[LAW Document 72 Hours] Play Seeds
There are many kinds of seeds, aren't there?
I wonder if there is any seed as fun as this one (^^♪
"Play seeds"
refers to playmates or materials for play.
In this case,
"seed"
is read as
"kusa"
making it
"asobigusa"
(play grass/play material).
For children in the old days, play meant:
- Climbing trees
- Sword fighting with tree branches
- Weaving wildflowers to make necklaces and crowns
- Pretending to cook with grass
Nature was truly a treasure chest of play.
Children, who are geniuses at play, could turn anything into a toy, couldn't they?
■ Etymology of play
"Asobi" (play)
is
"Ashii"
which comes from the etymology of walking to and worshipping at the place of a god who helps people.
"To enjoy"
written as
"asobu"
was read that way because originally
"play"
was something meant to entertain gods and spirits.
Using musical instruments to sing and dance
"Kagura"
is what represents this.
Calling a traveling monk
"Yugyo Shonin"
also seems to have originally come from
"ashii"
but perhaps it was because they appeared to be doing nothing and just wandering around.
The meaning of such
"play"
and, furthermore,
"Ways of playing"
have unfortunately changed little by little over time.
"A child's job is to play"
is what people in the past used to say.
Small seeds reside within the small hearts and bodies of children.
Those seeds are nurtured through play, and in time, they each bloom into their own flowers.
Learn from children.
Adults should also play happily.
If you wake the seeds that are still sleeping,
perhaps, beautiful flowers might bloom, don't you think? (^^)
■ Multiplication Table Games in the Manyoshu
It seems that the multiplication table was already common knowledge in the era of the Manyoshu.
First, in a poem by Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, a representative poet of this era, praising Prince Naga who went out hunting, there is a line:
十六社者 伊波比拝目 (Manyoshu 3:239)
"Sixteen"
is written,
"shishi (four times four)"
is read,
"deer"
and
"boar"
There is a passage that reads that even the animals revere the prince.
Also, similar usage appears in other poems,
Imetachi Jurokumachi-jo (Manyoshu 13/3278)
"Juroku" (sixteen)
is, after all,
"deer"
and
"boar"
meaning to hide in the hunting blind and lie in wait for deer and boars...
Of course,
"Juroku (shishi)"
is not the only one; in
Mino no kuni no takakita no yasojiri no miya ni (Manyoshu 13/3242)
in this,
"Mino"
is
"Mino" (province),
"Yasojiri"
is
"Kukuri"
It is read as "Kukuri" and apparently refers to the present-day Kukuri, Kani City, Gifu Prefecture.
"Eighty-one"
written as
"Nine times nine"
and read as such.
It is interesting that wordplay using multiplication tables is scattered throughout the Manyoshu (^^)
Although this is a topic from over ten years ago, it seems that wooden tablets used for practicing multiplication tables were found at the Heijo-kyo palace site,
・Wooden tablets confirming the introduction of multiplication tables from China unearthed at the Heijo Palace site (Nikkei Shimbun, December 3, 2010)
It is amazing that the practice of memorizing multiplication tables has continued for over a thousand years.
■ Zhuangzi: "Wander in the infinite, let your heart wander in heaven!"
Regarding "wandering" (yu), Zhuangzi also spoke as follows:
"Those who ride on the truth of heaven and earth, control the changes of the six vital energies, and thus wander in the infinite—what do they have to wait for?" (Chapter: Free and Easy Wandering)
Those who entrust themselves to the changes of nature and wander the world without end can live without being bound by anything. (*Six vital energies: changes of nature; Infinite: boundless)
"Ride on things, let your heart wander, and entrust yourself to what is inevitable to nourish your inner self." (Chapter: In the World of Men)
Accepting things as they are is the best way to live.
"If there is no heavenly wandering in the heart, the six senses will be in chaos." (Chapter: External Things)
If there is no ease in your heart, all your senses will be thrown into confusion. (*Six senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, heart, and knowledge)
“It happens by chance, and that is all. It is just so, and one does not know why it is so; this is called the Way.” (Qiwulun Chapter)
The “Way” lies in the chance encounters that occur when you surrender yourself to nature. (*Tekitama... by chance)
Our ancestors had already realized that the essence of life lies in the coincidences drawn to us by a playful heart. (^^;
■ A Forest of Stars and Seeds of Play
■ Play as the Origin of Culture
There is a song like this in the “Ryojin Hisho,” a collection of popular songs from the end of the Heian period.
“Ryojin Hisho: Beginner’s Classics Japanese Classics” (Kadokawa Sophia Bunko) by Emperor Go-Shirakawa (Author), Asako Ueki (Editor)
“Was I born to play?
Was I born to frolic?
When I hear the voices of children playing,
My own body begins to sway.”
There is an interpretation that this song,
where “play” (asobi)
refers to prostitutes (asobime), and
“frolic” (taware)
refers to (tahareme), suggests that a prostitute, inspired by the voices of children, laments the sinfulness of her own existence.
However, it is generally read as a song about the innocent loveliness of children.
This was a wish to catch a glimpse of light in the future of children,
Is it not, perhaps, "the thoughts of an adult"?
I am well aware that humans are not born solely to "play" or "frolic."
Humans are beings who must walk a much heavier, longer, and more painful path, but...
That is precisely why, at the loveliness and preciousness of children's voices as they play and frolic, our own bodies move along with them.
If we hear children singing, we want to sing along.
Is it not that kind of song?
Whether it was a parent or a courtesan who sang this song,
it contains the wish that children will grow up healthy without forgetting their innocent hearts for play.
And is it too cynical a view to think that it also contains the desire to hold onto the feelings of one's own childhood?
Here, the 18th-century German poet Friedrich von Schillermade an even more profound statement:
"Man only plays when he is in the full sense of the word a man, and he is only wholly a man when he plays."
And play can even lead to a Nobel Prize.
"The diagrams and everything else that later led to the Nobel Prize all started from calculations I began half in play, watching a wobbling plate." (From "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" Vol. 1, p. 311)
And,
Human beings,
"Play"and"frolic"
are not things we are born solely to do, I am well aware.
Humans are beings who must walk a much heavier, longer, and more painful path, but...That is precisely why, at the loveliness and preciousness of children's voices as they play and frolic, our own bodies move along with them.
If we hear children singing, we want to sing along.Is it not that kind of song?
Whether it was a parent or a courtesan who sang this song, it contains the wish that children will grow up healthy without forgetting their innocent hearts for play. And is it too cynical a view to think that it also contains the desire to hold onto the feelings of one's own childhood?
"Play"
is what cultural historian Huizinga turned into a field of study.
"Homo Ludens" means "playing man" in Japanese.
"The fact that play exists is a reason that constantly and repeatedly proves the supra-logical nature of the position we humans occupy in the universe." (p. 21)
He found the essence and significance of human existence in
"play,"
and argued,
"Human culture has arisen and developed in play, as play." (p. 21)
He argued that culture is born within play and is only culture because it is played.
"Play creates order.
Nay, play is order itself." (p. 35)
"Play binds things together and also releases them." (p. 36)
"Play is filled with the two noblest qualities that humans can recognize and express in various phenomena.
These are rhythm and harmony." (p. 36)
It was a series of arguments as if to say that play itself is the creator of the world, wasn't it?
But where does play begin, and where does it end?
I think it would be boorish to even think about such things.
"The 'fun' of play does not accept any analysis or any logical interpretation." (p. 19)
However, when you are so immersed in something that you lose track of the passage of time,
there, in that moment,
"Play"
exists, and
"the essence of life"
must surely exist as well.
And, those who have mastered that
"play" are
"sages"
—the perspective of the Dharma Temple is quite apt, isn't it? (^^♪
■ Huizinga and Caillois's definitions of "play"
If you trace the origins of human culture, everything leads back to "play."
These are the classic masterpieces that revealed this:
Huizinga's "Homo Ludens"
Roger Caillois's "Man, Play and Games"
Indeed.
▶ Huizinga's play
Huizinga identified the following five formal characteristics of play:
1. A free act (play that is commanded is not play)
2. A make-believe world (outside the bounds of ordinary life)
3. Possesses spatial and temporal limitations (it is performed and concludes within a set time and place)
4. Creating order (collapsing the moment the rules are violated)
5. Having secrets (enhancing appeal by creating small secrets)
▶ Roger Caillois's Play
Roger Caillois presented the following six points as the basic definition of play.
1. Free activity (not being forced)
2. Isolated activity (limited within a predetermined, clear space and time)
3. Uncertain activity (the game's progression must not be predetermined, nor the outcome known in advance.)
4. Unproductive activity (creating no property, wealth, or new elements of any kind. Aside from the transfer of ownership between players, it returns to the same state as at the start of the game.)
5. Regulated activity (activity that follows agreed-upon rules)
6. Fictitious activity (accompanied by a special awareness that it is a secondary reality, or clearly unreal, when contrasted with daily life)
▶ Play Lurking in Today's Society
It is said that the definition of play mentioned above is hidden within today's economic society.
- Following rules (Huizinga 4, Caillois 5)
- Competing freely (Huizinga 1, Caillois 1)
- Competition where the result can be predicted in advance is unfair, so the rules are reviewed (Caillois 4)
For example, the observation that communism failed or that modern China is disliked because they deviate from this definition of play is excellent.
■ The Japanese, Who Were Good at Play
"Homo Ludens"
is
"A person who plays"
was the meaning, wasn't it.
Huizinga
"the essence of humanity"
and
"reason for existence"
in
"play," and argued that culture is born within play and is only culture when it is played.
Furthermore, while introducing expressions of play from around the world, he also makes reference to the Japanese language.
It is noteworthy that there are expressions such as 'to study under a master' (literally 'to play under a master') and 'to travel in a land' (literally 'to play in a land'), which reminds one that the Latin word 'ludus,' meaning play, also carries the meaning of school.
(Omitted)
The Japanese aesthetic of tea ceremony is also something that is 'played.'
At a tea ceremony gathering, ceramic tea bowls are admired, and they are passed from hand to hand to the person in the next seat along with words of praise." (P85)
Come to think of it,
"mastering a path"
and
"playing"
are closely related.
For example, even in Buddhist terminology, according to the Kojien dictionary,
...
Yugyo: A monk traveling through various provinces for ascetic training.
Yuge: To behave freely according to one's heart.
There are words like these, and even at a tea ceremony,
"Focus on this very moment"
which carries the meaning of
"Yuge-zanmai" (total immersion in play/activity).
It is said that hanging scrolls with this Zen phrase are sometimes displayed.
Also,
"Asobu" (to play)
has its origins in
"Susabu" (to be wild/rough),
possessing not only Buddhist tranquility but also a sense of wildness.
For example,
"Basara"
is this sense of play, and Basara is also
"Kabuki" (eccentricity/daring),
which is also
"Kabuki"
the origin of.
Japanese people,
"Poor at playing"
It has been a long time since I was called that, but perhaps it is because I have neglected my own country's culture and traditions and focused too much on the West,
like a "canary that has forgotten how to sing."
Isn't that why?
I want to take another look at Japanese culture and really enjoy life to the fullest! That is what I am thinking (^^)