My father’s Buddhist memorial tablet

 Most Japanese have their funeral in the Buddhist way. After the funeral we make a Buddhist memorial tablet which is inscribed with the deceased person’s name, the posthumous Buddhist name and the date of passing away. The middle tablet in the photo is a traditional wooden type. This is for my grandparents.

 Two years ago, my father passed away. I am not sure if I am a Buddhist or not, but I made a memorial tablet for my father from tempered glass, the right tablet in the photo. This is not a common traditional style.

 One day a priest from my town came and chanted a sutra for my father. He complained about this tablet, saying:

“Fifty years from now, you need to bring the tablet to a temple. This kind of tablet will cause a problem. A wooden tablet can be burnt while chanting a sutra in the temple but this type cannot be burnt. We have to put the tablet into the garbage bin.”

 I couldn’t consider that point, but the priest also complained like this:

“These days, it is difficult to make a bonfire in my temple. The neighbors complain about the fire and smoke.”

 Fifty years from now, what kind of fate awaits the glass tablet. Anyway neither the priest nor I have any power to do something to the tablet in the future.

 By the way, my family has another transparent memorial tablet, on the left of the photo. It was made in 1924. Maybe my grandfather made it for my great grandparents. My grandfather was a teacher of Western history. He loved Western culture. During WWⅡ, he taught his students like this:

“You assume Japan will win this war, but I assert Japan will lose.”

After that he was arrested and scolded by the police. He passed away a few months before the end of the war so I never met him.

 At least he left me this transparent tablet. I showed the tablet to the priest. He couldn’t complain about this almost one hundred year-old tablet. He said:

“If it is your family tradition, it is OK.”

Right or Left?

 For killing boredom, I started to be a left-hander four years ago.

“There are many boxers who are pretending to be left-handers.”

A friend of mine who played amateur boxing taught me about this.

 Boxing is a strange kind of sport. Most boxers need to use mainly their non-dominant hand. Left jab, short quick punch. It is said that “If you control the left jab well, you can be a world class boxer.” The left jab is important.

 Because of this, some boxers pretend to be left-handers. They jab with their right hand. This can give those advantages in a match because the right hand is easy to control. Furthermore, it could be a bluff. One’s right jab is so strong that left straight (long punch) is stronger.

I asked my friend this question:

“But actually one’s straight punch is not strong, so is that not a disadvantage?”

He answered:

”Basically, a straight punch is hardly direct hit. In most of case there is no disadvantage.”

 Right or left? After I heard this information, I have thought up a new theory.

 The theory is about two famous fighters in history, the legendary gunman, Billy the Kid (1859-1881) and one of the strongest samurai, Hajime Saito (1859-1915). In both cases, no-one knows what their dominant hands were. Some people say it was the left, while others say it was the right. The arguments are inconclusive.

 The truth about their dominant hands must have been their most closely guarded secrets. No one knew about it except themselves and their close supporters. It is possible to imagine that the secret could have been the key to their strength.

 In both cases of using a gun and using a sword, the combatants needed to pay attention to their opponent’s dominant hand. Life or death depended on the judgement of a moment. If the opponents didn’t know if the deadly attack would come from the right or left, they would be in great danger.

 Even I can eat a meal with my left hand. It was possible they ate with their non-dominant hands to trick their opponents.

 Actually I am not familiar with either of these fighters but it is interesting to think about their strategy, isn’t it?

 

Photo from Wikipedia

 

Southpaw

I am a right-hander, but four years ago I started to use my left hand mainly. You know, life in hospital and taking care of my mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, at home are boring. There is no challenge in my life. Using chopsticks with my left hand is interesting. Every meal is a challenge; beans, tofu and fish are especially difficult and interesting.

People who met me for the first time in these last four years might assume that I am a left-hander. Ha-ha, I tricked you! Actually I am a right-hander!

In these last four years, I found that most people don’t care which hand I use. There was only one person outside my family who realized and pointed out that I had switched from my right to left hand.

 On that day, I was eating lunch with a big group. The person was on a different table, but after the meal he came up to me and said:

“Mr. Miura, surely you’re a right-hander. Why did you eat with your left hand?”

I said I didn’t have any actual reason. I did this just for fun. He roared with laughter.

I was interested in him. How had he known I was using a different hand to normal?

 He was an amateur baseball player. I am not very familiar with baseball, but I had heard that for baseball players, whether one is a right-hander or left-hander is an important point. He had the habit of paying attention to which hand people prefer to use.

 He really liked my hobby. After that incident, he started introducing me to other people like this:

“This is Mr. Miura. He is a practicing southpaw, but he doesn’t play baseball.”

Is this interesting to baseball players?

 

Picture by KAZU