ROPPARATANDAI [Another World in the Subconscious]

In my previous post, "Te｜Kin｜Kon｜Kuriito" (Reinforced Concrete), I wrote about the poet Sakutaro Hagiwara, who became obsessively fixated on a certain word.

As a sort of continuation of that, has this ever happened to you?
(Rhetorical question: No, it must have happened...)

For example, during class, when you are generally tense and have no time to laugh or feel suspicious on the spot, and you are in a situation where you simply have to input the words you are being taught from your ears into your brain.

Naturally, a boring class that makes you yawn.
(After all, the person teaching is repeating the same things all day long, so there is no emotion in it.)

A class in the early afternoon when the oxygen in the classroom has become thin and hemoglobin is no longer circulating properly to the brain.
Yes, Japanese history.

There, for example,

Rokuhara Tandai

when a term like that came up, did you ever feel that sensation of not knowing what to do?

A strange sense of discomfort.
And it was something you absolutely could not let show on your face to your classmates or, of course, the teacher... yet you felt like you might suddenly burst out laughing...
That kind of feeling,

That feeling of "Give me a break with the jokes"...

Huh?
You don't have it? 💦

"Rokuhara Tandai"

is likely the correct reading, but even while knowing that, in my head I was reciting it as

"Roppara Tandai"

with such a crisp sound.

What a crisp sound it has.

Isn't the sound "Roppara" sharp enough to make spit fly?
On top of that, the word "Tandai" follows, which sounds so venerable and mysterious.

Doesn't it make you accidentally nod in deep agreement, saying "So that's what it is"?
What on earth is a Tandai anyway?

In this way, isn't "Rokuhara Tandai" a truly beautiful phrase?

There, a different kind of scenery from the "meaning/answer" required for entrance exams is instantly input into the mind.

Like, when the gates of that government office (Tandai) open, brilliant light pours in, and you can travel back and forth to the Rokuhara of modern-day Kyoto.

Anyone who thinks that is "absurd" is a poor soul.
Because his "Rokuhara Tandai" is nothing more than the literal "local agency established in Rokuhara, Kyoto by the Kamakura Shogunate for the purpose of monitoring the Imperial Court."

In fact, this was also connected to "Oshio Heihachiro," who would appear later in the early modern Edo period.

This one, as everyone feels, was less about the beauty of the words and more about being salty.
A fun Japanese history teacher,

"Oshio Peppachiro"

I was deeply impressed by how he emphasized the 'pe' sounds and literally added foam to the corners of his mouth while spitting as he said it.
I was unconsciously led to believe that the person who lights the fire of the rice riots is not a person with the quiet name of "Heihachiro," but rather, it must be the salty general Peppachiro, not Pepper Lunch after all.

────So, what about it?

Yeah, it seems trivial, doesn't it?
However, my friend, I don't intend to waste time on just a trivial story.

What I want to emphasize is,

Through various events in our daily lives, are we actually forming another world in our subconscious, beneath the surface, and living there at the same time as the everyday real world? That is what I mean.

────Is that what you call a parallel world?

Yes, even without using such grand words, individuals construct double images with their own unique sensibilities.
No, everyone is doing that kind of work day and night, but as I touched upon briefly earlier, for some reason they want to hide it.

(It's not that I feel guilty, but isn't it abnormal for me to perceive things that way?)

I don't want others to know.
It's embarrassing.
I won't speak of it.

Therefore, this remains buried as a highly private phenomenon for each person.
That is why the existence of "another world" is never brought to light, but perhaps the instances where it leaks out somewhere by chance are what we call "parallel worlds."

That is what I think, my friend.

Isn't it possible that the world changes more easily than one might expect?

I think I was about 15 or 16 years old.
I strangely remember, even half a century later, a precocious friend who loved literature suddenly saying this about a poem he had written himself.

"I wrote 'sogen' (grassland), but in this case, I want you to read it as 'kusahara' (meadow)."

I see, if you read it as 'kusahara,' the expression changes to something softer, doesn't it?
What's more, the scenery, the air, and even the light are different.
The person living in that different world is probably not the same as the one in the original world.

Appendix 1

Another world that operates in the subconscious.
Let us take a look at a different kind of scenery around the Rokuhara Tandai area below.

Appendix 2

Or perhaps the ticket to a world that exists in parallel with the world here and now is that very phrase (talisman) that gives you a jolt.
That will likely differ from person to person, and will likely be diverse.

The content of those words does not make much sense.
What is important is the 'sound,' but the criteria for judgment is not simply that the sound is strange or wonderful.
Also, for example, as in the case of
Ogyu Sorai | Somin Shorai
below, there are some that seem completely unrelated but have similarities.

Here, I have listed several words (nouns) as examples, but a vast number of words organically connect with each other to form their own unique worlds.

Once again, why don't you take a peek at another world created by words that you are building in your own subconscious?

Soyochō (Tax system)

Sakimori (Border guards)

Kan no Wa no Na no Kokuō (King of Na of Wa of Han)

Danton, Marat, Robespierre

Boccaccio's 'Decameron'

Nuhi (Slaves)

Wadōkaichin (Currency)

Ogyū Sorai

Somin Shorai

Soga no Umako

Ganjin

Emishi

Kebiiishi (Police and judicial officials)

...

Afterword

There are probably some who would think this way.
"With that kind of attitude, you're surely not paying attention in class and are bound to fail."
"That's why you never really listen to anything I say, only taking it half-seriously."

Well, I think so too.