Thoroughly! Trivial! Tuesday!
This week, allow me to present Aka-Beko:
“Aka-beko” is Japanese for…”Red Cow?” “Red Ox?” For some red ungulate, anyway. Long ago—in 807—a temple was being constructed in Fukushima, when a large red ox appeared and made itself useful ferrying construction materials from place to place. The story of the ox became popular among the people of Fukushima, as did small papier-mache replicas of same. The children of Fukushima couldn’t get enough of these things.
At some point, a smallpox epidemic devastated the area, and legend has it that the only children who survived were those who had aka-beko toys. Today, papier-mache aka-beko are sold as talismans for good health.
I got mine from my brother when I was in high school. I went through an intense Japanophilic phase back then, and Aka-Beko has been one of my dearest possessions ever since. The head of Aka-Beko was originally attached by a string so that it might bob at me reassuringly, but at some point the string broke:
I am not sure what this means for my future health.
8 Comments
It’s a good sign. Wouldn’t we all love to be able to take our heads off every now and then and give it a rest?
The problem, I have found, is not so much in removing my head as it is being able to put it back on.
Very cool! It reminds me of the ’spirit’ animal carvings (I think that is the name) from Oaxaca. Nice backstory!
Sarge lived in Japan for six years and he never ever brought me back one of these. I wonder about what that means for my marriage….
By the way, Saxby Chambliss to you! He got elected today and I’ve been dying to say that someone who’d get it.
It means you need to learn all about the beauty of elastics when re-attaching toy heads.
Nothing more.
At first click I thought this was a horrifying mask. Nightmares! Creepy!
And now…I can see that it’s not, but I still see what I first saw…you know?
ohh thats a neat story! I hope you can fix him! I am sure your health is fine :)
what did you do to its nose? it looks… a bit scraped with the paint loss and what-not.
I lived in Tokyo for a year. My treasured souvenir from that magical land is a pornographic sake set that is illustrated with Japanese men and Geishas engaged in various impossibly awkward sexual embraces. I’m fairly certain that sake is good for one’s overall health but the naked acrobatics depicted on the cups are downright dangerous… But that is a story for another post.