Yes, Kagome, There Are Youkai
By: The Jade Sabre
Inspired by 'Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus'
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Tokyo, 1991
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Kobayashi Kazuhiro was not the editor of The Tokyo Shimbun. In fact he was a young man fresh out of Tokyo University and a striving young journalist. Now, there are some things that must be said about the newspaper industry; when you write a letter to the editor, it is not the editor that reads them. No, it is some young hire, and it is this person that decides which letters are printed. Of course, the subject matter is dictated by the editor.
So on that late December night, Kazuhiro sifted through several emails and typed missives, trying to find ones which dealt with problems with the schools, the new prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa and the plans of the Liberal Democratic Party, and warnings of an impending recession. However, it was to his surprise when he found a handwritten letter in child-like print. Intrigued, he opened it and read.
Dear Editor -- I am 7 years old.
Some of my little friends say that youkai do not exist.
Grandpa says, 'if you see it in The Shimbun, it's so.'
Please tell me the truth, do youkai exist?
Higurashi Kagome
Sunset Shrine'
Once, twice, and three times he read the letter, marveling at the simplicity a young girl. Yes, some of the words were spelt wrong and the few short line were written so big that they took up half the page, but the child's innocence and trust also shone thought the words. Mind decided, he opened a window of Microsoft Word. Another important thing the newspaper industry, particularly that of the Tokyo Shimbun, is the one letter to the editor which receives a response is not written by the editor, or even picked by him or her. No, it is the discretion of that same young hire, in this case Kobayashi Kazuhiro, to pick the letter to which he will respond. In most cases, due to deadlines and such, the editor does not even see the response to the letter. Oh sure, the editor will tell write the basic subject of the letter, but the rest was left up to his or her judgment. For Sunday's installment, the editor Matsukata Ryo, a Japan New member, wanted a nice article about how the LDP and Kiichi Miyazawa were causing economic distress.
But for some reason this little girl's letter moved him. He began to write, not caring that people really didn't speak this way anymore, or that he was lying to this Higurashi Kagome. Her letter had reminded him of his childhood, and the love he used to have for youkai and the supernatural, which had been torn away from him when by an older boy when he was around Kagome's age. Smiling softly, he could do the same to this little girl, even if he was fired.
Higurashi Kagome sat on the top of the steps that led to her family's shrine. Today was Sunday, the day that the Shimbun would respond to her letter and she'd be able to prove Eri, Ayumi, and Yuka wrong. Mamma had told her not to get her hopes up since lots of people wrote to the Shimbun, but Kagome knew they would answer her.
So, she had sat out on the shrine steps for an hour, since six o'clock, waiting for the paper to be delivered. She perked up when she heard a car stop at the bottem of the steps and drop the Sunday newspaper. Racing down the stairs – she swore it was faster than the wind – she grabbed the paper and tore it out of those funny bags in which they came. Pulling out section F, she turned to the back page hoping, no praying, for a response. She wasn't disappointed.
'Kagome, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Kagome, whether they be men's or children's are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
'Yes, Kagome, youkai do exist. They exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no youkai! It would be as dreary as if there were no Kagomes. There would be no child-like faith then, no spooky stories, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
'Not believe in youkai! You might as well not believe in Santa Claus! You might get your grandpa to hire men to question and investigate all the people around you, but even if you did not discover a youkai, what would that prove? Nobody can tell where they are, it is a part of their magic, but that is no sign that there youkai do not exist. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see Santa Claus deliver gifts to you on Christmas Eve? Of course not, but that's no proof that he are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
'You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, stories, legends, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Kagome, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
'No youkai! Thank Kami-sama! they exist, and they will exist forever. A thousand years from now, Kagome, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, when you and I are both gone, they will continue to live among us.'
Kagome jumped with joy at this response; she couldn't wait to tell Eri, Ayumi, and Yuka. It was in the Shimbun, so like Grandpa said it was true. Cutting out the article right there on her front steps, she ran back inside to show Mamma, Grandpa, and little Souta.
As the years passed and her belief in youkai faltered, the now yellowing clipping stayed taped to her mirror, as if she was still hanging on to the belief she had when she was seven. Perhaps this is why she was not as shocked as she should have been when she dragged down the bone eater's well eight years later.
And Kobayashi Kazuhiro, well, he wasn't fired. In fact, he moved up the ranks at the Shimbun quite quickly.
There a little one-shot inspired by the letter written by Virginia O'Hanlon to The New York Sun in 1897 and the response by Francis P. Church.
The headlines which were mention are all real events and real people which occurred during 1991. And Kobayashi Kazuhiro is currently the editor in chief at TheTokyo Shimbun
Hope everyone enjoyed this; drop a review to let me know.
Bacci e Ciao
The Jade Sabre