When Macbeth doubts that he should murder King Duncan he muses that,
"He hath honored me of late, and I have bought / Golden opinions from all sorts of people..."
The phrase "all sorts of people" can be translated into Japanese like this:
あらゆる種類の人々 - "Arayuru shurui no hitobito."
Shurui = 種類 = "sort, type, variety."
It is the second of those two characters, "RUI" 類, that is used for the "RU" card in my dime-store Iroha Karuta deck.
A New Sort Of Human
The post-war generation of Japanese who came of age in the 1970s were known as "ShinJinRui" - 新人類 - "new breed of humans" because they had not been through the War like the older generations. They had not had to work hard and make personal sacrifices to rebuild Japan. Instead, they enjoyed the growing prosperity of the post-war boom and the bubble economy.
One of my regrets is that I did not come to Japan immediately after graduating from University. I got here in 1990, the year after the bubble burst! But that is another story.
With the new prosperity came opportunities to enjoy new pursuits, new hobbies and new activities. In the illustration of the "RU" card we can see three happy chaps clearly having a good time. They are united by a common interest, which is expressed by the proverb,
類をもって集まる - "Rui wo motte atsumaru"
Here, "RUI" means "sort" or "type" in the sense of "similarity" or "thing in common." So "Rui wo motte" = "similarity" [object marker] "having," that is, "Those who have something in common..."
The second part of the proverb tells us what "those who have something in common" do: 集まる - "atsumaru" - get together.
In other words, people who share common interests gather together, or similar sorts of people gather together. This is best illustrated by the English proverb,
"Birds of a feather flock together."
So what is the common interest that has brought our three happy chappies together in the illustration for this karuta?
An Anorak of Trainspotters
The text at the top of the card tells us what it is all about:
鉄道の会 - "Tetsudou no Ai" = "Railway Association"
Perhaps they are railway employees out on a bender, but the camera suggests to me that they are trainspotters.
Emblazoned on the train-spotters' shirts are three types of train or rail service:
- 新幹線 - Shinkansen = Bullet Train
- 私鉄 - Shitetsu = Private Railway
- SL = Steam Locomotive
So there you have it, a gathering of trainspotters, to illustrate one of the good old proverbs for the eleventh card in the Iroha Karuta series. By the way, I blogged about a different proverb for this karuta here:
@hirohurl/iroha-karuta-11-1-lapis-lazuli-and-crystal-will-both-shine-in-the-light
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
P. S. Rather like Macbeth, the Japanese Bullet Train has "bought golden opinions from all sorts of people" over the years. So punctual are the trains that people in other countries tend to imagine that ALL Japanese trains are always on time. That is certainly not the case, but today even the Bullet Trains were delayed due to heavy snow around Nagoya.