Japan Section Excellent Work "The Kamishibai Life-style" Masumi Hirayama (63, female, Japan) |
When I was a child, I liked rough-and-tumble play. But one day, a female relative of mine, who was working in a school for the deaf and dumb, admonished my parents harshly, telling them I needed to receive professional education in a school for the blind. So they entered me in a school for the blind a year earlier than scheduled, even though the school had no kindergarten. In those days, most families were reluctant to put their children in such schools, normally waiting four or five years until doing so. Consequently, I received special care, and was coddled like a baby. Shortly after starting my second year at the school, I told my teacher that I felt lethargic. My home-room teacher was surprised. She said it was very unusual for a young child to say she felt lethargic, and that there must have been a special reason why I'd said that. The teacher sent me to the school doctor for a check up. The doctor found I had tuberculosis. I had to take time off school, in order to prevent the disease spreading, and I was taken back to my beloved home to be with my parents. For a while, I didn't have much of an appetite or much energy to play. But, true to my rather offbeat personality, I would sometimes sneak out of the house to eat cinnamon leaves and bark and climb the nearby hills. My mother warned me not to eat cinnamon, saying it was bad for the stomach. But I paid no heed to her warnings and would play around to my heart's content in the hills or by the sea. Afraid of the tuberculosis, no one would come anywhere near me. Also, as most of the children were in school, I didn't have a chance to meet them. One day, late in the afternoon, I heard a "tick tock" sound made by a pair of wooden clappers in the distance. All the children, who had just got home from school, rushed over towards the sound. I followed them. We ended up in the courtyard by the assembly hall(which has since become a community center). Everyone went to see the man making the clapping sound. I also hurried up next to him. The man said, "Oh, you have bad eyesight. Well, you can stay with me. I can help you whenever you don't understand something." While he was saying that, he handed me the end of a pair of disposable chopsticks. "You can eat some starch syrup while you listen." In a deeply resonating voice, he read the stories of "The Golden Bat" and "The Little Match Girl." He finished by saying, "All right, that's all for today. Thank you everyone." And then he stroked my head and said he would come back again. I nodded my acknowledgement, then went to play with the other children-something I hadn't done for a while, having mostly been spending time by myself. From that day on, nobody snubbed me any more; they played with me just as we used to. This was my first experience of Kamishibai(or "paper drama"). We children would play together after we listened to the man's stories. It became a regular activity. One night, at dinner time, my brother expressed his envy to my mother: "I didn't have any money to pay to watch the Kamishibai, so I was watching from far off and keeping myself hidden. But she was sitting in the best position, without paying anything." His words shocked me. I felt guilty, as if I'd taken advantage of people's kindness to blind people. I thought that the Kamishibai was just some man who knew a lot of stories and who liked entertaining children. Having heard my brother's complaint, my mother went the next day to apologize to the man and offered to pay on my behalf. But the man smiled and told her not to worry. "She's a war victim. This is the least I can do, so please let me continue." At that time, I didn't understand the concepts of "victim" or "anti-war," or what they meant to the peace movement. But I still clearly remember my mother's tearful voice as she thanked the man. About four years ago, as I was thinking about how I should live out the rest of my life and how I might approach death peacefully, I had a chance to talk with Ms. K. She is an artist, a writer of Kamishibai stories and picture books. She thought for a while before saying, "It might take a bit of ingenuity, but why don't you try doing Kamishibai yourself? Come along to the next(International Kamishibai Association of Japan) event and have a think about it. I'll let them know about you." I put in my application to take part in that year's event. I also signed up for the next tutorial, and they kindly accepted me. From then on, my husband(who is completely blind), our guide dog, Bell, and I took lessons once a month, from 6:30 pm to 9 pm. We rode on an express bus, took our lesson, and then returned the same day. We continued this for six months. One day, at last, we received our certificates and returned home at 1 am. We were the world's first disabled Kamishibai students, and we felt incredibly happy about our unique achievement. Needless to say, the three of us celebrated and reveled in our joy, even though it was well past midnight. Now we are launching the Tochigi Prefecture Kamishibai Association, and making lots of plans for our new life. We think that we can pass on a message of warmth and brotherhood through Kamishibai to disabled and able-bodied people alike. This way, we hope to remind everyone about the true meaning of love. |
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