人 (Human/Person/People)

My grandmother took care of me as a child. She was my mother’s mother and since my mother was an only child after marriage for a short time she lived close to my grandparents. When I was three years old, my grandfather (mother’s side) passed away and after that my grandmother came to stay with us. Both my parents were working and so my grandmother took care of the household and me. She was born at the beginning of the 20th century and she wanted to teach me many things but sometimes tat was rather old fashioned. Before I attended primary school, I knew all the  animal signs of the Chinese zodiac by heart. Back in the days, those animal signs were quite important because for calendar, time, etc.  those signs were used. For example 12:00 noon is called “Shogo”. “Go” is the animal sign horse. The time from approximately 11:00 until 13:00 was called “Uma no koku” (Horse time). Nowadays  still “Shogo” is used but many other expressions are no longer in use. Therefore many of the things I learned from her were not so useful. She only attended primary school and after that she worked as a maid and then got married at the age of 18. She could only read Hiragana and Katakana alphabets, which is insufficient for reading newspapers and books. Many Kanji (originally Chinese charakters) are required for that. Even at old age, she wanted to study a lot, so she asked me about Kanji and their meaning and pronounciation. Of her limited knowledge of Kanji, her favourite was “人” (Hito =Human/ Person/People). When my friends came to visit, she wanted to keep us company and as an older person she wanted to teach us something. She especially liked to talk about that Kanji “人” (Hito). According to her interpretation this Kanji consists of two lines, which means that two people support each other. If one of those lines falls, both fall. That is why people need each other and shoud help one another. I do not know whether that is a general interpretation or her own, but we children listened to this and I thought I should value my friends. I think we were good children.

I think education is very important but not necessarily from school. Those people like my grandmother who could not receive proper academic education, have much knowledge and human depth etc.. Therefore I think it is important not to have prejudice and to face other people with honesty.

子供の頃私は、よく、祖母に世話してもらっていました。母の母です。母が一人っ子だったことから、母の結婚後も、祖父母の近くに居を構えていました。私が3歳の時、祖父が病死したため、その後は祖母も私たち親子と共に暮らすことになりました。両親共働きだったので、祖母が家事や私の世話をしてくれたのです。 祖母は明治生まれで、私にいろんなことを教えてくれましたが、その多くは古くて、時代に合わないものでした。例えば、私は小学校にあがる前から、祖母のおかげで干支を順序正しく暗記していましたが、現在の学校教育ではあまり重要とされていないことですよね。昔は暦や時刻など、干支が重要な役割を担い、よく使われていましたが、今は「正午」が残っているくらいで、他はあまり使われないと思います。 祖母は小学校しか出ておらず、その後は女中として奉公し、18でお見合い結婚しました。ひらがなとカタカナしか読めませんでしたが、習いたいという意欲はなかなかのもので、よく、私に新聞や本の漢字を指差し「これは何という字ぞね?」と尋ねていました。 祖母は、少ない漢字の知識のなかで、特に「人」という字を気に入っていました。私の友達が我が家に遊びにくると、祖母は好んで仲間に入り、年長者として私たちのためになると思われる話をよくしてくれました。中でも「人」という字の話を一番よく聞きました。祖母によると、「人」はお互い支え合うふたつの線からできている、これは、人は助け合い、お互いを大切にしないといけないということだというのです。一般的に言われていることか、祖母の解釈か、知りませんが、私たちはじっと座ってその話を聞いていました。そして私は、自分の隣に座っているお友達も大切にしなければ、と思ったものです。それにしても、じっと祖母の話を聞く私たちは「いい子」だったと思われません?

「教育」は非常に大切だと思います。しかし学校の教育だけが全てではありませんよね。私の祖母のように、十分な学校教育が受けられなかった人も、たくさんの知識や人間的深さなどがあるのです。大切なのは、偏見を持たず、正直な心を持って、人に向き合うことだと、私は思います。

Picture by Yuka Simeno