From: kishik@parkcity.ne.jp   
      
   Toripan vol.11   
      
   by Tori-no-Nanko   
   published by Koudansha   
   ISBN978-4-06-337727-9   
   600 yen (sans tax)   
      
   Toripan [Bird's bread] sometimes reminds me of "Makura-no-soushi"   
   [pillow book] that is an essay a noble woman Sei-Shonagon wrote   
   more than 1,000 years ago. Sei-Shonagon wrote down what she saw   
   and thought about nature of Japan and the daily life and a variety   
   of events in the Heian imperial court with her rich sense of beauty   
   and her intelligent observation that is cynical at times. We can   
   also find her deep respect and love for her master Empress Teishi.   
   The book begins with the following famous sentenses.   
      
   "Haru wa akebono. Youyou shirokunariyuku,   
   yamagiwa sukoshi akarite, murasakidachitaru   
   kumo no hosoku tanabikitaru."   
      
   [In spring, daybreak. It's gradually becoming lighter.   
   The mountain ridge appeares in weak light. Clouds painted   
   in purple are lying expanding thinly in the sky.]   
      
   The delicate sense of beauty still remains in the basis of   
   contemporary Japanese mentality. The author of Toripan is not   
   an exception. She has been drawing nature of Japan by observing   
   mainly wild birds for which she feeds crums of bread and other   
   food. She begins volume 11 of Toripan with her thought of the   
   smell of winter.   
      
   "What's the smell of winter?   
   In the empty sky   
   only clouds add their density.   
   Carbon dioxide, frozen, cold and heavy one   
   feels like the smell of winter, somewhat.   
   When insects and birds stop breathing   
   the winter begins."   
      
   That implies it's the smell of lifelessness. It's symbolic.   
   Because the last two chapters of the volume is about the   
   earthquake. She lives in a town in Tohoku far from the sea   
   and seems to have got only a minor damage by the earthquake   
   according to the manga. The town lost the electricity. Even   
   the water and gas supply were alive, she was alone in the dark   
   and realized that the convenient civilized life was superficial   
   like a thin glass tank for goldfish. In the small tank, her   
   goldfishes were freezing and dying with a heater and a water   
   circulation pump stopped. She moved them to the bathtab to   
   survive.   
      
   Two and half days after the quake, when the electricity   
   recovered in her town, she saw the news about the severe   
   damage of the disaster on TV the first time. It's like a bad   
   dream to her. Her town returned to normal gradually while   
   nothing has ever affected to the daily life of wild birds.   
   She envied the birds that have nothing to lose. She asks   
   herself:   
      
   "Is it our weakness to confine in an artificial world   
   totally different from of the birds?"   
      
   Still, people try to accomplish their own role to recover   
   the normal life.   
      
   She concluded:   
      
   "I will draw the ordinary daily life. The good memories   
   of the lost town. The sky, the mountains and even the sea.   
   Independent of our strength or weakness, the world is always   
   beautiful. To draw such things is my role, I think."   
      
   P.S.   
   Most of the birds in the manga series can be found in the   
   Inokashira Park. It takes 5 minutes from the Kichijyoji   
   station by foot. The Ghibli museum is in the south end   
   of the park. If you are lucky, even Aogera, a colorful   
   woodpecker, could be in your sight.   
      
   --   
       / Ishikawa Kazuo /   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)