表現 Break: 怪我の功名

けが　の　こうみょう
kega no komyou

The great achievements of an injury... Sounds kind of sadistic doesn't it? Maybe it's some kind of martial-arts related phrase about the efficiency of the hammerfist technique when applied to the Triple Warmer-23? Maybe not.

Rikai-chan will get you closer, by telling you that 怪我の功名 means a "lucky hit," but this doesn't capture the nuance of the phrase. 一刀両断-ing a watermelon with a broom stick while blindfolded is a "lucky hit (or at least, it appeared to be). It's not 怪我の功名.

Definition:
当初は過失や災難と思われたことが、思い掛けなく好結果を齎すこと。
Translations:
1. A fortunate mistake
2. A happy accident
3. Fortune disguised as misfortune

To qualify as a lucky hit of the 怪我の功名 variety, you have to start with something that seems to be bad, a mistake, a screw-up, or a calamity of some kind.

One of my books, 小学四字熟語・ことわざ has this great picture of a baseball player who has accidentally knocked a man unconscious with an out-of-the-park smash... but the black mask that the injured party wears, the sack of loot he carries, and the elated police officer standing over him reveal that this unlikely head trauma was actually a civil service!

A lot of the usage on the internet is related to cooking. "I mistook oyster sauce for ソース, but it came out DELICIOUS," etc.

Can you think of any examples of things that would count as 怪我の功名? I'll start us off with some historical examples of fuck-ups with fantastic consquences.*

わー！チョコチップをクーキーの生地に落としてしまった！台なしだ！
Crap! I dropped all these chocolate chips in the cookie batter. Now, it's just RUINED!

... もしかして、お前がそんなに不器用でいるのは、ベーキングをすると、そのくだらない手袋をはめること...
... Maybe you wouldn't be so clumsy if you didn't always wear those stupid gloves when you baked...



この白ワインに気泡がいっぱい入ってしまった！お前が超失敗した！
This white wine has all kinds of bubbles in it! You've really messed it up this time!

気泡が入って来た上に、燃えているみたい...
And on top of that, it seems to be on fire...

And I'll make the last example, today's

例文：
毎回、怪我の功名でScoobyたちは犯人を掴む。小さい子じゃないなら、何か、つまらねー。
Scooby and those dudes manage to mess up in a way that somehow catches the criminal, EVERY TIME! If you're not a little kid, it's pretty fricking boring...

...though I might still watch it if it looked like this.

*Historical examples do not accurately reflect history.

虚虚実実

きょきょ　じつじつ
kyokyo jitsu jitsu

A long time ago, I posted the origin/metaphorical basis for the yoji 海千山千 and asked you to guess the import. This time, I'll tell you the definition of this one, and let's see what you can come up with in terms of why it means what it does.

Definition:
互いに策略を尽くし、相手の隙をねらって必死で戦うこと。
Translations:
1. An extremely well-matched contest between two skillful opponents.
2. A mutually exhausting combat, full of clever deceptions and well calculated attacks.
3. Probing a hostile party for weaknesses.

And let's back up a bit and take a look at the definition in direct translation because it's SO hard core, and full of good stuff:
Having mutually exhausted all of your best-conceived strategies, engaging in a desperate battle to find the chink in your opponent's armor that will let you bring them down first.

• 互　of 互い　(たがい；tagai) happens to be my favorite kanji, mostly because I like the way it looks, but it's meaning, 'reciprocity,' is pretty cool too.
• 策略を尽くす (さくりゃくをつくす；sakuryaku wo tsukusu) means "to exhaust all of your ideas or strategies" and can be used any time you don't know how to deal with a recurring problem.
• 隙 (すき; suki) is the chance presented by a weak spot in someone's defenses; a chink in someone's armor.
• 必死 (ひっし; hisshi) is a な type adjective used to indicate frantic desperation, but it's connotation of "inevitable death" makes it a lot more dangerous.

This has a lot of violent and vivid imagery in it, but it's used mostly in terms of psychological warfare. Nowadays, outside of comics and movies, this is a phrase most commonly associated with business or political negotiations. See some examples from the internets below:

これは虚虚実実の駆け引きだ。
This is some EPIC haggling, right here.

弱体化した米国はイランに対して鞭とニンジンを使い分け虚虚実実の神経戦を演じている。
The weakened rice country (America) has been acting the part of the disciplinarian, doling out punishments and rewards as it sees fit, in it's enduring, nerve-wracking battle of wills with Iran.

Other usages I've found include descriptions of resilient types of weeds, and particularly competetive chess matches.


例文：
彼と8時間以上、虚虚実実のチェスの戦いをしたあげく、彼の弱点をやっと見つけた：チェスボードでぶっ殺されることです。
After eight brutal hours of strategic chess scheming with no success in sight, I finally found his one weakness: being beaten to death with the chess board.

So tell me, what do you think gives these two repeated characters (Hollow Hollow Truth Truth) the meaning that they carry today?

Japanese Language Trivia of the Day:

Once again, this is a word that I've learned because it applies to me, and I've never thought it was anything special. But it's one of those words that will win you an impressed reaction if you have the chance to use it.

年子
としご

toshi go

Rikai-chan will tell you that 年子 means the second child born within a year, but by that definition, the second in a set of twins could be called such, right? According to Japanese dictionaries, it means siblings who are separated by about a year, and in actual usage, there's some room to stretch that year out. I was told that my sister is 年子 even though she was born fifteen months after me. The general rule of thumb that I use is if the pregnancy turnover rate is fast enough to elicit raised eyebrows, low whistles, or off-color jokes, you can use 年子.

Usage:
When somebody asks me how old my sister is, I say "年子です。"
If somebody asks me 何人兄弟, I say "兄*と年子の妹がいます。"

* Edited to reflect the wisdom of the comment below

2級 Grammar 41-45

Finally - a smorgasboard of grammar to help me express my love for the legendary Italian spacesynth band, Koto!


For full effect, it's recommended you read these notes while the video is playing.


41) ~ことだ
~ is just the thing!
~ なさい
~ ほうがいい
~ is the main point.

This phrase is useful for prescribing advice or remedies. In all the examples I was given, it is used as a response - ie a problem or goal is presented, and then the essential way of dealing with that problem/goal is given with a sentence ending in the dictionary form verb or ない form and ことだ.

Ex. 最近のスターウォーズは映画芸術の悲劇だった。そのシリーズについて新たに知りたいなら、コトの"Jadbah"を聞くことだ。


42) ~ことだから
~は、いつもそうだから
Because it's ~,
When it comes to ~,
If it's ~ we're talking about,

This one's also pretty simple - you just begin with who you're talking about, and then go on to say what the outcome will be BECAUSE it's that person/thing, and the outcome is always this way with that person/thing.

Ex. コトのことだから、高品質の曲ばっかり作るぞ！


43) ~ことなく
without~
~しないで
~ずに

As the above demonstrates, this is a way to say "without doing such-and-such" that sidesteps conjugation. Verb dictionary form + ことなく. Piece o` cake!

Ex. 今までコトを知ることなく生きてきたことが信じられない...


44) ~ことに（は）
~ly,
Very ~ly,
On a ~ note,

This one's simple if you think of it as just starting a sentence with an adverb. "Sadly, I could not think of a better example sentence." The one tricky part of the rule is that if you use a verb, it should be past tense, and should have to do with the state of someone's emotions the same way point 37 does.

Ex. メチャ悲しいことに, コトのプロデューサーのステファノは1992年になくなってしまった。


45) ~ことになっている, ~こととなっている
Be supposed to~ (by appointment or rule)
It is/will be~ (something already decided)

Big thanks to Clay and Nirav for coming through on the translation of this one. At first I thought it meant "To be becoming the sweet-ass band known as Koto", but I was sadly mistaken.

Also, I stole the example sentence from Nirav since my old one was a poor reflection of the actual meaning.

Ex. ここに自分の曲を入れたいけど、コトの曲以外は使わないことになってるから入れちゃいけない。

Bonus Ex. See the comments for a non-Koto-related example on another more common usage of this grammar point!

疑心暗鬼

ぎしん　あんき
gishin anki

Ya SUSPECT! One of the things that I love about studying Yo-ji-juku-go is the fun of decoding them. I thought I was onto a Tell-tale Heart with this one, but it wasn't what I expected it to be.

Definition:
疑いの気持ちで見ると、なんでもないことまで怪しく思えること。
Translation:
1. Suspicion breeds suspicion.
2. A state of paranoia
3. When you go looking for demons, you'll find them, even if you have to conjure them up yourself

I could've used this one just a week ago, when I got back from India and was convinced that I had malaria after looking up all the symptoms online... or I could use it to describe how I feel about airplanes. Why does every single noise that an airplane makes sound like some kind of mechanical failure?

You could also use it to describe the Japanese mentality towards crime in their country, as this video, and this article at Japan Probe will illustrate. Enjoy.

Crime-fiction
by newsprb

The important point in using this yo-ji is that it's not a matter of a guilty conscience that creates the paranoia, as I first suspected. It's more like the idea of finding a loose pebble on a mountainside and moving cross-country for fear of an avalanche.

例文：
A-san:　最近、彼女が嘘ついていると思う。
I think my girlfriend's been lying to me lately.
B-san: マジで？何の嘘？
Really? Lying?
A-san: 昨日、7-11で寄って来たと言ったけど、Family Martのレシートだった。何か怪しく思わない？で、車のオドメーターを見て、彼女が言ったより遠くまで行っていた。もしかして、昨日は仕事ではなくて、浮気してたかな？そして、違う道を通って帰って、7じゃなくて、Family Martで夕食を買ってきたのかな。
Yesterday, she said she went to 7-11, but the receipt was from Family Mart. Isn't that suspect? Then, I checked her odometer, and she drove farther than she said she did. What if she didn't go to work yesterday? If she was cheating on me, then she would've taken a different road home, and that would explain why she bought dinner at Family Mart and not a 7-11, wouldn't it?
B-san: わー。お前、本当に疑心暗鬼になっているなー！今、Family Martのバイトに遅れているから、後で話そう。
Wow, you're getting really paranoid, huh? We can talk about this more later. Now, I'm running late for my shift at Family Mart.
A-san: お前だ！！！！
IT WAS YOU!!!!!

諸行無常

しょぎょう　むじょう
shogyou mujyou

Oh MAN, do I have a long and intense post for you. And I just wanted to write about fireflies...

See, firefly season is just wrapping up in Saga, and there are some really nice places to go and watch them: long winding walks along the river in Ogi, or Tafusegawa in Saga City. I went last year and I loved it. This year, however, I've been busy, the weather's been bad, and I didn't have the time to make it out there, which makes me feel the poignancy of today's yoji all the more intensely.

Last year, when we were watching the fireflies, I heard about today's

BONUS WORD: 物の哀れ (mono no aware)

for the first time. 物の哀れ is famous for being the aesthetic heart of the Japanese literary classic The Tale of Genji*. Nirav, who was kind enough to educate me, since I've never formally studied Japanese literature, said that it was like the beauty of a sunset that reminds you that another day is ending, or the beauty of the fireflies who will light up the night for a few brief weeks and then pass away into the Grave of the Fireflies. Rikai-chan, who is smarter than me, translates 物の哀れ as an "appreciation of the fleeting nature of beauty," but I like to think of it as a little bit deeper than that. I define it as having to do with the existential sadness of being, with kind of a melancholy appreciation of the value of life due to an understanding of its transitory nature. Can you see how this concept might be deeply, deeply rooted in the Japanese psyche even to this day? No? Click here, and then read on to see why we're talking about this in relation to today's yoji: 諸行無常

Definition:
生きていることは、儚いこと。この世のいっさいの現象は常に変化・消滅して絶えない形容。
Translations:
1. The impermanence of worldly things
2. The transitory nature of life

Much as the concept of 物の哀れ was given a voice in The Tale of Genji, 諸行無常 has it's place in the opening lines of the Tale of the Heike, which tells the story of the Genpei war.

The Genpei war was fought at the end of the 12th century, between the Taira and Minamoto clans, which are also referred to as the Heike and Genji clans, respectively. Does this sound familiar to any one yet? The Original Tale of the Heike, collected in the late 1300s, has been retold and re-imagined many times, providing inspiration for manga, woodblock art, and most recently, the Miike Takashi film, Sukiyaki Western Django, which I watched last week. It features an all Japanese cast who recite their lines in English, to a very interesting effect, and it transports the feud between the clans to a place claims to be Nevada, but is clearly not. In it, Quentin Tarantino actually recites, in a bizarre narrative voice, the first lines of the book, which go something like this:

祗園精舎の鐘の声、諸行無常の響きあり。娑羅双樹の花の色、盛者必衰の理をあらわす。
おごれる人も久しからず、唯春の夜の夢のごとし。たけき者も遂にはほろびぬ、偏に風の前の塵に同じ。

The sound of the Gion Shōja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind.
-trans. Helen Craig McCullough

Those lines alone are enough to make me want to read the whole thing. There's another yoji buried in there, for those of you who noticed, but I'll leave it alone today because this post is dense enough.

For those of you who made it this far, know that any of this knowledge and vocab will earn you MAJOR えらい points, but if that's not enough of a reward for putting up with my ramblings, I'll also give you this small piece of advice.:

This is 紅音ほたる. She's an actress of sorts. She's also the reason that you don't EVER, EVER want to do an unfiltered Google Image search for ほたる (firefly) from your computer at work, unless you want to be reminded of the transitory and impermanent nature of having a job as a school teacher, and the fleeting beauty of receiving a paycheck. Yikes.

Notes:

• Articles on the Genpei war, the Taira and Minamoto Clans (and alternate readings of their names) all come from Wikipedia, where you too can read about them.
• Sukiyaki Western Django hasn't yet been released in the US yet, but you can probably find a DVD rip from the Japanese copy, as it's already out here. It's filmed in English, but when we watched it, we had to rely on the Japanese subtitles to understand what they were saying sometimes, so try to get those too.
• If you're going to immediately search for that girl in Google images, as I assume all of our male readers will, search in hiragana. Both ホタル and 蛍 searches will get you... pictures of fireflies.
  

例文:　Fireflyの短い寿命は諸行無常を感じさせる。Joss Whedonはまだ生きていてよかった。
The short lifespan of Firefly really makes you reflect on the impermanence of things. I'm just glad that Joss Whedon is still alive.

*Though The Tale of Genji was written in the Heian Period, the idea of 物の哀れ didn't find itself popularized until Motoori Norinaga articulated it in his definitive criticism of Genji during the Edo period.

半信半疑

はんしん　はんぎ
hanshin hangi

The kanji say it all. Half-faith, half doubt. This yo-ji is attached to です、or で and though it starts with faith, it seems to just boil down to a matter of doubt. .

Definition:
本当かどうか信じ切れないようす。真偽の判断に迷うこと。
Translations:
1. Unsure of what to believe.
2. Half-convinced; half-doubtful
3. To be skeptical.

Most of the online examples I've found are situations that we would translate simply as 'doubt' or 'skepticism:'

半信半疑だけど、やってみる。
I don't know if I can do it, but I'm gonna try.


誰々の年齢が半信半疑です。
to be in disbelief regarding so and so's age.

まずはじめて医者にかかるときは、半信半疑、つまり半分は不信の感をもってよいと思います。
When you first get diagnosed by a doctor, take it with a grain of salt because... it's better to critically evaluate things... *

Learning this one makes me wish I had a transcript of some of the lessons we heard at the zazen retreat in Oita, because I'm sure that the Reverend Paul must have used it when he said the Japanese version of this: "You'll know that you'll be able to learn from a Buddhist teacher if you can do two things: Accept and believe everything he says as absolutely true without exception and also, immediately reject everything he says as bullshit, without exception." Sounds like a super literal version of 半信半疑 to me.

例文：あなたは遅刻した理由は半信半疑です。本当にお化けカニに攻撃されたの？
Your reason for being late makes me incredulous. Were you really attacked by a freaky demon crab?
(If so you should attack his weak point for massive damage.)



*(Okay... just a quick and WAY overdue note about my translations: They can probably be translated better. I tend to try and capture the sentiment instead of what is literally being said. I don't know if that makes me a good translator or a bad one, but I'm sure that if you were to RE-cast my translated English into Japanese, they wouldn't come out the same. A more literal translation of that doctor statement would be "When you first get diagnosed by a doctor, be half convinced and half doubtful, because it's better to have a skeptical feeling, I think.")