Mabuta # 23
Kanoma's notes in parenthesis ( )
Translator's notes in brackets [ ]
23rd installment
Photographs
Several years ago, I once dragged out from the depths of my closet a tattered cardboard box. Within the box there was a big pile of pictures, but most of these pictures were of the time before I had gotten past elementary school. Within these pictures was one taken of me at an amusement park when I was about 3 or 4 years old, and I remember that I really loved that picture at the time.
In the picture I'm shaking hands with the Ultraman family, and for an example it would be like the common photograph you might see where the family is in a line, like ultra father, mother, Seven, Ace, and so on, and one by one you're allowed to shake their hands. Why did I love this picture so much? Even now the reason stands out clearly in my mind. It's really unrelated to the fact that I'm in the picture shaking their hands, it was moreso like, 'Here, Ultraman is being photographed'. Was it that I loved Ultraman so much? The truth is, no, I didn't. While it is true that every Sunday morning I would watch the show without fail, ever since I was a kid I've been a fan of the villains. Everytime, everytime, I would feel compassion for their efforts just falling short of success, and I would feel something like sympathy for them. I remember whenever a bunch of villains would show up, my heart would pound with excitement. Incidentally, when I went to see an actual Hero Show stage play, I couldn't afford to be as supportive of the villains.
I think that most of my readers are girls, and so it's possible you don't know much about these stage plays, but at these types of shows the bad guys will often barge into the audience and nab children. And then when there's a good amount of children up on the stage, the heroes will materialize and rescue the children, and then afterwards, the children who participated are each given a souvenir. Though I would later think that the kids who were taken were cool, when the bad guys came up to me, I fearfully burst into tears. But even though I thought that as it's only a show, the bad guys wouldn't really kill the kids, the kids would cling desperately to their parents as if trying to escape harm. After experiencing such a fright, I couldn't cheer on the bad guys, and just from that day on I began to really see Ultraman as a hero. But that memory had no relation to the reason why I loved that picture so much.
And so what was so great about the fact that 'Here, Ultraman is being photographed'?
I think that when everyone was young they had someone read picture books to them, and don't most of you have more memories of a specific page in the story, rather than the actual story? For example, there is this famous picture book called Guri and Gura. In the story, Guri and Gura find a large egg in the forest, and with the egg they bake a huge cake, and then share it with their friends in the forest, but for me, I really liked the page in the story when the cake had just finished baking. The reason was really simple: It looked delicious.
Another example is from a storybook that I can't remember the title of, but it's about a girl who learns how to do things, and I really liked the scene where after dropping a 100 yen coin, she searches for it. The reason was really simple: I wanted that 100 yen coin.
There are probably people who can't remember a particular page of a story book that they liked. But I'd like you all to try. In spite of the story of the book perhaps being vague, if there is just one page that you remember out of the whole thing, that page has got to be about something that's delicious, a treasured item, clothing, toys, or a present.
In other words, within the picture there's something that's desirable, or captivating, and if kids think about it they get excited. Is this a little difficult to understand? There's another example that's slightly easier.
I think if you've lived in a house that receives a newspaper you'll have seen this at least once, but when Christmas starts to come close, there's always a catalogue of toys that is mixed in with the other random flyers in the newspaper.
Out of everything I've written so far, I'm sure for those of you who have experienced this a lightbulb just came on in your head. That's right, most people when they were kids had to have loved that catalogue. Only in that free catalogue, just looking at it could get you excited, it wasn't even so much the toys themselves, it couldn't of just been me getting excited by simply looking at the catalogue. Should I say it's due to the peculiar trance of materialistic greed in childhood?
That's what 'Here, Ultraman is being photographed' was all about.
Let's return to the story. Meaning, I hadn't intended to write about this. In the beginning it was sort of an unimportant thing, but the pictures that I have in my house are all from my childhood, and there can't be more than ten pictures of me after I entered junior high. That's because I've always been bad at pictures. Due to that, I have few positively taken pictures, and there aren't even as many pictures of my memories in high school. And so I find it a little sad. But since I've started doing band stuff, I can't really escape pictures, and so pictures of myself have begun to multiply, but it's only pictures that have to do with the band, and I barely have any of myself that are simple pictures, unrelated to band activities. Even though memories are life's greatest treasures, I just can't do pictures. I've hated taking pictures for so long, which is a problem that, if possible, I would like to overcome. Why do I hate pictures so much? The reason is simple.
Firstly, the pose. Generally, when I'm taking personal pictures, I've got one hand in my pocket, I'm standing bolt upright, and I'm holding up an extremely embarrassed peace sign. When you're wanting a picture to remember your fun times, having someone with their hand in their pocket, standing bolt upright, probably isn't that favorable. And with that, when I try to think of a different pose that would be good, the result is always the usual peace sign. But I can't help but be embarrassed by such a pose when you're holding up two fingers without knowing the meaning that's crammed into it. Is the meaning inherent just about 'peace'? If anyone knows, please let me know. Further, how old can you be and still be doing the peace sign?
And then there is facial expressions. To begin with, at the time, no matter what fun activity you're doing, someone says "Say cheese!" and everyone has to put on a smile. I think that's artificial. But, in order not to break the environment, it's essential to have these forced smiles for the picture. Aa, that's difficult ....
The ideal situation would be, say you're doing something fun with a great friend, or spending some time with your lover, and then someone would secretly capture the moment. If that happened, it would get rid of the strange embarrassments that happen when taking pictures. If that were a real occupation, it'd surely be popular wouldn't it? "Capturing your memories, secretly!" Something like that.
Pictures taken during childhood are good. The camera is ignored, and natural facial expressions are used. Engrossed in the environment, perfectly indifferent to everything, there's no need to invent a strange perfection. Great, huh?
