what is VITA BREVIS SCIENTIA LONGA ？
this phrase which is used as the frame in the title logo THE HUSKY VOICE
is seemingly written in latin. i geuss that means "life is brief but
science is long" because i don't know latin. but i'm afraid it may
be wrong.
this phrase reminds us of a very sad memorial affair. 1929 was a critical
turning point of the world in the modern history. japan also made its own
big step toward the militarism after the short term of so-called TAISHO
DEMOCRACY. SENJI YAMAMOTO, called YAMASEN, his nick name by the people,
was only and the last dietman of a proletarian party. he was assassinated
by a right extremist boy on a street near OCHANOMIZU tokyo, on his way
back to his inn, on 5th march 1929, soon after he made a speech in the
diet opposing to the law-draft of Maintenance of the Public Order which
prepared for the imperialistic state's mobilizing the people to the overall
war against the whole world.
SENJI YAMAMOTO, YAMASEN, spoke to the farmers about the then politics,
the need of birth control and his view of life, in the agricultural and
hotspring area of NAGANO pref. japan, just before his assassination. those
farmers there who were informed of YAMASEN's death cried and were so sad
that they made a mind to put a YAMASEN's stone monument up neibouring to
a temple in the hotspring village. the police angrily ordered them to destroy
it to pieces. the farmers were too clever to crush it to pieces easely
to obey the police order. they pretended to crush it and in fact broke
the other stone to pieces. and they presented the police some of them as
the evidence of obedience to the police. they, all together at a night,
carried the real stone to a pond in front of a hotspring inn where YAMASEN
gave the farmers a speech and put it down to the bottom of the pond. after
the world war 2, some of the emacipated farmers reminded of the sank stone,
dug out and rebuilt it on the former place.
the phrase in latin "VITA BREVIS SCIENTIA LONGA" was engraved on the top of the stone monument. it is said to be YAMASEN's motto. i guess that he talked the latin motto to the illeterate farmers and they followed it closely on some notebooks. the fact itself surprises me.
nowadays, few sightseers visit it and no pulic guidbook informs the pulic
of it at all.
why don't you visit the following site if you are interested in the YAMASEN
and can read jp?
http://ha2.seikyou.ne.jp/home/yamashiro/yamasen/
http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~shimaoka/kyoto-meeting&traveling17-18nov02.htm
ms YUKIKO TSUTSUMI, reporter, wrote an article about this monument and
took a pic on the newspaper "AKA-HATA(red flag)"(published by
the central committee of japan communist party) dated 7th november 1996.
the following pic was offered by ms TSUTSUMI. i ackowledged her.
in the summer 2001 when i visited the hotspring resort in NAGANO pref again,
i found the monument hidden behind a factory so that it becomes harder
and harder for the public to visit it. any way, carefully looking at the
top of the monument, you can read "VITA BREVIS SCIENTIA LONGA".
thank you.
