Have some free time on the morning of September 25th (a Sunday) and looking for something interesting to do? How about helping the people of Amakusa break a Guinness World Record in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the building of the Amakusa Gokyo (the five bridges linking the islands of Amakusa)? The goal is to create a human chain of 2,500 people over the bridges. The Guinness World Record to be broken is the “Longest pinky swear chain” (指きりげんまんを行った人々の最も長いチェーン).
I hate to admit my own ignorance, but when I first saw the words “pinky swear chain” I thought it was an example of a translation of Japanese (“yubi kiri genman”) that didn’t really make sense in English. In fact, however, it seems that “pinky swear” has been used in English since at least 1860:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinky_swear
What I think is even more interesting, is that “pinky swear” (along with a song much like the Japanese “yubi kiri genman” song) came into English at a point in history when only a handful of English speakers would have had direct contact with Japanese people. I imagine Commodore Perry, or a member of his crew, performing a little “yubi kiri genman” ceremony with a Japanese samurai and then introducing this exotic ritual to his compatriots upon return to the U.S. :)
At any rate, if you are interested in this event and would like information on how to enter, please see (or get some help with) the following Japanese page:
– Kirk
