The 30th Installment: From Imogayu to Mochi, Driven by the Desire for Rice — The Gaze Toward Humanity Reflected by Akutagawa and Doraemon

Since ancient times, the Japanese people have cultivated rice.

The work of growing rice is the foundation of life and culture.
Growing rice was driven by the desire to stabilize daily life.

Taking such everyday rice as a raw material, they'Imogayu' or 'mochi' (rice cakes).
Theywish to 'eat until they are full.'

This is not merely a matter of satisfying hunger.

It is the very human impulse to want to devour something extraordinary as if it were ordinary, just as one's desires dictate.

And perhaps, that is a manifestation of the heart's desire to 'be special.'

But being special is not that simple.
It requires corresponding effort.

Today, I would like to think aboutdesire and its fulfillmentthrough one such panel.

Alright, if it comes to this, let's make it from glutinous rice.

Nobita and Doraemon, who wished for more mochi than they were given.
Driven by the intensity of their hunger, they take out the secret gadget, the 'Mochi Maker.'
However, to make mochi, they needed the raw material: 'glutinous rice.'

Even after being turned down by Mom when they asked for glutinous rice, the two could not give up, saying,
'Alright, if it comes to this, let's make it from glutinous rice!'

Saying this, they turn the tatami mats into a rice field and start from planting the rice.

This panel captures the determination to take on the time-consuming and laborious struggle just to satisfy one's own desires. In true gag manga fashion, it is foolish and comical. Yet, at the same time, it seems to possess a human-like endearment.

Furthermore, from this panel, one can also sense a different perspective: 'Instead of just being a consumer, one should become a producer.'... That is also an interesting theme, but I would like to set it aside for now.

Saturated desire, 259 pieces of mochi

To satisfy their desire, they started from planting rice, endured the heat and typhoons, even exterminated locusts, and finally, Doraemon and Nobita obtained a massive amount of mochi.

As a result, they succeeded in creating a huge quantity of mochi.

The joy is short-lived.
They realize that the amount of mochi they can produce is only 259 more.
If they split that between the two of them, it comes out to 130 and 129.
And so, they end up fighting again over that single-piece difference, and the story ends.

If you think about it calmly, even the smaller portion of 129 pieces of mochi isfundamentally impossible to finish.

For example, if you were to eat three pieces of mochi three times a day, 129 pieces would take a little over 14 days. You would surely get tired of them, and besides, freshly pounded mochi doesn't last that long. The deliciousness would be lost as well.

However, because it is a product obtained through much hardship, a feeling of "not wanting to give it up" takes root.

It is also the moment when the effort to satisfy a desire conversely creates new desires and attachments.

What Mr. F's gaze reflects is that"contradiction of humans who, even when satisfied, remain unsatisfied."

Resonance with "Yam Porridge"

I feel that this perspective is also connected to Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "Yam Porridge," which I quoted at the beginning.

Akutagawa-sensei once said something to the effect that people sometimes dedicate their entire lives to a desire they are not even sure they can satisfy.

And it is easy to laugh at that figure as foolish. Perhaps the reason we mock those who run after their desires by calling them fools is actually because we are not being faithful to our own desires.

In fact, Akutagawa-sensei writes the following immediately after the opening passage.

The gazes of Akutagawa-sensei and Mr. F overlap here.

When depicting human desire, what both authors share is a gaze that says,"It is foolish, yet lovable."

While they frame it in a way that allows the reader to laugh, at the root lies a deep, affectionate gaze.

In other words, one could say that human desire isso irrational that it makes you laugh, yet that very irrationality is what makes humans human.

In fact, in the story, getting tired of the yam porridge before even eating it is an expression of that laughable irrationality.

What about myself?

Up to this point, I have looked at human desire and its foolishness through the gazes of Akutagawa-sensei and Mr. F. But what I want to pause and consider is the question,

"What about myself?"

Am I faithful to my desires?

Or perhaps, have you laughed somewhere, thinking 'that is foolish,' and ended up standing by the roadside?

Or maybe you comfort your heart by insulting and mocking those who are faithful to their desires.
You might even be doing that.

For humans, having desires is irrational, comical, ugly, and sometimes endearing.
Even so, it is nothing other than that desire that drives my life.

That is precisely why the desires I hold now are also,
I suppose, proof of being human.

There are desires that can be fulfilled, and desires that cannot.
There are desires born from things that were not fulfilled, and desires newly born from things that were.

No matter how irrational it may be, as long as you are alive, desires will never cease.

In other words, people cannot escape from desire.
If you cannot escape, it is only a matter of how you coexist with it.

Coexisting with that irrational desire might be my own desire.
And that, surely, is a desire that will never be fulfilled, and perhaps a desire to keep hoping that it will be.

Furthermore, one could say that I am satisfied even before it is fulfilled, and I feel like some problem would arise if it were actually fulfilled.

As expected, I myself am also within the same structure.

I have desires, am sometimes swayed by them, and sometimes live while using them as fuel.

How do I accept that, and how do I choose?
I feel that the path I walk only exists beyond that.

Summary

Akutagawa-sensei.

F-sensei.

This time, I too have drifted through the universe contained within this single panel.
There is so much I do not understand. I might even say I am completely clueless.

As expected, both senseis are amazing.

By the way, what do you think?
Are you living faithfully to your desires, or otherwise?

I think I will try to be a little more honest with my desires.
Even if it is something like growing sticky rice on a tatami mat, where I do not know if it will come true, I want to wish for it.

So, if you would like, let us talk again by this roadside about such a panel.

#Doraemon
#FujikoF Fujio
#Ryunosuke Akutagawa
#Yam Porridge
#Desire
#Doraemon Analysis
#A Panel in F-sensei's Universe
#Sticky Rice
#Tatami Rice Field
#Foolishness
#Human Observation
#Humanity
#Literature and Manga
#Roadside
#Writing for Thinking