Friday, June 6, 2014
Hidemi’s Rambling No.517
There’s an old Japanese custom called ‘Age of Thirteen Visit’. A child
who reaches thirteen years old by the traditional system of age
reckoning visits a specific local shrine to receive wisdom. The
important event has one critical rule. The thirteen-year-old visitor
should never look back until they pass through the shrine’s gate after
the visit. If it happens, wisdom they’ve just gotten is returned. Every
time a topic of the visit was brought up by some chance in my childhood,
my mother would strictly instruct me not to look back when my visit
came. It had become a repeated threat for me. After those years, I
reached eleven years old, which is thirteen by the traditional system,
and the day for the visit arrived. I was so tensed and nervous because
of years of my mother’s threat. I got dressed up with kimono and my
mother put a wig on my hair to make me look grown-up. While I was greedy
enough to look forward to getting wisdom, I was anxious about looking
back as much. From the moment we left home, my mother kept reminding me
not to look back at the shrine. As the pressure had accumulated, a sense
of panic had been built inside of me. By the time we prayed at the
altar in the shrine and started leaving, I was panicky. On the spot
about only several yards to the exit gate, I couldn’t stop myself and
looked over my shoulder. I blundered away my once-in-a-lifetime visit.
My mother made sure I didn’t look back when we passed the gate. I lied
and said no. On our way home, we dropped by my aunt’s house. She noticed
that I was wearing a wig. But when she pointed it out, my mother
instantly denied it. I didn’t understand why she had to lie about such a
small thing like a wig, but she just insisted it was my real hair. My
aunt slipped beside me when we were about to leave and asked me if it
was a wig. Although I said yes indifferently, she triumphantly uttered,
“I knew it!” She sounded as if she had beaten me and I felt annoyed. I
hated my mother’s totally unnecessary lie. And as for me, I went through
a terrible teenage life with my own trifling lies. I believe that was
because I had returned wisdom at the shrine on my Age of Thirteen Visit…