I learned a new Japanese phrase today. I learned 肝試し. The boys were saying it shortly before they headed off in the dark. It’s pronounced “kimodameshi”; it translates to English as “Test of courage”.
The boys’ first day of “Golden Week” holidays plan was barbecuing at their friend’s house up the street, but the dad went awol so my wife Shiz asked me to go down to help the mom keep an eye on things. I really didn’t need to since some other neighbors ended up joining in on it and Shiz and H-san (daughter) came down as well. There were only four boys—two sixth graders and two fourth graders—our two included. They played with fire and threw water balloons at each other, scarfed down a few kg of bbq each and roasted some marshmallows then had to be gone before eight p.m. Not gone home, gone off to test courage!
They walked off in the dark with a sole headlamp between the four of them. They walked along the river up to the road, turned south then followed the road a couple hundred meters to the foot of ShiroYama—a small nearby mountain between our Kakisawadai neighborhood and Hatake area of Kannami. Once at the bottom of the stairs leading up from the side of the road to the mountain trail they went one by one to do the “test of courage”, which was a solo walk up to the shrine on top of the mountain.
The narrow trail’s lined with brush and bamboo grass on each side under a canopy of trees. It runs up the side of the mountain (more like a large hill-sized mountain) fairly steep stretches with a few turns then levels off at the football field and a half sized top covered with scattered trees, small vegetable fields to the north, a thick bamboo grove over on the southern slope and a small shrine on the far side directly east. Once up there they had to continue up through the tori gate then between two old stone lanterns, past the huge old weathered tree and small lichen covered statues (that appear about as old as Japan itself) till arriving at the dark, dark shrine. Then, if lucky enough to still be alive, run like hell back to the safety of friends waiting below.
I’d actually been on the trail many times at night. I ran it for conditioning when training for a full contact kyokushin karate tournament a couple years earlier. I didn’t run all the way to the shrine—just the steep part to the top of the trail yet enough to know it's a great place for kids to carry out a test of courage.
Alas the other fourth grade kid’s mom just had to stop by to voice her concern about her son being eating by wild animals or stumbling into a wild boar trap or tengu attacking him or something worse. The other fourth grader kid’s mom is a worry wort and asks way too damned many questions. I tell my wife the lady drives me crazy, to which my wife laughs and says yeah she drives everyone crazy. I mean sure there are some wild animals around—raccoon dogs, weasels, wild boar, venomous snakes and civets and we even had an old lost badger wander into our yard a year or so back, but they’re sparse and the only time I ever heard of anyone having any kind of trouble with one anywhere near here was some long ago tale of a wild boar wandering down out of the Numazu Alps and chasing an old lady or something to that effect. I did see a sail-tanuki (tanuki is raccoon dog; sail tanuki is a raccoon dog that’s been run over so many times you can pick it up and sail it through the air) saw one of those last year on the road next to ShiroYama. Still they attack kids about as often as they steal kids’ bicycles so no worries there or with anything else. My fear of any of them being harmed by wild animals was slightly below zero.
It’s the bugs that are most threatening in these parts anyhow, especially them danged suzumebachi giant Asian hornets. Those things are scary! Those things kill more people nationwide than all wild animals combined. They're freak'n huge too. I wouldn't be surprise to hear of one downing a small airplane. Still they’re not at their worst till summer so not much worry with them either. Shiz and I and the other kids mom weren’t concerned at least, so the level headed moms just had reassure the drive ya up the wall mom and answer her 57,000 questions (I find it best to pretend like I don’t understand what she’s saying. It’s good to be foreign sometimes!) and then we saw them off. Go on boys. Have fun!
Of course the boys were likely more concerned with the threat far scarier than wild animals or giant killer bugs though. Dangerous strangers? Gun wielding maniacs? Big corporation lobbyists? Nah, not too many of any of those in the Izu countryside. No, of all the scary things in the dark none are so scary as the ghost that a young boy may spy on a dark path leading to a shrine while all by himself you see. Everyone knows how ghosts like to walk along dark mountain paths and visit shrines at night. So I imagine that was the real test of courage.
They didn’t get back till nearly ten p.m. I really wanted to go along too but surpassed the age limit dang it! So I had to settle for eagerly asking all about it once they got in. I don’t think they all made it all the way up the long dark path to the shrine, at least not the younger ones, but it sounded like they went far enough to “test the courage”. A boy ritual success achieved. Good on them!
I know deep down that this is the place where I’m supposed to be—that this is the path I’m supposed to be walking at this point in life—but still at times I get to wondering “would it be better to be living back in California?” Living back in the place where I’m from. I think of all I loved about elementary school there like school sports and such. I wish my kids could have some of the experiences that I did that they likely won’t get here. On the other hand I don’t hear much if anything about parents letting young kids walk along dark rural roads to dark mountains alone at night to “test the courage” there nowadays. I remember walking down Armstrong Ave after dark or cutting through fields to inspect some old barn at night when I was a kid, but apparently things have changed a bit in the 40 years since then. I know they have in the place where those memories of mine were made. Those three properties—nearly 30 acres total with a mere three houses, lots of pastures, barns and a pond and such—that alone is all roads and about a gazillion and a half track homes now.
So if there chances are they wouldn’t be having the “test of courage” experience like they do here. And the test of courage is a good healthy kid thing to do methinks. I can wonder and wish for something that’s not or be grateful for the positive things in the here and now. The latter seems more productive, so I’m quite happy to learn this new phrase and hear all about how it’s done from boys who just did it. Three cheers for kimodameshi! Learning to test the courage will serve them well in life.
View from the shrine on Shiro Yama
(the top of the trail is about 25 meters beyond the tori gate)
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