Digging Into the Mysterious Monsters of Japan’s Folklore/日本鬼無所不在 西方國家著迷妖怪世界


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2015/06/12 第76期 訂閱/退訂看歷史報份
 
 
紐時周報精選 Digging Into the Mysterious Monsters of Japan's Folklore/日本鬼無所不在 西方國家著迷妖怪世界
'Gaming Fuel' Sales to Young Raise Health Issues/能量飲料鎖定電玩客惹議 美專家:咖啡因影響青少年
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Digging Into the Mysterious Monsters of Japan's Folklore/日本鬼無所不在 西方國家著迷妖怪世界
張佑生/譯
Tanuki, the badger-like, shape-shifting creatures of Japanese lore, are a rascally bunch. In one tale, a tanuki kills an old woman and makes soup out of her, then takes her form and feeds the soup to her husband.

日本民間傳說中,長得像獾、形體可變化的狸貓,是群無賴。一則物語中,狸貓殺了老婦人,將其屍體熬成湯,狸貓再化為老婦模樣,餵湯給老婦的丈夫喝。

Fantastical monsters like the tanuki abound in Michael Dylan Foster's "The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore", one of several books about yokai that have hit American shelves this year.

麥可.狄倫.福斯特的《妖怪經:日本民間傳說中的神秘怪物》裡,有很多類似狸貓的奇幻怪獸。今年有好幾本談論妖怪的書籍上市,這本是其中之一。

圖擷自University of California

Zack Davisson's "Yurei: The Japanese Ghost", takes a critical look at the history of some of Japan's most dreaded and beloved spooks. Both are scholarly texts enlivened by images of the beasts in scroll paintings, woodblock prints and original illustrations.

柴克.大衛森的《幽靈:日本鬼》則評論日本歷史上某些最令人畏懼或喜愛的幽靈。卷軸畫、版畫和原版插畫的妖怪圖像,讓這兩本學術著作變得生動活潑。

Michael Goldstein's "Yokai Character Collection" is more pictorial. It has the gruesome look and feel of a Dungeons & Dragons manual.

麥可.高士丹的《妖怪角色集錦》圖片更多,具有陰森的外貌和「龍與地下城」(譯註:首款角色扮演桌遊)手冊的感覺。

And then there's Matthew Meyer's forthcoming "The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits," an encyclopedic look at yokai that includes notes on each creature's appearance, behavior and favorite hangouts. It is a coffee-table book that doubles as an illustrated guide, full of legends and obscure yokai trivia.

接著還有馬修.梅爾即將出版的《碰上惡靈的時刻》,以百科全書的方式介紹各方妖怪,包括對每隻妖怪的長相、行為和最愛出沒地點的註解。本書是大開本的精裝畫冊,可當圖解指南,充滿傳說和晦澀的妖怪微知識。

Why the recent crop of yokai books? People have been exposed to the creatures through a steady stream of Japanese cultural exports. Haruki Murakami has included several in his novels, while hordes have appeared in the films of Hayao Miyazaki. Even more have depicted in video games and trading cards.

最近冒出一缸子妖怪書是怎麼回事?透過日本文化輸出的穩定放送,民眾一直都有接觸妖怪。村上春樹在小說中寫過好幾隻妖怪,宮崎駿的電影裡也有一大票。電玩和遊戲卡出現的妖怪更多。

Pokémon, the multibillion-dollar toy and video game empire, bases many of its characters on yokai. So does the video game and anime series "Yo-Kai Watch." All those monsters have inspired fans to seek out the original texts.

打造出上百億美元玩具和電玩王國的「神奇寶貝」遊戲,許多角色出自妖怪。電玩和動漫系列「妖怪手表」也是如此。這些妖怪驅使粉絲去找原典來看。

"The students who come into the fields of Japanese literature and folklore as undergraduates are heavily influenced by popular culture," said Mr. Foster an Indiana University professor and author of "Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yokai." "They grow up with these things through anime and manga and want to know where they come from."

「進入日本文學和民間傳說的大學生,受到流行文化很大的影響,」印第安納大學教授福斯特表示,他也是《群魔亂舞:日本怪物與妖怪文化》的作者。「學生們是看動漫中的妖怪長大的,現在想知道妖怪的出身。」

The yokai themselves are everywhere in Japan, in films and cartoons, on billboards and even on beer bottle labels.

在日本,妖怪無所不在,電影、卡通裡,看板上,連啤酒瓶的標籤上都有妖怪。

Relatively few of the thousands of texts and scholarly studies about yokai have been translated from Japanese, which makes these latest books all the more valuable to nonfluent seekers of the original tales.

有關妖怪的作品和學術著作有好幾千本,大多是日文,譯本不多。對找尋原典,但不諳日文的人來說,最近出版的這一批書更加珍貴。

In "The Book of Yokai," Mr. Foster draws from texts and folk tales from the works of the 10th-century writer Abe no Seimei to the tales of the early-20th-century scholar and avid story collector Kunio Yanagita, considered one of the founders of Japanese folklore studies.

福斯特在《妖怪經》中採集的故事與傳說,從10世紀的作家安倍晴明到20世紀初的民俗學者柳田國男的作品都有。柳田國男也是熱心的故事收集者,被視為日本民俗研究的開創者之一。

New texts and stories are still being discovered and translated.

仍有新的文字與故事被發現和翻譯。

Among the creepiest of yokai are the yurei, spirits of the dead. In "Yurei: The Japanese Ghost," Mr. Davisson, a translator of a number of classic manga, profiles several yurei. Two of the most famous are the tragic Okiku, a young girl who threw herself down a well (or was thrown) after breaking one of her master's prized dishes, and Oiwa, a hapless wife cursed with a bad husband.

妖怪中最嚇人的是幽靈,也就是亡魂。翻譯過好幾本日本經典漫畫的大衛森,在《幽靈:日本鬼》中描繪了好幾個幽靈。最有名的兩位是因為打破員外珍愛的餐具而投井(或被扔下井)的可憐女孩「菊子」,以及遇人不淑的人妻「岩子」。

Yurei have inspired paintings and illustrations over the centuries, but perhaps the most influential is Maruyama Okyo's "The Ghost of Oyuki" (1750), a portrait that the artist made of his recently deceased lover. Her ghost – long black hair, pale clothing, no feet – appeared to him in a dream, and his painting set the visual mold for every Japanese ghost to come, from paintings and prints to Kabuki characters and horror films.

幾百年來,幽靈引發許多油畫與插畫作品,最有名的大概是圓山應舉1750年的《幽靈圖》,畫家為過世不久的情人所繪。女子的鬼魂來到畫家的夢中,長長的黑髮、慘白的衣服、沒有腳的形象,這幅畫讓以後出現的日本鬼,從油畫、版畫到歌舞伎的角色和恐怖片,長相均不脫此一模式。

"After that painting," Mr. Davisson said, "that's how they all looked."

大衛森說:「那幅畫之後,日本鬼就都是這模樣了。」

Fans love tracking these evolutions, as well as learning every bit of information about as many yokai as they can. This might explain why a lot of these books, scholarly or not, have the look and feel of illustrated encyclopedias, with detailed descriptions of scores of creatures.

粉斯喜歡追查演進的過程,盡可能學習妖怪的所有資訊。這或許可以解釋為何這類書籍,不論是否為學術著作,都有畫典的樣子和味道,對於眾多妖怪的描述鉅細靡遺。

Why do the centuries-old monsters continue to fascinate? "There's the mystery of the world about them," said Bill Tsutsui, a Japanologist. "You get that in this folkloric sense of the past: that the real world around us is beautiful and wonderful, and yet can be really horrible, too."

為何有幾百年歷史的妖怪繼續讓人著迷?「妖怪世界很神秘,」日本學專家比爾筒井表示。「你在過去的民俗氛圍中體會到:我們身邊的現實世界很美妙,但可能也很可怕。」

 
'Gaming Fuel' Sales to Young Raise Health Issues/能量飲料鎖定電玩客惹議 美專家:咖啡因影響青少年
張佑生/譯
Two popular video gamers posed as snipers wielding real semi-automatic guns at an outdoor range, blasting orbs of fruit and cups of deep orange liquid in ultra slow motion. "Introducing Blood Orange," announced a video of the spectacle.

兩名很受歡迎的電玩客打扮成狙擊手,在戶外靶場手持真的半自動步槍,在超慢動作特效下打爆各種水果和裝有深橙色液體的瓶瓶罐罐。播出此一奇觀的錄影帶宣稱「介紹血橙」。

In the days afterward, online followers ordered tubs of the latest flavor of a powdered energy drink called G Fuel that is marketed as a secret sauce to enhance focus and endurance for virtual battles.

幾天後,線上玩家大量訂購最新口味的沖泡能量飲料G Fuel,號稱由秘方調製,能提升線上遊戲玩家的注意力和耐力。

"Oh, this is gonna taste so good!" exclaimed one cherub-faced YouTuber.

「哦,這肯定很好喝哪!」長著娃娃臉的YouTuber使用者麥可高呼。

圖擷自YouTube

G Fuel and a competitor called GungHo are a new incarnation of energy drink, growing in popularity while the energy drink industry has been under scrutiny because of deaths and hospitalizations linked to consumption of caffeine- and sugar-laden beverages. Traditional energy drink makers have played to the growing gamer culture too.

在飲料含過量咖啡因和糖分導致住院甚至死亡案例,整個能量飲料界受到嚴密檢視之際,G Fuel和競爭對手GungHo代表愈來愈受歡迎的新一代能量飲料。傳統能量飲料業者也迎合規模日增的遊戲文化。

Dr. Marcie Schneider, an adolescent-medicine specialist in Greenwich, Connecticut, worries that most parents do not recognize the dangers of the drinks.

康乃狄克州格林威治市的瑪西.史奈德是青少年醫學專家,對於大多數父母沒有看出能量飲料的危險感到憂心。

"I feel like we have a better sense of how many kids are smoking pot than how many kids are using energy drinks," Dr. Schneider said. She was an author of a study for the American Academy of Pediatrics that recommended that children and adolescents should never consume energy drinks because of caffeine's potential to disturb sleeping patterns, increase heart rates and slow brain development.

史奈德說:「我覺得我們對多少孩子在吸大麻,比對多少孩子愛喝功能飲料更清楚。」史奈德是美國兒科學會一項研究報告的作者之一,該研究結果建議孩童和青少年根本不該喝能量飲料,因為咖啡因可能會影響人的睡眠習慣,讓心跳加快,延緩腦部發育。

The industry is tapping into the celebrity allure and online fan base of "professional e-athletes," analysts say, with sponsorships of gaming competitions and players. Gamma Labs, the company selling G Fuel, heavily promotes a Call of Duty clan including those would-be snipers in the video ad.

分析家說,能量飲料產業以贊助遊戲比賽和玩家的方式,開發名人魅力和「職業級電子運動員」的線上粉絲基本盤。生產G Fuel的伽瑪實驗室就強力宣傳《使命召喚》遊戲俱樂部,其中就包括那些在廣告裡扮演狙擊手的玩家。

While major energy drink makers – including Red Bull, Rockstar and Monster – voluntarily agreed to stop marketing to children under 12, a United States congressional report released this year excoriated those companies and others for continuing to target teenagers.

包括紅牛、搖滾之星和怪物高能在內的能量飲料生產大廠雖然主動表示,不會向12歲以下的孩子推廣產品,但是美國國會今年發布的一項報告痛批這些大廠和其他廠商持續鎖定青少年做行銷。

The newer gamer drinks are sugar-free and vitamin-infused, but they often contain caffeine that rivals or exceeds that of some other well-known products, according to Caffeine Informer, which provides information on caffeine levels in food and drink.

新一代的遊戲玩家專屬飲料不含糖並添加維生素。但專門提供各類食品和飲品中咖啡因含量資訊的「咖啡因資訊提供者」指出,玩家專屬飲料的咖啡因含量和某些知名的同類產品相比,往往有過之而無不及。

But business is still booming. Sales of energy drinks and shots internationally are projected to rise to $21 billion by 2017 from $12.5 billion in 2012, according to Packaged Facts, a publisher of market research.

這門生意依然興旺。市調出版商Packaged Facts估計,能量飲料和濃縮能量飲料的國際營業額,2017年預計會從2012年的125億美元增至210億美元。

In Melbourne, Australia, Finlay Sturzaker spent 100 Australian dollars to order several tubs of a powdered G Fuel drink, only to have his father confiscate it, he said. Finlay, 14, said he found out about the drink on YouTube through the FaZe Call of Duty clan in the commercials.

在澳洲墨爾本,芬利.司徒柴克花了100澳元訂購了大量G Fuel飲料粉,全被父親沒收。芬利今年14歲,他說在YouTube上的《使命召喚》FaZe俱樂部頻道看到G Fuel的廣告。

"It makes me more focused while playing Call of Duty and I definitely see improvement, and it gives me very natural energy," he said. G Fuel's caffeine content, 150 milligrams per 355 milliliters, is higher than many of the Monster and Red Bull drinks, according to Caffeine Informer.

芬利說:「G Fuel能使我在玩《使命召喚》時更加專注,我肯定看到進步,飲料給我一股很自然的力量。」「咖啡因資訊提供者」統計,G Fuel每355毫升含有150毫克的咖啡因,含量比怪物高能和紅牛的許多產品都要高。

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked energy drink makers for more data on caffeine. Caffeine is not the only concern, Dr. Schneider said. Taurine and guarana, a plant extract, also act as stimulants, she said.

美國聯邦食品藥物管理局已經要求能量飲料業者提供更多關於咖啡因的資訊。史奈德說,咖啡因不是唯一讓人擔心的成分,還有牛磺酸和萃取自植物的瓜拉拿糊,此二者也被用作興奮劑。

Ethan Yorke, a high school junior in California, said drinking G Fuel helped him improve his home run average significantly on a baseball video game he plays.

加州高中生伊森.約克說,喝G Fuel讓他玩棒球電玩時多打出很多支全壘打。

"It really feels like you have genuine energy, like you've just had a 30-minute-to-an-hour nap," he said. "And you just have pure energy."

「喝G Fuel真的能讓你感覺精神煥發,就像是小睡30分鐘到1小時,」他說:「渾身是勁」。

 
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