Every American (I don't know what they think about this in Europe) who comes to Japan and sees children playing kakurenbo is deeply shocked, even more so an American who raises children here, and grandchildren, and watches them participating in it all unaware of the horror that attends the violation of childhood's fundamental rules at whatever age.
The way we used to play it when I was a kid - and these are strict rules, you don't fool around with these rules - was that the one who was 'It' would count loudly to ten or whatever assigned number, while all the other kids ran in absolute silence (who would do otherwise?) as far away as allowed by the count to find a really sneakily deviously unfindable hiding place that would lead to victory for the hider and defeat for the seeker. That's the name of the game.
'It,' upon reaching the agreed number count, would then say loudly (heavy penalties for whispering) "Here I come, ready or not, anyone around my goal is It!" (to catch the sneaks who ran zero feet away), then begin to seek as sneakily deviously as the hiders had hidden. Contrast this with the way kakurenbo is played in Japan, a comparison perhaps revelatory of fundamental international differences, as the hiding-and-seeking children of these two noble cultures grow up to become the hiding-and-seeking leaders of their respective nations.
In Japan, for some reason I have never been able to fathom, 'It' shouts "Mo ii kai?" ("Is it ok yet?") over and over and over in response to the hiders, who as they seek their hideaways repeatedly say "Mada da yo!" ("Not yet!") thereby regularly revealing their direction of travel; then at the end, when at last they are satisfactorily hidden, do they remain silent? NO! They yell out "Mo ii yo!" ("It's ok now!") thereby giving away their exact location to 'It,' who immediately heads straight for where the hider's voice last emanated. Try as I might, as an experienced former child I cannot see the charm in this.
Article comments
1 - Barbara Payne
For 9 years I had a stream of Japanese tenants occupy the first-floor apartment of my Shaker two-family. One of the most telling moments for me was when one of the couples was leaving after spending a 3-year residency at a local hospital and they mentioned something that had bothered them all along, but that hadn't wanted to hurt my feelings by mentioning it. So they simply pointed it out when they were leaving, saying I might want to change that for the next people.
I was mortified to think these lovely people had been inconvenienced for 3 long years and never said a word.
2 - N icolette
How interesting. To the Western mind, it seems so counter-intuitive.
3 - RJ
Very odd.
Of course, all cultures have their quirks. For instance, our culture's seeming obsession with talentless trollip Paris Hilton...
4 - Leoniceno
And half the world's obsession with soccer and cricket.
5 - Tristan
I love how the rest of the world is so quick to jump on the "isn't America horrible" bandwagon--without even thinking (the word Baaaaaaa comes to mind~~!!!)
and they are soooo quick to say how "weird" we Americans are with OUR strange cultural enigmas .......
But ~~~~~
I don't see too many American sports fans having huge stampedes and killing other sports fans after their team loses, like happens quite often at soccer games and championships in Europe and south America ....