Shimenawa by Naoko Kumagai

A story about how Japanese people discipline their springs back then.

This is a story I was told.

 It was August 1973. My brother Jiro was four, sitting at dinner. 

“E tadaki mas,” my uncle said. Jiro picked up onigiri, a rice ball, with his hands and mashed it intohis mouth. Fish and rice on his plate, untouched.

He stuffed another onigiri in his mouth, bits of ricefalling.

“Jiro-chan…”   A   warning   from   my   mother.   Jiro   opened   his   mouth   wide,   splayed   his   tonguecovered in tiny white beads of rice. 

Kazuya stood up and roughly pulled Jiro out of his chair. 

“What are you doing?” My mother asked, getting up. Kazuya went out the back door, carrying Jiro firmly under his arm. 

With the other hand, hepicked up a circle of rope hanging on the fence by the shed. In the yard was a large oak tree with heavy,twisted branches. He wrapped the rope around my brother once, then pushed him to the trunk of theoak, winding the rope around and around.

 “He must eat his dinner properly.” My uncle tied a thick knot at the end. “He needs to learn tobe a man.”My mother was shouting at my uncle; Jiro was screaming, the sound flooding the sky. 

Kazuya went back into the house, relaxed and entitled, as if he had just finished a long day’s work.

 No one remembers the rest. My mother never forgave my uncle. My father wasn’t there. Jirocan’t   recall  any  of   it.  

 He   jokes   that   the   incident   is   possibly   the   reason   he   always,  intuitively   eatseverything on his plate.

The narrative recounts a distressing event from August 1973 involving the narrator's brother, Jiro. Observing Jiro's improper eating habits during dinner, their uncle, Kazuya, took drastic action by forcibly leading Jiro outside, securing him to a tree with a rope. Kazuya insisted that Jiro needed to learn proper dining etiquette to mature into a man. Despite the mother's objections and Jiro's screams, the aftermath remains unclear, leaving a profound impact on the family. In adulthood, Jiro humorously attributes his instinctive clean-plate habits to this experience. The story subtly delves into the intricate family dynamics and the enduring repercussions of this unsettling incident.