Miyoko-san's Sayings: "Fuse" (Patching)

I wrote about the life of Miyoko-san (my mother), who was born in a farming village in Kagoshima in the 5th year of Showa (1930) and passed away this March (2025), as "The Showa Era That Had No Written Record." In addition, I have been writing down Miyoko-san's favorite phrases, memorable ways of speaking that I recall from time to time, and expressions as "Miyoko-san's Sayings" whenever they come to mind <331>.

Following the previous entry (Taguru/To Pull), I remembered another one.

If you were to divide people into those who are stingy and those who are not, I think I am stingy. To put it nicely, I am the type who values things. It could be said that I inherited this modest way of living from Miyoko-san's generation, or perhaps even the generation before that.

I almost never buy trash bags just to throw them away. Fortunately, in the area where I live, they will collect trash even if it is not in a plastic bag sold as a "trash bag," as long as it is in a translucent bag, including plastic shopping bags.

It has been a long time since plastic shopping bags started costing money, but I still receive them during everyday shopping. I fold them up, keep them in my bag, and reuse them as eco-bags. I think I use them about 5 or 6 times, or maybe 10 if I'm lucky, but when they become unusable, I "downgrade" them to trash bags.

The criteria for "downgrading" is the moment they develop a hole or tear and can no longer serve as a shopping bag. The same applies if they get too dirty.

Now, the other day, when I noticed that a plastic shopping bag had a small vertical tear, Miyoko-san's voice echoed in my brain.
"If you 'fuse' (patch) it, can't you still use it?"
(If you put a patch on it, can't you still use it?)

The Kagoshima dialect word "fuse" originally refers to putting a patch on torn clothing. From there, it is also used somewhat humorously to refer to covering holes in other objects. For example, when covering a hole in a shoji screen with a small piece of shoji paper (or another type of paper).

That's right. If a plastic shopping bag only has a small hole, I can just cover it with cellophane tape and use it as a shopping bag for a while longer.

According to my favorite "Kagoshima Dialect Online Dictionary," "fuse" means "repair, mending, patching," and the etymology is said to be "fuse" (to lay over). It seems to refer to the act of "laying" a scrap of fabric over a tear in clothing and sewing it on.

"Fuse," or in other words, "patching" or "mending," was a common part of daily life until the middle of the Showa era. It must have been a common sight not only in the farming village in Kagoshima where Miyoko-san was an active housewife, but in households of ordinary people all over Japan. Eventually, all of Japan became imbued with the idea that "consumption is a virtue," and as people began to think that it was a cooler lifestyle to buy nice-looking new items rather than repeatedly and carefully using what they had, both "mending" and "fuse" disappeared from daily life. Of course, that was an act of spending money, and it was also a trade-off for how to earn cash income.

Even so, Miyoko-san was hesitant to use new clothes for field work (clothes for farm work) that would get dirty immediately, and her husband Tsuneo (my father) was the same. They would wear old shirts and the like, saying "they'll get dirty anyway," and when they got damaged—since they were old to begin with, they would get damaged quickly—they would "fuse" them and keep using them. Not just in the Showa era, but even after entering the Heisei era, the clothes the couple wore for farm work often had "fuse" on them.

As a daughter who would return home occasionally, that was a little embarrassing to my eyes, but watching the stitches of Miyoko-san's "fuse" become increasingly rough as she grew older was even harder to bear. Even so, if I bought her new work clothes,
"It's a waste. I have to wear it for something (special)."
(It's a waste. I should save it for a special occasion.)
I knew she would just put them away without wearing them.

So, I would occasionally pick up a needle and thread and help her with the "fuse."
"There's a pile of things that need to be patched, you know. I just can't get around to doing it right away."
(There are things that need to be mended piling up. I just can't bring myself to act on it immediately.)
She would always say that.

Having inherited the DNA of Miyoko-san (and Tsuneo), I am also a thrifty person. I don't think there are many people who would go as far as to "fuse" a plastic shopping bag to use it repeatedly. Moreover, I even reuse the cellophane tape used for "fuse" by carefully peeling off the tape that shop clerks used to seal the plastic bags when I bought side dishes, and sticking it to the kitchen counter.

While "fusing" a plastic shopping bag with reused tape, I talk to Miyoko-san in heaven.
"Mom, look. Aren't I being more thorough than you guys?"
(Mom, look. Aren't I being more thorough than you were?)
I feel a little proud.

<331> Past sayings include "Even potatoes and everything else", "Hie (millet)", "Chinta (a little bit)", "It's money", "Drinking on an empty stomach", "You don't just bite and kill the dirt", "Squeeze, squeeze", "Don't live looking up, live looking down", "Shall I change it?", "Hinoko (sparks)", "Because I'm used to being free", "Uhagamanmeshi, konabenshui (a local phrase)", "Shirakawa Yofune (sleeping soundly)", "Praise", "Kissowaro (how funny)", "Nobu-chan is a good person, isn't she", "Hippo", "Nika (a smile)", "Ginger is sensitive to cold", "Drunkard", "Nyukki nyukki (sprouting up)", "Because we are the only two siblings", "It's not a made-up story", "Zorobi (dragging)", "Tsuru (slippery)", "Taguru (to pull)".

《Reference》Kagoshima Dialect Online Dictionary > Fuse