A ‘ghost’ that never gives thanks

Ayako Miura wrote her only play in response to a request from the organizing committee of an annual Christmas event hosted by local evangelical and Catholic churches in Asahikawa city, Hokkaido. It was later published by Chea Japan as a picture book, Christmas at the Sparrow’s Inn. On November 17, 2015, a troupe called Budō no Ki (Grapevine) performed a dramatization of the story in a play titled “The Christmas of the Sparrow with a Cut Tongue” at the Korean YMCA in Japan in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo. Following the performance, Mr. Tatsue Morishita, a representative of Ayako Miura Book Appreciation Society, gave a talk on “The Wicker Basket that Swallows up Ghosts.”

The main characters in the play are a sparrow that gets its tongue cut (Chiko), a greedy old lady (Obāsan), her husband (Ojīsan), and Jesus. The story depicts sin as both a wicker basket and ghosts. It illustrates how Obāsan and even Ojīsan, who was regarded as a righteous man, had sin in their hearts, and how Jesus carried those sins to the cross and paid the price for them.

In his talk, Morishita commented, “Ayako was a sparrow that had its tongue cut. She was an elementary school teacher when World War 2 broke out in 1939. Ayako obeyed the militaristic orders and taught her students, ‘You are to sacrifice your life for your country. This is the honorable Japanese way of living.’ However, when Japan lost the war, she had to instruct them to blot out the militaristic sections of their textbooks in black ink. Ayako no longer felt qualified to teach, and she resigned from her position. I think I can say she was very much like a sparrow whose tongue had been cut.”

“There were ghosts [symbolic of sin] inside Obāsan and Ojīsan. Do we realize in our daily lives, that we also have ghosts inside of us?” Morishita continued. “I feel Ayako is questioning through her story whether we have become ghosts without realizing it. A large prideful ghost even came out of Ojīsan. A Bible was placed in Ojīsan’s wicker basket, but he never read it. And it is the Bible that reminds us of the ghosts inside all of us.”

Morishita had an aunt with mental disabilities. He continued with his testimony of how he became aware of a ‘ghost’ inside of him through this aunt. “Because of her mental disability, my aunt caused much trouble. Gradually I began to wish my aunt was gone. I stopped using her name to address her, but instead said ‘Hey you.’ But when my daughter was born, my aunt said to her, ‘Thank you for being born.’ It was my aunt who spoke heaven’s language, and it was then that I realized I was a ‘ghost’ who never gave thanks.”

“Jesus says to me, ‘Thank you,’ just because of who I am and not because of my deeds. It is only a true Christmas if we can respond to Jesus’ love by saying to Him, ‘Thank you for coming into this world for someone like me.’” Morishita concluded, “I believe Ayako’s desire for all her readers was that they receive Jesus, who will carry their wicker baskets, into their hearts.” 

From Christian Shimbun, November 25, 2015
Translated by: Hiromi Kiuchi

Photo contributed by Christian Shimbun