Ichiryū Manbai | Shoichi Maeda, Dean of the Major in Public Health, Sport and Health Sciences, Graduate School of Health Management
June 20, 2023
Just like last time, I'm having trouble getting started with my writing. Taking a break, I typed "What day is it today?" into an internet search bar, and the result was "Ichiryū Manbai Day."
This literally seems to mean a day when a single grain of unhulled rice (momi) becomes ten thousand grains. It appears that anything started on this day, whether good or bad, will be multiplied ten thousandfold. Online explanations say various things, like it's a good day to buy a lottery ticket, but a bad day to take on debt. Reading this, I recalled an incident from my youth when I bought a lottery ticket.
It happened on a rainy day. The rain got heavier while I was out, so I decided to take a bus. When I checked my wallet for change, I found I only had a 10,000-yen bill. Needing to get some coins or a 1,000-yen bill, I looked around and saw a lottery stand right next to the bus stop. As someone not in the habit of buying lottery tickets, I wondered if I could buy just one. I asked the person at the stand, and they said it was possible. So, I bought a single ticket (I think it was 100 or 200 yen) and was then able to get on the bus without any trouble.
As for that lottery ticket, a long time passed. Then one day, I happened to see a commercial about the lottery and remembered that rainy day. Even though I was convinced I wouldn't have won anything, I felt compelled to check, so I looked up the winning numbers. And what do you know—I had won several tens of thousands of yen (though nowhere near 100 million yen)!
Perhaps that day was an "Ichiryū Manbai Day." Recalling this story from my younger days about buying a lottery ticket is starting to lift me out of the gloomy mood that was hindering my writing.
Speaking of Ichiryū Manbai Day, there's another thing. I always grow seasonal plants, making use of the very small space I have at home. As I also wrote briefly last time , the year before last, I saved the ears of rice from my New Year's decorations and tried planting the grains around May when it got warmer. I recall that about three grains sprouted, and by autumn, I was able to harvest around 1,000 grains. Last year, I used those grains to grow about 30 seedlings, and this year I grew another 30. Last month, I transplanted them into water-retentive containers that serve as miniature rice paddies (since I plant about three seedlings in a bunch, that makes about 10 bunches). Doing the math now, it seems that even in the small space at my home, the rice grains have multiplied "ten thousandfold from a single grain" in two years!
Incidentally, I also place these plants near the entrance of my home, changing them out from time to time. It makes me happy to observe their growth when I leave for work or return home. It seems some passersby also enjoy looking at them. Just recently, an elderly lady I didn't know happened to strike up a conversation with me. She said, "Is this rice? I always enjoy the various flowers you have here." Some of these encounters have led to new connections, and now I sometimes receive seasonal foods from them. Unlike in my hometown (in the countryside of Kyushu), in the city, it's not uncommon to never exchange words even with your neighbors, and conversations with strangers passing by are rare. It seems the rice grains from the New Year's decoration not only multiplied ten thousandfold in number but also increased other things in my life, such as my social interactions.
The day before yesterday, we had a meeting to discuss the research supervision system for our master's program students. After deliberations in several other committees, the supervision system will soon be finalized, and the students will begin their master's thesis research in earnest. This day will surely be an "Ichiryū Manbai Day" for the students, and we, the faculty, must strive to make it so. For faculty members, it is truly a joy to watch our students grow. And I want the students to believe that every day is an "Ichiryū Manbai Day" with the potential for multifaceted growth, and to devote themselves to their studies, their research, and their interactions with people.
And so, this has been a rambling diary entry for today (June 17, 2023), all sparked by a search engine query.
*Vanguards of SFC (Archive): https://www.sfc.keio.ac.jp/vanguard/002959.html