Cross-cultural communication （123）　

123) Flowers and Dragons（Hana to Ryu, 花と龍）
“Flowers and Dragons” sounds like the title of a yakuza movie from the old days. Actually, that's exactly what it is, but I think there are a lot of points in this story that are really worth reading, so please take your time to read it.

In Blog Cross-cultural communication (93), I wrote about Dr. Nakamura Tetsu. At the time, a man who was a fan of my cross-cultural blog and was five years older than me really liked the story about Dr. Nakamura in Blog #93. He was a former “man of Ninkyo, 任侠”, not Yakuza who was a patient of mine at the time. I wrote “man of Ninkyo” on purpose because he was a man who lived by the principle “Knowing what is right and not doing it is a want of courage”, and of course he was familiar with Dr. Nakamura's achievements, and was moved by the story of how the British newspaper had highly praised Dr. Nakamura. At that time, he recommended something different to me. “Sensei, there is an old novel called ‘Hana to Ryu’, why don't you give it a read? You'll find it full of interesting discoveries."

This novel was written by Hino Ashihei and was serialized in the Yomiuri Shimbun from 1952, a year after I was born. When it was published in book form, it became a huge bestseller, and was later made into a movie six time！ This is a long novel about the life of Tamai Kinjiro, who was revered as the “big boss” of Wakamatsu in Kitakyushu. (400-page paperback book, in two volumes) Even though he was called the “big boss”, he was not a gangster in the modern sense of the word, but rather he ran the Tamai Group, which brought together dockworkers. He was the complete opposite of a right-wing gangster, and he even worked hard to create a union for dockworkers. However, at the time, Wakamatsu was surrounded by gangs of gangsters, so self-defense was necessary. The head of the Tamai gang never initiated any attacks, and when he expected an attack at night, he would protect the gang alone with his treasured Japanese sword, without telling the younger members. It sounds like a yakuza movie starring Ken Takakura. In fact, one of the six movies made about the gang was starring Ken Takakura as Tamai Kinjiro, the head of the gang. The title “Hana to Ryu” comes from the dragon tattoo with a chrysanthemum in its mouth that Kinjiro gets tattooed on his arm after a strange incident.

I had heard of the writer Hino Ashihei, but I had never read any of his works. As a matter of fact, his real name is Tamai Katsunori, and yes, he is the eldest son of Kogoro. What's more, he is the uncle of Dr. Nakamura Tetsu. So, Dr. Nakamura is Kogoro's grandson. In an interview given while he was still alive, Dr. Nakamura said, “From my grandfather, I was told from a young age to do things that benefit others, without thinking about whether or not it would be profitable. I also sympathized with my uncle's way of life, and at one point I even thought about becoming a writer."

After reading this novel like a hungry wolf, collecting all the related information I could find on the internet, and immersing myself in my own satisfaction, I told the ‘former Mr. Ninkyo’ who had given me this valuable information about my discoveries, and thanked him for the wonderful information he had given me. He smiled and said, “I thought you would have done your research properly, Sensei.”

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