Week 3: 聖☆おにいさん・Saint Young Men 😇

Japanese Language Reading
#1

Join the Intermediate Book Club here!

聖☆おにいさん・Saint Young Men :innocent: Home Thread

Week 3

sei_oniisan
Start Date: August 29th
Previous Part: Week 2
Next Part: Week 4

Reading:

Week Start Date Chapter Pages (physical) Pages (ebook) Page Count
Week 3 August 29th Chapter 5 + 6 63 - 98 65 - 99 32

Vocabulary List

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events in the current chapter(s) and any content in future chapters.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun! :durtle:

Participants

Mark your participation status by voting in this poll.
(Please feel free to update your status whenever you like!)

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I am no longer reading the book

0 voters

1 Like
Week 4: 聖☆おにいさん・Saint Young Men 😇 [END]
聖☆おにいさん・Saint Young Men 😇 (Intermediate Book Club)
#2

Done with chapter 5 and was my least favorite so far. The cat was horrible at the end and Mixi jokes seem horrible out of date.
At least I learned a bit more about buddhism by looking into the whole (hole) 乳がゆ thing. The jab at isekai godism also is pretty funny in todays isekai flood.

Can’t get a grasp on 手に職糸の仕事ですから when they talk about why their type of work is a stable work. Can someone translate this sentence for me?

Thoughts on chapter 6 later today.

Edit for 6: 6 is a little better but still not really good. Maybe I was not in the right mood today for the manga. Only one week left so I will keep on reading the last 2 chapters either way. Jesus is hardcore into comedy though and buddah into saving money. Not sure how the author arrived at these character traits for the two.

2 Likes
#3

You have a typo there. It should be 手に職系の仕事ですから. I think he’s saying that they’re in a line of work that is a skilled trade. This website defines 手に職 as:

  • 「弁護士」「司法書士」「税理士」など専門の資格がないと出来ない仕事
  • 「デザイナー」「プログラマー」など専門の技術がないと出来ない仕事

So basically a job that requires either a specialized certification/license or a job that requires specialized skills. He’s trying to argue that they’re not bums. :smile:

4 Likes
#4

Ah u are right so its 系 for “line/group” modifying 手に職. Thank you very much. Must really have been a bit out of it today ^^

1 Like
#5

Does Buddha’s t-shirt in chapter 5 say “white elephant”?

Nothing ever goes out of date in Japan.

Yeah, Buddha seems a lot more Buddha-like than Jesus seems Jesus-like.

4 Likes
#6

Yes it does say white elephant. Also wondered about it but came up empty handed…

1 Like
#7

I did a quick search in German (I figured you had explored everything in English already) and Google came up with this:

“An anderer Stelle wird Buddha in Gestalt eines weißen Elefanten zum Retter. Er opfert sich. Und so kann er einigen Menschen, die sonst in der Wildnis verhungern würden, das Leben retten.”

Translation: In another location [of some texts] Buddha, in the shape of a white elephant, turned into a savior. He sacrificed himself to rescue the lives of some people who were bound to starve in the wilderness.

BTW this is a quote from the Australian religion scholar Professor John Powers. The full text is at:

(this is a state-owned radio channel, much like NHK I guess)

4 Likes
#8

Well, the fact that “white elephant” has several colloquial uses in English doesn’t help matters much.

When I visited Chuson-ji in Hiraizumi, they inexplicably had a statue of a white elephant in the main temple hall (made from papier-mache or something). Sadly, noone talked about the elephant in the room.

3 Likes
#9

:eyes: Wasn’t aware of that tbh… (my dictionary helped me along, though)

:joy_cat: Seems like the English language has something going on with those beasts…

The dictionary also mentions “pink elephant”, which we call “white mice” in German :thinking:

4 Likes
#10

I finally got to the sauna scene! I kept seeing it around the internet so I’m happy to finally read it.

3 Likes
#11

Whew, only one more week of getting my butt kicked by this book.

#12

@downtimes @NicoleRauch

OK, it’s been at least two weeks since I wanted to comment on this (and severe anxiety kept me from it), but today I’m gonna do it anyway. Just to be clear: I’m not reading this manga, haven’t seen the series, just happen to know a bit about Buddhism.

The reason for the T-shirt text, Chusonji statue, and other displays of white elephants at temples all across Asia, has to do with the Buddha’s “origin story”. It goes like this: one night, the mother of Shakyamuni Gautama (the historical Buddha) who hadn’t been able to conceive for over 20 years, was visited by a White Elephant in her dreams. It ‘pierced her side’ and lo and behold; she was pregnant soon after! (thus proving that my future time machine works… :speak_no_evil:)

As for the savior-in-the-wilderness story, I’m not sure if it’s the same, but there’s a parable about a different Indian queen who dreamt of a white elephant with 6 tusks and put a massive bounty on its head. Long story short: a hunter found it, shot it with a poison arrow, was then nearly murdered by other angry elephants, but was protected by the White Elephant who in its final moments gifted his tusks to the poor hunter and attained Buddhahood. [if you look closely, you’ll see that the little statue shown in the German article also has 6 tusks]

7 Likes
#13

Thank you so much! I’ve been re-reading and this was still bugging me. It was driving me crazy

2 Likes