Chuck Palahniuk’s essay on summer memories (reminded me of trips to my “inaka” (family farm in Ibaraki prefecture) during the O-Bon holidays. The Bon Festival is a time to reconnect with friends and family, living and dead. The distance between life and death seems much shorter in Japan. As an adult, I let the five-year old son of my second cousin take me to visit the family cemetery across the street from their home in Ibaraki. As my second cousin conducted the ritual of pouring water on his grandparents’ grave stones, his son walked me around the small rough plot nestled in the forest. There were small headstones here and there. The headstones were of different ages and spanned hundreds of years. Some stones were covered with moss and barely recognizable as carved. Little Hiroshi took my hand and said, “That’s where great-grandpa is. That’s where grandma is. That’s where Dad will be,” then he pointed to a small empty space and said, “… and this is where I’ll be.”
Hiroshi was just beginning his life and yet, he already knew where he was going to end up. I felt none of the confidence this little boy had.
I remember the summer days as sweltering, noisy with the buzz of the cicadas, and smoky from the burning “katori senko” (mosquito repellent coils) set on the ground. The growing darkness of night seemed to only encourage us to take advantage of the slighter cooler part of the day. We went out. The lightning bugs near the house were magical in my eyes. The town streets were filled with people, all enjoying the lively scene. Dressed in summer shorts or Yukata, people chattered loudly. We stopped by food stalls selling “kaki koori” shaved ice topped with red beans or small pools where one could try to “fish” goldfish with a paper net. A favorite activity was to tell stories - ghost stories - to distract ourselves from the humidity and insects.
If you want to try this “Japanese air-conditioning”, here’s a collection of old ghost stories I recently published: Kwaidan, Japanese Ghost Stories and Insect Studies by Lafcadio Hearn. Earless Hoichi is one of many stories and some Insect Studies (including one of mosquitoes). Putting together this collection reminded me how much we have in common with people and insects from different times and places.