Lewis • Painting Words and Worlds
28
Painting Words
and
Worlds
Mia Lewis, Columbia Univ University ersity Tis study explores wordplay in the works o CLAMP, a popular Japanese mangaka (comic artist) group. Specically, it examines CLAMP’s use o ateji, the pairing o kanji (Chinese characters) and urigana (a reading gloss) with diferent meanings. Tis allows two diferent words to become one, creating meanings that transcend words w ords’’ literal denitions. Original Origi nal research on ateji in six diferent manga zasshi (comic magazines) and three th ree o CLAMP’s Cardcaptor Sakura, subasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE, and works— Cardcaptor Clover—identies ve distinct ateji techniques. Tis study ocuses on the way these techniques are employed by CLAMP to express complex ideas, develop plot, and portray characters. As a technique embedded within the Japanese language, the implications o ateji use in manga extend beyond the medium o comics, pointing to shiting trends in the language as a whole.
M
1
anga—Japanese-language comics —span a broad range o genres, including romance, historical drama, adventure, and antasy, antasy, among numerous others. In many ways manga has its ounding inuences in Western, Western, and particularly American, comics. How However ever,, the visual and verbal styles as well as the plots o contemporary manga are clearly distinct rom their Western counterparts. Manga are almost exclusively monochrome, their visual vibrancy paling in comparison to colorul Western Western comics. Within the language o manga, however howeve r, there exists a depth and dynamism that creates a unique semantic space within the Japanese language. In particular, particul ar, we see the use o ateji , the joining o two words into one through a reading gloss. Specically, it is the pairing o kanji (Chinese characters) with urigana (a reading gloss located either above or beside its corresponding kanji ) that has a diferent meaning. In ateji , the kanji represents the meaning or concept behing the word, while the urigana denotes how it is meant to be read. Tese ateji are employed in creative and strategic ways by manga writers to seamlessly add layers o meaning to the dialogue, urthering story and character development and creating deep and complex worlds within the stories. Tis paper examines the strategic and creative ways in which contemporary manga employs ateji to concretely afect the reader’s understanding o the text. I 2
3
4
1 While the term manga reers to printed comics, the term anime is used to describe animations that are largely based on the manga style. 2 While ateji can be ound in Japanese literature, literature, in the majority o works it is not present to the same extent as in manga or with the same requency requency.. Te only other medium in which we nd ateji with a comparable requency o usage to manga is in some Japanese song lyrics. Along with this, the only other language ound to have a reading gloss is in aiwanese texts, where it is used predominantly in educational works or books or young children. 3 A reading gloss, in this this context, reers reers to a word inserted above above or beside another that gives its pronunciation pronunciation or reading. 4 While the vast majority o ateji pair kanji (Chinese characters) with the urigana, at times we see the main word to which the urigana is attached written in hiragana, katakana, rōmaji or as entire phrase rather than in kanji . Note Ateji ”. Illustration 2 and the explanation or the ateji 恐怖の間 under the subheading “Catergories o Ateji ”.
Columbia East Asia Review
29
analyze its usage in three works by CLAMP, a group o emale artists with a single writer, Nanase Ohkawa: Cardcaptor Sakura, subasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE , and CLOVER . CLAMP uses ateji and other visual and literary techniques to develop characters, create worlds, and position the reader in relation to these characters and their worlds. Cardcaptor Sakura, or example, uses ateji to textually depict the dually Chinese and English origins o the magic the story revolves around. Clover, meanwhile, uses ateji to express the changing meanings and shiting implications o words within diferent contexts, whether that be within the science ction setting o the story or a specic conversation. Beore progressing urther into the paper, it is useul to provide a concrete example o the ateji this paper ocuses on and the ways Illustration 1: (CLAMP 2003, Tsubasa Tsubasa I, 58) these ateji unction within manga. In subasa: through pairing the kanji RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE , CLAMP constructs the ateji 記憶 (memory) with the urigana こころ (soul/heart) (Illustration 1).Tis combination allows or the integration o the concepts o ‘memory’ and ‘soul’ ‘soul’ within the story’ss plot. Establishing this connection between the two words allows the author to story’ in efect change the signicance o these words within the text and to create a unique understanding o these two ideas that allows or the stabilization o the antasy world. Tis ability to change the signicance o words and concepts is one o ateji ’s ’s most integral and unique roles within manga and will be discussed in length later on. Trough this example we see how ateji works works in the creation o new meanings and aids in the storytelling process within CLAMP’s manga. METHODOLOGICALNOTES
Tis study is a continuation o a study I completed in the spring o 2009 that ocused on manga spanning six diferent genres5 and included a survey o six diferent manga zasshi (magazines),6 123 diferent works, and 3,074 pages. All o the manga zasshi examined in this previous study were released between November o 2008 and April o 2009. Te study ocused on the use o wordplay in the orm o ateji but also examined the use o katakana and kanji in these works. While the Spring 5 Te study covered six genres: shōnen manga (Shonen Magazine ), ), shōjo manga (Hana to Yume bi-weekly), shōnen manga aimed at elementary school children ( Coro Coro), shōjo manga aimed at elementary school children ( Ciao), shōnen manga Ace A), and shōjo manga aimed at otaku ( Asuka Asuka). aimed at otaku, or adamant ans o manga, ( Ace 6 Manga zasshi are compilations o works by a number o diferent authors within a single genre. Tese are published on a weekly, bi-weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis and include both one-shots and individual chapters o serial series. Most manga is published in Japan as manga zasshi .
30
Lewis • Painting Words and Worlds
2009 study was a general survey o the use o these techniques across a broad range o contemporary manga; the present study ocuses in depth on a small number o works, looking at how techniques are employed within specic contexts in the story and examining how ateji usage actors into character voice and story development in CLAMP’ss works. CLAMP’ works . Although there is scholarship on the use o ateji in the Edo (1603-1868) and Meiji (1868-1912) periods, no equivalent studies could be ound on the use o ateji in contemporary Japan. Indeed, despite contacting the research center at the Kyoto International Manga Museum, I could nd no reerence to the use o ateji in the past 150 years. While the studies on older examples o ateji provide vital insights into some o its uses, the usage o ateji in Japanese literature rom the Edo or Meiji Periods is very diferent rom how it is employed in contemporary manga. For this reason, this paper is based almost entirely upon primary research conducted in the spring and all o 2009. HISTORYOF ATEJI ATEJI
Te contemporary written Japanese language is distinct in many ways rom what it was a mere seventy years ago. On November 16th, 1946, directly ollowing the Second World War and in large part in response to demands rom the US-led occupation, the Japanese cabinet and Minister o Education jointly issued a list o 1,850 Chinese characters or use in written Japanese (tōyō kanji ), ), down rom the 7,500 to 8,000 in use by major newspapers in 1927.7 Tis change greatly impacted what had become a delicate and complicated blend o Japanese’s three writing scripts.8 Prior to the 1946 changes, the plethora o kanji in use meant that ew people were uent enough to read a text without aid. Tis brought about the creation o a reading gloss, commonly reerred to as urigana or rubi . Furigana has been used in Japanese texts since at least the beginning o the Nara period (710-794), appearing in the Kojiki (Record o Ancient Matters) written in 712.910 It not only enabled writers to use a large variety o kanji regardless o the reader’s amiliarity with them, but also allowed authors to play with the meaning o common and well-known kanji with words diferent rom those prescribed in the urigana: ateji. 11 7 Roy Andrew Miller, Te Japanese Language (Chicago: University University o Chicago Press, 1967), 133-135. 8 Tere are are three scripts comprising comprising the the contemporary Japanese writing system: system: kanji, hiragana, and katakana. Kanji reers to Chinese characters that have been incorporated or use in the Japanese writing system. Hiragana and katakana are both phonetic scripts used in place o kanji or when there is no corresponding kanji . Hiragana is normally used or words o Japanese origin or in combination with kanji acting as verb stems, while katakana is largely used or sound efects and loan words rom oreign languages. Contemporary Japanese also employs the Roman alphabet, called rōmaji , but it is not considered one o the three primary scripts due to its rare usage in Japanese texts and that it is overwhelmingly reserved or non-Japanese words. 9 In its earliest orm, urigana provided readings or Chinese characters using other Chinese characters that had preestablished readings. Over time, however, urigana came to be written almost exclusively in either hiragana or katakana. 10 Chieko Ariga, “Te Playul Gloss: Rubi in Japanese Literature,” Monumenta Nipponica: Studies on Japanese Culture Culture Past and Present 44, 3 (1989): 309-335. 11 Tis use o the term ateji is diferent rom the more common usage reerring to kanji in the writing o oreign words employed on the basis o their phonetic reading, such as in the case o 珈琲 (kōhī [cofee]) being used instead o the
Columbia East Asia Review
31
Ateji use was prevalent during Japan’s Edo and Meiji periods when literature, particularly satire, ourished. In these periods, ateji was most oten used in a comical way, way, the meaning o a sentence being simultaneously benign and brimming with political or social commentary. commentary. Chieko Ariga writes that in works rom the Edo and urigana] is oten Meiji periods, “the “the dictionary standard equation o kanji vis-à-vis [ urigana broken and displaced to achieve certain literary efects. Te tension created by the gap between the kanji and [ urigana urigana] contexts creates a more complex semantic space, rendering the reading process more intriguing.” intriguing.” Adam Kern also writes on ateji ’s ’s use in the Edo period, specically in the Kibyōshi , an Edo era picture books or adults. He describes the use o ateji as a “double structure o pitting a ormal, Chinese layer o text against an inormal, playul Japanese layer,” which “has its analogue in the variational technique o acclimation (hanemono ) in which a Chinese story world is transposed or intertwined with a Japanese one.” Kern emphasizes the distinction not only between the two diferent meanings simultaneously employed in ateji but also between the two writing systems (Japanese syllabic writing and Chinese characters) in which the two parts o the ateji are written. Te script in which the kanji and its urigana are written allows or complex semantic implications and nuances, which can then be paired with contrasting meanings through ateji . Te work o eighteenth-century novelist Hiraga Gennai (1728-1780) also employs ateji as a literary device. On his use o the tension between urigana and kanji , Sumie Jones Jones writes that: 12
13
Tese Hiraga-buri sentences create absurdity and achieve satire by pulling apart, as ar as possible, word and meaning, written language and spoken language, and orm and content. In the process, however, the sentences also pull together words in diferent categories, separate languages and orms, and realities o incompatible sorts.14 Tis “pulling apart” and “pulling together” emphasizes the central use o ateji , and o Japanese scripts as a whole. Use o urigana can break words into their basic syllabic unctions, while kanji can break words into their basic meanings. Ateji indicates a singular aspect o the kanji and urigana that connects the two, speciying a specic meaning within the two words. At the same time, ateji combines the ull meaning and implications o the two words, allowing or a breadth o signicance and expression that could not be held within a single word. In contemporary Japanese, ateji , while still present to a limited extent in literakatakana orm コーヒー (kōhī [cofee]). It is also considered by some to be an incorrect usage o the term. Te term ateji is employed here because this is the most common term or the technique in the vernacular. vernacular. 12 Ariga, “Te Playul Gloss: Rubi in Japanese Japanese Literature, Literature,”” 321. 13 Adam L. Kern, Manga rom the Floating World: Comicbook Culture and the Kibyōshi o Edo Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006), 166. 14 Sumie Jones, Jones, “Language “Languag e in Crisis: Ogyū Sorai’s Sorai’s Philosophical Tought and Hiraga Hiraga Gennai’s Creative Practice,” Principles o Classical Japanese Literature , 246.
32
Lewis • Painting Words and Worlds
ture, has become increasingly visible in manga. Although it is read by a broad range o audiences, manga is oten written or children and thereore in many cases still uses urigana or all o its kanji . A comparatively high rate o ateji usage accompanies this high rate o usage o urigana urigana in many manga. Te particular nature o comics, in which separate panels orce readers to create a single, uid scene in the space between the panels,15 lends itsel to ateji , as the reader must also create a single meaning in the space between the two words. Manga also employs a variety o diferent orms o wordplay using the diferent Japanese scripts, such as the use o katakana in cases where kanji or hiragana would traditionally be used, or the use o a rare or uncommon kanji in the place o a simpler, more commonly used kanji . Interestingly, these techniques are used in portraying conversations, thereby adding a level o written complexity to the dialogue which would be impossible to express through the verbal speech that it is supposedly transcribing. CATEGORIESOF ATEJI ATEJI
Trough both my broader survey research and examination o CLAMP’s works, I have determined ve usage patterns o ateji , which I have labeled ranslative (), Denotive (D), Contrastive (C), Abbreviation/Contrastive (A/C), and ranslative/ Contrastive (/C). ranslative ateji reer to ateji where the translation or the spoken word written in the urigana is provided in the kanji . Te ateji 決闘者 where the kanji kettōsha (duelist) is paired with the urigana duerisuto (duelist), and the ateji 恐怖の間 where the main phrase kyōu no aida (terror area) is paired with the urigana terā rūmu (terror room), are examples o ranslative ateji .16 ranslative ateji almost always involve words in English. O the six manga magazines studied in my spring 2009 research, ranslative ateji was used most requently in Shonen Magazine . In this case, the ateji was used to explain Western sports terminology, allowing the author to employ a broad range o terms irrespective o the reader’s amiliarity with them and eliminating the need or cumbersome ootnotes that would be detrimental to the visual ow o the manga. ranslative ateji also lend an aura o oreignness to a work by manipulating the diferent connotations o the English and Japanese words. In an inormal interview with the young manga artist Kojima Eiyu on April 4, 2009 on his use o ateji and katakana, he described English words as having an aura o “coolness” to them. In addition, English words oten have diferent connotations than their Japanese equivalents or Japanese audiences, thereby allowing ranslative ateji to bring out the tension and contrast between the two words. Kojima gave as an example the title o his work, 英雄, which combines the kanji 英雄 (eiyū, hero) with the urigana ヒ ーロー (hīro, hero). While eiyū has the serious connotation o a knight or samurai, hīro connotes an American cartoon hero who has high hopes o saving others and achieving greatness but is, in reality reality,, a joke. Tis is i s a metaphor or the main character 15 16
Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: Te Invisible Art (New York: HarperPerennial, 1993), 89. Matsumoto Shigenobu, “Dueru Masutazu Sutā Kurasu, Kurasu,”” Getsukan Coro Coro 4 (2009): 119.
Columbia East Asia Review
33
himsel, who, though striving to become an eiyū, manages to be stuck at the comical level o the hīro. Kojim Kojimaa’s ability to express this complexity o meaning in the single word that comprises his title demonstrates the potential o ransla ranslative tive ateji . Denotive ateji reers to ateji in which a proper noun is given in the kanji while the pronoun actually spoken by the characters is given in the urigana. Tis allows the characters to have conversations reerring to “that,” “he,” etc. without the author worrying whether or not the reader ollows all the reerences being made. For example, in xxxHOLiC , Yūko Yūko says: sa ys: “これで、ノートパソコンは出 [Tere, now you can't use the laptop (that) anymore]”17 (Illustration 2). It can also serve as clarication or those who begin reading midstory, providing names or people or things reerenced in conversations. Tis is particularly important because manga magazines contain multiple works in sequence, Illustration 2: (CLAMP 2003, with diferent works beginning, continuing, and ending xxxHOLiC, 157) in each issue. Denotive ateji can also explain a character’s deeper thoughts about and relationships with characters, employing diferent kanji with the same urigana over the course o the story to dene the diferent roles that a specic character plays or to urther elaborate on the relationship between two characters. Contrastive ateji is in many ways the most intriguing o the ve ateji categories. It combines two diferent Japanese words that are not directly reerential in the way o the pronouns and nouns o Denotive ateji . Contrastive ateji enables the writer to signiy a meaning between two the words by playing of the diferences and similarities between them and either broadening or narrowing the meanings o the words in question. Tis can allow an author to highlight a specic aspect o the words in question, while also expanding the meaning o the words to encompass deeper and more complex ideas. It can also clariy a character’s character’s eelings about other characters or provide clarication or a certain word within the current context. Contrastive ateji most clearly display the true potential o ateji to give writers in Japanese the ability to expand beyond pre-established words and their prescribed denitions. In the Spring 2009 survey, Contrastive ateji was was predominantly employed— particularly in Hana to Yume —in —in the most o emotional scenes. It is in these scenes that words are literally incapable o expressing the depth o the characters’ emotions and eelings, and their words are able to break ree o their conventional bounds, reaching new levels through the combination o two diferent words, such as in 17 CLAMP, xxxHOLiC , Vol. I, (okyo: Kodansha, 2003), 157. Te underlined text reers to the main word, in most cases the kanji but in this case the katakana. Te word in parenthesis reers to the urigana. Tis is only use or ateji , as the meaning o the text is not efect in instances o standard urigana usage.
34
Lewis • Painting Words and Worlds
Illustration 1. Abbreviation/Contrastive and ranslative/Contrastive are both subcategories o their respective categories. Abbreviation/ Contrastive ateji were ound primarily in Coro Coro magazine and were not ound in any o the CLAMP works studied here. Pairing Roman letters with entire words (usually English words written in katakana), Abbreviation/Contrastive ateji was was primarily used in ghting scenes and comics about sports in Illustration Illustr ation 3: (CLAMP 1997, 11) Coro Coro to represent long and cumbersome terminology with simple letters. For example, in the ateji the word ゴールキ ーパー (goalkeeper) as the urigana is simplied down to GK.18 Tis ateji allows or quicker reading once the reader is amiliar with the abbreviation. ranslative/Contrastive ateji reers to kanji paired with an English (or other oreign language) reading that is obviously meant to contrast with the Japanese word written in kanji rather than simply act as a translation. Tis category only includes ateji in which the oreign nature o the English word is important and in which the English word cannot be assumed to be part o the everyday ever yday vocabulary its readership. Tis orm o word play allows or both the sense o oreignness, unamiliarity, and alienation in the text inherent in ranslative ranslative ateji , as well as the tension between the two words provided by Contrastive ateji . Te only convincing examples o this ound in my research were in CLOVER , in which English readings were paired with multiple diferent Japanese kanji . For example, in the ateji 暗号 the kanji 暗号, normally translated as "code," is instead paired with the katakana or the English word “spell”, while the English word “spell” is paired with the kanji 認識表(ID graph) in the ateji 認認 認 (Illustration 3). STANDARDIZATIONOF ATEJI ATEJI CATEGORIES
Te six works in examined in the spring o 2009 employed ateji in the ranslative, Denotive, Contrastive, and Abbreviation/Contrastive categories, as displayed in i n Figure 1. Figure 1 demonstrates large disparities in usage by category among the diferent magazines. While the rates or Shonen Magazine , Ace A, Asuka, and Hana to Yume Yume show similarities in relative usage o diferent categories, demonstrating a degree o similarity along target audience gender lines, the broad nature o the categories ails to reect how usage o particular ateji categories varies with the magazine and the story. Yet, Yet, that t hat the t he ateji , as dened in this paper, ound in these works all ell into one o the our categories is by ar the most signicant aspect o these ndings. In contrast to those categories employed in the six magazines in Figure 1, CLAMP’ss works employed CLAMP’ emp loyed ateji in the ransla ranslative, tive, ranslat ranslative/Cont ive/Contrastive rastive,, Denotive, Denotiv e, 18
Yabuno enya, “Inazu “Inazuma ma Irebun,” Getsukan Coro Coro 4 (2009): 302.
Columbia East Asia Review
35
and Contrastive categories. Tat all ateji examined over the course o this research all into some combination o the above ve categories shows that their usage is standardized and can thereore be analyzed in terms o wider trends. In the manga examined, the usage rate o specic ateji categories demonstrates broad variations along genre lines, indicating that ateji usage varies according to target audience. At the same time, variation between diferent authors and stories is greater than between genres, suggesting that writers maintain the reedom to employ these techniques without being
restricted by the genre in which they are writing. With all this in mind, it is important to remember that the division o ateji into categories denotes the primary relationship between the word in the kanji and the word in the urigana. While the category indicates the broader signicance o the relationship between the two words, it does not denitively indicate the role o that specic ateji . Tis specic role can only be understood through analyzing the ateji in its immediate and broader contexts within the story. Te role played by diferent ateji in the context o a story may thereore at times be similar across category lines, even though the concrete relationship between the kanji and urigana in the two ateji remain diferent. In short, it is important to recognize that the generalizations made about the categories are not denitive, and that the signicance o the contrast between the kanji and its urigana must always be examined in the context o the work. CARDCAPTORSAKURA
Cardcaptor Sakura gives an invaluable demonstration o how ateji can play an integral role in manga. Te magical oundation o the story is maniested through ranslative ateji that uniquely enable the almost complete integration o Chinese and Western W estern magic. ma gic. Cardcaptor Sakura, one o CLAMP’ CL AMP’ss most popular works, is the story
36
Lewis • Painting Words and Worlds
o a young girl named Sakura who comes upon a book lled with magical cards in her ather’s study. Opening the book, she inadvertently breaks the seal holding the cards in, releasing the spirits inhabiting the cards to wreak havoc on the world. With the help o the guardian o the book, Cerberus, her riend oomoyo, and her rival Syaoran, she uses her new status as “Cardcaptor” to transorm deeated spirits back to their card orm. Once they have been captured and returned to their card orm, they can later be called upon to ght other cards or perorm other tasks as commanded by their captor. Te cards were created by Clow Reed (and are thereore known as “Clow Cards”), a very powerul magician whose ather was English and mother was Chinese. Tis led to his magic being a melding o English and Chinese magic, a combination apparent in both the physical cards and the magic used to control them. Each card is provided with three means Illustration 4: o identication: its Chinese name, its English name, and its (CLAMP 1996, 7) likeness as shown in the center o the card. On each card the Chinese name is at the top, while the English name is written at the bottom, such as in Illustration 4, with the character 風 (wind) on the top and “Te Windy” on the bottom. We can thereore see the cards as literal embodiments o ranslative ateji . When writing her name on the card to claim it, Sakura writes in rōmaji , not hiragana or katakana. Te oreign nature o the cards thereore requires Sakura’s identity itsel to become oreign. In-text ateji also carries much signicance, as demonstrated by the ollowing excerpt: Sakura: やっと追いつ [We nally caught up] Cerberus: さくら！！[Sakura!!] Sakura: 闇の力を秘めし『鍵』よ！ [“Key” which holds hidden within it the power of darkness!] Sakura: 真の姿を我の前に示せ [Show thy true form before me] Illustration 5: (CLAMP 1996, 9)
Sakura: 契約のもとさくらが命じる [Sakura under the con-
tract commands you] Sakura: 『封印解除』[“Release seal (release)”] Cerberus: さくら！カードを！！ [Sakura! The card!!] Sakura: わかってる！ [I know!]
Columbia East Asia Review
37
Sakura:『クロウ』の創りしカードよ [Card that “Clow” created]
我が『鍵』に力を貸せ [I lend my power to the “key”] Sakura: カードに宿りし魔力をこの『鍵』に移し我に力を！ [T [To o this “key” transfer transf er the power dwelling within the card and to me the power!] Sakura: 『風 』
[“Wind (windy)”]
Sakura: 風よ！戒めの鎖となれ！ [W [Wind! ind! Become chains which bind!] Sakura: なんじのあるべき姿に戻 ！[Return to thy proper form!] Sakura: 『クロウカード』[“Clow Card”]19 (Illustration 5)
Tere are a number o important things to note here. Firstly, Firstly, the kanji used in reerence to the Clow Cards and their associated magic are meant to be in Chinese rather than Japanese. We We can see this in the exclusive use o kanji , without the phonetic alphabets that demarcate written Japanese rom Chinese. We can also see it in the choice o obscure kanji not introduced to elementary children, such as the use o 翔, which is not even a jōyō kanji ,20 or the card “Te Fly.”21 Te esoteric nature o the kanji give the cards a mystical and oreign connotation. Te ont or the kanji resembles an old, worn-down seal, and the card names are denoted by brackets, urther distinguishing the magical Chinese words rom normal conversation. Tese aspects o the visual representation o magic not only make it appear oreign but also imply its ancient and complex nature; the lines between what is Chinese and Western/ ancient are blurred, and the ont urther indicates the otherness o the character not only in terms o physical, cultural, and linguistic diference but also in terms o time. Along with this, it is important to consider the use o ateji within within the context o the medium in which they are being employed: the comic. In comics, particularly in manga, the text is almost entirely comprised o dialogue. As such, when the manga is converted to anime, i.e., when the written dialogue becomes spoken conversation, the textual balance between the two types o magic provided by ranslative ateji is lost. In the Cardcaptor Sakura anime , only the English words are spoken in the incantations o spells.22 Meaning is urther lost in both the English dub o the anime and the English translation o the manga, in which even the oreignness o the English word becomes lost as the English in the rest o the conversation becomes indistinguishable rom the English o the spell. Te magic o the Clow Cards is oreign on every level to Cardcaptor Sakura’s 19 CLAMP, Kādo Kyaputā Sakura, Vol. I, (okyo: Kodansha, 1996), 9-12. 20 Te 1,945 characters characters specied by the Japanese Japanese Ministry Ministry o Education or use in schools; a slightly slightly modied version o the aorementioned tōyō kanji . 21 CLAMP, Kādo Kyaputā Sakura, 59. 22 Cardcaptor Sakura. Episode 1. Directed by Kumiko akahas akahashi. hi. Written Written by Nanase Ohkawa. Madhouse, 1998.
Lewis • Painting Words and Worlds
38
target audience o elementary-aged schoolgirls: rom the English urigana paired with complicated Chinese characters, to the old-style script, to the main character writing her own name on the cards in rōmaji . Yet, Yet, magical powers aside, the main character is a normal Japanese schoolgirl with a normal school and home lie. Te normality o Sakura’s everyday lie allows readers to relate to her, while her otherworldly magical powers and encounters with complex and exotic spirits keep audiences in awe. CLOVER
Clover drops the reader directly into the story, with no pause or explanation or introduction; it is the ateji that keep the story aoat. Te ranslative ranslative ateji explain technological terms, the Denotive ateji clariy relationships, and the ranslative/Contrastive ateji explain and explore the meaning behind the oreign words in use. The irst volume o this science ction manga describes the story o a ormer soldier, soldier, Kaf irst zuhiko, who accompanies an unnamed girl, identied in later volumes as Sue, to an amusement park. Teir travel by teleportation using a uturistic device is somehow interrupted and they quickly nd themselves beset upon by oes. As with many science ction stories in manga, English words are used when speaking o technology. technology. Tis reects the recent tendency to (1) express new loanwords with a Japanese phonetic approximation o their original pronunciation, rather than give them a native replacement written in Illustration 6: (CLAMP 1997, 9) kanji and (2) associate technology in general with the Western oreign. We can see a similar trend in the English language, with many technology-related words in science ction employing supposedly technical language that is unamiliar to the vast majority o the population. Yet, unlike in English, the readers o Clover in Japanese are simultaneously provided with an entirely oreign word and an explanation in their native Japanese. Still, while the kanji provides a Japanese denition, many o the t he orm o o ranslat ranslative ive ateji are kanji meant to explain their English urigana through the used in uncommon and unamiliar combinations. Tese denitions o the English terms are also tentative rather than absolute, as demonstrated by their shiting nature in the orm o ranslative/Contrastive o ranslative/Contrastive ateji . The rst instance of such variable meaning in Clover Clover occurs occurs with the word コード (code): General Kō: 手を [Give me your hand...] General Kō: 印をやろう
[...Let’s imprint (code)]
Kazuhiko: ．．．．．．機密事項か [...so it’s highly classied information
Columbia East Asia Review
39
then] Kazuhiko: いいのか／民間人に [Is it alright / giving it to a civilian] General Kō: 念を押さなくてもお前は口が固い [Y [You ou will keep kee p quiet even if I don’t remind you of how important it is] Kazuhiko: 緑の葉？ [A green leaf?] Kazuhiko: 認識表？ [ID graph (code)?]
暗号か？[A code (spell)?] General Kō: この仕事に必要なものだ [It is necessary for this job]
終わったら消える [Once you’ve nished it will vanish] Kazuhiko: なにをさせられるんだ？ [What are you going to have me do?] General Kō: 運んでほしいものがある [There is something I want you to transport]23 (Illustration 6)
In the above example, two diferent kanji are given or the word “code” (shirushi (imprint) and ninshikihyō (expression o recognition), as well as the kanji normally associated assoc iated with wit h the word “code” “code” (angō ) paired with the English Engl ish word “spell”. So what exactly does コード (code) mean here? Primarily it is a physical imprint, a seal, as indicated by the rst kanji . But within this physical orm lie multiple possibilities. It could be a orm o identication (associated with the kanji in the rst ateji ), ), or it could mean a spell (associated with the urigana in the rst ateji ). ). Te ateji 印 (imprint [code]) can thereore be viewed rom two perspectives: verbalization represented by the urigana and the physical presence represented by the kanji . Both carry equal semantic signicance or the speaker speaker.. Te uncertainty o the space created by the ateji in this excerpt is emphasized by its being let unresolved. Not only is the verbal orm dismissed when Kazuhiko’s question about it remains unanswered, but he is then inormed that even the physical orm will vanish. With both the physical and verbal orms discounted, we are let only with the potential that lies between the two, the potential to realize some task that relies upon both the physical orm and that physical orm’s deeper signicance embodied in the ateji 印. It is here that we can see the potential o ateji to occupy two diferent spaces simultaneously, creating an uncertain yet undeniably signicant space between the two. In a single instant it is a verb, a command, a orm o identication, a tool, an imprint, and a spell, symbolizing the deeper signicance 23 CLAMP, LAMP, CLOVER , Vol. I, trans. etsuto Sokura (okyo: Kodansha, 1997), 9-11.
Lewis • Painting Words and Worlds
40
behind what we are experiencing visually: the appearance o a lea tattooed through the physical transer o rays o data. In Clover there is also extensive use o ranslative/Contrastive ranslative/Contrastive and Contrastive ateji to represent the technological diferences between the science ction world o the story and the world o the reader. In these instances, many o the English and Japanese words in the urigana are amiliar: movie, norimono (vehicle), bus, plane, beam, modem. Te kanji they are paired with, however, are unamiliar, even i their meanings are oten close i not equivalent to the English meanings. Examples include: 記憶 [memory projection (movie)], 移動装 [movement device (vehicle)], 近距離転送 [short-distance transportation device (bus)], 瞬間転送装着 [instantaneous transportation device (plane)], 兵器召喚 [weapon-summoning [weapon-summ oning device (modem)], and 手動光 [manual light (beam)]. All o these ateji combine common words, particularly words that have become common in both English and Japanese since the computer technology boom in the 1990s, with complicated kanji -based -based words explaining the urigana’s specic context within the story.24 Tis allows the
Illustration Illustr ation 7: CLAMP 1997, 26
words the characters speak to sound natural and uid, as the Chinese-based kanji words in these instances would sound very ormal and rigid i spoken. At the same time, the ateji demonstrate that the technology behind these seemingly amiliar words in the world o the manga is ar more advanced than and ar diferent rom our own. Tese ateji combine the common with the technologically advanced, uidly presenting this world through the simultaneous use o the linguistic and visual aspects o the manga. Tey are explained and compared verbally as ollows: Kazuhiko: 移動装置だ [It’s a movement device (vehicle)] Kazuhiko: 藍が改造した な [Ran remodeled it, you see] Kazuhiko: どーみても近距離転送装置なくせに [Although to all appearances it’s a short-distance transportation device (bus)...] Kazuhiko: 瞬間転送装着より速いんだよ これが 24 CLAMP, CLOVER , 8, 26, 37, 45.
[...It’s faster than an
Columbia East Asia Review
41
instantaneous transportation device (plane), this one] Sue: こういうのは使ったことない [I’ve never used anything like this] Kazuhiko: どこの田舎少女（いなかしょうじょ）だ [What part the boonies are you from] Gingetsu: 軍が開発した兵器召喚装置だ ing device (modem) the government developed]
[This is the weapon-summon-
Kazuhiko: んなもん民間人に [Givin’ somethin’ like that to a civilian...] Gingetsu: 紘将軍の依頼だ
[General Kō’s orders]
Gingetsu: 楽にすむはずないだろう [You can’t expect things to go smoothly] Kazuhiko: また右手だけですむといいんだがな [Although it’d be nice if I could get by with just my right hand] Kazuhiko: もらっとく [I’ll take it]25 (Illustration 7)
Te efects o combining the casual with the technologically antastic are particularly remarkable in the above passage, where the modes o transportation in the comic (represented by the kanji ) are both compared to and contrasted with contemporary modes o transportation (represented by the urigana). As in our world, buses are or short trips and planes or high-speed travel over greater distances, but all orms o transportation here, as we are soon shown through images, rely upon teleportation rather than movement in the traditional sense. Kazuhiko’ Kazuhiko’s accusation o Sue being an ignorant countryside girl distances both Sue and the reader rom the new world she has entered; we are just as ignorant as she o the technological intricacies behind what initially appear to be amiliar machines. Trough this accusation, Sue Sue is able to exist in the rit separating the world o the reader rom the world o the story stor y. She hersel is as clueless about the technology as the reader, but she is also literally enveloped in it beore the reader’s eyes, her physical acceptance echoing and reinorcing the suspended disbelie o the reader. reader. Within this exchange, one item stands out in particular: the weapon-summoning device, or “modem,” 兵器召喚.Te modem is as oreign to the central character Kazuhiko as it is to the reader. Te reader’s attention to this object and the implications o its power and its place in the scene quickly supersedes the importance o the act that the characters are teleporting. By dismissing the rst three terms as normal but identiying the last as surprising, the writer orces the reader to ac25 CLAMP, CLOVER, 26-28.
42
Lewis • Painting Words and Worlds
cept the normality o the new technology and instead ocus on the modem as out o place. Tis also directs the reader to compare the our terms to determine what about the last one makes it so unique. It initially becomes apparent that while the urigana o the other three are transportation-based and common in contemporary language, the urigana “modem” or this ateji is technical and relatively uncommon. It also ocuses on the explicit transportation o weapons rather than on transportation in general. In the space o just over a page o text, thereore, the author is able to establish that teleportation is a common and normal means o transportation; that transportation is characterized by the amount o time it takes, the distance to which it can transport, and whether it is meant to transport people or weapons; and that the technology o transportation (specically that o weapons) is regulated by the government. While some o these conclusions ccould be drawn rom context, such a clear and concise construction o the antasy world vis-à-vis our own would not be possible without the use o ateji . Trough this example, we can see just one o the roles o ateji in Clover: it normalizes antastical technology and realities through the use o ranslative/Contrastive and ContrasIllustration 8: (CLAMP tive ateji , even as these ateji clearly distinguish the world o subasa I, 2003, 173) the story rom that o the reader reader.. Ateji are the oundation rom which the reader understands the world o the story. Without this oundation, the world would not be able to exist in this natural, yet strikingly diferent, universe that is separate rom but connected to our own. By redening “bus” and “plane,” the author establishes that what we consider to be buses and planes do not—cannot—exist in this reality. As a result, our concept o the world (as represented through words) cannot exist. Tese ateji demonstrate that words cannot be taken at ace value, on the denotative level. Rather, the idea that within a single word lies expansive and unrestrained potential is continually reinorced. Tis, along with the expansive use o white space and bleeds (where the ink travels to the edge o the page, unbound by panels), gives the comic a sense o expanding beyond the boundaries o its medium in terms o time, visual space, and verbal meaning. TSUBASA
Ateji in subasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE are undeniably integral to the story, with the central theme o the story stor y embodied in just two Contrastive ateji : 記憶 (memories [soul]) and 羽根 (eathers [shards]). subasa recounts the story o a princess named Sakura whose memories mysteriously transorm into wings, which then y away to multiple diferent dimensions. She and her childhood riend, Syaoran, em-
Columbia East Asia Review
43
bark on a journey to retrieve the eathers and thus return her memories. ransported ransported to another world, Syaoran and Sakura encounter Kurogane, a warrior orcibly removed rom a world to which he wants to return, and Fai, a wizard who wants to travel to worlds other than his own. Yūko, Yūko, also known as the Witch o Dimensions, bestows upon them Mokona, a creature capable o transporting the group to diferent worlds. Te story stor y revolves around the group group’’s travels to diferent worlds to collect Sakura’’s eathers, where they must recover any eathers located in that world in order Sakura to move on to the next. Te most memorable ateji in subasa are those used in relation to Sakura’s eathers and memories. Although the kanji or eathers and memories are usually paired with their normal readings in the urigana, the majority o Contrastive ateji in subasa relate to these two words, particularly in relation to the kanji or eather. Te priest in Syaoran and Sakura’s home world explains that “．．．．その羽根は姫 [.... those eathers are the princess’s memories (soul)]” and “サクラちゃんの記憶の羽根 [In order to take back the eathers eat hers (shards) o Sakura’s Sakura’s memories you must walk across various worlds]”26 (Illustration 1, Illustration 8). Te use o the word “shards” implies that these memories (eathers) are ragmented parts o a larger whole, and urthermore, that within these scattered memories lies a soul waiting to be unied. Ateji is not only used to illustrate a complex connection between the physical orm o eathers and the abstract conception o memories, but is also later used to signiy the connotation o the eathers as symbols o great power and inuence. Te use o ateji to attach more complex connotations to the eathers also parallels the rising signicance o the eathers in the story’ story’ss plot. Te concept o eathers as memory shards comprising the soul lies at the crux o the story, and this central idea is maniested through ateji . Te use o these two ateji are crucial to the understanding o the manga. subasa thus demonstrates the ability o ateji to carry a depth o meaning that is uniquely capable o embodying an entire storyline in only a ew words. CONCLUSION
Te Japanese language provides writers with unique possibilities or textual representation. Writers in Japanese have at their disposal our diferent writing scripts (rōmaji , hiragana, katakana, and kanji ); ); ten, a orm o emphasis that uses dots placed alongside words as accent marks; and most intriguingly, ateji , which uses a reading gloss, urigana, alongside kanji to combine two diferent di ferent words. Ateji can be used as a technique to explain unamiliar vocabulary, lend a eeling o oreignness to words, or broaden their meaning and implication. Diferent combinations o the scripts o Japanese, as ateji , printed in various onts and sizes, are paired with illustrations in order to create a uid text with a depth o meaning and character development that creates an efect unique to the Japanese language. Manga itsel occupies a unique linguistic space within the Japanese language. 26
CLAMP, subasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE , Vol. I, (okyo: Kodansha, 2003), 58, 173.
44
Lewis • Painting Words and Worlds
With a readership composed predominantly o children and youth, and unacknowledged as a legitimate orm o literature, manga writers have a reedom o expression not ound elsewhere in the Japanese language. As a predominantly visual medium, it is only natural to nd an emphasis on the way texts are written out and not simply on the dialogue. Although restricted by the relatively small vocabulary o their young readership, writers such as those rom CLAMP employ ateji with with an astounding depth o creativity creativity,, creating a complex semantic space unrivaled by novels. Yet Yet the ateji are presented with a clarity that allows even children to understand the text. It is through this use o ateji that CLAMP is able to imbue their stories, characters, and worlds with the wealth o detail and depth that I believe is the key to their popularity. popularity. Wordplay W ordplay in manga is constantly changing, paralleling the shiting visual, technological, and cultural landscape o the Japanese language. Trough manipulating v isually-oriented text, manga authors allow us to view the Japanese language manga’s visually-oriented under a new light. Although CLAMP’s CLAMP’s readership is mostly comprised o elementary elementar y school students, their very youth means that their sense o the language is still orming, and they are more open to its creative use. Te ways in which concepts are visually portrayed in CLAMP are thereore likely to be considered valid ways to present complex ideas and relationships, allowing or the ormation o a new understanding o the written language. It is thereore precisely in the medium o manga that the written Japanese language is growing and evolving.
WORKSCITED Ariga, Chieko. “Te Playul Gloss: Rubi in Japanese Literature.” Literature.” Monumenta Nipponica: Studies on Japanese Culture Past and Present 44, no. 3 (1989): 309 -335. CLAMP. Kādo Kyaputā Sakura [Cardcaptor Sakura]. Vol. I. Reprint, okyo: Kodansha, 1996. ———. CLOVER . Vol. I. ranslated by etsuto Sokura. okyo: Kodansha, 1997. ———. subasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE . Vol. I. okyo: Kodansha, 2003. ———. subasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE . Vol. II. okyo: Kodansha, 2003. ———. subasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE . Vol. III. okyo: Kodansha, 2003. ———. xxxHOLiC . Vol. I. okyo: Kodansha, 2003. CLAMP no no Kiseki [CLAMP’s Season] 10, ———. “CLAMP intabyū [xxxHOLiC] [CLAMP interview (xxxHOLiC)].” CLAMP no. 5 (2005): 5. Delassus, Pauline. July 17 2009. “Plus qu’un Clamp, un empire!” ParisM ParisMatch.com. atch.com. http://www.parismatch.com/Cultur http://www.parismatch.com/CultureeMatch/Livres/Actu/Plus-qu-un-ClampMatch/Livres/Ac tu/Plus-qu-un-Clamp-un-empire-!un-empire-!-113630/ 113630/ (accessed December 15 2009). Festival Festiv al International de la Bande Dessiné. 2009. CLAMP “Te Queens o Manga. Manga.”” http://www.bdangouleme.com/ http://www.bdangouleme.com/ exhibition-to-rent-316-clampthe-q exhibition-to-r ent-316-clampthe-queens-o-manga ueens-o-manga (accessed December 14 2009). Ibaraki Masahiro. 2008. Te reminiscence o my 25 years with Shonen Jump. March 31, 2008. Comipress. rans. and adapted by . . Ohara. Prooread and adapted by Anthony Andora. http://comipres http://comipress.com/article/2008/03/31/3452 s.com/article/2008/03/31/3452 (accessed November 3, 2009). Jones, Sumie. 1985. Language in Crisis: Ogyu Sorai’s Philosophical Tought and Hiraga Gennai’s Creative Practice. In Principles o Classical Japanese Literature, ed. Earl Miner, 209-256. Princeton: Princeton University Press. World: Comicbook Culture and the Kibyo ̄ shi o Edo Japan. Cambridge: Harvard Kern, Adam L. Manga rom the Floating World: University Asia Center, 2006. Makino, Seiichi. 2009. What will be lost in translation? A cognitive linguistic view. view. Fith Shirato Lecture on Japanese Language, Donald Keene Center, New York. Matsumoto Shigenobu. “Dueru Masutazu Sutā Kurosu [Duel Masters: Star Cross].” Getsukan Coro Coro [Coro Coro
Columbia East Asia Review
45
Monthly], no. 4 (2009): 119-156. McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: Te Invisible Art . New York: HarperPerennial, 1993. Miller, Roy Andrew. Te Japanese Language . Chicago: University o Chicago Press, 1967. Yabuno enya. “Inazuma Irebun [Lightning Strike No. 11].” Getsukan Coro Coro [Coro Coro Monthly], no. 4 (2009): 289-324. Yoshida Y oshida Daisuke. “CLAMP ga egaku sekai to kizuna [Te worlds and bonds CLAMP draws].” Da Vinchi [DaVinci ], ], Mar.6 (2009): 24-27. Videos: Cardcaptor Sakura. Episode 1. Directed by Kumiko akahashi. Written by Nanase Ohkawa. Madhouse, 1998.
