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Reading between the lines / Beans given their due in Japan

Peter Howlett and Richard McNamara / Special to The Daily Yomiuri

Big Beanie's Bed (Soramame-kun no Beddo)

Written and Illustrated by Miwa Nakaya

Fukuinkan Shoten

Translated by Mia Lynn Perry

RIC Publications

Now here's a picture book that is literally "full of beans." Big Beanie is a broad bean and his friends are a soybean, green peas, a garden pea and a peanut, which is not exactly a bean. The story opens with Big Beanie sleeping in his pod all lined with a soft cottonlike mattress.

Broad beans, also known as horse beans or fava beans, are special not only because they are the biggest bean consumed by humans, but also because they have this special white lining inside the pod to protect them. In Japanese, this bean, and the name of the character, is soramame, which translates as "sky bean," because unlike most beans that hang from the stem, the pods point straight up to the sky.

All his friends are envious of his soft and fluffy bed and they ask if they can try it out. But Big Beanie, being selfish, won't let anyone use it. Then one day his bed disappears. After searching for many days, he finds a mother quail sitting on his bed warming her eggs. He wants his bed back, but he decides to watch and wait.

Then, lo and behold, out hatch two chicks. Mother quail gives him a long look of thanks and everyone is overjoyed that Big Beanie at last has his bed back and has learned the joy of sharing. Together, they dance, sing and celebrate late into the night.

This book, first published in 1999, is a best-seller. Total sales of the three titles in this series have topped 1.5 million. What makes it so popular?

Nakaya's personification of the "bean" is apparently primary to the success of these titles. For the "bean" in Japan is special.

For more than 1,000 years, beans--especially soybeans--have served as one of the most important sources of protein in the Japanese diet. Miso, soy, anko and, of course, tofu products are all staples. According to the Health and Welfare Ministry, the daily intake per person of beans in 2002 was 58.9 grams--roughly six times the intake of an American.

The bean is special not only as an important food source, but also as a symbol of Japan's identity. Lee O Young, a South Korean Japanologist, argues that Japan's uniqueness is manifested in its love of miniaturizing things. In his book Smaller Is Better, Lee states, "The round mame (bean) is like a condensed representation of the world." In the realm of language, we have words like mame-bon (mini-book), mame-denkyu (miniature light bulb) and mame-kisha (child reporter), all very positive in nature.

On the other hand, the bean in North America is essentially considered to be livestock feed--95 percent of all soy protein not exported ends up in their troughs. And bean and pea prefixed words and phrases are far from positive in feel, some examples being; not worth a bean, beanery and pea brain.

Japan's special affection for the bean has no doubt played a very important role in popularizing this series and it will be interesting to see how it does in the English-speaking world.

Now a few words about the translation of this story. We imagine the translator, Mia Lynn Perry, pondered most about the following two points.

First, the naming of the beans, peas and the peanut. A direct translation of our main bean here would have been Broad Beanie, and thus the title of this story--"Broad Beanie's Bed." In fact, considering our bias for beans, we would probably have chosen this title, had we been the translators. Yet, Perry has gone beyond the direct translation and chosen to use the outstanding characteristic of this bean for his name--Big Beanie.

Next, is the translation of the onomatopoeia. This is always a problem because there are far more onomatopoeic terms in Japanese than there are in English, and so it becomes necessary to make up some. We always feel it is most important to try to convey the flow and spirit of the story.

Fuwa-fuwa beddo ga mitsukatta

Kyo wa tanoshii oiwai sa

Kasha-kasha, don-doko, puppukupu

Soramame-kun wa minna to issho ni

Yo ga fukeru made odori mashita

The fluffy bed was finally found!

Let's celebrate with a happy sound!

Shake, shake, rap-a-tap, toot, toot,

Shake, shake, rap-a-tap, toot, toot!

Big Beanie danced with everybody late into the night!

All in all, this story is about friendship and how important it is to learn to share your treasures and not just hoard them. We all need to be reminded of this from time to time. Looking at the last scene in which all the beans are cuddled together in Big Beanie's bed, from somewhere we could hear someone singing a verse from the song Magic Penny:

It's just like a magic penny, hold it tight and you won't have any.

Lend it spend it and you'll have so many, they'll roll all over the floor.

Could this have been happy Big Beanie singing in his dreams?

Howlett, born and raised in Hokkaido, teaches at Hakodate La Salle Junior and Senior High School, while McNamara, a British-trained psychologist, is a lecturer at Kumamoto Prefectural University.