“Urusai(五月蠅い)” and “Yakamashii(八釜しい)” are substitute characters（当て字） invented by Natsume Soseki.

＜prologue＞

I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.

So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.

It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.

It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.

If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.

I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.

my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています

There’s a widely held belief that the phrase “shoulder stiffness（肩凝り）” was coined by Natsume Soseki (1867-1916). However, closer investigation reveals that it was in use even before that.

However, Natsume Soseki was also a master of coining various new words, and other words that are said to be his are also said to be “metabolism”（「新陳代謝」）, “reflection”(「反射」), “unconscious”(「無意識」), “value”(「価値」), and “electricity”,（「電力」） While there’s no definitive proof,…

On the other hand, Natsume Soseki was also a master of “ateji” (writing a kanji character). When reading his novels, you’ll encounter a variety of “ateji.” However, his ateji have a certain charm, a sense of humor, and a subtle charm.

1. Urusai(「五月蠅い」) (noisy)

As you know, “urusai” means “loud and annoying; noisy; intrusive and bothersome.”

The word’s etymology comes from “uru,” an alternating vowel form of “ura,” meaning “heart,” combined with the adjective “sashi,” meaning “narrow.” It meant that the mind was disturbed by some kind of stimulus and became closed off.

By the way, these days, due to strict public health measures and increased airtightness in homes, flies are rarely seen. The old house I lived in as a child, built in the 1880s, had a lattice door at the front door, and the dirt floor exit leading to the backyard was open to allow air to circulate. The tatami room facing the front garden was also left open, so flies, mosquitoes, dragonflies, and sometimes moths and dung beetles were free to come and go as they pleased.

Now, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, people no longer keep their windows closed, so insect repellents like the “Hanging Mushi Conners” popularized by Masami Nagasawa’s commercials are apparently selling well. It seems like more and more people are becoming afraid of insects these days.

When flies come flying around in May, they fly away as soon as you shoo them away, but after a while they return to the same place. They then make a gesture as if rubbing their hands or feet. This is exactly as in Kobayashi Issa’s haiku, “Don’t hit them, the flies are shuffling their feet(「やれ打つな蠅が手をすり足をする」).” Apparently, this is because the flies are cleaning the sensors on their feet.

It’s true that flies from May to June seem to fly around and cling to you no matter how much you chase them, and Soseki must have found them annoying. I think the kanji for “May flies” is very apt.

By the way, “May flies” is pronounced “sabae” and is a word used in the “Nihon Shoki” and “Man’yoshu.”

“At night, the fuss of the blazing fires is loud, and by day, the fuss of May flies rises.” (Nihon Shoki)

「夜は若熛火（ほへのへもころ）に喧騒（おとな）ひ、昼は如五月蠅（さはえなす）沸き騰る」（日本書紀）

“At the gate of the prince whom I had relied on, the fussing servants at the gate of the prince, clad in white robes, behaving with their usual laughter.” (Man’yoshu)

「かくしもがもと頼めりし皇子の御門の五月蠅なす騒ぐ舎人は　白栲に衣取り着て常なりし笑ひ振舞ひ」（万葉集）

“May flies” refers to flies that appear around the fifth month of the lunar calendar, and also means something noisy or swarming. “Satsuki nasu” is a pillow word that accompanies words such as “to make a fuss,” “to be wild,” and “to boil.”

Even at the time the Nihon Shoki and Manyoshu were compiled, “sabae nasu” was still in use to describe “the state of being irritated or fed up with unpleasant objects or sounds,” so perhaps Soseki cleverly took the existing word “sabae nasu” and used it as a kanji to mean “noisy” (noisy), thereby popularizing it to the general public?

It is also said that the kanji “五月蠅い(Urusai)” was first used by Higuchi Ichiyo in her novel “The Thirteenth Night.”

2. Yakama-shii（八釜しい） (Noisy)

“Yakama-shii（八釜しい）” means “loud, noisy, or unpleasant voices or sounds.”

The word’s etymology is derived from “iyakamashi”（「弥囂し（いやかまし）」）. “Iya” is a prefix meaning “more and more,” and “kamashi” means “noisy.”

By the way, when written as “yakama-shii” as in Natsume Soseki’s ateji, one can imagine the “sound of eight kettles clashing” or the “sound of eight kettles banging together,” which really gets the noisy feeling. Alternatively, Soseki may have had in mind the “boiling sound” of eight kettles, but that would seem too tame and doesn’t convey the “noisy” feeling.

3. Other Ateji

Natsume Soseki is famous for his frequent use of ateji (Japanese syllabary), and some of his other ateji include:

Strange・ Funny（可笑しい：おかしい）

Anyway（兎に角：とにかく）

Recklessly (無闇に・無暗に：むやみに)

As expected（矢張り：やはり）

Quite・As much as possible（矢張り：やはり）

As much as possible （可成：なるべく）

I see（成程：なるほど）

With all my effort (at great expense)（切角・折角）

Refreshingly（薩張り：さっぱり）

Intentional・Deliberate（故意とらしい：わざとらしい）