VOX POPULI: Bugs can lend perspective to life

Playwright Junji Kinoshita (1914-2006) wrote that there are two types of people--those who are afraid of snakes and those who are scared of spiders. To his thinking, the objects of phobias fell into either of the two categories--creatures with legs and those without.

Kinoshita himself was OK with snakes, but the sight of a big spider made his hair stand on end, he said. In fact, he got goose bumps just from writing the two kanji characters that stand for kumo (spider).

Both kanji have the mushi (bug or worm) radical. Come to think of it, any kanji with this radical tends to turn people off, myself included.

When I recently wrote in this column about namekuji (slugs) and mimizu (earthworms), both of which are written in kanji with the mushi radical, I actually winced at their impact in print. But some kind-hearted readers reminded me in their letters that even bugs are living beings, too, like us.

It has been pointed out to me that the kanji for mushi derived from a pictograph representing a snake. Indeed, in the curvy tensho script used for making hanko seals, the shape of the kanji for mushi actually resembles a wriggly snake.

Thus, with a reptile for their "ancestor," kanji characters with the mushi radical are used for an extensive array of creatures, including amphibians, insects and many others.

"Histoires Naturelles" (Natural histories) by French author Pierre-Jules Renard (1864-1910) deals extensively with such creatures. In a section on frogs, whose natural enemy is the snake, Renard describes a frog "sitting still like a bronze paperweight on a broad pond lily leaf." This is a charming portrayal of a frog, which can indeed look like a pondering philosopher.

Lately, though, I have been hearing much about the sorry plight of frogs in Japan. Victims of urban development and poisoning by pesticide, they are also being threatened by infectious diseases. A large number of one-legged frogs were recently discovered by a river in the city of Kita-Kyushu. The cause is said to be unknown.

This is disturbing, as a seemingly insignificant phenomenon can be an early sign that something is seriously wrong. We need to remind ourselves once again how good it is to be able to take for granted the presence of frogs, bugs and other low-profile creatures.

A haiku by Takuboku Ishikawa (1886-1912) goes: "Tiny ants drag a dead red earthworm/ Two shaku (feet) a day/ The sun sets." This is a poem about how small creatures live, and it says something about our lives, too.

--The Asahi Shimbun, July 4

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.