Tokyo nichinichi shinbun Story in briefThere is a saying that no child is as adorable as one which is incomplete. Yamashita Tamizo of Kawahigashi village of the Joto district of Totonoayami [Totomi province], 47 years old, look better care of his 33-year-old brother Kamezo, an imbecile from birth, than of his own son, and also looked after their elderly mother. (WW) CommentaryTamizo, dubbed "Filial son Tamizo" in the red cartouche, is greeting "Old mother" while "Younger brother Kamezo" looks on from the veranda. no child is as adorable as one which is incomplete reflects 下成人の子程可怜 (kataha no ko hodo kahawihi, katawa no ko hodo kawaii) -- the origin of which I have not yet been able to trace. Graphically, Sino-Japanese 下成人 means a person which is less than [fully] formed. The word represented by its provided Yamato reading would usually be written 片端 (kataha, katawa), in which "kata" means "unfinished" or "incomplete" and "ha" refers to the edge or periphery of something. The moraic assimilation of "ha" to "wa" probably took place in speech before labial "F-" (Fa, Fi, Fu, Fe, Fo) shifted to glottal "h-" (ha, hi, Fu, he, ho). imbecile from birth reflects what is more literally "nature of innate imbecility" (生来愚鈍の性 seirai gudon no umare). |
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