously read versions of “She Returns to the Floating World” and forwarded them to her husband and children as well, to get their feedback. She’s written her own book too! Here’s a brief profile of her from a Cincinnati paper.
My brother and I have lived in different states since he started college, so we often correspond about things like which anime movies he recommends and his adventures in Xiao Lin Do martial arts and Kendo practice. I started watching all of Hayao Miyzaki’s films and researching his life and work, and discovered his interest in children’s literature. I researched Japanese folk tales, especially interested in the one that helped inspire Miyazaki’s work on Nausicaa, called “The Princess Who Loved Insects.” The most fascinating discovery I made was a recurring instance of older sisters who acted as protectors and heroes to their little brothers; the only times I’ve seen that archetype in Western folk tales were in “Hansel and Gretel” – in which Gretel, not Hansel, kills the witch that holds them captive and “Jorinde and Joringel,” in which the sister struggles to free the brother from enchantment – and, of course, the complex “Snow Queen” mythology, which has a variation in which a young girl travels to free a boy who is a love interest, and ends up overthrowing the evil Snow Queen.
I started to become interested in the scholarly research on Japanese folk tales, and stumbled upon a second-hand copy of Hayao Kawai’s “The Japanese Psyche: Major Motifs in the Fairy Tales of Japan.” Similar to scholarly works I’d read on Grimms’, but with more focus on Japanese religion and Jungian psychology, it was a fascinating springboard into understanding Japanese folk tales (and had a wonderful appendix containing some folk tales I was not able to locate in English elsewhere.) I’d also begun reading Japanese fiction, such as Haruki Murakami, Osamu Dazai, and researching older books such as the Tales of Genji and The Pillow Book of Sei Shonogan. I read Roland Kelts’ Japanamerica, about the cross-cultural influence of Japanese pop on America and vice versa, with fascinating insights into anime in particular. My own writing increasingly began to reflect my research and interests, watching anime series like “Fooly Cooly” and “The Fullmetal Alchemist” and trying to learn a little Japanese so I could read some of the work in the original language. Right after “Becoming the Villainess” came out, I wrote the bulk of what became She Returns to the Floating World.

As the scope of the disaster in Japan continues to expand, I am thinking of my friends over in Toyko right now, and of the little things I can do to support them. It is easy to feel helpless an ocean away. The cherry blossoms have started to bloom. Besides Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross, I’m looking for good suggestions as to where to direct people for donations. Northwest Medical Teams, one of my favorite local charities that sends medical teams with supplies out to places in need, has a donation page up.

More links:
Where are the Robots? The reasons robots haven’t been used at Japanese nuclear disaster sites
Japan Disaster and Anime Fans