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Spoiler Courtesy
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This week’s mushi is named 夢野間, read as いめののあわい. I’d hoped to find that the whole assemblage was some sort of literary or mythological reference, but if it is, it’s being completely drowned out on Google by Mushishi results. Or my search fu is weak. So I thought I’d break it down into kanji.
夢: いめ is the original reading for 夢, reportedly from 寝目 (and again, い is an older reading for 寝).
野: This has apparently always had the の reading in Japanese, so there’s nothing untoward going on here.
Extra の: is just the usual connective の, omitted from the kanji form.
間: This one’s the fun one. あわい is another historical reading of the kanji, but when it takes that reading, it conveys a slightly different meaning. The typical あいだ reading refers to the space between two locations or objects or timeframes or whatever, but あわい refers to something that spans across both, or to an area where both overlap. It’s still a concept in Japanese architecture - an engawa, for example, the wooden veranda that runs around the outside of traditional tatami-mat houses, is considered an あわい space, because despite being part of a house’s うち, it is entirely filled with そと as well. Some further reading.
One source I found attested that 野 could be read as referring to reality, though while Jisho does include “hidden (structural) member” as one of its alternate meanings, that feels a bit of a stretch, and I’ve been unable to find anything else to corroborate. If we do go with that interpretation, though, the mushi’s name could be read as something like “[mushi] that spans both dreams and reality”.
The iterpretation by Del Rey (the publisher that produced the English translation) is “within the field of dreams”, but both this and the other mushi name translations they give suggest they’ve not put any thought at all into kanji subtexts (their discussion of the 阿 and 呍 from last chapter really feels like they’re grasping at straws).
My thoughts kinda peter out a bit here, so perhaps others might like to contribute their findings or conclusions.
So, I was watching the anime adaptation of this chapter, and while I was watching, I had some thoughts.
At the climax of the story, Jin dreams that he’s standing in a field of reeds. In connection with the warning at the beginning by the narrator not to respond to someone who’s sleep-talking because their words come from the other side, a thought occurred to me: the highest tier Egyptian afterlife, called Aaru, is described as being a field of reeds (actually, “aaru” means “reeds” - “field of reeds” is “sekhet-aaru”). And indeed the Japanese Wikipedia’s article on Aaru describes it with the phrase 葦の原野 (though it uses よし rather than あし as the primary reading of 葦).
Aaru is the ideal end goal of the afterlife, somewhat equivalent to the Greek concept of Elysium. It kinda made me wonder whether Jin was seeing his family in paradise (though of course he probably wouldn’t be all that well-read on Egyptian eschatological theory ).
Japanese mythology also has a reedy afterlife, named 葦原中国, though in contrast to Aaru, this one is a mid-tier afterlife, existing between Takamagahara and Yomi - hence the name 中国. Since Japan also exists between Takamagahara and Yomi, Ashihara is sometimes equated with Japan itself. It’s said that it was created by Susanoo-no-Mikoto when he was banished from Takamagahara following all that fun with Amaterasu and the cave.
In contrast to the Aaru idea, in this all-Japanese version, Jin might be seeing his family as still alive in the world rather than existing in paradise, but that might be just my interpretation. It also might be me reading symbolism into the chapter that doesn’t actually exist.
And for a conversation starter: Was Ginko right to hide the true nature of the 夢野間 from Jin? Would telling him the truth at the beginning have resulted in a better outcome?
Thank you for all the thoughts on etymology and symbolism. I think you’re right to read deeply into the different kanji choices. I definitely feel that the author loves those extra embedded meanings….but I’m still such a kanji novice that I don’t really have anything to add.
Near the beginning, the narrator relates the prohibition of engaging in conversation with someone talking in their sleep. As a reader, I wondered if we are supposed to take this as truth, superstition or some sort of guide? Then later we see such an instance - Ginko talking to Jin and the dream materialising - the sleeping Jin answers Ginko’s question and gives his location in a field of reeds and then Ginko’s earlier words of comfort delivered to the sleeping Jin「お前は何も誤っちゃいない」return as words voiced by his dream-dwelling wife 「あなたのせいじゃない」And then Jin splits into two entities (the sleeping Jin & the observing Jin. Can Ginko see both? Ginko rescues the sleeping Jin from the fire but when do they become one entity again? Do they become one entity again or are they forever sundered
Don’t know if this can be answered because Ginko certainly wasn’t in full possession of all the relevant info - as usual, he’s finding out on the job. My cricism lies with the unfair expectations of his fellow villagers:
I think in general the narrator’s comments are old wives’ tales that are revealed over the course of the story to be related to the featured mushi. Whether they’re real old wives’ tales, I have no idea.
I don’t think there’s a split, it’s just a dream-within-a-dream thing. Jin dreams of himself dreaming, realises that the dream Jin’s dreams are manifesting in the world of the dream, at which point Ginko realises that real-world Jin’s dreams are also manifesting in the real world. Exactly what of that Ginko can see on the screens is unclear - like, what “camera” is filming the images that he’s shown? Is he just seeing the panels from the angle that we see them?
Oh so this chapter was just an elaborate WaniKani reading mnemonic for 枕? Sad that it didn’t feature Jourm.
Also I didn’t understand the logic of why he should not be told the truth about the dreams. Because since thev host can’t be fully cured, they would commit suicide or something like that if they knew that they caused this with their dreams?
That was my thought. But thing is, if he knew the truth, he could also just take the drugs that Ginko gave him. Since he was left with the impressions that the dreams were actually prophetic, he instead elected not to take the drugs, in order to avoid missing any prophecies.
Yeah absolutely, a turn of event that was IMO fully predictable. That’s why, and to answer your question above, I think it was a bit naive of ginko to think that he would just accept to take the meds and lose his “premonitions” that let him “save” his friends and family.
I thought Jin just fell asleep watching Gladiator (the original one) and got the same dreamy sequence as the protag did haha. I am guessing that’s where the inspiration for that scene also comes from
).
