Hi, I wrote the recent diary, “Japanese Mind- Story of the Crane”, and I am very happy for all of your warm responses, and putting me in Community Spotlight and Rec List. I am so grateful for all the comments, I learned a lot from them.
In my first diary, I talked about the Japanese lady who had her first baby. She didn’t want her husband to witness the childbirth, and made him promise, but the promise was broken. Now she wants a divorce.
I compared this story to Japanese folk tale called Tsuru no Ongaeshi (鶴の恩返し)The Crane Returns the Favor".
The wife didn’t want her husband to see her when she was most naked, meaning her true form, the crane.
She made him promise, but the promise was broken.
She left him forever.
I wrote,
“I think in Japan something needs to be secret all the time.”
I thought this might be a key to the Japanese mind.
In the comments I got, I realize some of you thought I was criticizing the wife for feeling betrayed because of disrespect for her boundary and breaching the promise.
Worst of all, I didn't want you all to think I am saying Japanese would be unique in this.
So I thought about it again. The point I really wanted to make was:
“You must pretend nothing goes on, when clearly something is going on.”
Because when I encountered the wife's question on the website, what made me most uneasy was that she was talking to total strangers, when she should have talked to her husband.
I’d like to quote a different story, the story about King Midas, but not the one most famous in the west about the gold, but the one about the ass's ears. I think this story shows my point better.
Follow me below the origami spaghetti.
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