Learning a language: one phrase at a time!

March 9, 2010 2:29 PM

Is the Japanese "umi hoozuki" a colloquialism for a type of bell or chime or something?

My Japanese is very weak, but from what I understand, umi hoozuki is defined as the egg case of a marine snail (whelk). But I've also found several places where it's translated as 'the ocean's [black] cherry blossom/seed'.

Specifically, there is a song titled Umi Hoozuki by Meiko Kaji. And from my sorely limited understanding of the lyrics, the song seems to be in celebration of a summer fair or religious holiday. Of course I could just be waaaaay off base with what little translation I can gather, but the chorus line with the title phrase seems to imply the ringing of a [bell?] or sounding/clanging/alarm of the Umi Hoozuki.

But that doesn't make sense if Umi Hoozuki is an ocean snail's egg case! Hope me, please. Is this a colloquialism that I'm missing?

posted by Eicats to Writing & Language (2 answers total)

Best answer: It seems as though the "umi hozuki" (海ほおずき) is a kind of sea snail (but not a Nautilus) that was collected because its egg case creates a kind of whistle.

Perhaps the whistle was used as part of a summer festival - see below.

July, 1950] THE NAUTILUS 3

ceremony according to the Buddhist rites for the repose of the
oysters' souls.

What is probably the most curious conchological monument
in the world is in Tokyo. It is typically Japanese in concept
and there is, naturally, a story behind it.

One of the common amusements of the women and children
of Japan is blowing tiny whistles made from the egg-cases of
various marine gastropods. This whistle-blowing is a custom
dating from the Genroku era (1688-1704) and is common among
Geisha girls and women workers in mills and factories. It is
as prevalent as gum-chewing in America and in fact the little
whistles are sometimes called ''musical chewing gum."

In the making of these whistles, the egg-cases of five species
of marine gastropods are used. These are gathered wild or may
be cultivated by confining the adult animals in bamboo enclosures
so that they lay their eggs on rocks placed for that purpose.
The species are listed as follows in the order of their whistle
importance :

1. Hemifusiis ternatanus. (Japanese : Umi-hoozuki or sea
whistle.) The larvae are removed fresh and the case dried and
stained red, yellow, or green. These are considered the best
whistles and the current price is comparatively very high: 1
egg-case costs 5 yen, or roughly two cents. (See fig. A.)

2. Rapana thomasiana. (Japanese : Naginata-hoozuki or
curved sword whistle, because of the shape of the egg-case.)
The cases are dipped in concentrated saltwater to kill the larvae
and are then preserved in salt. Egg-cases (see fig. B) of this
and the following species are very cheap, costing 500 yen per
kan (four pounds).

3. Fusinus perplexus. (Japanese: Sakasa or Gunbai-hoozuki :
inverted or war-fan whistle; ''inverted" because the whistle-
hole is made in the bottom of the case, and "war-fan" because
the case is shaped like the fan carried by the referee in a sumo
match.) Treated as Rapana.

4. Cancellaria spengleriana. (Japanese : Chanchan-hoozuki or
pig-tail whistle, because of the long, slender stalk.) Treated as
Hemifusus.

5. Kelletia lischkei. (Japanese : Manju-hoozuki or Sake-bottle
whistle.) Not common.



4 THE NAUTILUS [Vol. 64 (1)

As a result of this whistling custom, literally millions of egg-
cases are gathered and many millions of larval gastropods de-
stroyed to produce whistles. Now it so happened that several
famous egg-case-whistle sellers in Tokyo suffered accidental
death, and one by one their shops went into bankruptcy. The
remaining dealers became very uneasj^ and fearful of their
futures, believing that these sudden deaths must be in retri-
bution for the child (veliger!) murders of so very many snails.
In mute gratitude, therefore, for the sacrifice of so many em-
byronic lives given to establish the basis of their fortunes, 41
egg-case-whistle dealers in Tokyo in 1941 erected a memorial to
the dead baby gastropods. The monument is a simple granite
slab bearing on one side the legend: ''Memorial Monument
to Sea-shell Egg Cases" (Plate 1, fig. 3), and on the reverse side
the names of the 41 dealer-donors. The monument stands in
the cemetery of the war-destroyed Koshoji Temple, 16 Fukuro-
machi, Ushigome, Tokyo, where it is crowded in among hun-
dreds of graves which mark the resting places of local ancestors.

Probably nowhere else in the world is there a cemetery grave
and memorial monument to departed embryonic snails !
posted by KokuRyu at 2:42 PM on March 9, 2010 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: KokuRyu, you are awesome!! From what I found online, I was able to gather that this particular snail gathered in great bunches during the summer to lay their eggs, so I could understand a vague connection with that event to a summer festival. But I still couldn't fathom the lyrics. You provided the reason! Now I understand she is saying "sound the snail!" or... to that effect. Similar to "blow your horn, let's celebrate!" That's really neat.

And after I posted the question, I realized the connection to the nickname "ocean's cherry blossom": I read that these particular egg cases are red. So although I haven't seen this event personally or even in picture, I imagine seeing masses of these red egg cases in the water looked similar to fallen cherry blossoms. (I suspect the added 'black' connotation was a mistake by whomever translated the song title.)

Thank you so much, it all makes sense now. And as a bonus, I have learned in depth about a long-standing local custom. The trivia buff in me is very happy.
posted by Eicats at 7:08 AM on March 10, 2010