Bugs Day: Mushi-no-Hi 虫の日

 

Yep, humans celebrate our longevity on our birthdays. How about the other creatures? I’m sure there would be many special days, if not for birthdays. International Rabbit Day is 4th Saturday of every September (; 27 September 2025 this year). Insect Day is internationally organized by Greencity Solutions of IPBES, and it was April 3rd this year. Royal Entomological Society has just completed their annual Insect Week, this year for 23-29 June. Both are of scientific interest stating a clear agenda for environmental conservation. We Japanese have a similar titled day, Mushi-no-hi of June 4 every year. It is not advocated by academia, but originally by a group of enthusiasts. And it gives us a unique event on that day. This week and next, I will tell you about my adventure on June 4th this year.

To begin with, the reason why in Japan 4th of June is for bugs is a rhyming game. The day was publicly declared by Japan Insects Club in 1988. The Society was not of academia, but founded by Osamu Tezuka, the father of Japanese anime authored Phoenix, Astro Boy, etc. His pen name, Osamu 治虫, comes from Osamushi, or Carabinae for Japanese. He was an insect loving boy. Insects Club has too an agenda to promote the cohabitation between bugs and humans, just like IPBES and RES. But the approach for the matter is very anime. June is called “Minazuki 水無月” in old Japanese. Phonetically, Mi = “Mizu 水” or water, Na = “無”, and Zuki = “月” or month. Before global warming days, Japanese June was the month for monsoon rain filling rice paddies with rainwater. In old Japanese “Na” means “of.” So, “Minazuki” means the “Month of Water” for cultivating rice. Reasonable. But “無” normally means “nothing” and pronounced “Mu.” In this pronunciation, June 4th is “Mu-Shi” where “Shi” = 4, and “Mushi” in Japanese means bugs. Got it?

In 2018, Takeshi Yoroh 養老孟司, an anatomist and Prof. Emeritus for Tokyo University applied Japan Anniversary Association 日本記念日協会 to make June 4th (a sort of) official Day for Bugs. Prof. Yoroh also is an insect boy, letting his summer house in Hakone filled with specimen bugs he collected during 80+ years of his life. Dr. Yoroh said he wants to say thank you to these creatures who donated their body as specimens to help humans to understand nature, and to make Tezuka’s idea official. He has done another thing to advance the agenda. He asked his friend Kengo Kuma 隈研吾, the architect for Japan National Studium (aka Olympic Stadium), to build “Memorial” for bugs in a religious institution … very Japanese … They achieved their mission in Kenchoji Temple 建長寺 in Kamakura 鎌倉. Every June 4th since 2015 Prof. Yoroh hosts a special service for bugs in front of the memorial in Kenchoji Temple. It’s called “Mushi-kuyoh 虫供養.” Do you remember Kenchoji Temple was the goal / entrance to Miura Alps (; my post on April 29, 2016)? As such, the Memorial for Bugs in Kenchoji is in the middle of the forest of the sanctuary. The service is defined as religious opportunity presided by the head of Kenchoji, and it is not “advertised” to the public. Still, it is open for everybody to attend. To join the service, it is needed a sort of knack. Let me explain it next week.

Oh, I really have to mention this. Mushi-Kuyoh 虫供養, or Bugs’ Memorial is not the invention of Prof. Yoroh. This is old Japanese rural tradition whose written record can be going back to around 900 AD. Traditionally, villagers hold memorial service in autumn for departed souls of bugs after they harvested rice. Agriculture is a continuing battle with the creatures that can eat up the produces before they reach human table. Inevitably “massacre” of insects et al is a daily activity for food production. In many places Japanese have been feeling sorry for this and ask local religious institutions, Buddhist temple and/or Shintoism shrine, to hold the service after the harvest. You can ask AI when and where such service will be held this autumn. The tradition has a modern twist. Nowadays, insect loving kids who lament the passing of their summer pets of insects can ask their parents to hold “official funeral” and record the name of their passed-away friends in the list for such Bugs Memorial. In a more formal setting, Japanese makers of insecticide such as Earth Corporation, Kincho, or Fumakilla preside an annual service in dead serious ways as a part of their business activity. Prof. Yoroh’s way would be the 21st century evolution of Japanese tradition. Stay tuned for the next week!

Kenchoji Temple 建長寺

8 Yamanouchi, Kamakura
247-8525, Japan
〒247-8525 神奈川県鎌倉市山ノ内8

Phone: 0467-22-0981（8:30-16:30） 

https://www.kenchoji.com/