<- Back to Chapter 10 | [Back to the Table of Contents] | Forward to Chapter 12 -> Chapter 11 A Nameless Stone In the beginning, nothing in this world had a name; it was a world in which all things were mixed together in chaos. However, the gods from those ancient times gave a name to each thing there was in it, and so the orderly world we see today was born. When naming a thing, a new border is created that gives that one thing its own individual recognition; you could say that the power of naming is the power to bring forth something from nothingness - surely the same power as a god's. And, given the strength of this power, the things themselves remember those names - and that is why I can see those names in them. *** I left the window open, so as to allow the summer breeze into the store. Outside, there was a summer shine too strong for people to go walking. It wasn't so bad inside the shop, but just so as to enjoy the breeze a little more, I hung a wind chime near the window. *Knock-knock.* "You're there, right?" "I am, but...why are you so happy? Not that that's rare for you, Marisa." "I dunno if it's rare or not," she said as she took of her hat and sat atop a pile of merchandise. Even if she wants to play cool, it's way too hot today; it's full-blown summer outside, and she has that big skirt and frilly dress. I kind of worried if that big black hat and heavy clothing of Marisa's wasn't too hot for her. But the big hat should block most of the sunrays, so maybe she was unexpectedly comfortable? "Ahh, it's so hot my head could cook! Oh, and I picked up this thing; could it be from the outside world?" "Hm?" Marisa took out a small, square stone. Surprisingly, it had some metal legs growing from it. Quite a mysterious stone. "This...yes, definitely an outside world stone." "Makes sense, makes sense...a weird stone like this couldn't possibly be from Gensokyo. So, is there something interesting about it?" Marisa seemed very happy. "This is called a 'semiconductor chip;' it's a manmade stone used in the outside world. Basically, it's something they use when controlling shikigami. But, unfortunately, it doesn't have any use by itself." "Oh, is that so? What's it lacking?" "That much I don't know; only that it is a part from a bigger tool. Stones like this are originally used by putting a number of them together. By doing that, you can apparently give all kinds of commands to a shikigami." "I see - so it really is of no use all by itself. Oh well, I'll just use it as an amulet." Saying that, Marisa stuck the chip to the ribbon in her hat. Now understanding what exactly the stone was that she had brought, Marisa now looked satisfied enough, and was now reading a book. When used by people who know how to use them, semiconductor chips are said to be capable of almost anything. So even if she doesn't know a concrete way of using it, maybe a thing capable of doing all kinds of things would be well-suited to be an amulet; in terms of size, it's no bigger than a thumb, and so it doesn't really get in the way, so it might as well be good for that. I didn't make up that name, however; it had already been named. The difference between Marisa and myself is just one of being able or unable to sense this name. Perceiving and object's feelings and perceiving its memories are things that come together. It's a matter of having love for them; just by having this love, something like knowing a name becomes trivial. *Knock-knock.* "Are you there?" "Yup, I am!" Marisa answered. "Ah, there you are, Marisa- wait, not you! I was asking if Rinnosuke was here!" "Ah, Reimu? I am. What is it today?" "I have something I want you to take a look at," she was saying as she entered the store on her own. "What is it? If it's tea you want, there is some over here." "Oh, really? You're awfully well-prepared." She came back with a rice cracker in her hand. She was too damn shrewd. "So what's the thing ya wanna show?" For some reason, Marisa was asking instead of me. "Yes, yes...I wanted you to take a look at this stone." Another stone. So Reimu brought some stone from the outside world or something? Not that I think that finding a stone is such great joy though. To make a tool out of a stone, it would have to be something like a paperweight or a flint stone. "It's really big, but isn't it just a normal stone?" Marisa asked. "Look closely." "Let me see it. Oh, but this is..." The stone she handed me had the shape of part of an animal's backbone. So basically, this wasn't a stone, but a bone. That in itself wasn't strange, but its huge size was; it was a piece of backbone as big as one's hand: quite big indeed. "This is some kind of bone, isn't it? The kind of stone they call a 'fossil,' right? I came because I thought you would know what kind of fossil it is, Rinnosuke." Hm. This stone does indeed looks like a fossil. Marisa once again saw fit to answer for me: "A fossil bone, huh? But if there was an animal big enough for this bone, it woulda been pretty damn big, right? Like, bigger than Kourindou! But there were some animals as big as this long ago. What animal is the bone from?" So Marisa also thought this fossil was from a dead animal. But originally, fossils were not things that were buried in the ground; "fossil" is what the people who dug them up called them afterward. So to think that there were animals this big long ago is a huge misunderstanding. I can't just let that pass without teaching them why fossilized bones look like they belong to animals impossibly big for today's standards. "Ahh, Reimu, Marisa...it seems like you both have a great misconception." No matter how strong the summer sun is, the store's interior is dark. And evern though the store is crammed full of merchandise, the ventilation isn't bad. Gensokyo is a mountainous region, so the wind basically never stops. That way, even in summertime, it feels comfortable inside the shop. The wind blowing through the window made the chime sound. But it was also making some of Kourindou's mysterious merchandise rattle, so the wind chime's sound was half-drowned. I thought that if they keep gettig hit by the wind like this, some of the items might soon end up broken. But since they weren't likely to be sold, and since I get a steady arrival of new goods, I didn't mind it too much. Of course, the really valuable items are all kept safe elsewhere. "What kind of misconception? Anyone would think this is a bone no matter how they looked at it." "Oh, this is indeed a bone - but it is not a fossil, you see." "It does seem to have turned to stone..." "A fossil is 'a stone of petrified bone named after the animal it originally belonged to.' It only becomes a fossil after the name of its animal becomes known; until then, it has no name, and is not particularly distinct from any other stone." "In this case, if I ask you the name of the animal it belonged to, it will become a fossil?" "That would indeed be the case, but...that would be impossible; this animal was from before the time the gods gave names to everything: it's a nameless animal. This is the only kind of thing that even my ability can not identify." "Well...in that case, since I discovered it, I can name it, right?" At the same time that the power to name is a god's power, the gods themselves didn't have names in the beginning. Like with Takemikazuchi no Mikoto or Hachiman, the gods' names we are familiar with nowadays only represent but one aspect of these gods; Takemikazuchi no Mikoto was originally Mikatsuchi ("pot spirit"), and, just as the name implies, he was a god lodged in a jar. When his name changed to Takemikazuchi, he changed from a god of sorcery (as implied by the "pot" character) to a god of swordsmanship (as implied by the "thunder" character). By changing its name, a god changes its nature, which is evidence that a god's name is only one aspect of their selves. In the beginning, the gods had a much more ambiguous shape; they were nameless entities with no particular distinctions. Conversely, the gods who still retain their original form can only lodge in things from before the naming, because if a god were lodged in something that had a name, then it could only express one of its aspects. "Are you saying that you want to make this be a fossil instead of a bone?" "That's not what I meant...it's just that not knowing its name gives me a bad feeling, you see. And I'm curious as to what kind of creature could be an animal this big." "You say that the owner of this bone was big? That's your biggest misconception." "But--" "Try to imagine an animal large enough for this bone: its height would by far surpass this shop, and its length would be as big as the shrine grounds. There's no way an animal this big could have lived. First, think of how much food it would have to gather, and there is no way it could move its body around quickly. And how would it be able to take care of its children and bring them enough food? There couldn't possibly have been an animal that needed a body so big." "Eh? But here is its bone, isn't it? And where I found this fossil - or fossil-like thing - it was full of them, so what are all those, then?" Strangely, Marisa seemed to have become disinterested, and was reading a book. I guess she didn't care about things like ancient animals. Except that this isn't a story about an ancient animal - it's about how things come to be like they are today. "This bone's proprietor was originally normal-sized, and this bone used to be just large enough, as those we know nowadays. But after it died and its flesh went back to earth, its bones continued to grow. Proof of that was discovered only recently since those huge fossils started to attract attention and were made a fuss of. Some time ago, they were still too small, and nobody would find or make a fuss about them." "Are you telling me that after it died, the bone went on growing by itself? There's no way that could happen." "Of course, normally, something like this wouldn't happen. But then, why did the bone get so big? Ah yes. The reason is that this isn't actually a fossil. Because it's actually from an animal from before the naming of things, you see." I picked up my cup of tea. The tea had already warmed a bit, but, of course, I let that happen on purpose; only people like Reimu can drink hot tea with a straight face on such a summer day. "Not having a name means that this animal didn't have any particular individuality; it just blended with the world. You couldn't say it was 'stone,' 'bone,' 'soil,' or 'animal' - it just was. It was something close to a god's original form. Therefore, it was the only kind of thing a god could take lodge in. And so that in the distant future it could regain flesh and reign above ground, these god-bearing bones are enlarging to a size fit for itself." "Wait, wait...wait a moment! Your talk is going all over and I'm not following." "Really? But it's easy. The bone you have is part of an individual that will turn into the incarnation of a god." "I somehow doubt that." "The fact that it continues to grow is one evidence, but there's an even more definite proof. The fact that even with my ability, I can't know its name just by looking - which is to say that it doesn't have a name." "Well...I can't really judge that myself...and then, what kind of god will this bone become?" "Can't you just imagine at once? An incarnation of a god with such a huge backbone. Even in Gensokyo, you rarely see one...but I'm sure you know about them." "Ahh, of course. So that was it...now I get it." The day was starting to end; the sky was slightly tinged in red. The midday heat had pretty much subsided; only the sound of the wind chime was left there to remind of the day's heat. The two of them seemed satisfied enough, and went back. Of course, not even I can see the names of things that come from before the age when the gods gave names to things. But when the humans find a bone from this age, they just go and give those names as they please. And when they do that, a nameless piece of a god becomes established as just another stone; this is what they call a fossil. When a piece of a god turns into a fossil, it then stops growing. And when a human sees this bone stopped halfway through its huge transformation and says something like "long ago, there were animals this big," you can only feel a little pity for their lack of imagination. *Knock-knock.* "Uh...there was one more thing I forgot to ask." Reimu had come back, just as I was taking off the wind chime and closing the window. "What is it? Still something about the bone?" "From your story, I understood that this bone was 'a part of a dragon.' But, in the place where I found it, I also found a lot of old shellfish fossils. And those are sea animals, right? Do you know why they were there? Could it be that Gensokyo was underwater long ago? Even though it's so deep in the mountains..." Humans with such a scarce imagination are indeed pitiful. To think that "because there are sea creatures buried in the soil, this place too was underwater long ago" is simply too pitiful. "Really? So there were shells buried along with the dragon bone...and why does that make you think Gensokyo was underwater long ago?" "What? Well, isn't it true, then? If a place that was sea becomes dry land, the shellfish would get left behind." "Not at all. If the change to land is slow, all the sea creatures would have fled to the open sea. On the other hand, if there were a disaster big enough to turn sea into land instantly, the shells most likely wouldn't have remained in their original shape. In any case, there's no way they would keep still in one place and turn to stone." "If you say so...but what are those shells, then?" "Because dragons, you see, have to be born in the sea. And for them to be reborn, the resting place of their bones must be like the sea. So, the shellfish are there for this image." "I've never heard of such a story. About dragons not being able to revive away from the sea, that is." I really wished that Reimu, who is a shrine maiden, would have more knowledge about gods than myself. But the again, she's just a child, so I guess I'll have to teach her again. "Dragons are reborn during a thunderstorm in the sea, rise to the skies, and soar through the heavens. Proof of that is given by the fact that the sea, the rain, and the heaven were all named by the dragons." "You seem to know a lot, though I can't be sure if this is all true." "The reason is that sea, rain and heaven are all essentially the same word, because the characters for each of the three of them can all be read as 'ama': The word for 'fishermen' is often read as 'ama,' which proves it actually means 'amabito,' which means 'people of the sea.' 'Rain umbrella' is read as 'amagasa,' and the 'Heaven River' (the Milky Way) is read as 'ama no gawa.' Dragons call up thunderstorms while soaring through the heavens, and the Dragon Palace is said to be at the middle of the sea. So even you can see that they have a profound connection with water, can't you, Reimu?" I saw that Reimu was still a little doubtful, but I wanted to improve her imaginitive capacities, so I continued. "One more thing as proof that dragons run through the three 'ama,' there are the rainbows that cross the sky. The ones that appear after a storm are the traces of a dragon's appearance." "Ah, of course. I guess I understand now." "That's right; for a dragon to be born, the three 'ama' must be present. The rain and the heaven are, but Gensokyo doesn't have a sea - that's why the dragon creates an illusionary sea. And, as an image of this illusionary sea, there are the clam stones that sleep alongside him." Reimu seemed convinced, and went back to the shrine just before it became dark. Of the story about the dragon's stone that I taught Reimu and Marisa today, none of it was made up by me. Only I know about that, but the truth is that fossil stones are also called a dragon's in the outside world. Dire Dragon, Winged Dragon, Sea Dragon...they have lots of names for referring to them. I believe that story I told just now is considered to be common knowledge outside of Gensokyo. By the way, in Gensokyo, when a dragon (the animal) turns into a dragon god, those bones are not fossils, but living bones. The reason why that happens is because the ancient animals in Gensokyo are not named. And not being named, it means that their bones refuse to turn into fossils, and keep growing. *** There is no way I would give a name to something from before the age of naming. As for the things that even my ability can't sense the names of, I don't delve too deep in my memory about them; this would be the same as borrowing the power of the gods without permission - and I can't see that as anything other than egotistic haughtiness. <- Back to Chapter 10 | [Back to the Table of Contents] | Forward to Chapter 12 ->