＜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
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
・北杜夫・養老孟司・奥本大三郎・福島和可菜など「虫屋」と呼ばれる人々を紹介！
During my elementary school years, like many boys at the time, I loved rhinoceros beetles and stag beetles and was engrossed in insect collecting.
However, as I entered junior high school, my interest in insects gradually faded.
But that “spark of insect love” remained, and in middle age, I even tried my hand at “breeding rhinoceros beetles for generations.”
However, there are people who have loved insects not only as children but also as adults. They are called “mushiya” (insect enthusiasts) (not “insect sellers”).
A “mushiya” is someone who is a “maniacal insect enthusiast” who goes beyond simply “liking insects.”
This time, I would like to introduce some famous “mushiya.”
1. Kita Morio
Kita Morio (1927-2011) was a novelist, essayist, and psychiatrist (Doctor of Medicine). His father was the poet and psychiatrist Saito Mokichi, and his brother was Saito Shigeta. During his boyhood, he spent his days engrossed in insect collecting (especially scarab beetles) and apparently had no interest in literature. Sadly, most of the insect specimens he collected were lost in the Tokyo air raids.
During the chaotic period from the war to the postwar era, he enrolled in the old Matsumoto High School with the aim of becoming an entomologist like Fabre, but there he encountered the works of Thomas Mann, which awakened his interest in literature and became the catalyst for his ambition to become a writer.
His insect collecting is described in detail in “Dr. Manbo’s Insect Chronicles.”
Incidentally, his novel “The Elm People” is a very interesting “Bildungsroman” influenced by Thomas Mann.
2. Yoro Takeshi
Yoro Takeshi (born 1937) is an anatomist and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. He became very famous with his book “The Wall of Stupidity,” published in 2003, which became a bestseller (4.19 million copies sold).
After graduating from the University of Tokyo School of Medicine, during his internship, he nearly made a medical error by misidentifying a patient’s blood type during surgery. This completely shattered his confidence, and he abandoned the path of a doctor who interacted with patients, instead pursuing anatomy. His reasoning was that he believed “anatomy, which deals with dead humans, is the most reliable field of medicine.”
His interest in insect collecting is not in common insects like rhinoceros beetles or stag beetles, but rather in small insects about 1 cm long, such as weevils. Are you familiar with the rice weevil (Rice Weevil)? In the past, they were sometimes found in rice stored in rice bins.
He scans the insects he collects and creates digital encyclopedias, and reportedly houses about 100,000 insect specimens at his villa in Hakone. He has also published a book titled “Takeshi Yoro’s Digital Insect Encyclopedia.”
He states that his reason for liking insects is “because there are many things about them that don’t make logical sense (and that’s what makes them interesting).”
3. Okumoto Daisaburo
Okumoto Daisaburo (born 1944) is a French literature scholar and essayist.
He also serves as the chairman of the NPO “Japan Henri Fabre Society” and the director of the “House of the Poet of Insects” (Fabre Insect Museum).
He spent over a decade publishing the “Complete Translation of Fabre’s Book of Insects” (10 volumes, 20 books), and his lifelong love of insects has led him to write numerous essays on the subject.
His works include “The Insect Collector’s Lost Letters,” “The Cosmology of Insects,” and “Insect Diary on a Walk,” among many others.
4. Fukushima Wakana
I previously introduced Fukushima Wakana (born 1982) in an article for “A Casual Trip to That Town: A Run,” and it turns out she’s a stag beetle enthusiast who even tried her hand at breeding Dorcus rectus (a type of stag beetle). Her passion for stag beetles led her to appear on the bonus DVD included with “See and Learn! Enjoying Stag Beetles with Your Family,” published by Shufu to Seikatsu Sha.
While a young woman dedicated to insects is quite unusual, she has a unique background as a former member of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, and currently works as a talent, marathon runner, and ultramarathon runner, engaging in a variety of activities.