back to the basics

With so many things to talk about and very little talent, I have been thinking of new ways to introduce Japan. Not only the things I know of well but also the things that I have taken for granted.   Something I can work on for a week or two in between my usual rants...

So, I thought, why not go back to the basics…the “abc” or, like it is said in Japanese, the “i-ro-ha”.

If you have tried to learn the Japanese language before, then you might be thinking…”i-ro-ha?”.

The first three characters (letters) in the Japanese alphabet are “a-i-u”… but in the Heian Period (794-1185) somebody thought of a new way to teach *hiragana and the meaning of a Buddhist chant all in one poem… the “i-ro-ha”.


It is: 

i ro ha ni ho he to chi ri nu ru wo
wa ka yo ta re so tsu ne na ra mu
u i no o ku ya ma ke fu ko he te
a sa ki yu me mi shi e hi mo se su n

I bet there are tons of great translations out there but since this is a learning experience for me as well, this is my own literal interpretation...

Colorful flowers smell fragrant but they fall
Our lives are also not forever
Climbing over the fateful reality of the mountains
I will not watch shortsighted dreams or be intoxicated

Japanese literature aficionados must be cringing now but feel free to add your own translation! ;-)

Oh, and it is also said that there is a secret message inside the poem…but let me try not to bite off more than I can chew at one time.

So, I will soon start my “i-ro-ha” of Japan. Starting with the hiragana letter “i” (い).
I will introduce a word(s), people or things that start with each letter. Some of the things might be old and some new. You may know more about something than I do and I will not pretend to know more than I write so feel free to comment!

A new page in my blog opens...

with "i-ro-ha" and my very bad handwriting...
(the 2 letters with the red arrows pointing at them are not used very often anymore but sometimes appear in names and poems, like the "i-ro-ha")

*The Japanese letters hiragana (a phonetic alphabet) appears during the Heian Period, making the written Japanese language more accessible to a wider audience (Instead of just the high ranking officials and monks). They were designed from the Chinese characters being used until then. 
Of course we still use a lot of the Chinese characters (kanji) now but thanks to hiragana and katakana (another form of phonetic alphabet used exclusively for foreign words or onomatopoeia) it is much easier to read and write Japanese once you have learned the basics.