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"Rojin-ryu" (The Way of the Elderly)

Publish: March 30, 2020

Writer Profile

  • Tomomi Muramatsu

    Other : Author

    ÎçÒ¹¾ç³¡ alumni. *The character for "mi" in the name is written with the radical for "show" next to "see."

    Tomomi Muramatsu

    Other : Author

    ÎçÒ¹¾ç³¡ alumni. *The character for "mi" in the name is written with the radical for "show" next to "see."

In this day and age, where books about the elderly are overflowing, I would like to offer a brief explanation¡ªor rather, a deposition¡ªas to why I dared to publish a book titled "Rojin-ryu." The characteristic of my works themed around the "elderly" is a stance filled with envy toward those who are truly elderly, coming from someone like myself who is a late-stage senior citizen yet still unable to grasp the true value or spiritual state of being "elderly."

For example, there is a line spoken by a 95-year-old grandmother bedridden with illness, which has become a famous funny story among my relatives, addressed to my uncles who came to visit her.

As my uncles were about to leave after mumbling some vague words, the grandmother sat up in her sickbed and stopped them. "There's something I've been wanting to ask you all..." she said, blinking her eyes and peering meaningfully into their eyes. My uncles felt a flicker of apprehension, wondering if she was about to talk about her inheritance. The grandmother peered into their eyes once more and said,

"I really wanted to ask you all... am I an old man or an old woman?"

That is what she reportedly blurted out. My uncles were apparently stunned and depressed, thinking she had finally lost it, and left the place quickly. However, after the grandmother passed away, it remained as a funny story.

When I heard this, I tilted my head in wonder. Wasn't the grandmother simply trying to make the uncles who came to visit her laugh with that line? My uncles were unable to fully receive the grandmother's "Rojin-ryu"¡ªa gesture full of consideration intended to instantly brighten the gloomy atmosphere of the visitors. Because of their conventional sensitivities¡ªold age, weakness, sympathy, kindness¡ªthey let the 95-year-old's incomparable, humor-filled "killer move" end in a hollow misfire.

However, much like the "three-year kill" technique in karate, the bitterness of this unparalleled humor that spun its wheels at the time was later made over into a funny story after her death, and is now told as a symbolic episode of the grandmother. Truly, the vitality of "Rojin-ryu" is strong.

Well, this kind of chain of "Rojin-ryu" is the outline of this book.

Tomomi Muramatsu

Kawade Shobo Shinsha

200 pages, 1,200 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and job titles are as of the time of publication.

Writing Notes