There is no such bird as a duck and no such plant as a foxtail grass #WhatILearnedThisYear
That is a duck.
“No, Mom. There is no bird called a duck. That is a classification, and that bird is a tufted duck.”
My eldest son explains while opening a bird book with his gloved hands.
There is a saying that raising children is also raising parents, and there is so much that children teach us. This applies not only to the mental aspect but also to knowledge.
The creature my second son is carefully raising is a stag beetle, and when I say, “Let’s take care of the stag beetle,” he speaks up.
“No, Mom. It’s not a stag beetle; this one is a lesser stag beetle and this one is a Miyama stag beetle!”
I think to myself, what does it matter, but if I were to let that slip, he would lecture me, saying, “The lesser stag beetle and the Miyama stag beetle are completely different! First of all, their body sizes are different, and the shape of their mandibles is...” By the way, what stag beetles have are mandibles, and what grows from the head of a rhinoceros beetle is a horn. I have to be careful, because if I call a stag beetle’s mandibles a horn, I’ll get scolded again.
I have also become quite knowledgeable about types of cars and trains. Even when I am riding a train alone and looking out the window, I find myself proudly thinking, “Oh, a multiple tie tamper. Commonly known as a Marutai.” (*A vehicle used for track maintenance)
While out for a walk, I wave a foxtail grass around with my two-year-old third son, saying, “Foxtail grass. How cute.”
That’s when I suddenly wondered. Just as there is no bird called a duck, and no beetle called a stag beetle, is there no plant called a foxtail grass...?
Thinking this, I opened a plant encyclopedia after returning home.
“Foxtail grass, foxtail grass... Found it.”
【Foxtail grass -> Green foxtail】
It is said that the name Enokorogusa (green foxtail) comes from the fact that the flower spikes that appear from summer to autumn resemble a dog’s tail, which was originally called inukkorokusa (puppy grass). Even in kanji, it is written as “dog’s tail grass.” The common name nekojarashi (cat teaser) comes from the fact that when you wave the flower spike in a cat’s field of vision, the cat will pounce on it. Conversely, plants used to tease cats came to be called “play grass.”
This is interesting. This plant was originally a dog’s tail, but it seems to have changed to a cat’s nickname. Even though the shape of the plant hasn’t changed at all, it’s a nickname change from dog to cat. Either way, it’s cute.
—I'm glad I looked it up.
I hadn't opened an encyclopedia since I read them as a child, but since my children were born, the number of them in our house has steadily increased. When they ask, 'What's that?' or 'Why is this like that?', I found that I, as an adult, couldn't answer, so I realized that we should just look them up together.
Before long, I started to enjoy opening those encyclopedias. I learned that every single weed on the roadside has a name, that someone has researched them, and that each one has someone who named it. Just looking at a dinosaur encyclopedia is exciting, and the space encyclopedia is dizzyingly grand. There's the deep sea, which is as mysterious as space, and insects, which some even theorize came from space.
These are all deep, profound worlds that you wouldn't encounter just by walking down the street aimlessly. They are infinitely vast worlds you can't peek into just by washing the dishes.
I am sure I will continue to learn alongside my children. Together with my children, who absorb everything like sponges, I want to set my sponge down in the sink and peer into that world from the same perspective.
#WhatILearnedThisYear
▼ I have a special attachment to Kokugakuin University's themed projects because I have won awards in them in the past.
[Postscript]
This piece won an award in the #WhatILearnedThisYear contest.
▼ Also, here is more about cat-tail grass.
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