Miyo-ko's Sayings: "Nussai hottosu" (Fed up with the heat)
I have chronicled the life of Miyo-ko (my mother), who was born in a farming village in Kagoshima in Showa 5 (1930) and passed away this March (2025), as "The Showa Era That Had No Written Record." In addition, I have been writing down Miyo-ko's favorite phrases, impressive ways of speaking that I recall from time to time, and expressions as they come to mind in "Miyo-ko's Sayings" <340>.
The sweltering summer has begun again. Until a while ago, we used to describe it as a "scorching summer," but across all of Japan, it has gone beyond severe to a fierce heat. And I am reminded of Miyo-ko's favorite phrase.
"Nussai hottosu" (Fed up with the heat)
Breaking down "Nussai hottosu" gives us "nussa i hotto su," and when spoken slowly, it is "nukusa (heat) ni hotto suru." As usual, the Kagoshima dialect loves abbreviations, with "nukusa" becoming "nussa," the following particle becoming just a vowel, and the ending of "suru" becoming a glottal stop.
"Hottosu" is the act of sighing; one could say it expresses the feeling of wanting to sigh involuntarily through a verb. Even when I look up "hotto" in my favorite "Kagoshima Dialect Online Dictionary," only a few verbs or "broom" appear.
It doesn't seem like one of Miyo-ko's occasional "coined words," as the neighborhood ladies would also converse saying things like
"Nukka kochimakote hottosudonaa"
(I'm really fed up with how hot it is, aren't I?)
so there must have been a common understanding of the nuance and usage at the very least.
Thinking back to when I was at my parents' house. That was when Miyo-ko and her husband Tsugio (my father) were active, full-time farmers, and I was helping with farm work between school, during the mid-Showa 40s to early 50s. Even if we said it was hot, the maximum temperature didn't often exceed 30°C. In Kagoshima, that is. Temperatures like 35°C, which are common now, were stories from tropical countries.
Occasionally, news would appear on the newspaper or TV saying, "Many people died from a heatwave in India," and when dark-skinned Indians appeared on screen, I used to think that if it were a country where people got that dark, it must be very hot.
Eventually—perhaps a while after entering the Heisei era—temperatures in Japan began to rise during the summer. The opportunities for Miyo-ko and the others to say "hottosu" also increased.
Our house didn't have air conditioning (it was natural for many rural Japanese houses not to have one). When I returned home in the summer, Miyo-ko would sometimes say,
"Anmai nukka tokiya, touchan ga koori o koke ikkyatte, futai de komottaisutto"
(When it's really hot, Dad goes to buy ice, and we eat it together)
she would say.
Even so, Tsugio survived every summer of his life in a house without air conditioning, passing away in the early spring of Heisei 13 (2011). Miyo-ko, who was left behind, lived there alone for a few years, but since the house of her eldest son Kazuaki (my brother), where she started living together afterward, naturally had air conditioning, it was a blessing that she no longer had to endure the heat.
Now, in ordinary regions of Japan, and if things go poorly even in Hokkaido, heatstroke alert warnings are issued.
Every time I experience the dizzying heat of the day or the stifling heat at night, I mutter "hottosu" and think of the hardships of Miyo-ko and the others who continued—had to continue—working in the fields no matter how hot it was in the summer. After returning home, they would at most take a cold bath and cool off with the breeze of an electric fan. I am amazed and deeply grateful that they worked for decades in such a life.
<340> Past sayings include "Potatoes or anything else", "Hie (millet)", "Chinta", "It's money", "Drinking on an empty stomach", "You don't bite off dirt", "Gyut, gyut", "Don't live looking up, live looking down", "Shall I change it?", "Hinoko (sparks)", "Because I'm used to being free", "Uhagamanmeshi, konabenshui", "Shirokawa yofune (sleeping soundly)", "Home (praise)", "Kissowaro", "Nobu-chan is a good person, isn't she", "Hippo", "Nika", "Ginger is sensitive to cold", "Drunkard", "Nyukki nyukki", "Because we are the only two siblings", "It's not a made-up story", "Zorobit", "Tsurut", "Taguru (to reel in)", "Fuse (lie down)".