Ryota Sakamoto (Field Medicine)
When I was a child, my mother always read picture books to my sister and me before we went to sleep. Even when I was in elementary school, I was often taken to the library, where I chose books eagerly. Because the number of books I could borrow at one time was limited, I had to weigh my options, comparing titles, illustrations, characters, and synopses. I must admit that although I liked searching for books, I cannot say that I liked reading them. In junior high school, I forgot about an assignment on Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata until just before the deadline because I was too busy playing during the school break. I submitted a rambling essay only on the opening sentence of the book: “The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country.” I was scolded by my mild-mannered teacher, who usually did not get angry even when students fall asleep in class. I had betrayed the expectations of the teacher, who had been emphasizing the beauty of Japan depicted in the novel.
Although, given this history, I am not the kind of person who can proudly introduce a book, please allow me to reminisce about a few here. These are: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and The Kantaro Terauchi Family by Kuniko Mukouda. Some may say that these well-known books need no introduction. As you know, in the climax of the first book, Tom Sawyer witnesses a horrific incident in a cemetery in the middle of the night and searches for gold coins in a cave, but those are not my favorite scenes. Rather, it is the casual daily life of Tom, who runs away from home and the watchful eye of Aunt Polly in St. Petersburg, where the Mississippi River flows—playing pranks with Huck, debating how to remove warts or negotiating an exchange between a tick and an extracted tooth, and his desperation to attract Becky’s attention—that remains with me. The same applies to Anne of Green Gables. Talkative and imaginative Anne grows up surrounded by Marilla, Matthew, Diana, Gilbert, and others. The book’s strength lies in its portrayal of Anne’s vivid days on Prince Edward Island with beautiful nature, similarly to The Kantaro Terauchi Family, which depicts the compassionate interactions between a stubborn father, his family, and neighbors in Taito Ward of Tokyo. The exchanges seem to be the kind that could be found anywhere, but they are humorous, heartwarming, and touching. The authors must have written the stories partly based on their own life experiences, expanding their imagination with excitement, which makes us happy to read them. In other words, these works were created because the authors lived in the real world as flesh and blood human beings.
My favorite books written by so-called scholars are also like that. For example, Nature and Mountains by Kinji Imanishi, Counting Spring by Toshitaka Hidaka, and King Solomon’s Ring by Konrad Lorenz. They are filled with simple questions felt in daily life and pursued with a spirit of inquiry, a playful mind, and a warm eye toward nature and living beings. It seems as if the authors of these books are having a lot of fun and enjoying themselves. I would like to write such books.
As I write this, the door to my room slams open and my eldest daughter bursts in, as she has received a message from her capable mother.
“Dad! You have to go to the dentist today, don’t you?”
“Yikes!”
“Mom! Dad says yikes!”
I did remember about the dentist until just a little while ago, but once I started writing, I completely forgot. In that sense, even I may become quite absorbed in work, like when I was writing a book about Bhutan. But no one has picked up my book off the bookshelf by the dining table, except for Dad. I suppose karma comes around. We must carry on! One by one.
At dusk on a still-hot summer day, I rattle the bicycle pedals and head for the dentist.
(Illustration: Atelier Epocha)
