Chapter 38: Even So, I Refuse to Apologize
Curry rice.
It is a dish far removed from its origins in India, but in the first place this dish reached j.a.pan through the Western world and not from India directly, so the great disparity can be understood somewhat.
As explained previously, there is no ‘curry’ dish in India, as the word is one invented by foreigners to refer to stewed dishes that utilize spices from Indian cuisine. The one who invented curry powder in order to make curry easier to cook and eat is the people famous for fish and chips (the oil…. all the oil!!).
And by the way, though last time I babbled about how ‘us j.a.panese like to put everything over rice so it can’t be helped☆” but it turns out that it was already like that by the time the dish crossed over from the English to the French into ‘curry au riz’. That is what I learned just the other day.
…… There are things…… that even I don’t know…… really……
“…… Isn’t this curry a bit too sweet?”
The one who said that after taking a bite of curry rice is Tsukuyomi-sama. With the location in mind (Takahamagahara), everything about this scene seems a mismatch. But he’s a j.a.panese G.o.d, so it can’t be helped.
“Mugah—?!”
“Hm? Ahh, sorry about that, Tsukuyomi-sama. I mixed up yours and Amaterasu-sama’s.”
“I see. Since Ane-ue can only eat the sweet kind after all.”
“Agah—?!”
After hearing the explanation from Toyoukehime-sama, Tsukuyomi-sama pushes the dish away. Incidentally, the reason why Amaterasu-sama can only eat the sweet kind is solely because she can’t handle spicy, and by no means is it because she has a child’s tongue. If she tries really hard she can withstand up to medium spicy. Easy peasy.1
“Mogah—?!”
“By the way, Tsukuyomi-sama. Are we meant to ignore the bamboo roll that’s been groaning and rolling around beside you since a while ago?”
“……”
Toyoukehima-sama’s words prompt Tsukuyomi-sama to turn a disgruntled look towards the gagged and completely trussed up person who is his actual macho younger brother.
When their eyes meet, he receives an unusually serious plea for help, but Tsukuyomi-sama merely silently shakes his head and sighs.
“I was trying my best to ignore it, but I suppose something this big can’t be ignored for long huh.”
“Does Tsukuyomi-sama dislike Susanoo-sama?”
“It’s not that I dislike him, but the only one who can do something like this to him is Mother, right? I just do not want to get involved.”
“No, the one who did it was Amaterasu-sama.”
“…… Come again?”
The surprising truth causes Tsukuyomi-sama’s eyes to widen.
For the Amaterasu-sama who’s always being teased and grabbed by the neck like a kitten to tie up this macho. Exactly what had happened.
“Actually, Susanoo-sama ate Amaterasu-sama’s abalone without her permission.”
“Ahh, so he stepped on that landmine.”
As it turns out, Amaterasu-sama absolutely loves abalone.
It was said that when Yamatohime was searching for a place to build a proper shrine to worship Amaterasu-sama, she met a female sh.e.l.l diver who shared some abalone with her and said ‘please also let Amaterasu-sama try some of this’, and so Yamatohime included that in the offerings after she set up the Grand Shrines of Ise. Up to this very day, 2000 years after the Grand Shrines’ construction, abalone has been offered the entire time.2
In other words, Susanoo-sama had stolen abalone from an abalone maniac who still hasn’t gotten sick of abalone despite having eaten it for 2,000 years. What else is there to say?
“So where’s Ane-ue herself?”
“In the kitchen.”
“Er, why?”
Leaving behind Susanoo-sama to go to the kitchen. This non sequitur chain of logic causes Tsukuyomi-sama to tilt his head in puzzlement. At that moment, as if in response, the sliding door behind him opens abruptly.
“I’m done! Oh, Tsukuyomi’s here too.”
“Sorry, started without you. Rather than that, what are you holding……”
“Nn? Cuc.u.mber.”
Cuc.u.mber. It’s a vegetable that everyone is familiar with, but actually it is in a sense a miraculous vegetable that is made up of 90% water and only very tiny trace amounts of nutrients.
Due to the high water content, it is in great demand in hot areas, but its popularity in j.a.pan is actually a rather recent trend.
“So, what is it that you plan to do with that cuc.u.mber?”
“Make Susanoo eat it.”
“……”
Tsukuyomi-sama closes his eyes at this answer that he had already expected.
As it turns out, Susanoo-sama hates cuc.u.mbers, to the point where some shrines dedicated to him have forbidden the growing of cuc.u.mbers within a certain radius.
One explanation is that Susanoo-sama had once fled and hid within a cuc.u.mber field when he was in a tight spot, after which he came to regard cuc.u.mbers as sacred and stopped eating them.
Another explanation is that Susanoo-sama once got surprised by lightning and jumped into a shelf of cuc.u.mbers, which caused a pole from the shelf to hit him in the eye and make him go partially blind.3
Though some might want to comment about how the cuc.u.mbers are not at fault, unrelated things being blamed and punished for something that’s not their fault is a staple in mythologies from all places and all times, so don’t think too deeply about it.
“But how do you plan to make him eat it without removing his gag?”
“This gag is the kind that can open in the middle so it’s fine. Like this, I can force his mouth open and plunge it in again and again to make him taste it again and again……”
“It looks like a very disturbing kind of s.e.xual play so stop.”
A macho whose mouth has been forced open for a long, cylindrical item to be plunged in repeatedly. Though I’m sure there is demand for this from a certain minority, at the very least this author does not have the disposition to describe such a scene in detail.
“Then how about I dice up the cuc.u.mber and just pour it into his mouth so that he can taste it all he wants? Here you go Susanoo, a—n.”4
“Mogah—!?”
Amaterasu-sama’s ‘a—n’ attack causes Susanoo-sama to raise his voice in happiness.
Whoever notices his tears is surely just mis-seeing things. There’s no way that big sister’s handmade cooking is bad.
“People who are normally docile really are scary when they get angry.”
“Ane-ue isn’t exactly docile normally though. In this case, it’s grudges over food that is scary.”
Tsukuyomi-sama and Toyoukehime-sama merely watch on heartwarmingly as the two siblings have fun playing with each other.
Today, too, Takamagahara is at peace.
1 When ordering j.a.panese curry, usually there’s a spectrum between ‘sweet’ to ‘spicy’ that can be chosen. And the general understanding is that ‘sweet’ is for children, while ‘spicy’ is for adults.
2 According to legend, after establishing Ise Jingu Yamatohime-no-Mikoto visited the Shima Peninsula and ate some abalone which was caught by an ama woman named Oben. Yamato-hime-no-Mikoto was so thrilled by the flavour of the abalone that she requested Oben provide offerings of them to Ise Jingu. Oben agreed, and ever since then that is what has been done. (FolkloreThursday) The chronology and chain of causation of events is different but that’s just how mythologies are.
3 Here’s an article about Adose-cho, an entire town where it is forbidden to grow or eat cuc.u.mbers because of the nearby shrine to Susanoo.
4A—n is what j.a.panese ppl say when they feed food to someone else and prompt the other person to open their mouth, like this. Usually it’s an intimate gesture done between parent-child or boyfriend-girlfriend or spouses.